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hating on the bitch
Apr. 6th, 2004 05:12 pmYesterday my copy of Bitch for this month showed up in the mail. Before I've even seen it, the boy's all "Ugh, you MUST read this one blurb; it's annoying me" - which could be a good sign or a bad sign.
I actually did not immediately skip to the blurb of which he spoke, but - perhaps foolishly - proceeded to first read the letters to the editor and THEN read the blurb. That was a mistake. Letters to the editor being what they usually are (namely, people, frequently with little justification, picking up on tiny details that fit with their personal political agenda to refute or amen upon), I finished that section with doubts about whether there was really any need for feminism, since most of us are apparently quite narrowminded anyhow and all the clearly important things have already been resolved if we're moved enough to write letters to editors about things of so little note. [Oh, except for the one woman who wrote about how raising kids is really very intellectually challenging! Her I liked.]
Thus infused with love for my fellow feminists, I arrive at the blurb, which is an indictment of the Spike TV commercials for CSI. In these commercials, the narrator talks about hot women in a really ironic voice while pictures of dead people flip on and off screen. What I got from these commercials was a joke in poor taste that inverted the expectation of a "men's" network as a place to see lots of boobies. To me the commercial said, more or less, the only boobies you're going to see here are dead ones, cause we're here to entertain your mind/obsession with crimesolving/appetite for violence, not your dick. Tacky, but very obviously a joke. Anyhow, the boy and I were both peeved because the blurb in Bitch completely ignored the whole irony factor and went for an interpretation more to the effect of "MEN LIKE TO FUCK DEAD GIRLS". But said it in more words and with more appropriate language.
I hate when people bypass what others are actually saying and head straight for their own biases and hot buttons.
So the first half of this month's Bitch had me pretty much ready to tear up my feminist membership cards. I haven't read the second half, but it looks more promising. [And yes, I do have feminist membership cards; it's not just a figure of speech.]
I actually did not immediately skip to the blurb of which he spoke, but - perhaps foolishly - proceeded to first read the letters to the editor and THEN read the blurb. That was a mistake. Letters to the editor being what they usually are (namely, people, frequently with little justification, picking up on tiny details that fit with their personal political agenda to refute or amen upon), I finished that section with doubts about whether there was really any need for feminism, since most of us are apparently quite narrowminded anyhow and all the clearly important things have already been resolved if we're moved enough to write letters to editors about things of so little note. [Oh, except for the one woman who wrote about how raising kids is really very intellectually challenging! Her I liked.]
Thus infused with love for my fellow feminists, I arrive at the blurb, which is an indictment of the Spike TV commercials for CSI. In these commercials, the narrator talks about hot women in a really ironic voice while pictures of dead people flip on and off screen. What I got from these commercials was a joke in poor taste that inverted the expectation of a "men's" network as a place to see lots of boobies. To me the commercial said, more or less, the only boobies you're going to see here are dead ones, cause we're here to entertain your mind/obsession with crimesolving/appetite for violence, not your dick. Tacky, but very obviously a joke. Anyhow, the boy and I were both peeved because the blurb in Bitch completely ignored the whole irony factor and went for an interpretation more to the effect of "MEN LIKE TO FUCK DEAD GIRLS". But said it in more words and with more appropriate language.
I hate when people bypass what others are actually saying and head straight for their own biases and hot buttons.
So the first half of this month's Bitch had me pretty much ready to tear up my feminist membership cards. I haven't read the second half, but it looks more promising. [And yes, I do have feminist membership cards; it's not just a figure of speech.]