The sexist pencil sharpener and a bad comparison

Yesterday Jessica Valenti blogged about the sexist pencil sharpener you see above. As a regular reader, I know that Jessica often posts pics of sexist sinks, urnals and other objects that are designed to look like dismembered female bodies.. it's creepy and sexist and downright grose. She wants to address the issue.. fine right?
Well apparently some people get a bit thrown off by this and decide to try and compare apples and oranges. Here's an article I found today and sent to Feministing just in case they hadn't caught wind of it. It's good for a laugh. I don't get how peoples minds work.. totaly lack of logic. (I won't touch on the pencil pic since Jessica already covered it and it's pretty plain to see why)So lets read the article :

Feminist blogger Jessica Valenti, author of Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman's Guide to Why Feminism Matters, is angry over the pencil sharpener pictured above. On Feministing.com she writes:

"What better way to start the week than a stark reminder of how the world sees women? (It seems the perfect woman is almost always dismembered and frequently being penetrated.) Just f***king kill me now."

I don't blame Jessica for being unhappy over the pencil sharpener, but I wonder if she would be as offended by the knife block pictured. The knife block seems far more offensive than the pencil sharpener:

1) The knife block depicts extreme and painful violence.

2) The pencil sharpener depicts a conventional, common sex act which women enjoy.

I'm not saying Jessica would reject any complaints about the knife block--perhaps she would agree with men's activists that it's offensive. But it seems that Jessica and many other feminists tend to see popular culture as "offensive to women" when, in reality, popular culture is far more anti-male than anti-female. This is particularly true when depicting violence--a dozen men can die in a movie or cop show and scarcely anyone blinks, but when a woman dies, it's a big deal. To pick one example, see my blog post Pirates of the Caribbean & Male Disposability.

First off, jesus, can we stop with the "I'm more persecuted/descriminated against than you"?? I don't see why the author thought it neccessary to even compare the pencil sharpener with the knife holder! We're talking about two very different patterns of thought behind two different sexist objects. You can't really compare them except to say that they are two sexist objects. It's silly. It's so childish to go, "well the one with the knife through it is way more sexist!!" What exactly is he trying to say, that because the knife holder exists that we shouldn't be upset by the pencil sharpener?! It's very valid to be upset by both of these tools but comparing them just to try and rationalize that men are more persececuted than women is fucking dumb and irrational.

secondly, um.. okay there is a difference between people dying in a movie and people dying in real life!! How do you go from relating sexist knife holders and pencil sharpeners, to how many more of one sex dies in movies than the other!?Here's a thought- Maybe more men die in the movies because there are generally more movies directed by men, roles written for men, and actors who happen to be men? Ever think of that? Then if you wanna talk about stereotypical gender roles in movies, well thats the issue isn't it! Thats worth talking about- and men don't have it so hot, but then neither do women. Your standard, cop shoot out movie (which Mr. Up Above is talking about) is going to be chalk full of male actors in manly hero/villan type roles. He's gonna shoot people, people will shoot at him, lots of extras will get in the way and die, usually the hero's best friend dies or gets horribly injured. The average female character in one of those movies will serve as one of two things, either she's the sexy villan or love interest, who sleeps with the hero. The villian female doops the cop and audience into believing that she's "one of the good guys". The love interest female only enter scenes to have sex with the leading male role, make dinner or become a victim. THERE YA GO! So if you got a problem with men dying in movies, why not complain to the MEN who actually create those movies!? Since ya know, the larger percentage of one sex running hollywood happen to be male.

Also, if you read the comments posted under the article you get a big insight on what Men's Rights Advocates are actually worried about - women being independent and having babies without getting married! OOO all chaos would insue!! Read this:

You see the sexual notion that women hold: men like sex, and wish women liked it. This is learned behavior. We teach this to our children, boys and girls alike. It makes men believe we need women more than we really do. Women believe it too. It is patently untrue. It can be un-learned.

But it is a very useful social convention. Were men to realize how little we really need women, society would unravel. Men have not yet even gained the ability to conveniently and easily control our fertility, and women are already bemoaning the lack of good marryable men. Middle aged middle class single women are, as Glenn pointed out elsewhere, choosing to have children without benefit of marriage. There are, I believe, two reasons for this. One is the marriage strike; the other is much much more troubling to me.

"Liberated" women seem unwilling, or unable, to endure the compromise necessary to actually marry and live with a man. They will say they have been in relationships that they hoped would lead to marriage and children, but "none of the relationships worked." What these women really mean is they were unwilling to accept someone else at face value, as another imperfect human, and actually compromise some of their deeply-held beliefs in the name of making a marriage work, and for the good of children. Women have been told they can have it all, and that is what they believe. Choosing to become a mother without a father is the ultimate act of self-indulgence. The lack of marryable men is partly due to a genuine shortage; the rest is merely a reflection of women's uncompromising attitudes.

Olivia, maybe you will be able to find someone you can manipulate long term with that thing you were born with. And then again, maybe not.

I read this stuff all the time. Self-ish woman, and the poor neglected men being tossed aside because women are too self-centered to get married...god, it makes me wanna vomit. Mens Rights Groups are less about fighting for men's rights and more about taking away the freedom of women to choose their own path in life. It's painfully clear... makes me really sick actually. takes a certain kind of insecure person to wanna control someone... let alone an entire sex.

