SPN recent news: comment
Jul. 13th, 2007 11:52 am![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
phantomasI'm...highly disturbed by the reaction to the news re: SPN.
I'm disturbed, and irked, and upset, and it's been coming for a while now, and it's not just about SPN, or fandom. It's about being a woman, and how little that seems to mean for the main distributors of media content in the Western world, aka Hollywood/big american networks/certain high level fashion designers.
We are NOTHING. Pieces to be assembled in a normative mainstream 'pleasant' way.
Boobs not big enough? Have surgery.
Nose too long? Have surgery!
Blonde is better? Dye.
God forbids you have FEMALE shapes, aka CURVES: STARVE YOURSELF!
Be INVISIBLE.
Be SMALL.
Be TINY.
Be BLONDE.
Be FRAGILE.
Be BOYISH.
Be UNINTRUSIVE.
Be HALF-NAKED/ON SALE all the time.
It's a business.
And it saddens me, that this is the pressure we're under, that so many of us comply with it because that's the way to be famous, to get work, that so many of us comply with it and join in the 'attack the woman' game.
Necessary disclaimer: I was born blonde. I've been blonde until my teens, got darker after that. I've dyed my hair all sorts of color, blonder and blacker and all the reds in between, and now it's pink-ish. I have a small frame, and I've been quite small and slim until my thyroid stopped working, so now I'm a lot bigger, curvaceous, voluptuous, chubby, whatever however you want to say it. I LIKE it. I like myself. I like my short legs, I like my potato-like nose, I like my big breasts that make it impossible for me to wear a shirt (and half of the clothes available to buy).
I like that women can be and ARE all different from each other, and yes, some are more beautiful than others, some are taller, some have a bigger, whiter smiles, some have lovely perked up noses, but DAMN.
We don't do this to MEN, do we? Not as much.
I wish we would have more respect for ourselves, for our FEMALE bodies, in all their variety.
I appreciate the Dove: Campaign for Real Women, because even if it's business, at least we get to see different body types and colors.
And I'm grateful for British television, where you can see a variety of women (and men) working as actors, representing humanity as it is and not as an abstract group of empowered people maintains it to be: a stereotyped, restrictive, theoretical idea of a human being (aka Barbie).
/rant
I'm disturbed, and irked, and upset, and it's been coming for a while now, and it's not just about SPN, or fandom. It's about being a woman, and how little that seems to mean for the main distributors of media content in the Western world, aka Hollywood/big american networks/certain high level fashion designers.
We are NOTHING. Pieces to be assembled in a normative mainstream 'pleasant' way.
Boobs not big enough? Have surgery.
Nose too long? Have surgery!
Blonde is better? Dye.
God forbids you have FEMALE shapes, aka CURVES: STARVE YOURSELF!
Be INVISIBLE.
Be SMALL.
Be TINY.
Be BLONDE.
Be FRAGILE.
Be BOYISH.
Be UNINTRUSIVE.
Be HALF-NAKED/ON SALE all the time.
It's a business.
And it saddens me, that this is the pressure we're under, that so many of us comply with it because that's the way to be famous, to get work, that so many of us comply with it and join in the 'attack the woman' game.
Necessary disclaimer: I was born blonde. I've been blonde until my teens, got darker after that. I've dyed my hair all sorts of color, blonder and blacker and all the reds in between, and now it's pink-ish. I have a small frame, and I've been quite small and slim until my thyroid stopped working, so now I'm a lot bigger, curvaceous, voluptuous, chubby, whatever however you want to say it. I LIKE it. I like myself. I like my short legs, I like my potato-like nose, I like my big breasts that make it impossible for me to wear a shirt (and half of the clothes available to buy).
I like that women can be and ARE all different from each other, and yes, some are more beautiful than others, some are taller, some have a bigger, whiter smiles, some have lovely perked up noses, but DAMN.
We don't do this to MEN, do we? Not as much.
I wish we would have more respect for ourselves, for our FEMALE bodies, in all their variety.
I appreciate the Dove: Campaign for Real Women, because even if it's business, at least we get to see different body types and colors.
And I'm grateful for British television, where you can see a variety of women (and men) working as actors, representing humanity as it is and not as an abstract group of empowered people maintains it to be: a stereotyped, restrictive, theoretical idea of a human being (aka Barbie).
/rant
