Let's never let go of mama....
“women used to marry young and have a lot of children” VS “men used to marry women when they were still little girls and force them to be pregnant and give birth their whole life”.
“in the past women didn’t get education” VS “in the past, men stopped women from getting education and excluded them from all cultural spheres”.
“muslim women must wear hijab” VS “muslim men force muslim women wear hijab”.
“in this country, abortion is illegal” VS “men in this country made women getting abortion illegal”.
women’s oppression doesn’t happen by itself. women’s oppression isn’t passive. there is an oppressor class that actively chooses to oppress women, and the oppressor class is MEN.
lets be pointy with mama
I bring a “I hate gender because it cause serious harm to women and homosexuals” to the table that the tumblr they/thems really dislike.
given the new popularity of games and other media such as Love and Deepspace and yaoi and stuff, i see many men going 'SEE! women are just as depraved as men are, now stop complaining about female sexualization in games!'
and oh my god you idiots. lets take some super typical examples from popular media. what differences can we see?
note how much male 'sexualization' (more of a power fantasy on men's part) focuses on musculature, on explicit strength, power, vigor and toughness. they don't even need to be showing any skin. all these are considered sexually attractive by men and women, as a result of our lovely culture. now for female sexualization, its mostly about the showing the (unnatural) curves and arches of their body, being coy and inviting, passive and alluring. women are a spectacle to be acted upon and men are the actors.
look at the filmography, angles and posing for each image, look at how sexy men are shown as relaxed, yet towering and active, and how sexy women are dressed skimpily, are coy and posing unnaturally to invite attention. this is the standard across genres, aimed at both men and women.
imagine if you opened a survival game you were greeted with a man in booty shorts and a ragged crop top, with his back arched, looking longingly at the the player. is it the same as a shirtless man with defined abs and a smoldering look? exactly, it is fucking NOT the same. men would consider it extremely humiliating to be sexualized the way women are sexualized. if its humiliating for a man to do, its humiliating for a woman to do, you're just used to women being humiliated.
take a moment and imagine if sexy women were almost only shown as dominant, active and physically strong, and sexy men as only meek, coy and passive. now imagine if these unnaturally posed meek, coy and passive sexualized male characters were absolutely everywhere, in games, tv shows and movies where it made no sense for them to be there. imagine if they were the only male characters present and you couldn't change their looks. if this held true for at least half of all sexualized characters in media, i would cede my position and admit that male and female sexualization are just as bad as each other. until then, shut the fuck up 😘
We have a double standard, which is to say, a man can show how much he cares by being violent -- see, he's jealous, he cares -- a woman shows how much she cares by how much she's willing to be hurt; by how much she will take; how much she will endure.
Andrea Dworkin