Fighting against narrow image fights for democratic media
Do not confuse “Feminists fighting corporate media with
right wing attempts to police sex” Feminists Gail Dines and Julia Long.
Editing by Carolyn Bennett
Gail Dines is an academic and “a radical feminist activist …
involved in organizing against the pornography industry.” She is co-founder of
the National Feminist Anti-Pornography Movement and “sees her teaching as a way
to create in students a radical vision of the unlimited possibilities of
progressive social change in individuals, communities, and societies.” Dr. Dines is Wheelock College professor in Sociology
and Women’s Studies and department chair in American Studies. Her research centers
on the ways media images shape gender and racial identities in the United
States. Of particular interest to her is the role played by pornography “in
legitimizing violence against women and children.”
Julia Long is a feminist activist and academic who is active
with the women-only London Feminist Network and with OBJECT, a UK-based group that
campaigns against sex object culture. Dr.
Long’s doctoral dissertation focused on the re-emergence of feminist
anti-pornography activism in the United Kingdom. Her book scheduled for release this year is Anti-porn: the Resurgence of Anti-porn
Feminism.
This is an edited excerpt from Long and Dines’ article “‘Moral
panic,’ No: We are resisting the pornification of women” published late last year
in the Guardian.
“The left has a long history of fighting capitalist
ownership of the media,” they write. From German philosopher and socialist Karl
Marx to Italian Communist and political theorist Antonio Gramsci to Jewish
American philosopher and linguist Noam Chomsky, thinkers on the political left have
understood that corporate media is “the propaganda machine for capitalist ideas
and values.”
Corporate-controlled media, mainstreaming ideologies of the
elite, “have shaped our identities as workers and consumers.” Media sell an “image
of success and happiness tied to consumption of products,” consumption that generates
enormous wealth for the elite class.
“Alternative views are at best marginalized, at worst
ridiculed.”
Though no one in progressive circles would suggest that
criticism of corporate media is moral panic or that critic Noam Chomsky is a “moral
entrepreneur” — the feminist politically progressive struggle against media’s narrow
and limiting image and those who organize against the corporations that churn
out sexist imagery are disparaged, “regularly dismissed as stirring moral
panic.”
Sexualized culture: man’s gain, woman’s loss
Women’s self-loathing is big business and supports a global
capitalist system that, ironically, depends heavily on the exploitation of
women’s labor in developing countries. Insult compounds injury as underpaid sweatshop
women spend large portions of their wages on skin-whitening products that
promise social mobility out of sweatshops.
An industry-engineered image of femininity dominates western
society and crowds out alternative ways of being female, Professors Long and
Dines write. Girls who refuse to conform to images of “acceptable feminine
appearance [pay] real social penalties.”
Clothes, cosmetics, diets, gym membership, trips to hair, waxing
and nail salons add up to a lot of money. Even in these dark economic times as women
experience the most severe financial hardship, the beauty business booms. Western
countries’ increasingly normalized use of cosmetic surgery (face lift, breast
augmentation, labiaplasty) illustrates the depth of “a sexualized culture.”
Warping development of the young
 |
| Women demonstrating against Dutch plans to ban the burqa.“ Feminists should back off the burqa bashing” |
“We construct our identities through complex processes of
interaction with the culture around us,” the sociologists write; and the
dominant hyper-sexualizing images in today’s culture exact wide-ranging costs
for women and girls. The emotional cost of conforming to hyper-sexualizing is
enormous for girls and young women who are in the process of forming their
gender and sexual identities.
Researchers in psychology have found that hyper-sexualizing culture
negatively affects girls’ “cognitive functioning, physical and mental health,
sexuality, and attitudes and beliefs.” Among its consequences are “risky sexual
behavior, higher rates of eating disorders, depression and low self-esteem, and
reduced academic performance.” In
addition, there are no easy avenues for girls who reject or wish to reject “Beyoncé,
Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, Rihanna or Britney Spears.”
Far from a right-type moral alarm, Dines and Long conclude, theirs
is a fight against the increasingly narrow and limiting image of femininity and
“is inextricably connected with the progressive fight for democratic ownership
and control of the media.”
