Here is why I love the patriarchy:
You may have seen this on your flist already; trollprincess has written some commentary on it, and I found the link through warmingweather. However, in case you haven't: The Open Source Boob Project.
This beautiful story takes place at a fannish convention. The individuals involved in the story are a group of men.
"This should be a better world," a friend of mine said. "A more honest one, where sex isn't shameful or degrading. I wish this was the kind of world where say, 'Wow, I'd like to touch your breasts,' and people would understand that it's not a way of reducing you to a set of nipples and ignoring the rest of you, but rather a way of saying that I may not yet know your mind, but your body is beautiful."
Instead of laughing until she wet herself, a nearby woman apparently offered up her breasts for groping. This group of men then went about, asking various if they could touch their breasts, and apparently all the women acceded to said requests quite willingly. The men have now made it a movement, complete with buttons.
My response:
LOLLLLLLL.
Quite literally, I am laughing out loud and clapping my hands in glee. I look like a demented seal. Do you know why? I will tell you why. THESE PEOPLE KEEP ME IN BUSINESS.* This is actually going to play in my professional life tomorrow. I will be able to get a worthy individual paid to educate queers if they answer a question that relates to this correctly. How amazingly hilarious is that? It is so amazingly hilarious.
I mean. They thought it was cool! The first page of comments are a lot of people -- including many who are apparently women -- who also think it is cool! The guys are sad defensive puppies in the comments! This is why I am in school. These guys could be my students.
Maybe I could assign a thoughtful response to this -- not just outrage, but genuine power analysis -- for a term paper someday.
Ahahaha!
To cleanse your palate after reading that, there's a funny LJ entry on terrifyingly heteronormative books linked in the comments. I am reading it and laughing some more.
Edit: Another great palate cleanser, from the excellent slemslempike: A Modest Proposal, by misia.
* - Okay, at the same time they're the same people who pay me something like 20% less than a man and who mock my intellectual efforts. But my first reaction is ROFLCOPTER.
This beautiful story takes place at a fannish convention. The individuals involved in the story are a group of men.
"This should be a better world," a friend of mine said. "A more honest one, where sex isn't shameful or degrading. I wish this was the kind of world where say, 'Wow, I'd like to touch your breasts,' and people would understand that it's not a way of reducing you to a set of nipples and ignoring the rest of you, but rather a way of saying that I may not yet know your mind, but your body is beautiful."
Instead of laughing until she wet herself, a nearby woman apparently offered up her breasts for groping. This group of men then went about, asking various if they could touch their breasts, and apparently all the women acceded to said requests quite willingly. The men have now made it a movement, complete with buttons.
My response:
LOLLLLLLL.
Quite literally, I am laughing out loud and clapping my hands in glee. I look like a demented seal. Do you know why? I will tell you why. THESE PEOPLE KEEP ME IN BUSINESS.* This is actually going to play in my professional life tomorrow. I will be able to get a worthy individual paid to educate queers if they answer a question that relates to this correctly. How amazingly hilarious is that? It is so amazingly hilarious.
I mean. They thought it was cool! The first page of comments are a lot of people -- including many who are apparently women -- who also think it is cool! The guys are sad defensive puppies in the comments! This is why I am in school. These guys could be my students.
Maybe I could assign a thoughtful response to this -- not just outrage, but genuine power analysis -- for a term paper someday.
Ahahaha!
To cleanse your palate after reading that, there's a funny LJ entry on terrifyingly heteronormative books linked in the comments. I am reading it and laughing some more.
Edit: Another great palate cleanser, from the excellent slemslempike: A Modest Proposal, by misia.
* - Okay, at the same time they're the same people who pay me something like 20% less than a man and who mock my intellectual efforts. But my first reaction is ROFLCOPTER.