one thing i like about canada is that, in general, there is less overt sexualization of girls and women. there's a sort of feeling that dressing in an obviously sexually provocative way is only for very specific occasions and is the province of grown women. this little article about young girls acting "sexy" is very interesting. it's true that when someone is 12 or 14 or sometimes (in my case certainly) even 20, certain kinds of behaviors are essentially a performance because you don't know what they simulate, and i tend to agree that when young girls feel pressure to act out those behaviors it could prevent their actually learning what their bodies can do and feel. what do you think?
have you guys seen the sex and the city movie? i loooove this review of it. she says something about the movie being like gay men playing with life-sized barbies and an unlimited budget. it's strange how much this cultural phenomenon really affects, or maybe it reflects, women's ideas about their sexuality--the way they dress, their availability for sex, stuff like that. and it does seem...influenced by gay culture. is this a problem?
one more thing. i'm sooooooo furious about this.
men never think this stuff is dangerous, because it's not for them. this guy clearly just thinks the whole thing is funny; he's not even pretending to use good arguments. there's nothing at stake for him. i can imagine tina fey sort of letting this slide off her back after coming up with a great one-line roast for him, but i can't do either of those things.
speaking of tine fey, check this out:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
no comments? c'mon, ladies! what about commenting on tiny fey's physical/aesthetic transformation? what do we think about that? obviously, she's gorgeous now. wasn't then.
ReplyDeletemore stuff to come, but for starters, hitchens is an arse face.
ReplyDeleteResponse #2: hitchens is an ass.
ReplyDeleteResponse #3: as one who is not a SATC fan and does not see that its empowerfulling to women, somebody on this blog explain it to me. i know you have your reasons (you know who you are) for thinking this show is okay. give it to me straight.
More respones to come.
On Tina Fey and HItchens: he asserts that comediennes have to be sexier and funnier now. Is this what happened to Tina? (Notice that all women need to be sexier now, be they classical violinists or comedians).
ReplyDeleteHow about Ellen as a "face" for L'Oreal?
yes, lara, exactly the tina question i was getting at. i'm SO TIRED of sexiness all the time. i'm so tired of "you look amazing." i'm writing this paper about fashion in walter benjamin's arcades project, and reading this book by flügel on the psychology of fashion. he says that the only reason for men and women to dress differently is to provoke a sexual response in men; duh. can we ever just dispense with that? can the way a woman looks ever just not be an issue, either way? for men? or for women?
ReplyDeleteas for SATC, i liked the tv show because it was sort of clever and had interesting outfits and was sometimes humorous and/or touching. plus sex scenes. but i also always found it profoundly sad. the subtext of promiscuous sex as empowering for women is, imho, wrongheaded.
but i guess the show seemed real, in a very unreal way. like, ultimately there wasn't an end or a goal or a moral; they were just kind of living their lives, and sometimes things worked out and sometimes they didn't.
isn't he the worst? combine what you saw with these tidbits:
ReplyDelete-the fact that, apparently, his recently published memoir says almost nothing about his several wives and children and instead focuses on his famous, male, literati friends
-the fact that he was bisexual in school (oxford)
i don't know, that whole english-boys-intellectual-club-certainly-homosocial-probably-homosexual thing really chaps my hide. you sense that he's attracted to women but is disappointed in himself for it because men are so far superior. all those uranian poets and inklings. throwback to greek aristocratic pederasty b.s. very thinly veiled misogyny.
oooh, i shouldn't watch this again. one problem with his argument: he assumes the only reason a woman would want or need to be funny, the only possibly motivation for anyone to be funny, is to attract the opposite sex. in other words, the motivation for being funny for women is exactly the same as that for men.
ReplyDeletewhat an asshole, and stupid asshole too. there are plenty of reasons to be funny other than to make the opposite sex laugh. lord knows guys don't give a crap if somebody else is making a funny joke, so he's right that being funny isn't necessarily sexually advantageous for women. this in no way tells against other reasons women might want to be funny; for example, to make other women laugh. or just because it's fun. or because eff you, pompous weenies who think you run the world. guess what: you really don't.
what this guy doesn't know about women is a lot.
besides, douchebag is not trying to be funny in order to attract women, obviously. that any woman would sleep with such a pompous weenie is astounding and really embarrassing for us as a gender. we need to bring it up at the next meeting.
ah, that felt good!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletei really hope i'm not falling into c. hitchens' trap by hating him so much. i probably am.
ReplyDeletewhich would be worse: that his whole plan is to have women hate him, or that he just doesn't care what they think about him?
Whoa, I just stumbled upon this gold mine. I am going to post soon about a blog concerning man-repellent fashions, etc. But the idea that ultimately what men and women do socially and what not is ultimately ONLY a ploy to attract the opposite sex is a really annoying and wrong and harmful myth, I think. I mean, obviously to an extent we are all performing, etc. etc. I dunno, I have to think about it more before I really say stuff, but I just wanted to offer an amen here. and an IMHO women are nearly always WAY funnier than men.
ReplyDelete