Everything women have accomplished in the last number of years with the Times Up and Me Too movements—portrayal of women in films as complex, three-dimensional human beings, viewing young girls as strong, intelligent, capable people—is being sabotaged on Instagram. It doesn’t seem like many women are saying much about this. When I bring it up in class, I get reprimanded by female students:
1. “They’re expressing their sexuality!”
2. “If they spoke up, they would get cancelled!”
3. “She’s a business woman!”
4. “They have the right to do what they want!”
(1) No, they are not. They are playing to the heterosexual, male gaze. Like strippers. And if you’re playing to an audience’s desires, you’re not expressing anything. And let’s not neglect the materialism. “Here I am on the beach; here I am in a five-star hotel room (wearing next to nothing, or just nothing); here I am leaning on my Bugatti; here I am on a yacht.” Yep, very glamorous. Very expressive.
(2) So, they actually have lots to say, they just don’t want to get cancelled?? Am I supposed to take this seriously? These women have a lot to say about the working class, the prison system, systemic racism, and sexism, they’re just keeping schtum on these subjects out of fear? That must be it. While the photo is being snapped posing in front of the Bugatti, the model is thinking about the labor rights of the people who scrub her floors. Would that she could say something!
(3) Her creepy celebrity family handed this plastic-surgery disaster a make-up or perfume empire, and I’m supposed to be impressed? I’m also supposed to keep silent on how she is doing her gender a disservice? I know we worship wealth and power in this culture, but we are allowed to speak in defense of women, no?
(4) I’m not stopping them from doing anything. I’m flattered you think I’m so powerful.
I am confident that I will be roundly reprimanded for this post. But why should I keep silent? Men have created the problem of how women are treated in this society. I accept my share of the responsibility for that problem. I am the beneficiary of a sexist, unequal social configuration. “Stay in your lane!” I am in my lane, you dolt. Straight, white men have a responsibility to speak up. This is me speaking up. I have no fear of cancellation. None at all.
