Part of the reason why feminist analysis is such a valuable tool is that FA deconstructs and identifies the constructed norms of society and rightly points out how craptacular said norms are for women.
So, dudes, a glimpse into the faux-egalitarian society you’ve created and learn the implied lesson of “don’t be that guy” – thanks in advance for being a better person.
Oh, hey did you need more evidence of the power imbalance in society? Take a look at the comments section and count how many responses with the motif : If you dress a certain way you are asking for it.
How reading ytube comments makes me feel:
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
12 comments
August 28, 2014 at 7:33 am
N℮üґ☼N☮☂℮ṧ
I’ve seen this and other videos like it. Some much worse. I’ve had my fair share of street harassment and it doesn’t matter how you dress.The common comment from the guys interviewed in these videos was that women were made for men. Gee, I wonder where they got that idea from.
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August 28, 2014 at 7:40 am
N℮üґ☼N☮☂℮ṧ
http://www.buzzfeed.com/jtes/this-woman-has-been-confronting-her-catcallers-and-secretly
“Women are put on this earth to satisfy a man, so if she feels offended, she shouldn’t have [ever] been born.”
——-
“When you’re dressed the way you are …. what’s the purpose for a woman to be on this earth [if not] for a man?”
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August 29, 2014 at 6:32 pm
jasonjshaw
I think society needs to start calling guys out who do such things for what they’re really saying about themselves. Kind of like this:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/keithhabersberger/what-men-are-really-saying-when-catcalling-women
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August 30, 2014 at 8:53 am
muffy
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/womens-blog/2014/aug/29/mary-brandon-beaten-groped-notting-hill-carnival
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August 30, 2014 at 9:32 am
The Arbourist
@Muffy
Thanks for the link. Some sad highlights from the article…
“A man in the crowd grabbed my arse. When I told him not to he did it again.”
“I pushed him away, exercising my right to tell a man to stop touching my body without my permission, so he took a swing at me and punched me in the face.”
Brandon’s experience is not an anomaly. It is what happens in a world that sends the message to men from a young age that women’s bodies are public property, to which they have an automatic right. This story may sound horrifying to many male readers, but for so many women, the quick escalation to anger and even physical violence when they dare to insist on bodily autonomy is painfully familiar.
So many of us have seen shouts of “all right sexy”, “hey darling” turn in an instant to “fuck you whore”, when we dare to ignore or reject the unwanted advance.
Reason #432643358 why men suck.
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August 30, 2014 at 9:37 am
The Arbourist
@NN
Wow. Just wow. Reason #…. *sigh*
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August 30, 2014 at 9:41 am
The Arbourist
Thanks JJS, I think I’ll put that up later this week, because exposing douches for what they are, is always a good thing.
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August 30, 2014 at 10:16 am
N℮üґ☼N☮☂℮ṧ
Arb, not sure if you’ve watched it, but there is an excellent documentary titled Femme de la rue. I found an English version about 8 months ago. Here’s a short clip/trailer. She secretly records — and this is what she experienced in just two minutes walking in downtown Brussels.
http://youtu.be/QDk-CWUswjw
I don’t think men suck. I think the cultures that teach men, suck.
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August 30, 2014 at 11:01 am
The Arbourist
@NN
No I haven’t, thank you for the steer.
I suppose that is a more accurate statement :) The problem is that, currently, there is a critical mass of douchy-dudes out there whose behaviour is atrocious enough to poison the well with regards to the category of ‘all men’. :/
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August 30, 2014 at 11:06 am
N℮üґ☼N☮☂℮ṧ
“Tis why it’s up to men to make this change. However, I don’t see much progress. Christopher Hitchens once said in an interview that men are slow to change because they don’t see any benefit in giving up their artificial, self-proclaimed status, and that they invented god (claiming to be the image of god), in order to own women.
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August 30, 2014 at 11:08 am
The Arbourist
@NN
Exactly.
dudes:”Society is tuned to my needs and gender, why, oh why, would I want that to change.?”
Radfems have it right when they say the focus of feminism should be the dismantling of patriarchal structures in society.
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August 30, 2014 at 11:46 am
N℮üґ☼N☮☂℮ṧ
Like climate change deniers, despite the warnings and vast amount of research showing that inequality harms the whole of our species, I doubt that those who continue to support these disadvantageous structures will implement necessary (worldwide change) until it’s too late. In his Psychology Today Article “Why Men Oppress Women: The Psychology of Male Domination”, Steve Tayor writes:
“[…perhaps men have resented the sexual power that women have over them too. Feeling that sex was sinful, they were bound to feel animosity to the women who produced their sexual desires. In addition, women’s sexual power must have affronted their need for control. This meant that they couldn’t have the complete domination over women — and over their own bodies — that they craved.
They might be able to force women to cover their bodies and faces and make them live like slaves, but any woman was capable of arousing powerful and uncontrollable sexual impulses inside them at any moment. The last 6000 years of man’s inhumanity to woman can partly be seen as a revenge for this.”
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