Female Chauvinist Pigs..."We decided long ago that the Male Chauvinist Pig was an unenlightened rube, but the Female Chauvinist Pig (FCP) has risen to a kind of exalted status. She is post-feminist. She is funny. She gets it. She doesn't mind cartoonish stereotypes of female sexuality, and she doesn't mind a carttonishly macho response to them. The FCP asks: Why throw away your boyfriend's Playboy in a freedome trah can when you could be partying at the Mansion? Why worry about disgusting or degrading when you could be givin - or getting - a lap dance yourself? Why try to beat them when you can join them?..."
I'm currently reading Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture by Ariel Levy, and after reading this passage, I asked myself "Am I one of those women?" I consider myself a nouvelle feminist, one to fight for women's rights and argue against the patriarchy, but down enough to understand and appreciate what goes on in the male mind. I can talk about porn, masturbation, bikini waxes then switch to anti-discrimination laws and argue for equality in the same breath. I've heard and seen a lot, maybe too much, and I admit that it sometimes gets to be a bit too much when hanging with the boys. But I wonder where it leaves me? Am I really doing my part to advance the cause or am I just a chauvinist pig with breasts?
Yesterday, someone asked me if I was offended by the representation of the "voodoo" woman in Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and I replied no, because voodoo practioners are usually African or Caribbean then launched into a diatribe about how we as non-whites are hypersensitized by media portrayals of us. I think the film Crash did a good job of showing Blacks in several tones and nuances, but I admit the film was an exception to the rule. Usually though, I'm not outraged by the stereotypical portrayals shown in the media because, to an extent, they're true. There's a part in Crash where a White character says to a Black one "Don't you just hate Black people?" He went on to rant that Blacks seem to mess up the opportunities they have by shooting themselves in the foot, be it through drugs, violence and other such shit. The bad apples just bring everyone down and those are the fools you see on the 6:00 o'clocking news "wile'in out". And that's the image that gets perpetrated in the media by Blacks themselves! 50, Luda, Buckshot, whatever, you know who I'm talking about.
It's like the proliferation of the use of the N-word. I hate the word, but it's everywhere now, used by Negroes, Caucasians, Latinos and Asians. I don't care if you drop the "er" and add an "a", it's still offensive, but its been appropriated to the point that it's colloquial. I remember "The Nigger Family" sketch in The Chappelle Show, and it was just the N-word back and forth, and Dave Chappelle kinda looks down and I think he says "I'm dying inside." I feel that way sometimes when I think/talk about feminist/Black issues. It's everywhere, and while a part of you wants to be included, on the inside, if you will, another part feels bad that you're just a token that's been given a backstage pass.
Am I making sense? What do you think? Do you think our generation is more about trying to join them (the establishment) than beat them? Men/Whites are invited to discuss.
5 comments:
What can I say aside from that reclamation sucks. It's not working for Kansai airport, and it's not making any of the 'opressed' any less 'opressed', if anything it's making them/us look like confused fools. Sean, I'm not speaking to thought-up life choices here, but rather to this trend feminists, minority communities and whoever else seem to be adopting of making everything old and derogatory new and acceptable.
Take for example the girl who decides to wrestle topless along with the rest of the boys. Seeming equality lies in the fact that everyone is topless. The feminist in her perceives equality. When she reports on it later, she may or may not say that her decision was ground breaking - I can be naked alongside them, they and society are at a place in evolution where such things are not sexualised, I did not become an object by doing so. Hurrah, progress. I can act like this because I also exist above and beyond such raucous acts.
In the meantime, there is the off chance that any number of reactions be had on the part of the males in attendance: the wrestling match can proceed as though nothing out of the ordinary is taking place [or they do indeed know her better and find this to be inconsequential to their opinion of her, knowing it's demonstrative of her self-confidence], or it can turn into an episode of Girls Gone Wild [speaking of which, did I send you this link? http://www.latimes.com/features/magazine/west/la-tm-gonewild32aug06,0,2664370.story]
Point being, that in a number of ways 'society' as a whole just isn't ready for reclamation of this kind. Select pockets perhaps, and perhaps certain low-key acts of reclamation can go smoothly on the large scale [I don't remember anyone mainstream talking about teh GLBs calling themselves queer and fags]. But I think some subjects, like women taking it all off in the name of feminism and liberation is still pretty touchy. Kind of, as you said, taking all the good ones down with them.
A part of me wants to say 'Woman, be honest, you're acting liek that because you WANT to, it validates you in some way and you like the attention. But what does this prove and does it jive with what you are fighting for?'
Third wave feminism is as diverse as teh women who label themselves using the F-word, which can [and is] bringing about conflict. I mean, it would be naive to believe half the world is fighting for precisely the same thing.
A thoughh just went through my mind though... Would these female chauvanist pigs be getting as much press if the media and teh publishign companies weren't run by the guess-who's? If we were where our mothers wanted us to be when all this started, then I highly doubt they'd be given the time of day or a second of airtime. I have a feeling we only know about them because ofthe shock value and the ratings potential, and the feminism is added on for good measure - much like a women's lib version of Bamboozled.
Not everything done by a woman is feminist in nature simply because it is done by a woman, and it seesm that even these women need to learn to make the difference - unless it improves our collective situation and you're acting according to no one's expectation and standards [and perhaps in this case hopes - I'd say fantasies but that's touchy territory] but your own, IT AIN'T FEMINISM.
i am done now. thank you for your time.
i think i just gave myself a mini orgasm
apparently orgasm was indeed had - how else can i explain that horrible typing?
oh and hun? don't even get me started on intersectionalities and the whole Women Of Colour as feminists within the feminist movement [cough www.brownfemipower.com cough]
... which is what I suppose you meant when you mentionned the 'backstage pass'. or did i interpret that one wrong?
Steph, can't wait to talk about this in person. YOU ARE THE SHIT.
Racism has changed; it has become a quiet and subconscious, but extremely powerful force that is constantly being re-asserted by the media to generate fear.
Maybe people are focusing on the small potatoes like Pirates 2 when we should be focusing on CNN and Fox News.
Fear of THEM (IE: Feminists, Communists, Terrorists, Foreigners, Immigrants, ect..) keeps people in places of power so that they can protect and sell things to 'US'.
Bird Flu is out to kill us all because it hates our freedom.
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