From: muffy%remarque.Berkeley.EDU@ucbvax.berkeley.EDU (Muffy Barkocy)
Subject: Re: control over display of the feminine form
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Organization: Natural Language Incorporated
Date: 27 Sep 92 20:41:17 GMT
	<19tsr2INNsnc@agate.berkeley.edu> <19vnthINN7tc@agate.berkeley.edu>

In article <19vnthINN7tc@agate.berkeley.edu> rdh@veritas.com (Robert Hartman) writes:
>In article <19tsr2INNsnc@agate.berkeley.edu> cortese@skid.ps.uci.edu (Janis Maria Cortese) writes:
>[...]
>>Again, the key lies with allowing women -- NO MATTER WHAT THEY LOOK
>>LIKE, HOW MUCH THEY WEIGH, HOW BIG/SMALL/DROOPY THEIR BREASTS ARE AND
>>HOW OLD THEY ARE -- to display themselves without being censored.  If
>>only the pretty firm women are permitted to "express their sexuality"
>>it's just one more mind-control tool to keep women down in the dumps
>>about themselves.

[description of a book published with "renditions of vagins made on
paper plates]
>[...] That was one method women that those women used to take control
>over the portrayal of their bodies.

>The reason I bring this out is because of the phrase Janis used
>above: "allowing women ... to display themselves without being
>censored."  As far as I know, women are protected by the First
>Amendment, which means you are allowed to publish your views about
>your breasts.  If the standard portrayal of breasts is a political
>issue, then you have every right to bring your rebuttal to light:
>with dignity and with pride.

You're looking at two different sorts of "allowing" here, though.  One
is governmental, which is sort-of equitable - the First Amendment is
certainly supposed to apply to everyone.  The other, and the one which
Janis is clearly referring to in the paragraph above which you also
quoted, is societal.  There are many things which are legal which
people are unlikely to do because they are disapproved of societally.
In this case, I have also frequently heard people commenting that
"overweight" women should cover their bodies; these same people will
be quite pleased if they see a slender woman dressed very revealingly.

The "censorship" involved is also not governmental, it is societal.
Some people believe that censorship can only be practiced by
governments, so a different word may be more appropriate, but it comes
down to the fact that most of the people in our society don't want to
look at *all* nude women, just those who conform to the current
standard of "beauty" or "attractiveness" - slender, with large firm
breasts, etc.  If only one view of women is being shown, it is indeed
not an expression of the sexuality of women but of the sexuality of
those people who wish to view that one sort of woman.

Muffy
--

Muffy Barkocy                               muffy@mica.berkeley.edu
~Little round planet/in a big universe/sometimes it looks blessed/
 sometimes it looks cursed/Depends on what you look at, obviously/
 But even more it depends on the way that you see~ - Bruce Cockburn

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