Tuesday, November 1, 2011

The point: you are proving it

Rarely if ever does this Chicken allow her weary gaze to rest upon the august pages of STOMP. Expecting anything other than vapid nastiness from that churning sewer of hate is rather like hoping to be surprised if you scratch your butthole and then sniff your finger.

And yet what's a bird to do, but gape in horror when the portal decides to blather on in the least informed manner possible about the growing SlutWalk movement?
STOMPer Handsome Boy wonders if this movement is really necessary in Singapore,
It is. For proof, see the rest of your article.
and if it might send out the wrong message to the young.
"Don't rape, and don't be an asshole about rape." WON'T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN.
But I don't know if this whole SlutWalk thing is necessary or relevant in Singapore, or if it's just another copycat idea by women here who think that just because some women in a Western country is affected by it, they should be too.
Let me get this straight. You can't be bothered to pull your head out of your armpit for two seconds to note that victim-blaming and slut-shaming are alive and well in Singapore - so alive and so well they are legally codified. Instead, it seems to you, it is more likely that women in Sngapore, after years of frolicking joyfully in a perfect feminist paradise, have decided we want to be "affected by" rape culture because... because... because the West is. Hey, who cares about facts when we can simply assume utterly implausible behaviour on the part of women?

Handsome Boy (I hate him just for making me type that name) goes on to worry that
young girls might get the wrong message -- thinking that dressing provocatively is OK.

I'm not saying that it's not all right for women to dress sexy (not naughty)
Yes, these two sentences are included back-to-back. Your guess, my friends, is as good as mine.

"Sexy (not naughty)" is also clearly not at all some arbitrary bullshit standard. How'm I gonna sleep tonight, knowing my clothing choices might not be approved by Handsome Boy?
but if they feel that they have the right to dress the way they like, then it's not fair for them to get upset when men stare at them, because the men can argue that they are free to look at whatever they like too!
You appear to be missing a key basic concept here. You know, the one which involves the bodies in question belonging to the women who are dressing them and not to the men who are behaving like dehumanising jackasses.

Staring at anyone in public with disregard for their comfort is rude. Arguing that women are fair game for rude behaviour, by virtue of being women going about in the world in clothing, is misogynist.

Not content with hosting Handsome Boy's poop, STOMP goes on to post some pictures of mostly headless women (and one bum) and asks us to tell them "which of these you consider 'slutty' or inappropriate and why".

As far as I can see, no one has yet commented that every single picture which objectifies and dehumanises women is inappropriate - in public space in general, and on a post about a women's rights movement in particular. But someone has commented saying:
SlutWalk? Hmm... Mass rape anyone?
...so, you know. STOMP's lovingly cultivated safe house for misogynists serves its purpose once again. And proves even more why SlutWalk is so necessary.

2 comments:

  1. Sometimes, Chicken, you gotta dig and scratch hard to find that worthwhile morsel. And sometimes, that morsel never shows up, no matter how hard you try.

    If anything, the comments on Stomp just reflect the sad state of affairs in Singapore regarding how women are viewed, and most probably think Singapore is a paradise on earth for women, WEF Global Gender Gap ranking notwithstanding.

    And you get the same comments on the AWARE website: check out http://www.aware.org.sg/2011/08/slutwalk-singapore-in-december/comment-page-1/#comment-2926.

    I seriously worry about this lack of ability to think critically and outside the box, and to question the "norms", in Singapore sometimes.

    ReplyDelete
  2. As for the comment "SlutWalk? Hmm... Mass rape anyone?" - is rape culture truly alive and well in Singapore? (Excuse me if that seems a silly question, having left the sunny isle more than ten years ago, and returning only for vacations).

    ReplyDelete

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