amazon_syren (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
amazon_syren) wrote2009-08-10 12:20 pm
amazon_syren) wrote2009-08-10 12:20 pm
Links of the Day PLUS a Bonus Feminist Rant! :-D
Women At Risk - A New York Times article on rampant misogyny and how we don't freak out nearly as much when someone slaughters a bunch of women as we should, perhaps because as a culture, we view violence against women as normal and to be expected.
Fascist America: Are We There Yet? -- A more than slightly chilling article on political trends south of the border.
Related link: Pandagon discusses the Orcinus article.
Lady Gaga's Genitals are Not Our Business - Questioning Transphobia takes on the rumours/outing of Lady Gaga as being intersex. Raises good points about how Our Culture views women's and "unexpected"/non-normative genitalia as public property.
[EDIT: Related Link: Is posted in the comments by Bifemmefatale! Tigerbeatdown is, upon first impression, all kinds of awesome. I shall be reading it further! :-) /EDIT]
Related thoughts:
What I think is interesting about the Lady Gaga thing is how it touches on both slut-shaming ("What was she doing "parading around" without underwear??") and on our cultural ideas about what a Real (feminine) Woman (tm) is.
Feminine women are heterosexual
Feminine women present themselves in ways that invite (sexual) attention from (heterosexual) men
BUT
Feminine women *don't* actively seek out sex for themselves
Feminine women don't actively seek out sex with other women[1]
Feminine women don't look for casual, no-strings-attached sex EVAR
Feminine women don't bother courting the attention/notice of gay men[2]
So Lady Gaga, presenting herself in really over-the-top, hyper-sexualizing costumes COMBINED with her singing about actively seaking out casual sex-with-men COMBINED with her openly desiring sex with women, too, COMBINED with her fan-base having a very significant gay-guy population...
This all slams right up against out cultural assumptions about what's "appropriate" behaviour for a (feminine) woman.
Which is, perhaps, why she keeps getting gossiped about as being a drag-queen, a "tranny", or otherwise suggesting that she was MAAB.
I think there's a certain breed of idiot (and there are oh, so many of them...) who really can't fathom a "real"[3] woman being
(A) into women
(B) into men, too
(C) actively owning her own sexuality
(D) while working it at the same time
(E) and going after what/who she wants
(F) while also hanging out with a lot of faaaaaaaaaaaaaags
and actually find it much easier to believe someone who is "discreditting" her womanhood by hollering "Lady Gaga is a MAN! Look, look! This picture on my camera phone proves it!" than to actually change their microscopic definitions to fit the existence of the above.
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeenteresting.
On a less political note:
Sur La Lune Fairy Tales - a collection of annotated fairytales and folktales. Woohoo!
- TTFN,
- Amazon. :-)
[1] Lady Gaga is openly bi. (And, doncha know, those bisexuals are just big sluts anyway...)
[2] Gay Men being the "can't-compete-for-the-hetero-man-but-can-still-dish-about-how-cute-his-butt-is" version of the BFF in romcoms, for example.
[3] Read: FAAB.
Fascist America: Are We There Yet? -- A more than slightly chilling article on political trends south of the border.
Related link: Pandagon discusses the Orcinus article.
Lady Gaga's Genitals are Not Our Business - Questioning Transphobia takes on the rumours/outing of Lady Gaga as being intersex. Raises good points about how Our Culture views women's and "unexpected"/non-normative genitalia as public property.
[EDIT: Related Link: Is posted in the comments by Bifemmefatale! Tigerbeatdown is, upon first impression, all kinds of awesome. I shall be reading it further! :-) /EDIT]
Related thoughts:
What I think is interesting about the Lady Gaga thing is how it touches on both slut-shaming ("What was she doing "parading around" without underwear??") and on our cultural ideas about what a Real (feminine) Woman (tm) is.
Feminine women are heterosexual
Feminine women present themselves in ways that invite (sexual) attention from (heterosexual) men
BUT
Feminine women *don't* actively seek out sex for themselves
Feminine women don't actively seek out sex with other women[1]
Feminine women don't look for casual, no-strings-attached sex EVAR
Feminine women don't bother courting the attention/notice of gay men[2]
So Lady Gaga, presenting herself in really over-the-top, hyper-sexualizing costumes COMBINED with her singing about actively seaking out casual sex-with-men COMBINED with her openly desiring sex with women, too, COMBINED with her fan-base having a very significant gay-guy population...
This all slams right up against out cultural assumptions about what's "appropriate" behaviour for a (feminine) woman.
Which is, perhaps, why she keeps getting gossiped about as being a drag-queen, a "tranny", or otherwise suggesting that she was MAAB.
I think there's a certain breed of idiot (and there are oh, so many of them...) who really can't fathom a "real"[3] woman being
(A) into women
(B) into men, too
(C) actively owning her own sexuality
(D) while working it at the same time
(E) and going after what/who she wants
(F) while also hanging out with a lot of faaaaaaaaaaaaaags
and actually find it much easier to believe someone who is "discreditting" her womanhood by hollering "Lady Gaga is a MAN! Look, look! This picture on my camera phone proves it!" than to actually change their microscopic definitions to fit the existence of the above.
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeenteresting.
On a less political note:
Sur La Lune Fairy Tales - a collection of annotated fairytales and folktales. Woohoo!
- TTFN,
- Amazon. :-)
[1] Lady Gaga is openly bi. (And, doncha know, those bisexuals are just big sluts anyway...)
[2] Gay Men being the "can't-compete-for-the-hetero-man-but-can-still-dish-about-how-cute-his-butt-is" version of the BFF in romcoms, for example.
[3] Read: FAAB.