So. I've been thinking a lot about the relationship between sex and culture in Western societies (I'm not going to specify mainstream culture, as I think there can be some pretty significant overlap in what I am referring to-I will get there eventually, I promise).
Three separate "experiences" set me off/ got me thinking. One was a scandal surrounding some stock market dude being seen in the background perusing rudey nudey pictures of Miranda Kerr as some bank media rep was doing a report in the mainstream news. Initially I just saw this incident as a little bit piss funny. Then someone sent me a link from the Age newspaper that complicated my initial impressions.
(link here)
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/feel-sorry-for-kiely-but-pity-more-his-female-colleagues-20100204-ng33.html?autostart=1
To summarise, Cordelia Fine (who is a research associate at the Centre for Agency, Values & Ethics in the department of philosophy at Macquarie University)speculates that men [lack of emphasis on hetero] are influenced by sexual depictions of women to the extent it carries through to their dealings with female colleagues in the workplace. She cites a research experiment where one group of men (again sexual identity undisclosed) were exposed to raunchy objectifying advertisements, the other group shown ads where sexual innuendo was absent. All subjects were then sent off to interview a female job candidate. The former group were found to be more leering and dodgy; retaining physical information about the candidate but retrieving little data of substance. They were reported to rate her as less competent than the other group. Whilst I take these findings with a grain of salt and a large slice of cheese (study details are undisclosed)I still found it to be a fascinating hypothesis. Not so did the influx of hysterical guys in the comments section, many of whom came up with intelligent, witty and original retorts suggesting Ms. Fine is a lesbian, or so ugly no self respecting man will fuck her.Whilst I thoroughly agree that the images WEREN'T porn, and to categorise them as such offers no credence to an argument that attempts to discredit them, it was the responses to this article that got me. Oh yeah, gotta love all the "why do you blame him,when she is the one taking off her clothes?". Umm. That's HER JOB. His, I am presuming is to do the real work he is paid for.
TIRED NOW- loosing concentration and momentum.
The other incident was a Farsebook page set up by some tool of a teenage Catholic boy that had some name like "Kill a Prostitute So You Don't Have to Pay Her". Excellent. Nice to see archaic ideas of punishing whores haven't scootered away into oblivion.
My main gripe was encountering this story posted on a free publishing website where the synopsis pretty much follows the plot of the Hentai game RapePlay; girl gets kidnapped, girl gets continuously raped and beaten, blah blah blah. That made me wonder: have we really betrayed young girls so much that the only way they feel comfortable about expressing themselves sexually is within narratives or other frameworks where they have no agency at all.
So I have been wondering if I have walked the plank and landed on the good ship radical feminist, seeing misogyny and patriarchal oppression in every nook and cranny, hiding under every good child's bed, or if I am actually right and misogyny (rather than just sexism and objectification of women) is a lot more embedded in our every day lives than what I felt, say a fortnight ago.
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