Women are taught that their primary source of power is sex. Through images of men being reduced to unthinking wrecks when faced with an attractive woman (an image, it is worth noting, that is damaging to men), we are taught that being attractive can control men. Women who get good jobs are accused of getting them because they are attractive, or because they had sex with their boss. Female superheroes are not just badass, but badass and sexy, with the emphasis on the sexy. Women are said to be better treated by strangers because of their appearance.
This is reinforced by the constant attention paid to women's appearances. Women's appearances are analysed by the media, condemned for one extreme or the other, criticised for flaws and celebrated for perfection. Life is presented to women as one long beauty contest, with the favour of Paris as the source of their power. Women's magazines promise women great things- largely employment, love, or orgasms depending on the publication- in return for restrictive dieting and the liberal use of moisturising lotion. Stripping and porn is said to be greatly empowering, a celebration of feminine sexuality (implying that feminine sexuality ends with performing sexuality.)
And then, we are told that this same thing makes us terribly and nakedly vulnerable.
Women are cat-called and harassed for dressing "provocatively" (loaded term, much?), or just for existing. Women are told that they are likely to be raped not by those they know as a power trip, but by strangers, driven out of control by the legs and hips and breasts that are supposed to be the woman's way of getting what she wants. Women are told that they are raped because of their bodies, turning it into their responsibility. Wearing a miniskirt is raised in court as if it implies consent.The reasoning seems to be that if women use their attractiveness to get what they want, which is sometimes sex, then if they are attractive, they must be communicating a want for sex, and thus giving them it cannot be rape. Who was it who used the analogy of force-feeding a woman chocolate cake?
The woman must hold two ideas about her body in her mind at once: it is a great manipulative tool which can get her anything, and it is something that makes her vulnerable and weak and at risk. This contradiction is at the heart of objectification and the sexist society's view of the feminine body, and it is damaging and harmful in a thousand ways, with victim-blaming being only one.
This is why I'm marching in Slutwalk. The contradicting messages about how to have a female body that we are bombarded with leads to victim-blaming not only amongst the media but in court, and the statement made by the Toronto police officer is a perfect example. The march will not change the ridiculous ways society talks to us, but it is a start. So come fight with us tomorrow.
This is reinforced by the constant attention paid to women's appearances. Women's appearances are analysed by the media, condemned for one extreme or the other, criticised for flaws and celebrated for perfection. Life is presented to women as one long beauty contest, with the favour of Paris as the source of their power. Women's magazines promise women great things- largely employment, love, or orgasms depending on the publication- in return for restrictive dieting and the liberal use of moisturising lotion. Stripping and porn is said to be greatly empowering, a celebration of feminine sexuality (implying that feminine sexuality ends with performing sexuality.)
And then, we are told that this same thing makes us terribly and nakedly vulnerable.
Women are cat-called and harassed for dressing "provocatively" (loaded term, much?), or just for existing. Women are told that they are likely to be raped not by those they know as a power trip, but by strangers, driven out of control by the legs and hips and breasts that are supposed to be the woman's way of getting what she wants. Women are told that they are raped because of their bodies, turning it into their responsibility. Wearing a miniskirt is raised in court as if it implies consent.The reasoning seems to be that if women use their attractiveness to get what they want, which is sometimes sex, then if they are attractive, they must be communicating a want for sex, and thus giving them it cannot be rape. Who was it who used the analogy of force-feeding a woman chocolate cake?
The woman must hold two ideas about her body in her mind at once: it is a great manipulative tool which can get her anything, and it is something that makes her vulnerable and weak and at risk. This contradiction is at the heart of objectification and the sexist society's view of the feminine body, and it is damaging and harmful in a thousand ways, with victim-blaming being only one.
This is why I'm marching in Slutwalk. The contradicting messages about how to have a female body that we are bombarded with leads to victim-blaming not only amongst the media but in court, and the statement made by the Toronto police officer is a perfect example. The march will not change the ridiculous ways society talks to us, but it is a start. So come fight with us tomorrow.
