I know that everyone has been talking about this for days, but I just have to comment on this “Open Source Boob Project.” So, in case you haven’t heard about it, some dudes were sitting around at a comic convention or something, and talking about how awesome it would be if they could just go around touching women’s breasts, and then someone offered her breasts up for touching, and then many more breasts were fondled over the course of the convention. This, naturally, led to the creation of color-coded buttons (green for yes, red for no, natch) and the title “Open Source Boob Project”. Get it? Boobs that everyone can access, like open source software. Free! And finally, this led to the writing of a super-smug blog post by one of the masterminds of the whole thing and then a groundswell of protestations from the feminist blogosphere.
Here’s a link to the original post, but don’t read the whole thing if you don’t want to vomit just a little. I’ve bravely waded through it and excerped a few key points for your enjoyment.
“This should be a better world,” a friend of mine said. “A more honest one, where sex isn’t shameful or degrading. I wish this was the kind of world where say, ‘Wow, I’d like to touch your breasts,’ and people would understand that it’s not a way of reducing you to a set of nipples and ignoring the rest of you, but rather a way of saying that I may not yet know your mind, but your body is beautiful.”
Allow me to translate: “Guys, I want to be able to grab boobies, but I don’t want the boobie-carriers to get all pre-menstrual about it. Is there any language I can appropriate towards that end? Something about liberation, perhaps? Yup, chicks love hearing about that crap! Let’s proceed with the button-making!”
You know how dudez like to say douchey things like, “The only reason people are opposed to strip clubs and porn is because we live in a puritanical society where people are, like, *afraid* of expressions of sexuality. I think it’s totally brave to just be totally open and honest about what you like and, you know, stand proud in the face of that sexual oppression. ” Uh, sure, buddy. Strip clubs are so totally liberating, and you’re obviously so mature and cool for really *getting* it. Well, liberating for mainstream hetero males who are into fake body parts and long hair and female degradation, anyway, and lord knows that people like that have been woefully underrepresented in our culture for far too long.
Here’s the breakdown: The puritanical streak and the pornsick (to borrow a phrase from Twisty) side of our culture are both symptoms of the same system of oppression which is (ding ding ding!) The Patriarchy! It does seem a little baffling that abstinence-only education, for example, exists so comfortably alongside Girls Gone Wild. But it’s because they both work really nicely within the confines of the patriarchy. Keep the bitches at home with institutionalized sex-and-body-shaming? The patriarchy wins! Pin the self-worth of every woman in the country solely on her appearance and ability to titillate men? The patriarchy wins! So, these dudes have realized that the puritanical side of the patriarchy coin is a total boner-killer, and without fail they turn to the Girls Gone Wild/Playboy side of that coin as a “solution.” Well, I guess it solves their boner problem, and they can rest assured that the other side of the coin will be intact when they have wives or daughters to keep in line.
Oh, I said I’d culled excerpts, plural. Well, here’s another choice line to tickle your gag reflex:
Emboldened, we started asking other people. And lo, in the rarified (sic) atmosphere of the con, few were offended and many agreed. And they also felt that strange charge. We went around the con, asking those who we thought might be amenable – you didn’t just ask anyone, but rather the ones who’d dressed to impress – and generally, people responded. They understood how this worked instinctively, and it worked.
Emphasis mine. I’m glad he reassured us that they only asked *the sluts* if they could fondle their breasts.
There were posts about this on Pandagon and Jezebel, and I thought I saw it on Feministing too but I couldn’t find it again. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
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