A revelation?

"Now women had earned the right to treat men as selfishly as we had always treated them."
-Douglas Rushkoff "Picture Perfect"

Is this what a feminist version of society is? Are we to treat men as they have treated us? Is this the way we are to be equal?

I think the answer to all of the above questions is a simple yet profound NO! If this were the case, blacks would have been fighting for this same kind of equality. Being treated as an object is certainly not being treated equal, even if everyone is treated this way. The only equality we have here is the equality of objectification but not equality of scale. Some think that the media is started to treat men the same way they've treated women all along. As Kilbourne points out, this is not the case as objectification does not have the same consequences for men as it does for women. Men do not have to worry about "a romantic excursion with a shadowy stranger." (I used to live in Milwaukee, WI and, whenever I saw a shadowy figure following me, I darted into the nearest public establishment so as not to be mugged or raped as a few of my friends had on the very street on which I lived. I can honestly say that I never fantasized about a romance with one of these men which preyed upon women. I saw them as monsters, disgusting men that did not deserve to be out in public.)

This justification for the violence of women is disturbing to say the least. I did not realize how many advertisements actually implied, or even directly stated, that violence against women is acceptable. With all of the talk about how abuse is wrong and that no one deserved to be treated this way, it sure is prevalent. Having been through abuse myself, I feel it is my duty to help inform people of the impact even these subtle messages can have. Binding a woman to an advertisement with watches, as seen in "Killing Us Softly 3," is saying that women need to be bound and controlled and that having the watch advertised will give you that power and control over women.

http://responsiblemen.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/dolce-gabbana-ad-sexist.jpg

http://blog.shankbone.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/safe_sex_ad.jpg

These ads are extremely disturbing to me. The first is a Dolce and Gabbana ad. This company is associated with wealthier, "classier" folk than myself but I see nothing classy about this ad. The men are participating in a gang bang with one man having sex with the woman while the others watch and wait for their turn. Is this what people who can afford to wear these clothes do? I always thought gang bangs were stereotyped as something done in a poorer, more urban setting.

As a model, I do not appreciate the things ads do to women for the sake of turning a profit. I am very selective in choosing the jobs I take and am very direct about my abhorrence toward the violence against women in ads. As a result of this, I have not had any paid photo shoots. My experience in the modeling industry has not been one of encouraged faith in the media but rather an eye-opening one as to the lengths industry executives, not always male, expect you to go to in order to be a model. I am 5' 10" and weigh about 130 lbs. I have been told that I am too short and too fat to do runway work. Too fat to do regular catalog work other than plus size. I was a size 7 at the time that I was offered the plus size job. All of these unreasonable expectations are telling women that they deserve to be seen as sex objects and should be grateful to have anyone look at them at all, considering they are imperfect and ugly the way they are.