Posts Tagged ‘misogyny’
American Apparels Dov Charney’s latest Ad.
This text reads:
“Women initiate most domestic violence, yet out of a thousand cases of domestic violence, maybe one is involving a man. And this has made a victim of culture out of women.”
Nice! Stay Class Dov!
Of course, this man is no stranger to media attention for his sexist dribble, his sexual harassment, his discriminatory hiring of employees, and I’m not even bringing up his advertisements!
Here’s what Womanist Musings has to say about this:
Charney is using his position as a male of privilege to reinforce this destructive message. There has been ample evidence of his hatred of women and the only question that remains is what we are going to do about it. Obviously we cannot hope to change his mind, such misogynists men rarely come to an understanding of the ways in which their behaviour is not only reductive but dangerous. If he cannot be taught to respect women, he can still be brought to heel by a boycott of his stores. What human decency he did not learn in socialization can be force fed through economic sanctions.
We often see something sexist, rail against it and then move on. It is time as women that we begin to recognize that even though we earn so much less than men, we are still responsible for a great deal of the economy. We need not spend our hard earned dollars to enrich a man that clearly hates women. Often times when we are confronted by sexism, negative reprisals forestall any form of active protest however in cases like this, it is well within our power to let this asshat know that there is a penalty for displaying such naked hatred of women. He should not profit from our labour and demean us with his MRA style misogynist lies. So now that you know, spread the word and remind people that sometimes refusing to purchase something can also be a positive form of protest.
I have exactly two items from American Apparel, and those are these last two I will ever own. I hope you will all join me, Womanist Musings, and Rage Against the Man-Chine in boycotting this company. As a woman, buying from them is the equivalent of paying someone to spit on you.
(H/T Womanist Musings, Rage Against the Man-Chine)
Edit: Here are other places where this appears:
Now, there is some discussion regarding whether or not this ad is real or a fake, but I have to ask, does it really matter? Dov Charney really did make this statement and the picture in and of itself is a real image, so someone took the image and put over it a statement he really said, does that negate the fact that he said it?
**Update 1/30/2009**
Bitch magazine received a letter from a Ryan Holiday from American Apparel regarding their blog post on this same issue. It reads like this:
Annalee,
I thought I would email you this morning after seeing your post. First, it
might be weird but thank you for correcting that the ad isn’t real. Some
writers know that but are saying otherwise. American Apparel would never,
ever run an ad like that.
As for the quote, it’s not exactly genuine either. It’s sourced to an
interview that was done by the McGill Daily, a student newspaper in Canada.
Dov and the interviewer were discussing the book, Not Guilty: The Case in
Defense of Men. Not even the merits of the book…because there probably
aren’t any…but what the book said. The kid attributed that to Dov,
wrongly. The reason it wasn’t corrected is because it all happened 5 years
ago in another country.
I totally get that Dov Charney and American Apparel have a controversial
reputation. I also get that it’s your job to hold people responsible for
sexism and stupid quotes like the one above. But nobody at American Apparel
agrees with what that says. It’s just wrong. The assumption there is that a
ceo of a company that employes thousands of women went on record, on
purpose, to accuse them of causing the majority of domestic violence.
Jumping to conclusions is one thing, but this happens to be completely
untrue.
Again, that’s where this all comes from and we wanted to explain. You
don’t have to print our side of the story but I thought you should know it.
Ryan Holiday
American Apparel
Now let me explain what I find interesting about this letter. Firstly, who is the Mr. Holiday that he didn’t write his title to make it “official sounding”? Who gave him the authority to write it? Why was it written so matter of factly? Why didn’t he out right debunk the quote, except to mention that it was a mis-quote?
Seems a bit fishy and uncaring if you ask me. I’m still sticking by my position though: I’m not shopping there ever again.
