I like to think I have been sensitive to gender equality, violence against women and the like for some time, but I have to say that the women studies course I took this past semester hammered a lot of things home.
I see sexism and discrimination against women in places I previously would have overlooked and in things I previously would have found funny.
This past week has been pretty hard for me. I have seen many of my friends participating in Facebook memes that denigrate and objectify women. When I do try to stand up against such, I am the one labelled as being insensitive and told I should lighten up.
I am very fed up this week and I am disgusted more each day that goes by to the point I feel sick to my stomach and my hands shake.
Here are a few of the images my friends have posted:
This one tries to make light violence against women. Strictly speaking it’s spousal abuse period, but since I am a man and the friend who posted it is a man, I saw this as directed at women. Besides, as the saying goes, it’s a dog is man’s best friend, not human’s best friend. It is never okay to laugh at the idea of stuffing one’s own spouse into the trunk of a car.
This is sexist in several ways. First it treats men as prizes (You’re all mine if you plan to marry in the temple. It treats women as objects of desire (if you aren’t going to get married in the temple, you don’t get me). It trivializes the sacredness of temple ordinances.
This perpetuates the stereotypes of women being emotionally unstable, and it ties so-called manhood to men being accepting of emotional abuse.
This objectifies women and glamorizes sodomization, both of which together promote sexual violence against women.
Yet another one objectifying women. This one goes even further by presenting women as objects that can be eaten. And why is it women have to wait for men to come along; why can’t they initiate relationships?
Finally, this one is sexist on several fronts. First, it promotes emotional instability in relationships. Second, it promotes the idea of women being owned by men. Finally, notice how the male progresses from boy to gentleman, but the female in the relationship remains a girl? Also, notice the female in the relationship is a girl, but the females outside of the relationship are women.
What disturbs me the most is that those who post these images are completely oblivious to the sexism contained within them.
And the sexism isn’t confined to just these images either. Every day, it seems, someone I know posts similar photos. New photos. The cycle continues: Someone promotes violence and sexism in their images and other perpetuate their messages by sharing them.
In all sincerity, what is there that can be done?
The first two, I did not find so bad. Maybe because locking a grown person in the trunk of a car is so ridiculous to me, unless they want to get in. It is like a cliched gangster trick. We also have small children and constantly stress not getting in anywhere you can get locked inside.
The second one can be construed as allusion straight from scripture. It is not how most adults would phrase it, but youth would like it. Of course, there are plenty of scriptures that are sexist in today’s view.
I object the least to the temple pic. The rest are too sexist for me. The temple one isn’t too bad since it has some positives connotations to it (the priority in a spouse isn’t about wealth or power, but about values and character).
Unfortunately, “prince†connotes wealth and (at least political) power.
Or, another way of looking at it is that the princely attributes sought after by the young women who like this phrase are not wealth and power in a worldly sense. With the temple as the focus of their marital aspirations, as indicated by the focus on the temple in the photo, they are looking for young men who recognize they are sons of the Heavenly King, and who honor that identity and act accordingly. It’s easier to see this meaning than the so-called “sexist” meaning, for me anyway.
So, what are the attributes of a prince then that they supposedly want (assuming that is the case since there are no character traits mentioned in the image at all)?
I just adore these memes on Facebook! I just enjoy them and sometimes gets touched by them.
Dude, they are kidding around.
Trust me, nice people always treat each other equally. And the ones who don’t, it will come biting them someday!
That’s kind of my point. These aren’t things we should kid around with.
Here is another post on one of the memes:
http://www.dovesandserpents.org/wp/2011/10/rotten-to-the-core/