Caution: Creepy and dangerous cultural messages ahead

A friend from highschool (circa 1981 or so, say about grade 9) recently tracked me down on Facebook for the sole purpose of reminding me of a song that I despised when I was 14. "Hey!", he said, "Remember that song, 'Baby Makes Her Blue Jeans Talk' by Dr. Hook? Wow, did you ever hate that song! It made you crazy back in highschool!" And then, just to reinforce my memory of how much I loathed it, he sent me the above You Tube link, an unfortunate reminder of the low cultural and production values videos could have when they first came on the scene.

This video is creepy beyond belief, and although it's meant (I think) to be an amusing and light-hearted take on sexuality, it sends some pretty disturbing cultural message about desire, sexuality and what it means to be masculine or feminine. Okay, so that was more than 25 years ago, what relevance does it have now?

I'm posting some of the comments left in the past few weeks regarding this video as well. Yes, a couple of people expressed disgust at the stalker mentality, but some pretty angry and misogynistic things get said as well. I left the posters online ids in because when people post publically, I believe they are accountable for things they say. Such as...

yahman03 (2 months ago) Yeah, this is back when they knew how to make a pair of jeans that flattered a woman's figure, and women dressed like women, not this "guy fit", "boyfriend" jeans crap, or this low-waisted hip-hugger sh** that makes a woman's waist "muffin top" over the top of a pair of low jeans that are about 2 sizes too small. Women need to get away from dressing like men or wearing clothes that make them look like pigs.

raredvdworldwide (9 months ago) This chick's butt is so hot, she makes women, dogs, midgets, child tourists, senile old men and even blind guys drool! Definitely a fun bit of early 80's silliness.

mzwere1 (4 days ago)
Yeah, I've heard rumors to that affect but have'nt seen any evidence locally. Just the same old ugly crappy jeans, flat hair and a generally slovenly attitude. I have'nt seen a decently dressed girl in years. Back in this video's time at school if girls weren't wearing tight jeans they usually wore nice dresses or skirts with high heels. They just seemed to take more care in their appearance back then.

Now, I recognize that comments on YouTube are not necessarily a good cultural or intellectual mirror, and that the feeling of anonymous authorship may make some who lurk in the shadows feel like they can make comments that they would never actually say out loud...but it's worth thinking about this: When women (and men) fit into dominant discourses of what it means to be feminine or masculine, they get kudos and admiration. When we challenge or repel those ideas of how to be a woman or a man, or redefine ideas of beauty, desire and sexuality...we are quick to fall out of favour and sometimes risk the threat of violence and hatred directed toward us.

I was reminded of this in some pretty toxic ways when I happened on a photographic study on different body forms of nude women. Someone made an admiring comment about the set of pictures of a very heavy woman, prompting this response (I'm not including the woman's picture, because I don't want to associate her with this kind of hatred and toxicity).

mAgNUS Buttfoorson on April 16th, 2007 2:02 pm
Jesus Leroy Christ dude what is wrong with you? You wanna know why people must be so mean? Because the human body was never supposed to get like that. Ever. She is a testament to the extreme level of sloth and stupidity achieved by homo sapien sapiens. Scratch that you’re the testament; she’s just some stupid fat bitch who should be shot and used to feed half of Africa for the next decade. That fucking sow and her cellulite cankles represent everything that is wrong in the universe and beyond. She’s the reason the cosmos sat down with God and hashed out the very notion of disease fueled slow deaths. See what she’s on up there? The wood? That was some guys house before she rolled in there.
If there is any justice in this world or the next this very woman will slip on her own oozing lard and fall out of a window straight onto you and anyone who shares your obviously tainted bloodline.

I would say this is just an isolated case of a hateful, ignorant freak. Except it's not. Most of the comments that followed (by a variety of different posters) were along the same line, some even making death threats directed to the woman and the fellow who said he admired her. Times haven't changed so very much since the Dr. Hook video came out. Foucault had it right...step outside the dominant ideas of acceptability when it comes to body and sexuality, you'll get some sharp discipline to get back in line and play nice with the hegemony.