awareness, right.

[atomicduck]

This new facebook meme is driving me crazy. It's stupid, pointless, and most of all, legitimises itself by claiming to raise awareness of cancer.

The following mass message from a friend:
"Some fun is going on...........Just write the colour of your bra in your status, just the colour, nothing else, and send this message on to only girls, no men

Comments

[harmlessbondage]

thank you for this! i was seeing that meme and honestly, i didn't even get it. the whole point of raising awareness is PROMOTING THE CAUSE, which actually involves NAMING THE CAUSE, FFS!

i had a handful of guy friends on my feed writing "i don't really get it but orange with polka dots lol." thankfully one guy was fed-up enough to post a link to donate, telling people that if they care so much about breast cancer they can actually do something about it instead of playing silly internet games.

[atomicduck]

That's a great idea, posting a link to donate! When I first saw the meme, I hadn't yet gotten a message explaining it so I thought it was just a superficial bra-colour meme with nothing more attached. It was silly, but I didn't really care. It was only after I read that it's supposed to raise "cancer awareness" that I went WTF.

Spam that tries to elevate itself beyond its status!

[harmlessbondage]

there's also the whole fact that it's pretty inconsiderate to breast cancer survivors who've had mastectomies and, you know, don't WEAR bras anymore.

[atomicduck]

yeah, I know right. it's pretty inconsiderate to breast cancer survivors on a bunch of levels... like using them as an excuse to sexually objectify oneself in a facebook flirt game.

[bloodymarry]

OMFG this has been pissing me off ALL DAY. I made a facebook status featuring this link.

I love you for that reply.

[atomicduck]

YES! That blog post is brilliant! If anybody replies to my long feminazi rant, I think I'll just link them to that, haha. Save myself the trouble. :D

[o_glorianna]

You know I love you, right? ♥

[atomicduck]

I rabu you too. I stole some internet today from my apartment, but I don't see you online. ;-;

[kikuko_kamimura]

Oh, fuck, that's what all the random colors were about? (Thinking about it, it doesn't surprise me that only the work contacts I don't have much respect for were participating.)

It's totally just an excuse to be provocative. For fuck's sake, if you want all the men on Facebook to know what your bra color is, just fucking say that's what it is and giggle as you imagine that your bra color will drive them so crazy that they'll want to jack off immediately and imagine coming on your (very aware, y'know, of that cancer thing and all) tits.

Then, tomorrow we can all post video links to our favorite clip on Youtube and say that it's fighting apartheid, right? (All the better if it's a camerawhore!)

[atomicduck]

I know! I'm a little grossed out by the number of people who are participating (and these are people in their 20s!). It's such a thinly veiled excuse to titillate men and sexually objectify oneself.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks it's stupid, though. I think I must come off like a feminazi sometimes.

[kikuko_kamimura]

It could be argued, though, that objectification is so ingrained in our culture that a lot of women don't see it as sexually objectifying themselves, but rather as being part of the (regrettably warped) Girl Power! movement where being a sexual object is often a woman's only outlet of true desireability; after all, thanks to that strange 'innocent but experienced' dichotomy that we have going on looking at women in our culture, it's not okay for us to be blatantly sexual except when we're being objectified at a safe distance that still puts others in charge of our sexuality. It's a very strange thing, being a woman who is in her 20s and generally very open about things of sexual nature--but still being told that a woman shouldn't talk the way I talk, and the reason why I have yet to GET MYSELF A MAN (clearly, my ultimate goal as a human being) is because apparently the only time you can be a sex vixen is when someone is good and ready for you to be

[atomicduck]

I definitely think you've got a point, especially in that last thing you wrote. For some reason, women seem to think that if they're the ones objectifying themselves, then it isn't objectification at all (because we wanted it all along, YOU SEE?). It's a more insidious form of sexism where women are brainwashed into shouting down other feminists as man-hating, paranoia-driven, hippy feminazi extremists who don't know how to have fun. It's dismissive, trivalising, and ultimately very disturbing.

Somehow, our culture has told women that it's okay to be open about your sexuality if it invites men to enjoy you but not okay if it's about you knowing yourself intimately. How many women out there are willing to be "sex vixens", but still don't know the first thing about practical vaginal health, etc.? It really makes me angry sometimes.

[xiue]

Oh.. well now.. Now I know what all the random colours were about. :/ Not once did I see any sign of breast cancer awareness. It was just a colour posted.

[atomicduck]

Well that's exactly it, right? It's really just an excuse... no awareness movement is actually happening.

[xiue]

Yeah that is pretty sad.. I mean I was about to post "pink!" only because I thought they were shouting fave colours haha

I don't think I saw ANY postings whatsoever about breast cancer. Anywhere.

[atomicduck]

Hah, if it were only that, it'd just be annoying... it wouldn't get that WTF reaction out of me. I'm so surprised by how many people are participating when we're talking about 20-year-olds...