Missy J
2 months ago (edited) <I got on 2/11/2015>
I wanted to share a post a made a few days back:
Fact: (Trigger warning: this is long and contains information and an opinion. You've been warned) ?#?Feminism? ?#?Sexualobjectification?
Women being encouraged to show off their bodies for media, and images of fake (created images) women being scantly-clad is not part of the patriarchy. Its actually a direct result of second-wave feminism.Please stop saying its about men being sexist. I'll explain.
After the first wave of feminism and women's suffrage (before and directly after the right to vote) women focused on gaining legal rights and pushing away the image of being property for the husband, but rather a companion. This was a slow process, and still perpetuated the idea of women's roles in the household and duties of motherhood before careers. They all, however, had their rights, despite being extremely prejudiced against as housekeepers and child bearers.
By the 60s second-wave feminism popped up. This is where women are trying to shake the motherhood stigma. Women began to focus on micro politics with all their voting and free speech abilities. They discussed the role of women and the roles of gender (such as lesbians, or wives, and so on and so forth). They talked about female body shame. This did away with a lot of modesty laws in the US (such as skirt length, how much skin you were allowed to show in public) for women. Bathing suits became skimpier and skimpier, and so did women's casual dress. Women displayed on television and other media were not so strictly regulated. And then there was porn. Real people, naked women, porn. This was not a bad thing. Women spoke of sex positivity and allowing women to own their autonomy and sexuality fully without prejudice and double standards.
Of course, this could not please everyone. Feminism, by the end of the second wave, had delved so deeply into micro-politics that the ideology of the movement differed from person to person, depending on how they were brought up. Feminism, empowering women, became a show of "who is more right" rather than "this is equality, this is freedom.". Differences in opinions shook the movement from within like abortion, porn, sexuality, gender-roles, and so on. Porn being the most relevant. The sexual liberation of women had had an adverse affect on our culture. Women were glorified as beautiful beings and posted naked everywhere (as seen today). Their bodies sold things easily and everyone wanted to look. It was a luxury, something the American people were not able to see very often before with minor exceptions. Porn, by the 80s, was so large and so invasive, some women were starting to shun away from sexual liberation. Intra-feminism was at war. Literally. The movement was called the "Feminist Sex War" and it lead to the third wave feminism starting in the 90s. This covered quite a few topics, but to get to the point I am trying to make here:
Anti-porn feminist would say that such images made women sex objects and less than people. This causes sexism against women, different than old sexism, and violence against the everyday woman.
Sex positive feminist said that porn and images of nude women was sexual liberation. That it was displaying ownership over her whole autonomy. It was her permission and her body to show if she wanted to. And it gives NO ONE permission to cause violence against her.
Ironically, should the patriarchy have ANYTHING to do with any of this, female nudity would never be displayed because women are property under patriarchy. Not people with rights and opinions and bodies.
This is why people get confused when you say, "don't tell women what to wear, tell boys to stop raping." (and i wont go into the sexism in that, today at least) and then turn around and say, "These women in video games, and media, real and fake, are being pornographic and sexually objectifying towards women. This causes violence and sexism. This is bad, and does not represent women, and should be removed or changed."
You cannot, by definition, be both sex positive and anti-porn. I know how feminists love to cling to definitions. Please stop trying to blame men for the sexism we caused ourselves. You cannot police male sexuality. Men are attracted to women. They did not force anyone to be nude or "objectify" themselves.
As for me, and how I feel about female sexual objectification:
Objectification is a state of mind, caused and done only by the observer. You can personify something, or you can objectify something. But that is all you. It is the perpetrator of violence, and the anti-porn individuals that cause objectification. Not expression. I am Sex Positive, completely, and without question.
Learn your history, bitches.?
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