My Letter to Guitar World and Guitar Magazine :

I've been reading Guitar World, and Guitar Magazine since I was a teenager and something has always bothered me about them. So I decided to write them a letter about it in hope that they could make changes. Somehow I doubt that they are willing to change their mag after the 30 some-odd years they've been publishing. But a gal can try can't she? So here goes.

Dear Guitar World and Guitar Magazine,

I would like to take this opportunity to speak for the women everywhere who play a kick-ass guitar and rawk. With my sarcastic thank-yous, I would like to say : thank you for catering to an audience of awkward pimply male teenagers for the last 30 years and telling them with every guitar-girl centerfold that "yes", if they become a rock star, they too can earn the right to treat women like guitar stands.

Thank-you for continually objectifying the female body and reminding us girls that our place in the music world is to be naked, vacuous, blonde, under-weight and merely holding the guitar in an upright position and never, never with our hand in chord formation on the strings. Yes thank you for letting me know through my entire awkward teens that my efforts in learning to be a better guitarist were all in vain. I had and continue to see the truth in your magazine- that my place is not to rawk on stage, play chilling solos, plugged into a 120 watt amp through 2 impeccable 4 X 12 cabinets, but to place a guitar between my legs in an effort to shield my nakedness as men take pictures and ogle me.

Even though I have so much to thank you for, I know the ultimate thank-you is this:

Thank you for reminding me, that women can't play guitar.

Sincerely,

One Pissed Off SG playing, mother of a guitar goddess.

OH TV....

I'm not one of those people who self-righteously proclaim to hate and never watch tv. I'm not one of those. I actually watch a little too much screen than I should. That being probably two hours a day in the evening when my mind is too tired to actually think. However, I'm always stuck watching the same series over and over again. Seinfeld, the Family Guy, the Simpsons, Star Trek, Robot Chicken and one of the best sitcoms to come out in the last five years, Arrested Development which has sadly seen it's demise with last year. All my favorite things get cancilled. I count myself lucky that Robot Chicken is still running... I haven't seen a new episode of Aqua Teen in at least a year. I, like so many others, have taken to buying my favorite series on DVD for fear they will one day fall out of syndication. But beyond these few tv shows, the 700 and some odd channels on my digital cable box has little to offer and I'm wondering, why the hell do I have cable? Honestly I think I'd be happier owning all the seinfeld seasons and some kids in the hall than flicking endlessly until I find something worth watching. Not only that but while flicking I become horribly depressed by the commercials and various programs. Flicking through the womens television stations has to be the worst. These channels are for women yet they prodominately air reality shows about plastic surgery, cleaning you house, brides and how to dress. Then they throw in a Meg Ryan movies, or a made for tv movie adaptation of Daniel Steel novels. Are we sapose to be so vacuous? Then the commercials are beauty products, weight loss commercials... before you know it, your self esteem has just taken the beating of it's life and your wondering why you feel so shitty today.

Can we have a womens channel that actually caters to women without catering to the "every women wants to get married, clean her house and look good for her man" becuase I've yet to see it.

"Perfume" - the movie, the book, my opinion.

I was engaged in a short-lived discussion last night with my fiancé. Wait, perhaps I should back up. Monday night I was engaged in a movie which led to a short-lived discussion with my fiancé. The movie was “Perfume”, based on a highly celebrated novel about a man in 17th century France who wished to preserve the scent of women. Okay, my fiancé adored this book and claimed to have read it no less than five times. I have never read the book but have observed his copy on one of our many bookshelves. In the end he asked me what I thought of the movie. I said I found it disturbing. I didn’t get to explain much about why I found it disturbing. I managed to get out- he murdered women to preserve their scent (disturbing), that the movie portrayed a murderer of women with an overtly sympathetic eye and a disturbing amount of sanity…(the movie made it appear that the lead character wasn’t really doing anything insane or wrong at all) I didn’t get much further. It was my comment about the murdered women all being virgins, that lead him to believe my opinion was a defensive reaction, which in some way it was. I despise the whole virgin prizing. I think it’s sick. It’s just another way for men to control women. Controlling ones sexuality is to control ones very nature and freedom… oppression… anyway, we all know this. I get sick of seeing it all the time. This movie/book/piece of art, expresses that virginity is a prize, in fact a state of heavenliness… I don’t wish to spoil the ending of the movie for anyone, but if you watch the ending you will know exactly what I mean.



The thing is.. I really loved how the movie was filmed. The colouring of the shots in squallier has a blue/grey quality to impress upon the dismal existence one would lead in Paris… I can only guess. But I didn’t like the way the story was told. As if the lead character were not a completely insane beast. It was kinda fairy tale like. It was kinda.. love story like… It was pretty disturbing. I dunno, I guess the thing is, we often see movies where the lead character victimizes women yet is painted in a sympathetic light. Can you think of a movie that does this with a female character victimizing a male?

Article: "To Much To Bare"

I think what I find so incredibly discomfiting about these pictures is their suggestion that, no matter how talented a woman is, how many plaudits she has received, how intelligent her reputation, how garlanded she has been for depicting one of the most talented writers of the last century while sporting a huge prosthetic conk on her noggin, at the end of the day, if she wants to stay in the public eye, if she wants the magazine covers and the leading roles, she has to be willing to reduce herself to tits and arse.

I completely agree, it bothers me as well... :(

Read the full article here.