AM I A FEMINIST? – PART 3

I am somewhat concerned by a few female celebrities, who owe their notoriety solely to the bikini-clad pictures they post and proclaim themselves feminists, although they do nothing else on the side.

The underlying argument being: I dispose of my body as I wish to and it is therefore my decision to show myself naked or nearly on the Internet and, by glorifying the female body, I am being a feminist.

Indeed.

I hear the argument according to which a woman can dispose of her body as she wishes and make her own decisions about it.

I hear the argument that the body, be it female or male, is not something to be ashamed of and it’s definitely not something you should hide.

The rest is, in my opinion, just another kind of rotten marketing.

The argument becomes a little light when the public person does only that. We are lucky enough to know every anatomical inch of some women, thanks to social media.

It is, as always, the issue of reducing a person to one dimension only. Because of this, some celebrities can be summed up in, sometimes two, key words. Nothing more.

Two obvious examples:

Kim Kardashian: sex-tape, reality tv.

Emily Ratajkowski: breasts, butt.

And that’s it.

And it’s sad.

Not for them, we don’t give two flying fudges really, but for the others, especially the young individuals that they influence. All of this is magnified and spread by the media and the social media (because it’s easy clickbait, easy buzz) and it makes it even sadder because at some point it just begs the question: what kind of world do we live in (well I’ve got no idea, darling, and isn’t it why I have this website)?

Saying that posting nudes on social media all the time is an act of feminism is rather silly.

By doing that, one is only answering a mainly masculine visual desire that is the norm in our current socio-cultural context.

By doing that, one only perpetuates the idealized and so-called perfect version of a woman’s body in Western countries.

By doing that, one only presents the female body through the lens of desirability and the woman is therefore reduced to being a sexual object.

By doing that, one does nothing but reinforce the little boxes in which every woman is kindly asked to stay in.

There is no true freedom of choice there, which is slightly problematic given that freedom of choice is slightly (very much) the foundation of feminism.

Some days I want to be transparent because my body and mind are absorbed by something else (on those days I listen to myself and slip into a pair of shapeless jeans, an oversized sweater and used ballerinas). There are other days during which I really don’t want to be on seduction mode (I slip into comfortable jeans and less used ballerinas – I’ve got every possible stage of decrepitude with my jeans and ballerinas). And on some days I want to look smoldering hot (and yes, it can also be in a nice pair of jeans. Or a dress).

This attempt at presenting different, changing but authentic postures and moods, through my outfits but not only, prevents me (I hope) from always offering the same thing to anybody.

The contrary would be extremely tiring for anybody (and for me given that I already tire myself a lot).

At any rate, I do not wish to become a caricature of myself or to be encapsulated by one or two key words.

Never ever 😉

May 11, 2017