badgerbag (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} badgerbag) wrote,@ 2008-04-22 18:24:00 |
|
The open source groper project
How about some buttons to pass out for men to wear, buttons that say "GROPER", "CREEP", or "OGLER"?
I'd love to know who to stay the hell away from.
I thought about flying colors with the hanky code, and how or why that is different and similar, and why I am (was?) good with the hanky code but not with the buttons at a con. Makeup, dressing femmy, as well.
We ALREADY have a signifying device that says it's okay to harass us: our female gender. On top of that, we can further signify our sexual availability by walking around in public.
So, what we have fought for, for hundreds of years, and are still fighting for, is the right to walk around in the public sphere without that public presence signifying sexual availablity. In short the right to appear in public, without being seen as a rape-able slut. That right is fragile and is still under dispute, as you might have noticed as people harass you on the street, as you can see how hard it is to report rape and to get a rape conviction.
Part of how we effect that cultural shift is by legal means and collective action. But, part of that collective action is personal & in our daily lives and it is the mass effort of imagination. We *pretend* we are not commodities. We try to make that pretense real. When enough of us do that, we change our culture and people's expectations. Now, go do some sex work for a while and you will see how it is a pretense. And really, while you are walking around in the street, men are all judging your hotness and their possibility of access, automatically and constantly, because they think they are entitled to sexual access to women at all times.
I see that it is upper class white women who get to pretend this the hardest, and I would like to say that they should not be blind to the fact that it is not freedom, it is privilege and though they might try to extend it to more people, that does not fix the problem.
But, I do hope it helps. We have to both pretend and require and expect -- AND be conscious and face this shit head on. For example, you are not exempt from this commodification, from the male gaze, from rape culture, because you are white and rich and powerful, or because you try to opt out by being butch, or celibate, or lesbian. You are still subject to it, and vulnerable.
Meanwhile, now I see the whole "open source" element and it further pisses me off. It fucking pollutes the lovely philosophy of open source. And adds yet another thing that says "women stay out" to a field where I don't want that to happen. But, what it really does, is it exposes the perpetrator's underlying philosophy that women are a commodity and a public good that they have a right to use. Some women can try to stay proprietary, but the ones who get the approval are the ones who public-domain their bodies. THAT IS FUCKED UP.
We already have sex work and strip clubs and marriage-ownership-contracts, like we need ANOTHER entitlement-inspired social pressure mechanism, more help for cultural hegemony? I don't like censorship therefore i suggest we all mock the hell out of this idea.
****
Note that I just read the original dude's post and actually it is quite interesting. He says it was a matter of it being okay in context. But that he realizes it is not okay necessarily in larger society or a different context. That, I can get, because I think it would compare to the hanky code used in its context, which is known gay/lesbian cruising grounds or a sex party. The guy also recognized that the idea itself was a bit damaging and angrifying to a lot of women (and men) and he apologized. Anyway, interesting.
How about some buttons to pass out for men to wear, buttons that say "GROPER", "CREEP", or "OGLER"?
I'd love to know who to stay the hell away from.
I thought about flying colors with the hanky code, and how or why that is different and similar, and why I am (was?) good with the hanky code but not with the buttons at a con. Makeup, dressing femmy, as well.
We ALREADY have a signifying device that says it's okay to harass us: our female gender. On top of that, we can further signify our sexual availability by walking around in public.
So, what we have fought for, for hundreds of years, and are still fighting for, is the right to walk around in the public sphere without that public presence signifying sexual availablity. In short the right to appear in public, without being seen as a rape-able slut. That right is fragile and is still under dispute, as you might have noticed as people harass you on the street, as you can see how hard it is to report rape and to get a rape conviction.
Part of how we effect that cultural shift is by legal means and collective action. But, part of that collective action is personal & in our daily lives and it is the mass effort of imagination. We *pretend* we are not commodities. We try to make that pretense real. When enough of us do that, we change our culture and people's expectations. Now, go do some sex work for a while and you will see how it is a pretense. And really, while you are walking around in the street, men are all judging your hotness and their possibility of access, automatically and constantly, because they think they are entitled to sexual access to women at all times.
I see that it is upper class white women who get to pretend this the hardest, and I would like to say that they should not be blind to the fact that it is not freedom, it is privilege and though they might try to extend it to more people, that does not fix the problem.
But, I do hope it helps. We have to both pretend and require and expect -- AND be conscious and face this shit head on. For example, you are not exempt from this commodification, from the male gaze, from rape culture, because you are white and rich and powerful, or because you try to opt out by being butch, or celibate, or lesbian. You are still subject to it, and vulnerable.
Meanwhile, now I see the whole "open source" element and it further pisses me off. It fucking pollutes the lovely philosophy of open source. And adds yet another thing that says "women stay out" to a field where I don't want that to happen. But, what it really does, is it exposes the perpetrator's underlying philosophy that women are a commodity and a public good that they have a right to use. Some women can try to stay proprietary, but the ones who get the approval are the ones who public-domain their bodies. THAT IS FUCKED UP.
We already have sex work and strip clubs and marriage-ownership-contracts, like we need ANOTHER entitlement-inspired social pressure mechanism, more help for cultural hegemony? I don't like censorship therefore i suggest we all mock the hell out of this idea.
****
Note that I just read the original dude's post and actually it is quite interesting. He says it was a matter of it being okay in context. But that he realizes it is not okay necessarily in larger society or a different context. That, I can get, because I think it would compare to the hanky code used in its context, which is known gay/lesbian cruising grounds or a sex party. The guy also recognized that the idea itself was a bit damaging and angrifying to a lot of women (and men) and he apologized. Anyway, interesting.
