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

[neopootling]

lol

actually

i rarely participate in such things myself but the person who sent me the message (the only one in fact i got in my inbox on this bra color thing) had for the longest of time been in a bout of depressed isolation -not from just social networking sites like fb, but like from people and life entirely- that when i saw a PM with her name on it in my inbox i was like 'ey youre alive and kickin again~' she herself has had people in her family and buddies who are cancer and breast cancer survivors -like her dad went through this major surgery and stuff- so i thought that if she thunk it cool to do this meme and pass it on to me... i was like aight sure.

so i participated

anyway dont think im evil lol

[atomicduck]

lol, I wrote this entry before I saw it posted on your wall. I don't think anybody's evil, per se, for posting it, only ineffectual. If your friend is having a hard time and this meme actually meant something to her on a personal level, then it's not my place or job to tell her how to interpret what something means to her, emotionally or otherwise. But from the view of cancer awareness movements, I'm saying that the meme doesn't do what it's supposed to be doing, and I listed the reasons why. That doesn't necessarily mean the meme is meaningless to the individual.

I mean, it's pretty obvious what kind of meaning I extract from it, partly because I'm approaching it from a feminist perspective, but everybody has their reasons for feeling what they do.

Anyway, I didn't know you were on lj, lol. How goes it?

[neopootling]

yeah after i read your post i felt all guilty for participating lol.

i signed up for lj ages ago cause buddies wanted me to read their stuff and comment so i was like okokok~ it's pretty much been like that for a lot of the online stuffs ive come to be a part of, like fb devart, myspace, and even old school friendster or even xanga lol.

i was thinking about you and brad when i went and ate at Gaire's yesterday with justin. /sob lol

[atomicduck]

Yeah, a large part of why I was so pissed off had to do with that girl's reply to me and how it was worded.

Oh wow, you just reminded me of my deviantart account that I've basically never used. I may even have a friendster account lying somewhere, though I never got a myspace/xanga, hahaha.

I could so go for some Nan RIGHT NOW. Ladies' set, prease...

Late to the party

[threedee]

Hear hear. Or is it here here?

Su and I were talking about this when it was the rage and came to similar conclusions I believe.

Also, not until reading neopootling's comment did I connect the following thought to this issue: men can get breast cancer too... although only 1% as often according to Wiki.

But even if that weren't the case, and even if posting one's bra colour were actually sexually empowering, and even if this stunt could genuinely raise cancer awareness, it seems kind of dumb to mash the two issues together. I was about to ramble on more but it just seems pretty clear how not-thought-out-at-all this was.

So no you're not a feminazi... it makes me kind of angry. Actually if I were a woman I'd probably be angrier than you, lol.

Hmm... perhaps paradoxically some awareness has been raised... awareness of how many of our cohorts lack critical thinking skills that is.

Re: Late to the party

[atomicduck]

I'm pretty sure it's "hear, hear", as an imperative for the audience to listen to the guy in question. "Here, here" is a mistake arising from homophones.

Yeah, and even if 1% of men get breast cancer, there's tons of men who have lost wives, sisters, mothers, and daughters to breast cancer, so it's no trivial issue for them. I think to make breast cancer awareness a "tee hee, girls' only game!" is ridiculously belittling and thoughtless. (Although, I think we've agreed on this already.)

It's just that women have come a long way to be taken seriously, and I feel like this game totally puts us back.

Re: Late to the party

[threedee]

Wiktionary, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.... later.

For now MOAR RAGEIA

[atomicduck]

Rage, how do I express thee? Let me count the ways...
*smashes up a chair* 8D

[stapledolphin]

Actually, the dudes made a (rather crude) parody of a meme in response: something along the lines of "Let's get back at the girls. Post, in your status, and with nothing else, the favourite body part on which you like to ejaculate. DON'T TELL ANY WOMEN ABOUT THIS."

My friend put "eye" in his status.

But anyway, agree on every points. Facebook memes are almost always stupid though (even the ones I do), so I guess it can't be helped. tbh I'm pretty sure most of my friends I've seen participating in it (all my age) aren't even doing it to be provocative on any level; they're just doing it because saying and doing outrageous things are cool or fun or whatever. (Although that's even more depressing than the thought that women participating are making a conscious decision to act provocatively, come to think of it.)

Anyway, I'm not really sure what my point is, if I had a point, and if I'm actually replying to your post, since I read all the comments here before typing anything. So. Yes.

[atomicduck]

You don't have to be aware of sexual provocation/objectification to be implicit in it. Intention is actually quite separate. In fact, I find it much more disturbing to think that such behaviour is being subtly rationalised away by young ladies as "a good bit of fun"... which is really the problem with systemic sexual objectification of women in the first place.