March 01, 2010

Choice

Lori Ziganto, I would like to respond to your post entitled, "Slut TV," which I ran into via twitter yesterday and found particularly upsetting. I would have done this as a comment but your site wouldn't let me--time for Red State to get with it and use "Disqus."

First and foremost, feminists have not been silent on the degradation of women by Reality TV. I understand that it might be tempting to make such an unsupported claim since you clearly don't know what a feminist is and therefore can't really search for their thoughts on the matter. But they exist--this is a particularly good one, posted by that unapologetically "slutty" Jessica.

That out of the way, I'd like to address the larger scope of your argument (well, it's more like a bunch of knee-jerk statements than anything else) which seems to be that feminists, by fighting for women to own their sexuality, have caused women to become more comfortable with having sex, and therefore have made women into "sluts," which you seem to define as someone who does "whatever feels good" and has the gall not to feel ashamed about it.

I think you are missing something fundamental here. It's about choice. That's the ingredient of feminism that most feminist bashers love to leave out. Feminism does not prescribe to women what they should want to do--it only says that their choice should be completely their own and recognizes that often it is society's dictations that cause us to choose what we do, and not ourselves.

Is being a "life bearing nurturer" a good thing? Sure, if that's what you want. But just having a vagina doesn't mean you have to do that. For example, you are proud of being a mom, and I think that's wonderful, particularly since you are a mother because you wanted to and not because you were forced to become one.

Want to have sex with many men? Well, that's your choice. Men make the choice of sleeping with many different women all the time and seem to get away with it with tired old excuse of "boys will be boys." How much more clearly could this be an example of stereotyping entering the public discourse--for example, this essentialist point of view would not be admitted into a modern conversation about race, but for gender its okay? And so we end up with men who are "callous" for making the same choice that women are "weak" for making. That's equality?

Want to get married and not have sex 'till you tie the knot? I have no problem with that--I actually dated someone who felt this way and I had nothing but respect for it. But I am suspicious of a society that demonizes women for not choosing this if it's not actually what you want. Feminism simply says that women don't have to want this, and there is nothing wrong with you if you don't.

Want to have a baby? That's great, as long as no one is forcing you to have one simply because you chose (or perhaps you didn't even do that) to have sex when millions of men will make the same choice and never have to give birth. Not once. And to object to Kourtney Kardashian falling for lies about the existence of post-abortion syndrome is important because we don't want other women in the same situation to also believe this and thus, have their choices limited.

It seems obvious to everyone (but you) that Reality TV is not a good commentary on real life. It is degrading to women because it takes real life and twists it through a pop culture lens that is still dominated by men. That's where the objectification comes from. Unlike a show like Sex in the City, which is about flawed women who are discussing their sexuality outside of the male gaze, Reality TV show exploits the most base parts of our cultural misogyny. And it's not as if this portrayal hasn't been around since Roman times.


Feminists are opponents of this, not supporters--this would be obvious to anyone who knows anything about feminism besides the blatant mis-characterization that is being handed around right wing blogs, mass media, and male-centric class rooms (speaking of straw-women). Feminists often worry about the female position in modern hook-up culture, but that is to ponder the reality of women's rights, not to equate Reality TV, which is obviously contrived and staged for a certain reaction, with the real life choice to walk home from a sexual encounter that you chose, enjoyed, and suffer no moral qualms about. I don't see why any woman should have second thoughts about anything because you or anyone else might judge her.

And that's what you're asking for. For women to beware the cultural repercussions (loss of respect, of all things) of doing what they want, so that they'll do what you want them to do. Where is the choice in that?