When it first turned up on my flist, I didn't really give the Open Source Boobs Project a second thought. It was to do with things that happen at conventions, and I don't understand what goes on at a convention, so I didn't feel qualified to comment. But then apparently it descended into something of a shitstorm - I'm surprised it hasn't shown up on Fandom Wank, but then they've been very busy with things in the Harry Potter world.
Now I see other people reacting to it on my flist, and I finally saw a reaction that I think matches up with mine. As it's a locked entry, I shan't go into detail, but essentially the problem with things like the Open Source Boobs is that it's exactly the kind of thing that I would agree to while I was having fun, without thinking about how it would make me feel afterwards. I've not been chatted up in a long time and I'd totally go for the shiny-feeling attention when it was being handed out, but then I'd feel unclean and definitely unfeminist after having reduced myself to a pair of boobs that random nerds can grope. If someone liked the look of me at a convention, then they should put in the groundwork and actually, like, talk to me.
I pretty much think the Open Source Boobs thing is definitely a bad idea, and especially at somewhere like a con. I already get stared at, whistled at and generally hassled far too often for my liking, and adding a meat market vibe to a convention would be just icky. I don't even understand what hassling women in the street is about - I like looking at pretty people as they pass by in the street as much as anyone, but I like to think that I don't think I make people feel as uncomfortable as your typical workie/builder/whatever manages to make me feel when he downs tools to watch me ambling down the pavement to work.
Do they do that because it makes them feel good, or because it reminds women that they're inferior or less powerful orwhatever, or because they think we like that kind of attention or because it's a mating strategy that (very) occasionally pays off? I have no idea at all.
2 comments:
(It's funny, because I have friends who were pinched in the elevator -- one by Isaac Asimov, and the other by Kenny (R2-D2) Baker -- at conventions, and neither is shy about it. But nice customs curtsy to great kings.)
I'm similarly ignorant about con-duct, but it does seem sad to be able to reduce anyone to a fondle-object, especially at an event which (correct me if I'm wrong) is supposed to allow people to meet and to relate to each other as human beings and not bags of udders and free-floating genitals. That's what hot tubs are for.
I want to give Herr Ferret some credit, but it does scream of a throwback to a misogynistic culture that fandom's been trying to escape from. Hey, if a woman wants to wear a green button, knock yourself out -- but the red button should be implied, for God's sake. Imagining the worst possible person who could be attending one of these events going paws-out -- no, I wouldn't want that, and I don't blame anyone else for wanting to be protected from that. They shouldn't need to opt-out of random honkings.
I just finished reading the post, and I'm gobsmacked.
That automatic progression from 'one woman offered to let me touch her breasts' to 'I will now ask every woman I see if I can touch her breasts' and 'women began to feel better about themselves if I touched their breasts'. That right there is why I hate the Zoo/Nuts culture.
I don't need some stranger's hands on my body (any part of it) to boost my self-esteem, and I pity any person, man or woman, who does.
How old were these women? Would those involved have kept up this 'enlightened' view if teenaged girls had wanted to be a part of it? All the adult women in a room are getting credibility for allowing strangers to feel them up - isn't it natural for any teenaged women to see that and want to be a part of it?
I'm appalled that apparently forward-thinking adults could initiate and participate in something as hideous as this.
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