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ivan@stellysee.de
| From | shawn campbell <thursdayinjune@yahoo.com> |
| Subject | Re: gender studies 101 & FOW (a rant) |
| Date | Fri, 26 Mar 2004 15:16:10 -0800 (PST) |
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Way too many of you guys are coming off like giant
assholes in this dicussion of the new Fountains of
Wayne video, and I wish you would recognize how you
sound. Yes, you can claim that the video is
tongue-in-cheek, that the objectification of women in
videos has gone on since time (or MTV) began, that
there are many more pressing problems in the world.
However, you also need to recognize that the fact that
there are bigger problems out there doesn't make the
smaller ones go away. And the level of anger and/or
dismissiveness in the responses to Jocelyn's post is
really distressing. Disagreement is one thing,
dismissal, quite another.
In the early 90s, during the alt-rock revolution,
there was a real movement on the part of many bands -
even harder edged bands - to be more female-friendly.
Male musicians like Kurt Cobain and Eddie Vedder went
out of their way to make their concerts pro-women.
Their videos were free of the sex kitten stereotypes
that had abounded on MTV in the past (and were
innovative, creative, fun to watch, and artistic in
the process). It really seemed like some of the gross
stereotypes about women in relation to rock music were
disappearing. And as a female rock fan, it was REALLY
F***ING REFRESHING.
Over the last decade, all that seems to have reversed
itself. It's gone back to being fashionable for
misogynistic lyrics to abound, for rock stars (male)
to hang out with porn stars (female), and for
scantily-clad women to parade through videos, whatever
the genre. Few women are seen on MTV who actually
play instruments. And make no mistakes, those images
do make a difference. If I had a daughter, there is
no way in the world that I would want her watching
MTV, because I think the messages on what women are
supposed to be/do in relation to music are SO
negative.
I work with many college-age students, and I see a
real change in young male attitudes than I saw when I
was in college from 1989-1993. There's a lot more
overt sexism now than there was then. It seems like
we are moving backwards in some ways.
Am I suggesting that videos on MTV are to blame for
this? Certainly not completely. But the
hyper-sexualization of our culture has caused some
real attitude problems. It really creeps me out.
And I really hate the attitudes that have shown up on
this list, where one woman says she is uneasy about a
piece of artwork produced by people she has respect
for, that it makes her uncomfortable and sad that they
decided to play to the lowest common denominator (even
if it is tongue-in-cheek, if 90% of your audience
doesn't KNOW it is tongue-in-cheek, it simply serves
to reinforce the dominant paradigm), and that the
instant response is GET OVER IT! Or worse, the
complete negation of her opinion - to paraphrase Bob's
quote - Great band, great song, great video. Period.
In other words, your opinion is WRONG. That's really,
really lame.
Finally, in response to Stuart's specific point about
being concerned about such a seemingly minor thing
being discussed while the Bush administration
continues to (figuratively) (figuaratively, right?)
rape and pillage, I'd say this: it's easy to say this
is minor and that is minor, and to never realize how
small things affect the overall big picture. I have
fought with my parents for years about language issues
-- the fact that when you say "fireman" and
"policeman" and "mankind," and you ask kids to tell
you what those things mean, they tell you that those
are things that apply to MEN. Whether you believe it
or not, when you say "fireMAN, fireMAN, fireMAN to a
little girl, she's quickly going to assume that this
is not a potential role for her. When you show
degrading images of barely-dressed women over and over
and over again, and seldom show images of women in
control, women in respectful positions, women DOING
something, rather than being passive objects, those
images sink in too.
In closing, I just finished a book about the Islamic
Revolution in Iran. It was written by a woman who was
horrified by the new regime's demand that she wear the
veil. She had been involved with Marxist student
movements in Iran, and, when she resisted the veil,
her comrades in the movement told her she was being
ridiculous - didn't she understand that there was a
bigger battle to fight? Why would she waste so much
time on such a petty and meaningless issue as a piece
of clothing? After all, that didn't really MEAN
anything? Did it? DID it?
No, MTV is not the equivilant of the Islamic
Revolution (I say, before someone accuses me of
suggesting it is). However, we are on a slippery
slope these days. Too often, we seem to be moving
backward, not forward. The more you objectify or give
specific traits of weakness/powerlessness to a group,
the easier it is to take those groups' rights away.
The more you objectify women, the easier it is to fail
to take women's voices seriously, the easier it is to
decide to take away certain rights (say, the right to
choose when or whether to have child, for instance).
Obviously, you have the right to disagree with
anything I (or Jocelyn) say. However, the lack of
respect for one person's opinion displayed on this
list was really stunning to me, and was the reason I
felt compelled to write such a lengthy post.
--Shawn
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