"Gee, I wonder why women get raped," the American Apparel sign reads after someone took it into their own hands to graffiti the sign. "Gee, I wonder why women get raped." I have no love for American Apparel, but not for the reasons so many other people have qualms against the clothing company whose exploitation of the phrase Sex Sells has been their foundation for some time now. My disliking of the company is merely political, rather than siding with the hordes of mindless zombies who cry out, "They're objectifying women! This makes me feel bad." Get over it.
Far from the actions of the fore-mothers of feminism, the new breed of feminists have little to complain about. Still, illusions of the glass ceiling are pressed on when a college faculty member accidentally makes a remark on how girls aren't as good as math as boys - something that isn't completely dishonest, just not politically correct (studies have shown a lack of enthusiasm in girls when it comes to math and science - this doesn't mean they're bad at it, just that they're not into it; at the same time, I would like to state here that my girlfriend excels where I fail in algebra, noting that, while some females aren't interested in math, others are really good at it). However, in a nation where women are in control of their bodies - unless the prolifers have their way - and what they do, there can be little to say that objectification exists. It's not like there hasn't been a time when I've turned on the television to see a buff man walking around without a shirt - is this objectifying men? Where are the arguments with that? Why hasn't anybody stood up for us? This is coming from a guy who was never muscular - I went from super thin/scrawny to chubby/overweight (something I'm currently in the works of fixing).
While these ads should make me feel insecure - I'm far from perfect - because half the time I wonder if my girlfriend would rather have a fit, buff guy who can throw her around with ease. However, I manage to swallow the fact that I'm not that sort of guy.
No one fights for the guy who's in his underwear, crossed armed and muscular because nothing ever happens to men - right? So when a woman does something similar, we're automatically labeling it objectifying because woman are capable of getting raped and ads like those that American Apparel releases causes rapists to do what they do? The same is said about pornography, but it's simply not true. Rapists don't get false illusions from pornography - they're already messed up in the first place.
While I may not agree with American Apparel's inconsideration for placing billboards with ads like the one pictured above because children may come across it - and I'm all for protecting the innocence of children - I don't believe that spray painting, "Gee, I wonder why women get raped," across it makes a political statement. Rather it diminishes those women who were, are and will be raped because a man has a power issue, not because he saw a billboard, an ad on his computer, in a magazine or on television.
Far from the actions of the fore-mothers of feminism, the new breed of feminists have little to complain about. Still, illusions of the glass ceiling are pressed on when a college faculty member accidentally makes a remark on how girls aren't as good as math as boys - something that isn't completely dishonest, just not politically correct (studies have shown a lack of enthusiasm in girls when it comes to math and science - this doesn't mean they're bad at it, just that they're not into it; at the same time, I would like to state here that my girlfriend excels where I fail in algebra, noting that, while some females aren't interested in math, others are really good at it). However, in a nation where women are in control of their bodies - unless the prolifers have their way - and what they do, there can be little to say that objectification exists. It's not like there hasn't been a time when I've turned on the television to see a buff man walking around without a shirt - is this objectifying men? Where are the arguments with that? Why hasn't anybody stood up for us? This is coming from a guy who was never muscular - I went from super thin/scrawny to chubby/overweight (something I'm currently in the works of fixing).
While these ads should make me feel insecure - I'm far from perfect - because half the time I wonder if my girlfriend would rather have a fit, buff guy who can throw her around with ease. However, I manage to swallow the fact that I'm not that sort of guy.
No one fights for the guy who's in his underwear, crossed armed and muscular because nothing ever happens to men - right? So when a woman does something similar, we're automatically labeling it objectifying because woman are capable of getting raped and ads like those that American Apparel releases causes rapists to do what they do? The same is said about pornography, but it's simply not true. Rapists don't get false illusions from pornography - they're already messed up in the first place.
While I may not agree with American Apparel's inconsideration for placing billboards with ads like the one pictured above because children may come across it - and I'm all for protecting the innocence of children - I don't believe that spray painting, "Gee, I wonder why women get raped," across it makes a political statement. Rather it diminishes those women who were, are and will be raped because a man has a power issue, not because he saw a billboard, an ad on his computer, in a magazine or on television.
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