I don't usually read Pandagon, but there's a great little article over there about the phenomenon of "upskirting", i.e. the taking of pictures up a woman's skirt, in public and without her consent.
The article is a great dissection of the motivation behind this kind of sexual assault, touching on issues of objectification and entitlement -- the kind of entitlement that causes these men to get angry when their target is wearing shorts under their skirt. How dare they!
The comment thread is also unusually interesting. First, there's a troll of unusual talent there, causing a long ruckus about the definition of misogyny. K, I know we've had this sort of discussion before, but I think it's worthwhile to read, for two reasons. First, maybe the explanations of commenters there will make more sense than mine, and second, it illustrates my point about how certain things are part of a larger pattern -- the things this guy is saying are nothing new, either to me or to the commenters, however genuinely he may believe them.
I also want to pull this quote, because I love it:
Misogyny isn’t just hatred of women, and I think that’s where you’re getting hung up. You don’t hate a vending machine. But you swear at it and hit it when you put in your quarter and candy doesn’t come out. And the experience of being treated as an object and the experience of being hated for acting like you’re not an object, but a person with rights and feelings, are pretty much the same to the person experiencing it, and they fall under the same label.
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Things that are required in any article about breast cancer:
(1) Information on mammograms
(2) Information on how many women get it (data for men is unnecessary)
(3) Links to suggestions on lowering your risk
and, most importantly, (4) picture of a young, white, thin but busty woman, topless and/or naked, either turned away from the camera or demurely covering her breasts with her hands or arms.
Seriously, this is getting old. Today's example is annoying because it's basically about a scientific study, but I've seen the same sort of photo on a study in Nature of all places.
Why don't other cancers get this? Throat cancer reports don't have pictures of necks. Colorectal cancer reports don't have pictures of colons. Testicular cancer reports certainly don't have pictures of testicles.
Of course I know why: because it's an excuse to print a photo of a beautiful topless woman. And it's okay, because it's all in the name of saving women's breasts women, so that means it couldn't possibly be exploitative or objectifying.
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In honor of President-elect Barack Obama's victory yesterday, here's a little election story of my own:
I voted for him. But I didn't really feel too good about it. I felt like who he was depended on which TV station I was watching. Online, the progressive blogosphere was excited and optimistic. Offline, I faced some fairly intense attempts at persuasion that he was a demagogue, a socialist, a Communist, and a liar. The seeds of doubt were planted too deep for me to feel too passionate about my vote. Even up until I cast my ballot I was still wondering if I was about to make a huge mistake.
But I sat down and thought about it from the outside, and I took a little advice from Jay Smooth over at the Ill Doctrine. He had a video about voting, and what you would say to your kids you stayed home for such a historic election. Well, what would I say to my hypothetical future kids about who I voted for?
If I voted for McCain, I would be voting out of fear. Fear that Obama isn't who he seems to be, fear that he really will bring socialism or collapse the economy or invite terrorist attacks. But if I voted for Obama, I would be voting out of hope. Hope that he is who he seems to be, hope that he really will bring change to our government and repair our failing institutions and restore our reputation as a role model for the world.
I could be making a mistake either way. But I would rather make a mistake out of hope than out of fear.
Yesterday, watching the entire world convulse in celebration, united in their joy and inspiration for the future, I can't feel like it was a mistake, no matter what the next four years bring. A world filled with hope has to be better than one filled with fear.
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