Feminist Butt Shaming

Why is it that every time our national conversation, such as it is, turns to women’s issues… it’s always about se?. That is, it’s always about the female body, in all its curves and declivities. Those of us who make a habit of respecting women for their minds keep having our attention drawn to pussy hats and other parts of the female anatomy. Now, We are being invited to fix our gaze female butts covered and controlled by yoga pants.

You ask yourself why feminists feel a need to butt shame other women, but the question answers itself.

The topic was raised by New York Times editor, Honor Jones. As you might imagine her op-ed call for women to trade it their yoga pants for sweat pants, the better to avoid the dread male gaze, has attracted loads of feminist attention. The ladies at Jezebel, as feminist as anyone else, find it all to be ridiculous.  Other comments can be found at Pajamas Media. (via Maggie’s Farm)

This is what now passes as serious thinking on the Times op-ed page:

No one looks good in sweatpants. But that’s not the point. They’re basically just towels with waistbands. They exist for two activities: lounging and exercising — two activities that you used to be able to do without looking like a model in a P90X infomercial.

It’s not good manners for women to tell other women how to dress; that’s the job of male fashion photographers. Women who criticize other women for dressing hot are seen as criticizing women themselves — a sad conflation if you think about it, rooted in the idea that who we are is how we look. It’s impossible to have once been a teenage girl and not, at some very deep level, feel that.

In truth, it’s bad manners for anyone to tell women how to dress. Of course, it’s not the job of fashion photographers to do so. It’s the job of male fashion designers (most of whom are not straight) and fashion magazine editors (most of whom are not male.) And let’s not forget the fashion stylists… most of whom are also not straight men. Take that, male gaze.

And yet, Jones comes away with a blinding insight. Women can control the way men look at them, or better, whether men look at them. In her words:

I got on the elliptical. A few women gave me funny looks. Maybe they felt sorry for me, or maybe they were concerned that my loose pants were going to get tangled in the machine’s gears. Men didn’t look at me at all.

A woman has a choice. She is free to choose. She can dress exactly as she pleases. She can dress to be noticed by men or she can dress not to be noticed by men. Doesn’t this tell us that women exercise more power than they think when it comes to attracting the male gaze?

Happily, Jezebel includes an appropriately modest visual image that will allow us all to make up our own minds on the topic:

 

 Aimee Lutkin offers an astute commentary:

At least once a year, the Internet erupts into a wild argument about whether or not it’s okay for women to wear leggings. Heads roll, teeth gnash, and Twitter runs blue with mentions. The first leggings skirmish of 2018 began with an opinion piece from the only paper that rolls itself up to be used as a shit-stirrer: the New York Times.

Honor Jones titled her piece “Why Yoga Pants Are Bad For Women,” but it should probably be called “Why Yoga Pants Are Bad For Honor Jones But This Article is Good For Traffic.” On a cold day, Jones chose to wear sweatpants to the gym instead of one of the pairs of yoga pants she admits to owning. Jones claims that after getting on the elliptical in this cursed drawstring leg sack, women gave her “funny looks.” While I was not there, I am almost entirely certain this is not true.

Lutkin concludes:

First of all, if Jones wants to see a firm ass that has survived its 30-year shelf life, she can DM me. Secondly, don’t write a a half-baked take on leggings, throw on some body-shaming icing and an ageist cherry, then serve it to me like dessert. It’s trash bait, and you know it!

I imagine that this is what a cat fight looks like… but, truth be told, I am only imagining.