Agnes Scott College Opens Its Doors to Road Trip II
I had to repost this article because I can’t believe that Agnes Scott College would allow something like this to happen on their college. I can not understand why they would open their students up to this kind of harassement, ridicule, and objectification. As if it isn’t hard enough to get away form the social stigmas of just being a woman, but these intelligent women decided to attend a woman’s college probably to have a safe space where they don’t have to deal with the types of social issues you get at co-ed institutions, like the sexism, the objectification, etc. Instead, now it’s being thrown in their face and they’re basically being forced into situations they probably don’t want to be a part of. This part of the article really just gets under my skin:
The students were also subject to horrendous stereotyping as the film crew shot the “Lesbians Until Graduation” scene which only eroticizes lesbianism as nothing more than an experimental “choice” made in the absence of men and, in the movie industry, sells women and their sexual identity as a heteronormative gift for men.
…the scene involved the male protagonists
stumbling upon the room full of these “making-out lesbians” (to
presumably “convert” them?). When we expressed offense, the recruiter
said she was warned about encountering uncooperative students who were
“really into being women” (versus into being objects?).Other incidents of objectifying the students at Agnes Scott were documented, including reckless behavior of extras working in the movie. One student reported being told that she was so attractive, she should be careful of being raped. Another student, carrying a cup of coffee, was asked by an extra to get him one as well. [emphasis mine]
I find that bolded portion to be absolutely disgusting and would consider that a threat that should be brought up to the school, and if the school doesn’t listen, the authorities. These people should not be allowed this open door policy at this institution especially in light of this nasty behavior they’ve displayed towards the students. The students are there to learn, not to be harassed and told what they should or should not be doing, be objectified and forced to watch things that are demeaning. This is misogyny at it’s worst.
Feminist Activists’ life taken
The world has suffered another very tragic loss. Jana Mackey, a 25 year old feminist and law student in Kansas was murdered by her ex-boyfriend Saturday. She was found inside his home. She was a women’s rights activist who lobbied for NOW and ProKanDo, a political action committee in Kansas. This breaks my heart. I found out about this via Viva La Feminista, and after reading the comments, I found one by her brother Travis. The anniversary of the death of my brother is coming up this 18th, and this reminds me of what I went through a year ago with my family. I feel so sorry for their loss, and I’m sorry the world will never be able to see what this beautiful, strong woman could do for the causes she believed in.
I know my last couple of posts have been about women who have perished because of useless violence against them and this is yet another example. The useless misogyny and this need to control another human being led to this. She had broken up her relationship with her boyfriend 3 weeks prior to her murder, and it could only be assumed that he was not happy with this and wanted to possess and control her in hopes of regaining her favor. I hope her images can make this very real problem for women real for everyone. This was a life lost to violence by someone who needed to control and possess another life. This is a societal problem that we need to find a solution to fast! This man was someone who could not deal with the loss of the relationship and someone who consequentially killed himself whether out of remorse, depression, guilt, or the desire to be with her in the afterlife. Whatever his reasoning, this is unacceptable and we need to find a solution that will stop another woman from being murdered by a controlling, possessive man.
My heart goes out to her family and friends. She will forever be in our hearts.
Links:
Ojectification & Violence Takes Another Life
From the Sun Sentinel:
PLANTATION – During a visit to the neighborhood Winn-Dixie, Olidia Kerr Day caught the eye of a man working in the meat department.
He lavished her with compliments, told her she was beautiful. It was awkward, but she thought he was nice, Day later told her grown son and two daughters. [emphasis mine]
“He told her the first time they met that they had known each other in a past life,” said Day’s son, Edward Kerr, 24.
[…]
Recent interviews reveal how Cevallos deftly wedged his way into Day’s life — and wouldn’t take no for an answer.
[…]
Day rushed out of the house and past Sosa [her boyfriend], who was outside the garage. She screamed that Cevallos had a gun, Sosa told police.
Day then jumped into her 2002 Honda Accord and sped around the corner. Cevallos followed in his 1998 Toyota Corolla. Sosa drove after them.
