Gender Fail: Pink's new video, PETA, and misogyny.

[prozacpark]

So I have been seeing Pink's new video linked around the friendslist, but I have been kind of reluctant to post my thoughts on it because I tend to wait things out before posting thoughts so it doesn't seem like it's directed at anyone. Because even if it seems like it is, chances are that it's only just set off an issue I have had forever and just

Comments

[meganbmoore]

I like the lyrics, but the video lost me long before the milking. Specifically, when the large (she's not quite obese, but I dodn't want to say "fat") woman stole food from the thin woman (who looked uncomfortable) and then knocked over the cardboard cutout of the thin blonde woman. So, you know, the opening shot.

I mean, what's with that? Thin people are thin because large people steal their food? Overweight people steal food because they're hungry? Skinny blonde women aren't real? The lyrics imply that the scene is meant to be opposing fatphobia, but it seems to reinforce it.

Which, IMO, sets the mood for the video itself, though not the song.

[lyssie]

I actually took that as "these are what you're supposed to look like" and then she knocked down the idea and was happy with herself. But ymmv.

They're both cardboard cutouts.

[meganbmoore]

I missed that the first was a cardboard cutout due to being baffled at why she was stealing food off of someone's plate. Really, though, the whole video, IMO, is kinda of creepy regarding "ideal" or thin women.

[prozacpark]

Icon <3. Yeah, I was iffy on the opening shot, but kept watching, and I wish I had stopped because the milking issue is very triggery for me. Doesn't help that last night, I found out about the charming practice of breast-ironing.

The whole hating on thin women reminds me of fandom's tendency to hate on the 'weak' women as part of their support for 'strong' women (and that terminology is filled with fail to start with.) But it's very much the same attitude of only ONE TYPE of woman is okay, and everyone else is bad.

[glitterberrys]

More to the point...I'm sorry, as a woman, are cows my peers? Are cows my equals? Do they look at me and see what they see when they look at a cow?

Because, I gotta say, while I like cows, I'm really not cool with that.

[lilacsigil]

an omnivore diet does not cause obesity - an imbalanced diet does

Or, you know, a whole lot of other factors unrelated to diet.

[glitterberrys]

A friend of mine went vegan (before I met her) and got...well, really fat. She's lost a lot of weight recently and looks amazing (not that she didn't before though), but it's been a lot of work. So yeah, the whole vegan = skinny healthy is bulllllshiiiiit. A vegan diet can be healthy, but just because it's vegan doesn't automatically make it healthy. I mean, shit, french fries are vegan (or can be, depending on what you fry them in). If you eat french fries all day every day, you'll be fat, feel like shit and die sooner than you'd probably like to.

[lilacsigil]

Not a PETA fan for these very reasons, but I've also been dubious about Pink the Feminist since her "Stupid Girls" video, which ran down other women's choices and showed it to be wonderful when a little girl chose a football instead of a doll and other toys. One of the other toys (this stuck with me very strongly) was an toy electronic piano keyboard.

"Boy stuff is great, girl stuff is dumb, let's all do boy stuff" is a very adolescent version of feminism and actively harmful to both men and women (and anyone who chooses neither, or both).

[trempnvt]

Yeah, also the song "Most Girls", which was, I think, her second or third single?

Like Avril Lavigne's music, these songs represent ideas I had when I was, like, twelve...and these are grown women!

[lilacsigil]

I haven't heard "Most Girls" but it wouldn't surprise me. And I agree, that kind of half-feminist, half-misogynist attitude is not strange at all for a teenager forming their own identity in the face of overwhelming misogyny and disdain for people who don't precisely fit their assigned roles (or try to fit and fail). It's not much good for an adult singing to those teens.

[evewithanapple]

Like Avril Lavigne's music, these songs represent ideas I had when I was, like, twelve...and these are grown women!

This, exactly. I liked Pink's music when I was in middle school, because songs like "Don't Let Me Get Me" and "Stupid Girls" spoke to me on the level I was operating then- I hate my life, nobody likes me, those stupid popular girls get everything they want and it's not fair! Except I grew out of that, graduated, got a more balanced perspective on life. I don't know if Pink and Avril Lavigne actually believe this stuff or they're just peddling it because they know it will sell, but the damage is being done either way.

[glitterberrys]

wouldn't that scene be therefore trying to portray "We don't approve of treating human women like this, so why would we approve of treating female cattle in such a way"?

If you're looking at it on its own, maybe, but these people love exploiting women to further their bullshit. I'm not one of those people who goes "OMG EVIL MISOGYNY" very often, but PETA truly disgusts me on a number of levels, including that one.

And then there was the time they put a picture of a cage of turkeys next to a picture of Jews on a train headed to a concentration camp. That was pretty fucking tasteless.

[lilacsigil]

But people do approve of treating human women that way - restricting our movements, controlling our fertility and our bodies (especially when pregnant) and valuing us for what we produce and who we nurture rather than who we are.

[prozacpark]

Exactly. And from what I remember, the general response to the "Let women be milked for ice cream!" suggestion was being grossed out and not any objection to the treatment of women.

And the response to the naked, caged pregnant women was concern for indecency, because those women volunteered to be there!