Since my last entry kind of trailed off as I got lost in my thoughts about FCPs, I thought I'd give it a rest and come back to it a couple of days later. And there's one other thing that Levy discusses in her book that I think is important to consider: the phenomening of Uncle Tomming as applied to FCPs.
Taken from the title character of Harriet Beecher Stowe's abolitionist novel, the concept basically describes a person who occupies a marginalized/minority position and conforms to the dominantly held notions about how they should behave in order to "get ahead" with those that marginalize them. Levy argues that this is what FCPs are doing in the context of female sexuality, whether or not they are consciously choosing to conform to rather than resist images and stereotypes of the sexual female being perpetuated by popular media outlets like MTV and Playboy.
What disturbs me about this (more than the fact that it seems to be "follow a path of least resistance" brand of feminism, if you can call it any kind of feminism!) is that according to Levy, many women truly believe that Uncle Tomming is a version of, or substitute for a truly liberated experience of female sexuality. (While some women may be genuinely excited by visiting stripclubs or looking at the pictures in Penthouse, surely not all of the women who appear on Girls Gone Wild videos would race to the phone to order them after seeing the late night infomercial). An argument has been made that women are exercising their agency when modeling for or starring in pornographic images in and films, giving them exposure (pun intended!) and financial gain by capitalizing on this industry. But ask yourself: even if the participating women see this as exciting and liberating, how many of the men who buy the "lad mags" or the GGW videos are doing it in the name of women's lib?
Instead of a newly liberated expression of female sexuality in which women can enjoy erotic pleasures as "one of the boys", their participation in these outlets is viewed by the boys as for them. This does nothing more for the women's movement than set it back several decades.
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4 comments:
I've heard so much about this book, and after reading your posts, I am definitely going to pick it up.
I am fascinated by the "Uncle Tomming" phenomenon because it makes soooo much sense! I see girls as young as 5 and 6 acting extremely sexual and being very confident about it. If this blatant sexuality is how they express their confidence, something is wrong. And even worse, if it's starting at 5 and 6, who knows where it will be at 10 and 11.
We have to show girls and womyn that their power comes not only from their sexuality, but from their strength, courage, and perserverance. Womyn are so powerful and we have an obligation to teach young girls that they don't have to exploit their sexuality to be good.
Yes, "Female Chauvinist Pigs" is a fascinating read. Please let me know what you think of it after you've read it!
The "Uncle Tomming" phenomenon is a good way to theorize about it, and it's one that I never learned about in any of my courses. Maybe because we tend to think about more abstract things than that, which is not necessarily a good thing. I think the women's movement, at least as I see it happening in my own WS department at U of T, is becoming too wrapped up in theory and not enough in action and/or activism of any kind. Not that good theory and scholarship isn't coming out of it, but perhaps there needs to be more focus on what's happening day to day with girls and womens' self-conceptualization and esteem.
ironic
I've heard so much about this book, and after reading your posts, I am definitely going to pick it up.
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