This is a political struggle about which feminists are correctly
concerned. But “we are not panicking. We are organizing.”
Sources and notes
“Moral panic? No. We are resisting the pornification of
women — Don’t mix up feminists fighting the corporate media with rightwing
attempts to police sex” (Gail Dines and Julia Long), guardian.co.uk, Thursday 1
December 201, http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/dec/01/feminists-pornification-of-women
© 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated
companies All rights reserved.
Professor Gail Dines is coauthor of Gender, Race and Class in Media and Pornography: the Production and Consumption of Inequality; and
author of Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality. http://www.wheelock.edu/academics/faculty-and-administration/dines-gail
Julia Long has been a sixth form teacher, manager of an HIV
/ AIDS support charity, and a central and local government adviser on a gender
equality policy. http://www.opendemocracy.net/author/julia-long
London Feminist Network
The London Feminist Network (LFN) is a women-only feminist
networking and campaigning organization that is based in London, UK. This
network of more than 1,600 members “was formed in 2004 to unite London-based
feminist groups and individuals in action!” http://londonfeministnetwork.org.uk/
Hyper-sexualized mass media projected images
Biographical notes from Wikipedia
Beyoncé (Beyoncé
Giselle Knowles also known as Sasha Fierce), b. September 4, 1981, Houston,
Texas, U.S.; Genres: R&B, pop, soul, hip hop; Occupations: Singer-songwriter,
record producer, actress, dancer, choreographer, model, fashion designer
Miley Cyrus (Destiny Hope Cyrus), b. November 23, 1992, Nashville,
Tennessee, U.S.; Genres: Pop, country pop, dance, electropop, teen pop; Occupations:
Actress, musician; Instruments:
Vocals, guitar, piano
Lady Gaga (Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta), b. March 28,
1986, New York, New York, U.S.; Genres: Pop, dance, electronic; Occupations: Singer-songwriter,
performance artist, record producer, dancer, businesswoman, activist; Instruments:
Vocals, piano, keyboards
Rihanna (Robyn
Rihanna Fenty), b. February 20, 1988 (age 24), Saint Michael, Barbados; Genres:
R&B, pop, dancehall, reggae, hip hop, dance; Occupations: Recording artist,
actress
Britney Spears (Britney Jean Spears) b. December 2, 1981, McComb,
Mississippi, U.S.; Genres: Pop, dance; Occupations: Singer, songwriter, dancer,
actress, record producer, author, fashion designer, video director; Instruments:
Vocals, piano
Image
We’re not ugly; we’re not beautiful; we’re angry
But throughout its 60 year history, the beauty competition
has attracted ...
thejourneytorediscovery.blogspot.com
OBJECT: women not sex objects
... woman formerly in lap dancing and MPs Lynda Waltho,
Fiona Mactaggart, ...
londonfeministnetwork.org.uk
Related
Article excerpt with image
“Feminists should back off the burqa bashing”
“If a woman walks down the street in a mini skirt and
someone calls her a slut, feminists will be quick to object. However if a Muslim woman walks down in a
burqa then many feminists are happy to concede that she is oppressed,
submissive and brainwashed.
“Unfortunately many feminists still believe that no Muslim
woman could ever choose to wear the veil of her own free will.
“As a Muslim feminist I find this infuriating, condescending
and patronizing.
“Such ideas are even more alarming when they are insidious,
rather than outwardly, honestly expressed. Feminists argue that Muslim women
‘say’ they choose to wear the hijab but these women could have only reached
that position through cultural influence; that they didn’t have the intellect
or gumption to stand up.
“This is just as offensive as claiming that any woman who
chooses to engage in heterosexual relationships has been duped by the
patriarchy.
“That we either have no free will and if we do we are doomed
to never be able to exercise it.…”
“Clearly oppressed? A woman demonstrating against Dutch
plans to ban the burqa.” [Pic: AP / File]
http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/feminists-should-back-off-the-burqa-bashing/desc/
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