Assets, are they?

If you haven't heard about the Open Source Boob Project scandal yet, go to the_red_shoes' post here, where you can catch up. Many people have said much of the stuff I'd have said myself and phrased it beautifully - and may I mention in passing how delightful it is to see good quality feminist crit coming from a straight man - so I thought I'd add a few different thoughts.

There's an image from theferrett's original post which keeps nagging at me. It's his description of the first random woman they groped. Obviously he's objectifying her to within an inch of her life, and the sadly common assumption that anyone with her "assets on display" is asking for it is the reason why there are judges who rule that "it can't have been rape, she was wearing jeans", but it's not just that. I think it's the idea of her as some sort of Amazonian figure, striding along with her magnificent bosom proudly on display, a challenge to all red-blooded males and especially the ones who were so awfully traumatised in school because the women they wanted wouldn't sleep with them (something which must be far, far worse than, say, the sexual harrassment which happens with varying frequency to every woman past puberty). The post is generally full of this so-called admiration of women (well, I'm inferring "women", actually he seems to be using "breasts" as a synecdoche for "woman"), even awe, and of course the chap feels that it's a form of respect and can't understand why we're all objecting to it.

Part of the problem is, I think, a kind of pedestalisation. ( Read more... )

Assets, are they?

If you haven't heard about the Open Source Boob Project scandal yet, go to the_red_shoes' post here, where you can catch up. Many people have said much of the stuff I'd have said myself and phrased it beautifully - and may I mention in passing how delightful it is to see good quality feminist crit coming from a straight man - so I thought I'd add a few different thoughts.

There's an image from theferrett's original post which keeps nagging at me. It's his description of the first random woman they groped. Obviously he's objectifying her to within an inch of her life, and the sadly common assumption that anyone with her "assets on display" is asking for it is the reason why there are judges who rule that "it can't have been rape, she was wearing jeans", but it's not just that. I think it's the idea of her as some sort of Amazonian figure, striding along with her magnificent bosom proudly on display, a challenge to all red-blooded males and especially the ones who were so awfully traumatised in school because the women they wanted wouldn't sleep with them (something which must be far, far worse than, say, the sexual harrassment which happens with varying frequency to every woman past puberty). The post is generally full of this so-called admiration of women (well, I'm inferring "women", actually he seems to be using "breasts" as a synecdoche for "woman"), even awe, and of course the chap feels that it's a form of respect and can't understand why we're all objecting to it.

Part of the problem is, I think, a kind of pedestalisation. ( Read more... )