Today's Great Moments in Misogyny
1. TMZ, trying their best to undo all the good Jezebel's been doing. So that you don't do TMZ the service of click throughs and help their ad revenue, the post on their site has an intro along the lines of, "hey, we've all been there! you're with a girl and she gets so wasted! What do you do with her?", accompanied by videos of drunk women leaving clubs. The feministing post has everything else you need to know.
2. Not necessarily misogyny, but. Dude. I see what you're trying to say, but really your argument sounds a lot like, "fat chicks should just go ahead and hate themselves instead of trying not to." So, screw you. Yes, health is important. People with unhealthy habits should try and shed them. And this show does seem a bit ridiculous. But I think your finger pointing is a bit amiss.
3. And finally, from someone I call a friend (but perhaps should reconsider?), this gem:
11. You're having dinner with four people -- two athletes, one hot chick and a dead president. Name 'em. And, of course, why?Now, I know he's joking. But the feminist inside me wants to argue the same thing I do every time my dad makes a racist joke then says, "oh come on! I'm not a racist, you know that!": you wouldn't make the joke in the first place if you weren't, just a little. I asked Chris about it and he continued to joke. (me: I know it might be hard for you to believe, but I'm not big on misogynistic humor./Chris: sports bloggers are/ me: right. that's probably because you're misogynists./ Chris: no we arent. women are just stupid./ me: I realize you're kidding, so I'm not going to argue this./ Chris: im glad you understand that women are not to argue with men. sorry. joking). I know him to be a very good person, so I don't want to throw him under a bus, but come on people. Let's give it a rest. Today is apparently not a banner day for positive attitudes about women in the media. And given that it's a new year and all, maybe let's try and ditch the old attitudes, mmmk?
This is a tough question. What is the hot chick’s reason for being there? Is she my significant other, or just a friend? Because if I’m going to get to sleep with her after we eat, then I’m gonna go with someone smokin’ hot who likely has a shitty personality and an annoying voice. If it’s just a friend, then I’ll go with a cool and funny chick, assuming that exists.
posted by Blogs t r e t c h @ Thursday, January 03, 2008
4 Comments:
Come on, Amanda. I fucking LOVE women. My mom's one.
And if you wanna make me look bad, you should really post my full response to the "dinner" question. My blogging alter-ego is a god damn caveman.
So, to summarize, I hate men, I love women!
I know ya do buddy. It was just bad timing. But, maybe, send that caveman guy to charm school or something?
Hey! I'm the author of the TV Squad article you linked to. I tried to avoid any kind of misogyny in the post by focusing on the self-esteem issue. It's not my fault that the show thinks that only overweight women need to feel good about themselves :) (Seriously, I'd be just as critical if it were men the show was focused on).
I don't think that anyone should hate themselves, but I do feel that "self-esteem" is not the panacea that TV seems to think it is. It's all well and good that these women feel good about themselves when the show is over, but the fact of the matter is that they _are_ unhealthy. Glossing over that fact with soft-lit photo sessions doesn't do much for their overworked hearts, does it?
I was hopefully trying to illustrate the greater point that this is reflective of a bad trend in American culture -- compliments without accomplishments. "You're doing a heckuva job, Brownie" springs to mind. Howsabout earning some self-esteem by actually accomplishing something?
The way I thought about it, but didn't include in the article, was this: it's the difference between springing a ton of money for a baseball fantasy camp and training your ass off for your local fast-pitch softball league. In the former, you get surrounded by big stars and get to pretend you're a big leaguer for a few days. Getting a hit there because Josh Becket throws you a meatball might feel momentarily good but, ultimately, means nothing because everyone at the camp gets to hit for the price of admission. Getting a hit with your softball league means so much more because you worked for it. Even though it's philosophically as meaningless as the fantasy camp hit, it means a hell of a lot more because you worked for it.
And yes, I realize that analogy is tortured. That's why I kept it out of the original post :)
So, I hope this clears things up. I'd hate for THIS, of all my TV Squad articles, to get me labeled as misogynist. I'd much rather it be my article, "37 Reasons Why Women Are Inferior."
(By the way, that's not a real article.)
Thanks for the comment Jay. I definitely see what you're getting at. And looking back, probably overreacted a bit. I read all of those things within an hour or two of each other and steam started coming out of my ears. I definitely see what your meaning was and agree. I guess I just wish it wasn't an either/or situation. Yes, building a reality tv show with one of the queer eye guys is definitely putting something on a pedestal. But, of all the things to put on a pedestal on reality tv, positive self image isn't the worse we've conjured up.
If anybody ever asks me, "Is Jay Black a misogynist?", I will respond in the negative.
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