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.

Polish Authorities Vow to Out Tinky Winky

Mon May 28, 1:28 PM
WARSAW (AFP) - Poland's child rights ombudsman said on Monday she was investigating whether "The Teletubbies," the British television show for infants, promotes homosexuality.
"It would be good for a group of psychologists to talk to children about this. We need to examine this. If inappropriate attitudes have been promoted, we need to react," said Ewa Sowinska. In an interview with the weekly news magazine Wprost, Sowinska said the character Tinky Winky was in the spotlight. The plump purple creature is considered male due to his relative height, but carries a handbag. "I have heard that this could be a hidden homosexual insinuation," said Sowinska. Poland's deputy speaker of parliament Ludwik Dorn, a conservative Catholic, reprimanded Sowinska, telling her to avoid public statements that could make the ombudsman's office look "ridiculous," said Dorn's spokesman Witold Lisicki.

***

Whoops. Too late. You already look ridiculous. No word on if Polish authorities plan to cruise gay bars on the lookout to see if they can uncover Tinky Winky in drag or not...

When Jerry Falwell made the same offensive and absurd statement back in 1999, it prompted a group calling themselves the Krewe of Falwell to come up with the inspired costumes (above), resulting in their winning first prize in the group competition for 'best mask' at the 35th Annual Bourbon St. Awards at Mardi Gras . Note where the television would normally be on the tummy of the *real* Tinky Winky is now the mugshot of Jerry Falwell. Which I guess would make them Televangelist-Tubbies...

Sounds about right to me...

"Breakfast"

An award-winning ad by Belgium condom makers, Zazoo ,another innovative and nicely done creative advertising campaign using wit and humour to get people thinking about sexual and reproductive health.

A retrospective of sex ed films from 1950's-1970's

A nice edit of retro sex ed films, from 1950 to about the mid 1970's seemingly pulled together from materials that are now in the public domain. Interestingly, the treatment about masturbation is more open than many programs now, particularly the animated piece from the seventies. Discourse of pleasure and the erotic are usually avoided in formalized sex education programs, with a few interesting exceptions. Interestingly, it's the thing that we avoid most as adults in talking about sex with youth, and one of the things young people say over and over again they wish we would be more honest about.

Easy as One-Two-Pee: Planned Parenthood's billboard campaign

I've been a big fan of the way many Planned Parenthood affiliates have been getting their messages out for a while now, engaging in culturally smart and interesting advertising. The above billboard is part of a campaign launched by Planned Parenthood in Regina, Canada after their city was rated as having the highest rate of chlamydia in the country. The idea of getting information out regarding sexual health to adults as well as youth is an important one that community HIV/AIDS have been working on for a while, and is starting to build momentum.

(Many chapters of Planned Parenthood now call themselves part of the Canadian Federation for Sexual Health)

Same tired old sexist attitudes, amusing new parody

To celebrate the release of the new Spiderman movie, Marvel Comics released limited edition statues of some of the characters, including this one of Mary-Jane in a thong suggestively washing Spidy's super-underpants. Boring.

Much more interesting, however, is the parody beside it.How does that part of the Spiderman song go? "In the CHILLof night! At the scene of a CRIME! Like a STREAK of light! He arrives just in TIME!!" Well, a streak of somethin', anyway...Looks pretty freaking ridiculous when it's a man, hmmmmm? We get so used to women being represented in highly sexualized images that we (often) don't think anything of it. The quick and dirty litmus test for sexism? If the same messages seem improbable and strange when applied to men, you might just be looking at a social construction of gender that needs to be examined more closely.

(Source: thefword.org.uk)

Gays, lesbians more likely to become teen parents, B.C. study says

A study called Not Yet Equal: The Health of Gay, Lesbian & Bisexual Youth in B.C. has found some interesting, if counter-intuitive, outcomes in regards to the sexual health of young gays, lesbians and bisexuals in that province. According to the principal investigator of the study, Dr. Elizabeth Saewyc at U.B.C., non-heterosexual youth there are three times as likely to be involved in a pregnancy than their straight counterparts, raising some interesting questions about why people engage in the sexual behaviours they do. Dr. Saewyc speculates that these findings, although seemingly contradictory to sexual identity, also point to young people attempting to secure socially acceptable identities (i.e. motherhood and fatherhood are generally viewed more favourably in mainstream Canadian culture than being gay, lesbian or bisexual). This would certainly be an interesting area for further exploration, and may have important implications for sex ed strategies in teaching gay, lesbian and bi youth.

