NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/alt/feminism/4524

Text File | 1992-11-16 | 3.7 KB | 77 lines

Newsgroups: alt.feminism
Path: sparky!uunet!stanford.edu!ames!news.hawaii.edu!uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu!mwasson
From: [e-mail] (Michael Wasson)
Subject: Re: Elle MacPherson -- Faint Praise
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Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 18:23:47 GMT
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>>>Seriously, though, what's the big deal.  Just ignore the ads.  If you're
>>>mature enough and strong enough to care as much as you seem to, you ought to
>>>be able to just ignore the ads without all that fuss.
>
>>The same argument could be used to condone the racist depictions of
>>blacks, used in American advertising early in this century. It's a
>>similar case of media images being used to convey that only one body type
>>is worthwhile.
>
>  The analogy doesn't quite work.
[argument that whites were often already racist and thus receptive to the ads]

>  But fashion ads are directed at those they caricature!!   Anyone
>  who opens their eyes can see that real women don't look like
>  fashion models, or dress like them, or lead the sort of glamorous
>  or exotic lives that are often portrayed in Vogue or Elle.

But,
If that's true then why do the cosmetics, cosmetic surgery, diet pill [etc
etc] industries reap billions of dollars?  It seems pretty obvious that
it's really hard for most people to divorce themselves from cultural
attitudes that have been reinforced on a daily basis all their lives. Of
course, talking about them, and bringing them out in the open, is a good
first step.  Because basically you're right about "anyone who opens their
eyes," except that it's not so easy as you make it sound.

>
>  Why do so many people insist on thinking that what they see on
>  TV and other media is more "real" than their own lives?

That's a very good question. And it applies to a whole range of issues.
[There was once an ad where two guys debated whose car was the biggest.
Enter a third guy.  *I* assumed the whole ad was a joke on the "big car
= big penis" myth and that the third guy would say "my Hyundai gets
92 mpg and was $2500 with rebate" or whatever, but *no*, he just said, "well,
my car is even *bigger*."  End of ad.  So people are evidently buying
into all this dreck...] But if I read your tone correctly (which I may not)
it sounds like you think it's all absurd and beneath contempt.  I'd argue
that it's all absurd and worth taking a good hard look at.

Finally, to get back to the original question of pin-up callenders.
A lot of the guys posting on this thread are saying things like "well,
*I'm* not offended by Chippendale's callenders" or "don't be so thin-
skinned" or whatever.  But what we're hearing from the women is, that
these posters are offensive.  The more productive response from the guys
might be to *listen* to that and think a little more carefully about
why that is.  I mean, if your neighbor says, "It really bothers me when
you blast your stereo at 2 a.m.," you listen and maybe even think about
it, right?

Sorry to ramble,
Mike
______________________________________________________________________
Mike Wasson    ---   U.Hawai'i, Manoa   ---   Fat Messiah Games
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"At the beginning of the movie, they know they have to find each
other, but they head off -- in opposite directions" (Laurie Anderson)
"Iko-o, iko-o, isshoni iko-o-oh..." (Shonen Knife)
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