Checking out and objectification

Lately I have been noticing that myself and female feminist friends talk about hot boyz-a lot. Well we talk about how sexy they are we look at them as we drive by them running and turn around and say to each other how attractive their bodies are.

So what makes this different from when men do it to women?

Is the difference that we are feminist minded, liberal, activist and above all understand that no MEANS no?

My problem with this qualifier is that I have and still know some pretty messed up "feminists", whether in the media, travelers, or ex members of my community.

The second issue of this observation is that most of the people I know take offense when men look at other women. So how do I as a womyn identified feminist help male feminist understand the fine line of looking and objectifying? What/if any are the ABC's to hooking up/checking out in our leftist culture?

I want to look at the site Punks I'd Like To Fuck, which is definitely amazing, it allows the members to take ownership of their sexuality and submit it as they please. They even have this amazing message "There are a million websites dedicated to archiving images that objectify women- reduce them to living fuck-dolls- devalue them as humans- make it appear as though sex is an act of conquering a woman, penetrating her, owning her, essentially erasing her." The site is set up to show an alternative to those other porn sites that have been known to encourage patriarchy, yet this site is not at all appealing to everyone. This site like the title suggests is comprised of pictures of punks.


My number one concern with that: I hope there are people outside of the punk community who wouldn't want to rape me!


I know the site has received flack for having mostly white faces, and they say it is difficult to address the issue if they do not have submissions, and the issue of time to go through submissions. Well hey, who knew that some POC would not feel beautiful in the punk community and therefore might not submit a photo, also if there is such a rigorous acceptance issue then maybe we should address the types of faces that are being posted. If the people running the site are in fact choosing from hundreds of submissions, then why does it seem that most of the people are of one size and race? (since I went on that little rant maybe I should state again that I am not calling anyone a racist or sizest but just pointing out the actions I see through the site).


Well that is all for tonight. Until the next blog, which will probably be about having fun in activism. :)