THE SAME COMPANY RUNS BOTH
Just a friendly reminder that while the “real beauty” campaign has the right idea, and that video that’s circulating seems awesome, that they don’t actually practice what they preach.
Not to mention there are still a lot of issues in regards to inclusion and what bodies aren’t even making it into the “real beauty” ads.
Ok; carry on.
will do anything for some more numbers in their bank accounts, disgusting.
both campaigns essentially demonstrate that Dove views women’s bodies as a prop to sell soap.
cosigned
Essentially what dove says in their campaigns are “You’re beautiful! Fix that frizzy hair and dark underarms ??? Try our product to make your beautiful self glow!!!! You’re beautiful!!!!!”
Which is kinda creepy as fuck.
I already knew the dove campaign was bullshit but I didn’t realize they were owned with axe :/
Dale Spender, an Australian feminist who has been a strong advocate of female rights in this area, noted that teachers who tried to restore the balance by deliberately ‘favouring’ the girls were astounded to find that despite their efforts they continued to devote more time to the boys in their classrooms. Another study reported that a male science teacher who managed to create an atmosphere in which girls and boys contributed more equally to discussion felt that he was devoting 90 per cent of his attention to the girls. And so did his male pupils. They complained vociferously that the girls were getting too much talking time.
In other public contexts, too, such as seminars and debates, when women and men are deliberately given an equal amount of the highly valued talking time, there is often a perception that they are getting more than their fair share. Dale Spender explains this as follows:
The talkativeness of women has been gauged in comparison not with men but with silence. Women have not been judged on the grounds of whether they talk more than men, but of whether they talk more than silent women.
In other words, if women talk at all, this may be perceived as ‘too much’ by men who expect them to provide a silent, decorative background in many social contexts. This may sound outrageous, but think about how you react when precocious children dominate the talk at an adult party. As women begin to make inroads into formerly ‘male’ domains such as business and professional contexts, we should not be surprised to find that their contributions are not always perceived positively or even accurately.
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[x] (via neighborly) I don’t feel like this is new information but it is still so darn frustrating! (via sexxxisbeautiful) |
Damsel in Distress: Part 1 - Tropes vs Women in Video Games
This video explores how the Damsel in Distress became one of the most widely used gendered clichés in the history of gaming and why the trope has been core to the popularization and development of the medium itself. As a trope the Damsel in Distress is a plot device in which a female character is placed in a perilous situation from which she cannot escape on her own and must then be rescued by a male character, usually providing a core incentive or motivation for the protagonist’s quest.
ABOUT THE VIDEO SERIES
The Tropes vs Women in Video Games project aims to examine the plot devices and patterns most often associated with female characters in gaming from a systemic, big picture perspective. This series will include critical analysis of many beloved games and characters, but remember that it is both possible (and even necessary) to simultaneously enjoy media while also being critical of it’s more problematic or pernicious aspects.
For more examples of the Damsel in Distress see our Tumblr for this series: http://tropesversuswomen.tumblr.com
Visit http://www.feministfrequency.com for more information, videos and a full transcript.
The thing about MRA’s though is that they could actually be fighting for men’s rights and livliehoods that are challenged by patriarchy.
- They could help men of color who are hypermasculized while simultaneously being denied bodily autonomy through white supremacist heteropatriarchy, which inevitably leads to violence, poverty and exaggerated incarceration rates.
- They could help queer men by providing them with safe spaces nand campaigning against the societal violence (ie. disproportionate homelessness, harassment, assault, denial of housing, state rights as couples, etc.) they experience.
- They could stand in solidarity with the trans* men that are having their reproductive rights stripped because mainstream patriarchal cissexism doesn’t recognize ovaries as not being indicative of one’s gender identity.
- They could faciliate outreach programs to men who are sexually and physically abused, because again, the notion that men are strong, resilient and unable to be harmed is rooted in patriarchy.
There are a whole host of things MRA’s could be and aren’t doing, because of course these people don’t actually care about anyone or anything but themselves and stroking their inflated egos. That’s why MRA’s are a joke.
Feminism is flawed. Feminism is flawed because it is a movement powered by people and people are inherently flawed. For whatever reason, we hold feminism to an unreasonable standard where the movement must be everything we want and must always make the best choices. When feminism falls short of our expectations, we decide the problem is with feminism rather than with the flawed people who act in the name of the movement.
The problem with movements is that all too often, they are associated only with the most visible figures, the people with the biggest platforms and the loudest, most provocative voices. Feminism is not whatever philosophy is being spouted by the popular media feminist flavor of the week, at least not entirely.
Feminism, as of late, has suffered from a certain guilt by association because we conflate feminism with women who advocate feminism as part of their personal brand. When these figureheads say what we want to hear, we put them up on the Feminist Pedestal and when they something we don’t like, we knock them right off and then we say there’s something wrong with feminism because our feminist leaders have failed us. We forget the difference between feminism and Professional Feminists.
