Hmmm... feminism and the internet. Well if there's one thing I can say about this group, it's that you have all been keeping me on my toes as far as creativity and writing is concerned.
Right, well I don't know much about wikichix or wikipedia, and besides, who wants a rehashing of yesterday's post anyways? I'm sure the internet has done wonders for feminism, insofar as it has been able to get information to the masses in ways we didn't have before - single mothers can take classes or have jobs from home and battered or disadvantaged women can find resources to help (hopefully) get them out of their situation. Unfortunately, I think the internet has also done a lot to set back the strides we have taken to gain women the image they deserve.
Of course you've probably guessed that I'm talking about porn. Now honestly, I'm not dumping on the porn industry here. Acutally, it being online now may have given some of the women in the industry even more power over their own careers. I'm actually referring to all the sites that your average person has put up depicting his girlfriend, or some other random girl he slept with in some, um, compromising positions. With the power given to the people (a common theme when talking about the internet), there's also probably been a rise in the "Girls Gone Wild" type of sites. Any person with a cell phone now can take a pic of some stupid girl flashing her tits, and then post it online if they wish. I can only imagine the horror one might have if you stumbled upon pictures like that of your sister.
That's not to say that the people who take the pictures are entirely to blame. Unfortunately, as long as there are girls willing to lift their shirts for a pair of cheap, plastic beads, there will be more than enough men (and probably some women) willing to look, throw beads, and take pictures. The problem I have is that all girls, all women now look like sluts. We may be well-respected most of the time, but dangle some beads in front of us and apparently we'll be out of our clothes so fast you'd think they were on fire.
Some people might argue that porn already portrayed us in that fashion, and you'd be right, but we could still distance ourselves from it. Those women get paid lots of money to do that. Those are movies - fiction, but now that we have pics of your average girl-next-door doing the same types of things the porn stars do, what does that do to our image? Do guys look at all women as secretly being sluts now?
I actually have a story I posted awhile back on my blog about something related. Might as well retell it here, eh? I was sitting in my car at a traffic light back in mid -Feb 2006. A guy in the car ahead of mine and to the left leaned out of his car and started shaking a set of beads back in my direction. Automatically I thought he was doing that for some bimbo in the car behind me, so I ignored him. After awhile though, he was still doing it, so I turned around to see the girl. To my dismay it was a guy, and as I looked at all the cars around me I came to the realization that he probably meant it for me. This was in Lake City, at 2:30 in the afternoon, at least a week AFTER Mardi Gras.
Unfortunately the only solution is for other girls, other women to stop being such idiots, and as I have no faith in the human race, I'm afraid this will be an ongoing problem. (Also, I'm sure this post all about porn and flashing will do nothing to help the hits that we've gotten from such bizarre searches as Britney Spears' vagina or Paris Hilton with no underwear)
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3 comments:
I think what you say makes a lot of sense. Porn definitely wasn't as big a subject when people had to walk into a store and buy it face to face.
I wonder if there have been any studies done about the correlation between girls gone wild type videos and men's general perception of women.
Also, I think we should start saying "Britney Spears' vagina" and "Paris Hilton with no underwear" as much as we can so that more people will start coming to the site.
PS - I went and looked at the search engine referrers, and it turns out we're getting referred because one of us spelled "vagina" "vagnia." Whoops!It was probably me.
I went to Mardi Gras once... I had a friend living in New Orleans at the time. MG for tourists (ie the French Quarter, Bourbon St, etc) is very different from MG for NO residents, and I got to experience both sides. My friend the NO resident refused to go anywhere near the French Quarter, but I wanted to see what it was like. The French Quarter was packed with people, so tightly that it was difficult to walk. Most people were completely trashed, and the ground was a sea of vomit and urine. At least 85% of the people were male, and were constantly screaming "show your tits!" to every woman they saw. (All they got from me was a look of disdain.)
I experienced the NO resident version of MG the next day - it was a family affair, wth families picnicing along a residential street as a parade went by. I caught tons of beads... and all I had to do was stand there and catch. No flashing whatsoever.
Okay, so that was kind of off-topic, but I felt the need to share.
PS - Brittney Spears! Vagina! Vagnia! Paris Hilton!
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