This Week’s Highlights in Misogyny News

Thank you so much to this hilarious episode of 'The White Hot Top Five' for inspiring this post.

This week there seems to have een a worrying influx of sexism stories in the media. Here are just a few of the most ridiculous ones.

So, the Winter Olympics are over for this year. Vancouver put on a great show, and the sport was exciting – I watched just about everything from ski cross to figure skating to ice hockey to the half pipe. But one sport I didn't get to see this Olympics was the women's ski jumping. And why'’s that? Well, even though men's ski jumping has been an Olympic sport since the winter Olympics began in 1924, women's ski jumping is still not an Olympic sport. And it's not that women don’t have an interest in it: it is a woman (Lindsay Van), in fact, who holds the world record for the event. Ski jumping events in which women can compete are held all over the world – there was one at the same venue used in the Olympics just a few weeks before the event – but for some (unknown – Olympic officials have offered no logic for this) reason, it is not an Olympic sport.
Not that it's all that great for the women who can compete in sports. As I was saying in a conversation with J, sexism is rife in sports, with the women’s events often seen as a less important 'version' of the main, men's event. As a report in Sports Illustrated says:

"Sexism isn't confined to any sport or country. It's a universal language, spoken not so much with words as with action, or the lack of it. Female hockey players from many of the European countries competing in the Olympics, for instance, have seen their national federations' lopsided spending on the men's programs as a loud and clear message that they are considered mere afterthoughts. In Russia, where hockey is the national pastime, the women couldn't begin practicing until three weeks before the Games because of budget constraints."

Something’s got to change. To see more on this story, check out this article over at Feministing.com.

OK, so if you can’t watch the sport without being confronted with blatant sexism, what can you watch? How about a film? Robert Pattinson has been all over the media this week promoting his new film ‘Remember Me’. But what got the most attention was an interview with him in ‘Details’ magazine, in which he said:

"I really hate vaginas. I’m allergic to vagina."

And this interview was accompanied by him surrounded by pictures of pornified naked women. Seriously.
But seriously, Pattinson just proves a major misogynistic phenomenon that feminists from Germaine Greer to Jessica Valenti have been going on about since (it seems) time began: that men hate women’s biology. In Full Frontal Feminism, Valenti points out that the worst thing you can call someone is a woman: cunt, bitch, pussy, slut, etc. A man is not naturally any of these things – the word has to be altered to fit: thus 'whore' becomes 'manwhore' – masculine adjusted lexis from a supposedly feminine norm.
So Pattinson, you are not 'allergic' to vagina, as you so charmingly put it. You are just an extremely misogynistic man. If you actually hated vaginas, you wouldn’t be straight. But then, gay / asexual guys don’t make sex-gods that 87% of women want to marry. Ugh.

So there's nothing to watch that’s not saturated with sexism. Why not listen to some music? But - le gasp! - it’s a trap! Music’s just as fucked up as the rest of pop culture. And a prime example of this is my favouritest person ever, Ke$ha. Words fail to describe what I feel about this latest pop music mistake. Could there be a worse role model for women in the music industry? I think not.
Witness Exhibit A:

"I have very empowering lyrics for women."

HAHAHAHA... this is some kind of joke, right? Oh no, wait, there’s more? Do carry on...

"I kind of take how guys talk to women all over this industry and throw it back at them."

OK, so you take your inspiration from charming lyrics like 'you were supposed to love me, now bleed bitch bleed', 'I'ma own that pussy' and 'make sure it's not your bloody week, you slut'. And that’s empowering to whom, exactly?

"I'm literally just talking to a man the way any rapper talks about women in
every rap song on the radio."

Oh I see. That makes total sense!
Wtf, Ke$ha, did no one ever tell you that two wrongs don’t make a right? Sexist comments like that, whoever they are addressed to, are not empowering to anyone. They’re just sick and demeaning. Not to mention that your use of this 'tactic' fails anyway because it’s completely misguided.
Let’s take a look at Exhibit B, shall we? These are some of the lyrics to your latest single, 'Blah Blah Blah':

'Boy come on give me rock stuff
Come put a little love in my glove box'

You know, I’m all for women gaining sexual empowerment. And people like Lady Gaga are actually making a point in their lyrically sexual songs (I’m thinking 'Bad Romance' where some pimp-ring guy gets fried by Gaga’s flamethrower bra). But lyrics like that don’t work if you’re singing them whilst posing provocatively, flicking your hair and smiling seductively at this random guy that hanging creepily over you – the same guy who you claim to be a complete douchebag. You see, Ke$ha, you’ve got this strong and sexual woman thing all wrong. It’s OK to be sexually forward towards a guy you actually like, but that doesn’t mean you should throw yourself at any random creep that wants to sleep with you. Instead of empowering women, your lyrics actually portray women who choose to promote and condone demeaning, misogynistic attitudes. Way to go!

Phew, what a week!
And that's just the latest addition to centuries of sexism.

'I Shop, Therefore I Am' - Welcome to Generation Misogyny

Art by Barbara Kruger

Recently I read my good friend J’s article on Gender and its Complications, and it got me thinking about gender and how much ‘what you look like’ is indicative of it.

