The Body Politic

Queenie and I recently became aware of the Open Source Boob Project, and the reaction to it, including this extraordinary outpouring of vitriol.

The short version, for those who can't be bothered following the links, is this; a group of guys were voicing the opinion that it'd be nice to be able to say "I want to touch your boobs" to a girl, rather than go through all the business of dating and whatever. One of their female companions volunteered her boobs. So did several others.

It's late, I can't be bothered writing a huge blog entry, I'd rather be curled up in bed, but I just had to voice some kind of opinion about this whole matter, and it's the following; Leaving aside the question of whether the guys involved were malicious or misguided, why are people unwilling to accept that the women involved were anything other than victims?

Yes, there are instances in which women get pressured into doing things they don't want to. That's undeniable, and wrong. But it annoys me immensely that some women simply cannot accept that sometimes this doesn't happen, sometimes it really is voluntary. They cannot seem to allow other women to be comfortable with sex. They have to condemn anyone who is comfortable with sex, as if doing something that makes men happy automatically makes you a weak, unwitting victim of the patriarchy.

It's closed-minded, it's messianic, and dammit, it's misogynistic. The assumption that men make all the rules and women are all automatically victims is inherently misogynistic. And the only women who aren't weak, deluded victims are, of course, the ones who agree with The High Priestesses, and have chosen to follow only the One True Path laid down by them!

Now I don't know if the Open Source Boob Project was a good idea, or a bad idea. I'm not about to tell anyone what they should or shouldn't do with their bodies. It is, after all, their body, not mine. I think that's what called "respect". It'd be nice to see a bit more respect for the idea that some women are confident enough and smart enough and independent enough to choose what they allow to be done to their bodies. That not all women make their bodies sexually available because they are weak and need validation provided by men.

Some things really aren't a matter of gender politics. They're just choices.

There, that ought to get a few comments...