On objects, women and the quest for equality

[matgb]

Did someone throw a bloggers gender awareness week thing and I missed the notification? Maybe I'm just noticing it a bit more, but discussions on objectification, stereotypes and dodgy attitudes seem to be everywhere I look at the moment. andrewducker reposted The Rules yesterday and the comment thread at that link is worth reading. Following that, SB made a comment to my post and expanded on it at Steve' s about the sexism of the vid I posted yesterday. She's followed it up with two posts today, asking Ever Wish You Could Switch a Part of Your Personality Off? and then as a Follow-on from the previous post:

Men are biologically designed to look upon women's bodies as sexy = men are biologically designed to look on women as things, not people?

y/n?

The latter being in response to Steve's follow on post:

these days I find myself being offended at it for all the wrong reasons. Adverts for random things that feature bikini-clad Barbie dolls and “oooh!” music don’t make me think “I really wish they’d stop objectifying women, because it’s detrimental to women’s rights and society.” They make me think “I wish they’d stop being SO STUPID and assuming I am also very STUPID and why do they think a bored-looking model can make sink cleaner sexy anyway?”

And that, essentially, is as close to my take on it as I can manage to enunciate. I'm aware, intellectually, that as a middle class(ish) white, straight(ish) male I have the inbuilt advantage of the White Male Priviledge that some feminists will explain incredibly well. I am aware that this means that I sometimes don't even notice probles that should be fixed because, ultimately, they don't really directly effect me. Of course, when I do notice problems, they tend to piss me off; the whole point about being a damn committed Liberal is that you don't believe in judging people on anything except merit, and when something other than that happens it really annoys me. If I notice it. But sometimes?

Some issues just don't cross my radar. Sometimes I just don't notice there's a problem. I'm aware that Disney films portray a very conservative idealisation of family relations that I really dislike, at times, and there are sometimes elements of the portrayal of some characters that really do get to me even in films I do like, but I can, and do, put aside those elements in favour of enjoying the good parts, the bits I like. Admittedly, I'm also an awful critic; I've tried writing reviews, some of you will have read some of them on here. I suck. Really, I do. My admiration for those such as ninebelow and nhw that can write decent, coherent reviews is very strong, it's a talent I just don't have. I think, when it comes to entertainment media, that I turn my politics off. I must do at times, as some of the stuff I like (Orson Scott Card anyone?) is the complete opposite of my views on a lot of issues. Given that, under other circumstances, I just can't turn my politics off, that's a bit weird.

But then, we all view things through the prisms that shape our worldview. To me, most issues are shaped by our system of governance. Lack of women politicians? Blame the electoral system. Crappy government reaction to a certain issue of the day? Blame the electoral system. Really badly thought through policy that plays to the lowest common denomininator tabloid press world view? Blame the electoral system. A general perception within anglophone society of black/white, with us/against us no-shades-of-grat? Guess what? That damned electoral system (specifically, Duverger's Law) again.

But when it comes to entertainment? In the video I posted yesterday, I saw four stereotypes. There was the simpering English fop with a tea drinking obsession. There was the over-dressed Frenchman with the pet poodle. There was the hard-done by and abused butler. And the was the stereotypical Lady, treated as an object to be fought over, who eventually sees sense and runs off with the butler--given the idiocy of the other two, I can't say I actually blame her. Was her portrayal sexist? Well yes. But was it more sexist, or degrading, than the portrayal of the other characters? I'd say not, myself--none of them were particularly sympathetic, and if anyone can possibly be said to be the winner of the silly duel, it's her. And of course the butler.