Both Day and Sosa called 911 from their cell phones. Day screamed to two 911 operators: “He’s going to kill me, man!” [emphasis mine]
She quickly reached the parking lot of the police station at Northwest Fourth Avenue and 70th Terrace, about a mile from her home. Cevallos rammed the back of her car and Day jumped out, barefoot and screaming.
Cevallos shot her from behind, and she fell steps from the station entrance.
Officer Amy Wetzel, 28, ran outside. She fired at Cevallos but missed.
Cevallos shot Day once more before putting the gun to his head and pulling the trigger.
This one is close to home. This poor woman was stalked by this man from the meat department at her local Winn-Dixie and was killed by this man in front of a police station. What I don’t understand fully from this is what happened with the 911 calls? Why did they have to call twice to let 911 operators know what was going on? Did the operators not believe that something this serious was going on?
From this article it seems that her niceness was her eventual undoing because although this man was coming on to her and making her feel uncomfortable, she said she felt he was a “nice man” and even allowed him in her house to help her fix the plumbing in the house.
In my opinion, this is a good example of how women who are taught to “be nice” can lead to their eventual demise because it’s more important to “be nice” than to be safe. Some women are taught that it’s a worse offense to be rude to someone than to be safe and I personally have found myself falling into this trap when I felt I was in a situation that was not entirely safe for me. Thankfully nothing ever happened, but the point is something could have.
PETA Using Violence Against Women to Send Message
I am completely horrified by PETA’s latest campaign. Recently PETA grabbed a couple of interns put them in bathing suits, slathered blood all over them and placed them in what appears to be giant shrink wrapped containers like the kind you find your meat in at the grocery store. I don’t know what bothers me, their methods for celebrating vegetarian week and getting the message across about how meat is murder (and their lack of concern for their interns) or the flagrant portrayal of violence against women. Here’s the link to the story at CommercialAppeal.com.
Image by Mike Brown / The Commercial Appeal
H/T Feministing
Random Thought
I was out with the family today and we decided to stop for lunch at a fast food restaurant. While we where there, there was an elderly couple that was pretty chatty with us. At one point the couple decides to go so the man gets up and starts helping the woman up. She starts to get up from her seat in the booth and starts huffing and complaining as if it was really hard for her to perform these movements. She looks at us and says, “I fell recently and cracked some ribs.” We all oohed at her and apologized to her for her bad fortune. The man-who was standing behind her-summoned to us jokingly that he had hit her, as if saying that’s why she was hurt. The motion was something like what a punch to the ribs would look like and I began wondering: when did joking about beating the woman you’re with become okay?
I didn’t think his gesture was funny at all and the fact that he had to hide this from her led me to think that he felt the same way, but I feel that it’s these kinds of jokes that makes it seem as if it’s okay to do these kinds of things to a woman. I was with my 10 year old step{son} and I had to wonder if the fact that this man was joking about this act made him think that it was okay to beat on a woman; that it’s all fun and games. These are not the types of things that should be taught to the younger generations of boys because we don’t want to neutralize them as to how this truly is a problem and it leads to a cycle of violence that they don’t need to be a part of so I feel that making these kinds of jokes, even innocently, can be very harmful for the men in the future and it just shouldn’t be done.
Tuesday Nights’: Something to think about
While in class tonight, we were talking about violence against women, and one of my classmates brought up the fact that since the economy has taken a downturn, they’ve been noticing crime increasing. I have too. Lately you can’t turn on the news without hearing about who’s robbing who, who shot who and for what, things of that nature.
Now, here’s my thinking–and please tell me if I’m totally off in my train of thought–being that being employed and being the “bread winner” is traditionally something associated with masculinity and manhood in general, I’m curious if because of the recession we’re going through if the amount of violence against women has increased. Are men finding other ways to emasculate themselves by beating on their wives when they get upset or perpetrating acts of violence against women out of anger, frustration, feelings of inadequacy as a man?
Chew on this little topic and let’s discuss.
Uncensored Feminista 