This is the second part in a series about how girls and women can navigate a culture that treats them like sex objects. (Part 1). After nearly three decades, the feminist “sex wars” are back. This fiery debate from the 1980s pitted radical feminists who claimed that female sexual objectification is dehumanizing against feminists concerned about legal and… Continue reading Sexual Objectification, Part 2: The Harm
Category: Sexism
Magic Mike: Old Sexism in a New Package
Magic Mike is “wildly overperforming” because women and gay men are going to see it in droves. Thank you Hollywood executives for finally noticing that there’s plenty of money to be made off of heterosexual female and gay male sexuality. Magic Mike purports to be a movie that caters to het women, and while it does provide a highly unusual… Continue reading Magic Mike: Old Sexism in a New Package
Sexual Objectification, Part 1: What is it?
This is the first part in a series about how girls and women can navigate a culture that treats them like sex objects. Around since the 1970s and associated with curmudgeonly second-wave feminists, the phrase “sexual objectification” can inspire eye-rolling. The phenomenon, however, is more rampant than ever in popular culture, and we now know that it causes… Continue reading Sexual Objectification, Part 1: What is it?
“The Hunger Games,” Hollywood, and Fighting Fuck Toys
“The Hunger Games” is Hollywood’s wake-up call that female action hero movies can be successful if the protagonist is portrayed as a complex subject instead of a hyper-sexualized fighting fuck toy (FFT). In its first weekend, “The Hunger Games” grossed $155 million, making it the third highest opener of all time (behind the last Harry Potter film and “The… Continue reading “The Hunger Games,” Hollywood, and Fighting Fuck Toys
Rush Limbaugh’s 20 Year War on Women
After Rush Limbaugh called Georgetown law school student Sandra Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute” for believing that insurance should cover the cost of birth control, pundits on the right and left quickly pointed out that liberal media figures have also used sexist slurs. I have perhaps written more than anyone about the use of sexist… Continue reading Rush Limbaugh’s 20 Year War on Women
Pennsylvania Public Service Announcement Blames Rape Victims
Rape reporting, prosecution, and conviction rates across the country are appallingly low, but it’s easier to get away with sexual assault in some places compared to others. Pennsylvania is one of those places. In Pennsylvania, expert testimony isn’t allowed in the courtroom. Instead, jurors frequently rely on abundant, harmful rape myths. We shouldn’t be that surprised, then, that earlier this week the Pennsylvania… Continue reading Pennsylvania Public Service Announcement Blames Rape Victims
“Hot Chicks of Occupy Wall Street”: Really?
Demand #8 from the Occupy Wall Street list of demands is a call for a “gender equal rights amendment,” a good sign that OWS is thinking about inequality in all its various forms. This sentiment seems to be lost on (supposedly) liberal filmmaker, Steven Greenstreet, whose past work includes documentaries about the Mormon influence in passing Proposition 8 and the… Continue reading “Hot Chicks of Occupy Wall Street”: Really?
Election 2012 Sexism Watch #4: And Then There Were Two?
Major news outlets have deemed the competition for the Republican nomination contest a two-man race, including The Daily Beast (A Two Man Race: Perry and Romney), The National Journal (Despite Bachmann’s Success, The Real GOP Race is Now Perry Vs. Romney), Newsmax (Experts: Perry Surge Creates Two-Man Race on Eve of Debate), Redstate.com (Perry vs. Romney), and… Continue reading Election 2012 Sexism Watch #4: And Then There Were Two?
Lessons from Transformers 3: Machines are Subjects, Women are Objects, and Female Leadership is a Joke
Only two main characters in the large ensemble cast are women, and none of the Transformers (alien robots for the uninitiated) are female. And the two female characters are so offensive – an unmitigated object and a caricatured mockery of female leadership – that none might have been better.
A Cheerleader’s Rape in a Small Texas Town: Part II
I traveled to Silsbee, Texas five times in the past six months, with conservative blogger Brandon Darby, to investigate why, despite the volume of evidence, a grand jury did not indict two football players accused of raping a high school cheerleader (who was later kicked off the squad for refusing to cheer for one of… Continue reading A Cheerleader’s Rape in a Small Texas Town: Part II