So talking about technology, feminism, homophobia, and
racism… I’m pretty interested in this feminism subject. Like I proposed in
class, it is still widely accepted to be misogynistic, sexist, etc. because of
the delay of action that was taken as opposed to the racism problem. But,
unlike the racism issue, I don’t actually see women becoming exactly equal to
men socially, although it has been established legally, anytime soon. Didn’t we
just talk about advertisements? Look at all the B-O-O-B-S! And the flat
stomachs and the straight blonde hair and the tan skin, etc. Now, I didn’t want
to make this point in class (hiding behind the veil of technology, again), but
what about pornography? I mean, I’ve never heard about pornography for women-
only for men- and I’m sure most women in porno aren’t ugly. And look at all the
magazines! Only one has a male model on the front and that is “Men’s Health,”
and I promise they’re not being healthy just to look good- they want WOMEN. There’s
also “GQ” and I think even sometimes that has women on the cover. What about “Playboy”
and other magazines like it? All of them objectify women as sexual playthings. “Cosmopolitan”
even always has women, demonstrating how it’s “weird,” as Karissa said, to have
‘hott’ men in advertisements. So, what I’m getting at here is basically what we
came to the conclusion to in class: women are objectified, despite the Equal
Rights Amendment from the 70’s and women’s suffrage in the 20’s. I also
proposed that perhaps soon, society (I assume mainly women) will rise up
against this objectification, but I really don’t see any signs of it happening
any time soon. Why are women ok with this sort of social image? I heard a
theory from a Rhodes College student who had learned in his class (I’m not sure
which class) that women are much more sexualized by men and women because of
the Oedipal Complex, except it expands to women, too. This sounds weird at
first, but the explanation is that there is a deep connection that is broken at
birth between every child, and therefore people find comfort in women sexually.
This made a little more sense when it was explained to me by the person in the
class, so I’m sorry if it doesn’t make a bit of sense. But, basically, women
are seen as more sexual objects because all women can be/are mothers. However,
it’s still demeaning for women to be sexualized in these ways, so how do we
stop it? It’s so ingrained in our society by this point that I really don’t see
a way to reverse or change it. This is just a collaboration of thoughts about
to day. Tell me what you think!
1) Kudos to your title.
ReplyDelete2) Anyway...this is interesting in that I, too, have a hard time imagining this revolution of women gathering together and overthrowing the patriarchal society. I think this probably has a lot to do with the way patriarchy has been engrained in societies for much longer a time period and much more universally than other forms of discrimination / classism (I may be wrong on that, but it's a theory). This means that women themselves buy into the many patriarchal aspects of our society even though the main biological difference between men and women are their sex organs. Women take on the same stance as men in general, because the masculine point of view is believed to be our SOCIETY'S point of view. Anyway, I do think that a major transformation is possible and probably unavoidable, but it may be a long ways away since we are really only beginning to explore the many facets of our lives that subjugate women to men both obviously and subtly.