The study, done in collaboration with the McCleary Centre Society (a B.C. based organization that encourages participatory research with youth in regards to youth health), collected data from 74,000 teens between grades 7-12 in 1992, 1998 and again in 2003. Another concerning finding from this study that should be explored further includes the percentage of young lesbians who said they had encountered physical violence (45%, up from 27 in 1992). Good sexualities education would cover identity discussions, relationship behaviours and why we choose the sexual behaviours we engage in. Young women in particular tend to describe sex as "just happening" and often don't take any agency for their choices. This is a dangerous position to be in, because sex that "just happens" without planning and agency is often unprotected sex. Opening up these conversations is an important and necessary part of helping youth understand and engage with their sexualities.

You can download the Not Yet Equal: The Health of Gay, Lesbian & Bisexual Youth report here

(Source: Globe and Mail, Wed May 16, 2007, pg A6)

Sex Etc. : Why we need honest sex education

An insightful video by Sex Etc., an organization promoting comprehensive sex education for and by teens. Youth activism around sexualities often presents a very authentic look at where we could do better as adults, and in this video, they discuss the failings of abstinence only education and the ways it puts students at risk. They have a great youth-friendly website and cover everything from emotional health to questions about sexual health. They frequently put out a call looking for young writers to contribute. Check out the good work being done by Sex Etc.here

Performing Purity - Father/Daughter Purity Balls

• For a long time, Western religion has advocated a split between body and mind; the body has traditionally been viewed as something that pollutes the purity of the mind or soul. In this time of HIV/AIDS however, it is possibly very important to be able to convey that the purity of one's mind is lined up with a body purity. A fascinating new movement has started emerging in the U.S. to demonstrate that both body and mind are in agreement - at least when it comes to the sexuality and virginity of young girls in certain evangelical Christian circles. A new twist on abstinence rallies, father/daughter purity balls have been staged for the past seven years or so. Girls as young as six and young women into their mid-twenties go to a "purity ball" with their fathers (or uncles, or grandfathers), in an elaborate and formal affair that has many appearances of a wedding celebration.The father (or stand in) pledges a 'covenant with God' that he will protect the purity of his daughter and that of generations to come. The girls and young women will often silently affirm their pledge to purity through the ritual of laying a white rose at the foot of the cross. Pictured above is a "purity dance" with the symbolic bride and the girls demonstrating through dance their devotion to remaining chaste until marriage. In true capitalist fashion, there is a whole market industry around purity ball kits (don't ask), prom-like pictures of dad and daughter on their date, and the cost of the event which can run a cool hundred bucks per father/daughter.

I'm trying to make sense of this phenomenon, and attempting to look at it with a kind of detached cultural interest (without much luck). I recognize this is a hyper-response to a commitment to abstinence (albeit in highly gendered terms) I just can't get beyond the fact that the father/daughter thing regarding her sexuality is more than a little creepy, and am disturbed by the lack of voice of the young women who are participating. I understand this is a traditionalist backlash, and that women's sexuality is always one of the first things to be contained, owned, subdued and controlled when it feels like culture is shifting and challenging the status quo. Still though...not seeing any "mother/son" purity dances coming up. And doesn't an "Oedipal Ball" sound like a grand idea? Slouching teenaged boys shuffling around and dancing in formal wear with their mothers or grandmothers while their moms pledge to keep an eye on their sons' sexual purity (and that of grandsons to come, uh, I mean...in the future.) Yeah. I thought so. Not bloody likely.

• (For some smart commentary on the purity ball "survivor" kit, see this brilliant post on Feministing. Or, if it all still seems too strange to be true, you can see what Wikipedia has to say.