Everyone is aware of what feminine stereotypes exist. Germaine Greer personifies ‘The Stereotype’ wonderfully in ‘The Female Eunuch’. The Feminine Woman is, essentially, the girl in the magazine or on the TV smiling with pearly white teeth, decked out in the latest fashions, trying to sell you the latest type of lip gloss so-and-so designer has created. She is thin, beautiful, and infinitely happy because she has bought this particular product, and it has solved all her problems. Never more will she have to worry about a bad hair day, her nail-polish becoming chipped or unwanted body odour – life is perfect thanks to this product! And there she stands, an immovable idol, not a hair out of place, no unsightly flab, not a blemish in sight.

Greer describes her thus:

‘Her glossy lips and matt complexion, her unfocused eyes and flawless fingers, her extraordinary hair all floating and shining, curling and gleaming, reveal the inhuman triumph of cosmetics, lighting, focusing and printing, cropping and composition.’

This is what you must look like to be the feminine ideal. You must hide behind a painted smile, wear what’s ‘in fashion’, and look, smell, feel and even taste like unruffled perfection. This is what little girls spend years dreaming, wishing to look like – ‘inhuman’. Like Barbie, with perfect plastic proportions (this means big boobs and a tiny waist), flawless symmetrical features and an expression of permanent ecstasy (this is where that DIY Botox that J mentioned would come in handy!), girls want to become dolls:

‘For she [The Stereotype] is a doll: weeping, pouting or smiling, running or reclining, she is a doll. She is an idol, formed of the concatenation of lines and masses, signifying the lineaments of satisfied impotence.’

Impotence? But hang on – isn’t this picture-perfect face what’s meant to be defining womanhood? For surely that is what ‘feminine’ should mean; what defines us as women, our femaleness? Surely The Stereotype should portray our sex properly, including our lusts, our restless imagination and our brilliant intelligence? Is that what we are – weak, powerless, lacking in sexual desire? Or is this what ‘they’ want us to be?

We must think of how the modern concept of ‘femininity’ is defined.

In the Victorian era, the Feminine Woman would be meek and mild, with delicate features and health. She would have no ideas of her own, be totally subservient to her husband, and was devoted to the care of her children. No self-respecting middle-class woman would wear makeup, because this show of vanity was considered to be a sign of a prostitute. This ‘angel in the house’, as she was later to become known, was basically the personification of men’s desire for the perfect subservient wife. ‘Feminine’ came to mean the opposite of ‘masculine’ because women must accommodate to men’s needs and not desire to be like him in any way – for that is not her place. As Virginia Woolf says in ‘A Room of One’s Own’:

For man wants to see something attractive when he looks in this looking-glass, doesn’t he? Something weak, delicate and beautiful that reaffirms his superiority over it. Because he can only be superior if something is inferior to him – and that is women’s role.

‘Women have served all these centuries as looking-glasses possessing
the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size.’

So men and our patriarchal culture define what ‘feminine’ is, as they define what ‘masculine’ is. These two ‘labels’ (as they do not, in reality, stand for ‘femaleness’ or ‘maleness’ at all) have become the ideals that both sexes respectively aim for. And who doesn’t want to fit into the ‘popular’ concept of the ‘ideal’, to be accepted, to be loved? For these wishes are human nature – we are, after all, dependent on love.

But luckily, society has made becoming the feminine ideal attainable for all womankind. You can now spend, spend, spend and become just like her! Because if you buy all the right products, dress yourself in the latest fashions and hide your face behind a load of slap, you too can be happy. With an eternal pearl-white smile, you too can be the Feminine Stereotype!

You shop, therefore you are, darling!

‘Taught from infancy that beauty is woman’s sceptre, the mind shapes itself to
body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison.’
Mary Wollstonecraft, ‘A Vindication of the Right of Women’, 1792

And what effect is this having on our society? Surely by now, in this affluent age, we should all be happy? Teenage girls are afflicted with eating disorders, anxiety and depression because they don’t fit into the popular definition of ‘perfect’ – but everyone’s happy, right?

Recently, I came across a series of photographs by dA artist, Maryana. Her whole Statistic Series is great, and you should definitely check out her gallery, but a couple of facts from two of the pictures really stuck-out for me. Firstly:

And secondly:

Girls see over 400 advertisements per day telling them how they should look

I don’t think you need me to tell you that these two facts are linked.

50% of girls between the ages of 8 and 14 are dieting

I don’t want the Feminine Stereotype to equate to Girl Poison any more. I want femininity to be what I make it. What it means to be female is different for every girl and woman out there, dependent on their class, race, personality, etc. and no one should be told how to be themselves. Being feminine should be about embracing your womanhood, warts and all, and loving yourself for who you are - not lusting after the plastic-fantastic face of some photoshopped doll in a magazine. Let’s take back our own identities, and be who we really want to be.

Because we think, therefore we are.

* * *

For more on this, see this article from Feministing.com with a short film on ‘Generation Misogyny, which puts my point across far more eloquently than my article!