The Body Politic
I've been thinking. (Duck.) For a while. (Build a bomb shelter & hole up.)
And as I'm pretty new to non-heteronormativity, I'm sure I have a lot to experience, understand, and learn.
However: Something bothers me, and I'm frustrated to find it in the f/f community...although I suppose it was just as to-be-expected as anywhere else.
And that's the objectification of women...their bodies.
I like appreciating the female form and its components as much as many do, but it really kind of makes me feel...queasy...I guess...when I see other women do it to women like some men do.
I enjoy a good wink and nod - a joke - as much as the next person...about the girlbitz! parts and the giggly, snickery, campy enjoyment thereof, in the f/f fandom world...but then sometimes there comes a point where it's just beyond that, and it's pure objectification that's going on, over time. Or worshiping a star first and foremost over their *body*.
I'm really old fashioned, I can give you that. I know the way I feel isn't reflected amongst a great majority, maybe, out there. But I really love women - emotionally and respect-wise and everything else about them. And it really does make me feel yucky in my stomach when some of my favorite actresses, who already have received messages all of their lives that their value in no small part lies in whether they're model-perfect and gorgeous -- have that message only grotesquely backed up by their fans. Even if unintentionally so.
But especially when those fans are other women.
This is just a personal rant; I realize that not everybody feels the same or sees it the same way. But I just wish that those bi & lesbian women in the fandom would be more focused on the awesomeness of the gift that these actresses are bringing into our world than their 'assets.'
You can appreciate them just as much without talking about 'boobs' or 'ass' with fair frequency, in my opinion. I find it just as crass as I do women (or other men) talking openly & casually about a guy's "package." And yes, there is something to do with the sexual parts of a person's body over other things. -Those things are personal. Private-personal. It's not the same as admiring a person's beauty in general, or their hair, or their smile as aspects of their beauty.
Anyway. Do I appreciate some actresses' physical attributes a great deal? Yes. I do. They're pretty. They make me happy and I don't care to or need to specify and share with anyone else, really, about the whys and wherefores. I think we all pretty much GET that.
Just my thoughts.