Posts by Jackie Clark
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I don't know that anyone is judging people who choose to strip off their clothes for a living, IO. Do you know what I find interesting? And this is my perception only........That 40 years ago, women who worked in strip clubs possibly wore more makeup than your average woman. And they took their clothes off. On the surface, ie not going deeper into the horrid gender politics of that time, that was what you got when you went into a strip club. Nowadays however, the ante has been upped considerably. Surgery may be taken as an option if one's boobs are not big enough, or one's labia not puffy enough. For who, we might ask? For the women? Or so that they get more money from the punters, most of whom are men? Go to the White House sometime. It's not sleazy, it's very "classy" in a brash sort of way. But stand there for 10 minutes watching the pole dancing, surgically enhanced, barbie look-a-likes, and tell me that you feel completely comfortable with what you see around you. Women make money the only way they are able to. In general, in this society, where appearance is valued, often above all else, that means making choices. You're working in an area where your tits and clit make you dosh. Good for you.You're not exploited as such, because no one's got you over a barrel (so to speak) demanding that you pay them most of what you earn. Good for you. But what choices are left to you when all around you breasts are getting bigger and labia are getting puffier, and what the gods gave you may not make the grade, and you're 20 years old, and your mother threw you out of home? I'm not saying that that's the case for all "sex workers" but I know a disproportionate amount of women for whom that is or was the case.
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We don't all have to find the same things funny - gad, what a boring place the world would be, etc. I'm not much for satirical pieces, either, Rebecca.
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I relate, Michael. I often think I have the opposite of anorexia.
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at some point, you have to make a judgement about which choices are healthy and which ones aren't. it's never an easy judgement to make, the boundaries are rarely clear. and i would agree with deborah that societal pressure really hampers choice quite a bit
yes, yes and yes. And I would concur with Deborah about consent. Is all choice a good thing? Does consent always signify understanding? Does something being legal make it right? Loving this discourse, generalisations and all.
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I'd sort of be done with a thread on sexual politics that men didn't feel comfortable contributing to
Absolutely, Emma. And yes, little girls are buying into this stuff - or should I say, they see it all around them, they want it, the significant adults in their lives buy it for them. I've heard 3 year old girls, yes 3, talk about what they think is sexy. Some little girls will always be about loving pink and being girly, and that's okay. I just think we've swung too far the other way, personally.
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come on, IO - it's just getting interesting! Stuck at home with a fevery virus, there's nothing better for sweating it out - apart from vast doses of panadeine - than a good old debate.
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I'm more concerned about that than whether some woman's skirt is two inches shorter than some other woman thinks it should be.
I don't give a toss about how short an adult woman's skirt is. What I care about is that young women - as young as 4 - are buying into the same old shit. I agree with Heather that it's about the pendulum swinging to a certain extent, I just sometimes despair that it's 2007, and here we are mayhaps not as far along as we perhaps we think we should be. I don't agree, Russell, that the little girls at venues like The Big Day Out aren't chasing after boys like they used to. Of course they are, they're just less open about it. I don't have daughters, but I do have alot of nieces and I teach a lot of little girls. My niece is 9, and gets changed under a towel. That might not seem much, but isn't that the start of body shame? Like I said, the same old shit, it seems to me.
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Hell, at least they would be somewhat more characterful choices than yucky old John Banks and boring old Dick Hubbard. As for the rest of the candidates, Steve Crow, eww and I've never even heard of the rest of them. Bugger. Another mayoral election where you have to vote for people who haven't explained their policies, and even if they did, would we be interested? I'll stick with City Vision for the local body election like I always do, but why can't we have some interesting mayoral candidates?
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She looks at the modern cultural phenomena of woman are embracing raunch culture and wonders if it's a result of equality or, in fact, the opposite.
Quite, Robyn. Post modernist feminism? Sometimes I wonder what year we're living in, quite frankly. Little girls are wearing highly inappropriate clothing, sex still sells, and strippers are embracing their "power as women". Bollocks to all that. Sexual exploitation is still alive and well - obviously young women are more repressed than ever they were, and have stupidly bought into all the brainwashing.
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Oh Diana, queen of hearts. Lot of old bollocks, isn't it? I reiterate my comrade Tom's sentiments.