Of course, the bigger issue in all of this is gender equality, and maybe my male priviledge kicks in here, but of the educated and switched on young(ish) professional(ish) field that I tend to inhabit, I think that's no longer a problem of men putting down women. Does it still happen? Hell yes. Should it? Both society, and the legal system, say that sort of thing just isn't allowed. The recent study by the now merged-into-something-bigger Equal Opportunities Commission has received a lot of coverage in blogs that I read, and given that I do deliberately read some sites that challenge my world view, I've seen it soundly demolished on a number of key points, most importantly not comparing like with like. Indeed, the whole premise of the report was itself flawed, in that it generalised and lumped all women together and then compared them to all men. Other recent studies have indicated that, for example, 'out' lesbians earn significantly better than average. but that can be discredited, because aren't lesbians more likely to come from educated, switched on backgrounds and thus be in a better position to do well anyway?

Have I mentioned my distaste for categories before? Oh, I see I have. Some women face discrimination in certain fields. Some people face discrimination in certain fields--more hidebound fields, especially those dominated by older proffesionals, may have bigger individual issues. But discrimination cuts both ways. My boss in an old job once booked herself onto the training course I'd been pushing for me to go on, organised by our professional body. She told me, in my office, in front of colleagues, that it was more appropriate for her to go, because the course would be aimed at women and the company would look bad having a man in my role. Seriously. That's a good reason for getting our departments demerged (something I manged to get happen very quickly thankee muchly). My old job was women's work in oh so many ways, and my female boss resented the idea that not only did I want to do it, I was actually really damnd good at it thanks very much.

Discrimination happens. It sucks. It happens to all of us at times; I'm a bloke with long hair and a taste for black clothes. I've been denied promotions because of my hair, in a company run by hippies (the area manager was a racist git, who hated the hippies at head office)--still, I came out best, it was one of the reasons I went back to university after all. And yes, I do know that that was why I was turned down. I'm aware of the feminist theories about 'the patriarchy', and I don't disagree with them, the thing is, I don't think that that misogynistic society of old did anyone any favours, men included; I certainly wouldn't want to return to an era where men made all the important decisions; I like my smart female friends far too much for that; I really like the point that, on many many things (but not all), the woman I've fallen in love with is actually smarter than me. It's great.

I like the way that society has developed to a point where innerbrat can post that The correct answer is yes: chicks do dig Giant Robots. I just wish that, and look forward to the day, where accepting that some women do indeed like giant robot movies (and many men don't is just a given, and not have categorisations such as "blokes movie" and "chick flick". We're not there, yet. But it's a lot better than it was. Was doing a bit of Wikipedia editing a few days back (I know, I know), and read (and fixed a bit of) the article on Peter Tatchell; scarily, he only formed OutRage in 1990, how times have changed in just 17 years.

I'm not deluding myself, I've not got on rose tinted goggles; I know that discrimination exists, that sexism exists, that we're Not There Yet.

But ultimately I'm an optimist. Things are getting better, people are treated better, women in the workplace are just accepted now, and attitudes that they don't belong there are, culturally, seen as unacceptable by the overwhelming majority of the people that I come into contact with.

But then, I mostly come into contact with young(ish) professional(ish) educated types. The so-called opinion formers. something which leads me to believe that things will continue to get better, that society will continue to improve. We've got to monitor, we've got to watch, we've got to be vigilant, to make sure it doesn't regress, but the world today has changed fromt eh world in which my mother left school at 14 to become a shop girl.

And that's a damn good thing.

---

OK, that was about three times longer than planned, and I rambled, and I need to tidy it up. Gah!

OK, the other part of the post becomes a separate post. Later. Possibly. And I was going to throw in more links to studies and stuff, but, y'know, Google is your friend. Or Yahoo if your name is Iain.

Comments

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

"ah, so you call everyone an imbecile, OK" was amused withdrawal of offence, sorry if that wasn't clear.

The joys of text-based communication, I forget you can't see me smiling.

Pax?

[http://users.livejournal.com/_grimtales_/]

Pax is better than waiting for it to reach Paxo.

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

PaxMAN, on the other hand... RAWR.

[matgb]

Down girl...

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

Awwwww!

(and it looks like we have a winner over on my post...)

[http://users.livejournal.com/_grimtales_/]

There we part company again, though I like his attack-dog interviews.

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

LMAO I never for a second expected us to have the same sort of taste in crushes ;)