Posted by gabbi~1 on March 29, 2006, at 11:28:32
In reply to Very long rant!, posted by Tamar on March 29, 2006, at 10:51:20
As I mentioned before, I too have been 'victimized' in the true sense of the word.
What makes me angry as H*ll are people who try or tried to take my voice away again by saying "you couldn't really like what you are doing, you might *think* you do, but I don't believe it"
It's something that insults me and perpetuates the victim status under the guise of concern.
How many people ask, with the same intense pitying concern "I wonder if that married woman with three kids is really happy, does she know what she's doing?"
"What about that clerk at the gas station?"
All of us make our choices relative to our circumstance, and who knows if those circumstances were different what we would choose? Or what we would look back on and think, "I guess I didn't really like that as much as I thought"To say a woman is being objectified and denying her claim that she truly enjoys her sexuality is in itself objectifying and infantilizing.
Polarizing intelligence and substance and the enjoyment earthy sexuality and the celebration of taste and touch and all things sensual, under the guise of concern, and holding it hostage to intellectualized concepts and theories is sadly repressive, and prejudiced.
Women have been abused in various ways long before the advent of porn on glossy paper.
Abuse is something that will find it's way into any corner of the world, for any reason, and to connect it to one thing, or one area is naive and unrealistic.
The mindset of the abuser exists unto itself and will find it's way of acting on the desire to inflict pain. It existed when women were forced to wear dresses down to their ankles, and when they had to wear chastity belts.
Hugh Heffner was one of the first people to hire women, and hire black people to work in his corporation, (not pose in his magazine)
Stockholders threatened him, when he hired minorities. He didn't change his hiring practices.His attitude was truly about sexual liberation, it wasn't an acceptable way to disguise his desire to abuse and objectify.
And yet many institutions that preach love and acceptance and morality are responsible for abuses of power.I'm not glorifying the porn industry, or demonizing the latter. What I'm saying is, that a label or philosophy is, not and never has been indicative of the behaviour of all those who are part of it. Abusers and those who respect the integrity of others are found in all aspects of life.
poster:gabbi~1
thread:624556
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20060324/msgs/626052.html