Links - August 3, 2011

Links - August 3, 2011


Sociological Images:
Gendered Kids Stuff


1. Kid's Luggage Normalizes Gendered Occupations

2. More Gendering of Kids' Stuff

My two cents:


I have to add some commentary to this photograph as it is so biologically deterministic and reflective of our larger cultural values regarding the two sex-classes. First we can see the text claiming how "different" boys and girls really are. This seems to be intended to allow us to digest the text that appears next to each advertised photo. Next to the ad featuring the girl-child we read, "Pretty and Playful." This illustrates female's  perceived role and purpose as an object to be looked at and played with rather than respected. This girl is posed to look passive and playful as she has her hand on her head and she is smiling. However, look over to the boys and we see that they are described as "rugged and ready". Boys are brave, courageous and ready to take on the world, unlike the girls who are asked to merely smile and giggle. They are with a dog, too, to signify their bravery and so-called "boyishness." The posing is interesting, also as one of the boys has his knee raised to signify his "natural" bravery. His pose garners respect whereas the picture of the little girl is meant to garner "aww, how cute!" 


This is exactly what we're talking about when we say feminism has a LONG way to go...


and finally from the same Sociological Images post

Two Cents: 


Again, this photo illustrates roles based on biological deterministic beliefs about boys and girls. Boys like to learn and create and discover shit - girls like to take care of babies and change diapers full of shit. It's just the way it is.


A Place for Everywomon and her series on Radical Feminist Seminar 

1. Radical Feminist Seminar: Sheila Jeffrey’s Speech on Trafficking

Excerpt:

"Sheila Jeffreys gave a lecture related to her book, The Industrial Vagina. I had recently read through this entire book, a book so painful to read that I had to put it down every few minutes of reading, just to remind myself that, yes, I am safe, but this is why I am a radical feminist. One point Jeffreys hammered home, is that the idea of individual agency is fundamentally a conservative idea. At what other job do we claim workers are expressing their “agency”?  It is really Milton Friedman’s politics of super, super individualism that are being put forth by “pro-sex work” lobbyists."

2. Radical Feminist Seminar: Professor Dines Brings It On

Excerpt: 

"Another reason a switch to a pornography with a “feminist conscious” is not likely to happen is a reason rather hard to face: Men actually like getting off to women in pain. For example, Dines quotes a porn producer as saying, “Nobody wants to watch a girl enjoying anal.” Dines also mentioned that condoms are typically not used in heterosexual porn. According to her, this is because condoms show at least a minimum level of care about the women’s health. If porn showed men wearing condoms, that would be a reminder that women are human beings, who are capable of being hurt."

3. Radical Feminist Seminar: Sheila Jeffreys on Trans Politics

Excerpt: 

"Groups such as GenderPAC, a U.S. organization that ran from 1999-2009, are “gender protection rackets,” Jeffreys asserted, since GenderPAC thinks we all have a “right to our gender.”
A point I was not aware of–and quite horrified by–was that gender identity laws are not meant to protect born women. This is because there are apparently too many of us."



Sub-Human by Rmott62


Excerpt: 

"Sub-human that is an uncomfortable word, a word that you would do anything to avoid.

Sub-human is what the vast majority of the prostituted class are made. That sounds harsh, that is harsh.

The invention of the prostituted class was not a flux, was no mistake. It was invention that used slavery, capture of women and girls in times of disasters or wars, used that women are kept poor, used racism, used any and all oppression to create the prostituted class."

Silence Means Dissent - Andrea Dworkin from Anti-Porn Men Project


Excerpt: 

"We know that men like hurting us. We know it because they do it and we watch them doing it. We know that men like dominating us because they do it and we watch them doing it. We know men like using us because they do it, and they do it, and they do it, and they do it, and they do it. And men don’t do things that don’t like, generally speaking. They like doing it and they like watching it and they like watching other men do it and it is entertainment and pay money to see it and that one of the reasons that men make pornography. It’s fun."

Photograph of Andrea Dworkin found here