I openly embrace the label of bad feminist. I do so because I acknowledge up front that I am flawed and human. I am not terribly well versed in feminist history. I am not as well read in feminism texts as I would like to be. I have certain… interests and personality traits and opinions that may not fall in line with mainstream feminism but I am still a feminist. I cannot tell you how freeing it has been to accept this about myself.
I embrace the label of bad feminist because I’m not trying to be an example. I am not trying to be perfect. I am not trying to say I have all the answers. I am not trying to say I’m right. I am just trying—trying to support what I believe in, trying to do some good in this world, trying to make some noise.
I am a bad feminist because I never want to be placed on a Feminist Pedestal. People who are placed on pedestals are expected to pose, perfectly. Then they get knocked off when they fuck it up. I regularly fuck it up.
There have been many times, when I was younger, that I disavowed feminism so believe me, I understand why women fall over themselves to disavow feminism, to distance themselves. I disavowed feminism because when I was called a feminist, the label felt like an insult. It was generally intended as such. When I was called a feminist, during those days, my first thought was, “But I willingly give blowjobs.” I had it in my head that I could not both be a feminist and be sexually open. I had lots of strange things in my head.
I disavowed feminism because I had no rational understanding of the movement. I was called a feminist and what I heard was, “you are an angry, sex-hating, man-hating victim lady person.” This caricature is how feminists have been warped by the people who fear feminism most, the same people who have the most to lose when feminism succeeds. Anytime I remember how I once disavowed feminism, I am ashamed of my ignorance. I am ashamed of my fear because mostly the disavowal was grounded in the fear that I would be ostracized, that I would be seen as a troublemaker, that I would never be accepted by the mainstream.
I get angry when women disavow feminism and shun the feminist label but say they support all the advances borne of feminism because I see a disconnect that does not need to be there. I get angry but I understand and hope someday we live in a culture where we don’t need to distance ourselves from the feminist label, where the label doesn’t make us afraid of being alone, of being too different, of wanting too much.
I try to keep my feminism simple. I know feminism is complex and evolving and flawed. I know feminism will not nor cannot fix everything. I believe in equal opportunities for women and men. I believe in women having reproductive freedom and affordable and unfettered access to the healthcare they need. I believe women should be paid as much as men for the same work. I believe feminism is a choice and if a woman does not want to be a feminist, that is her right, but that it is still my responsibility to fight for her rights. I believe feminism is grounded in supporting the choices of women even if we wouldn’t make certain choices for ourselves. I believe women not just in the United States but throughout the world deserve freedom but know I am in no position to tell women of other cultures what that freedom should look like. I believe to be a feminist is to support sex workers in any way they want and need unequivocal support from the feminist community. I believe pornography is not evil or inherently misogynistic.
I cannot tell you what peace defining feminism for myself has brought me. It has given me guiding principles for how I write, how I read, how I live. I stray from these principles. I also know it’s okay when I do not live up to my best feminist self.
Women of color, queer women, and transgender women need to be better included in the feminist project. Women from these groups have been shamefully abandoned by Capital F Feminism, time and again. This is a hard, painful truth. This is where a lot of people run into resisting feminism, trying to create distance between where they stand and the movement. Believe me, I understand. For years, I decided feminism wasn’t for me as a black woman, as a woman who has been queer identified at varying points in her life because feminism has, historically, been far more invested in improving the lives of heterosexual white women to the detriment of all others.
But two wrongs do not make a right. Feminism’s failings do not mean we should eschew feminism entirely. People do terrible things all the time but we don’t regularly disavow our humanity. We disavow the terrible things. We should disavow the failures of feminism without disavowing the many successes of feminism.
We don’t have to believe in the same feminism. Feminism can be pluralistic and messy so long as we respect the different feminisms we carry with us, so long as we give enough of a damn to try and minimize the fractures between us.
Feminism will better succeed with collective effort but feminist success can also rise out of personal conduct. I hear many young women say they can’t find well-known feminists with whom they identify. That can be disheartening but I say, let us (try to) become the feminists we would like to see moving through the world.
When you can’t find someone to follow, you have to find a way to lead by example.
I love this. It’s long but DEFINITELY worth the read.
The thing that truly disgusts me about men making “If women participate in No Shave November, they’ll be having no D(ick) December” posts is that it so blatantly indicates that these men see women as sexual objects. Why do these men want women to shave? Because they do not find body hair on women sexually appealing. So apparently, we’re supposed to look and be fuckable for them all the time. Because the only purpose of a woman’s body is for sex with men. Furthermore, the greatest punishment these men can think up for us? Depriving us of penis. Cry me a fucking river, some misogynistic asshole doesn’t want to fuck me. Whatever will I do?
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| — | Kelley Temple, National Union of Students UK Women’s Officer (via feministkitsch) |
