Sexism at Rocky

[jrising]

Elaina is quitting the show for a variety of reasons, but the relevant one is sexism at Rocky. She convinced me that the problem is extensive, but I don't know how to respect those concerns and still encourage the individual creative talents and sexualities of our members and the boundary-pushing of the show. But I think we can find a way, and enjoy our work better for reaching for it.

Sexism has become a party-crashing term. People worry that if they acknowledge it, it will make every decision more difficult and force us to be more conservative. It shouldn't. Sexism itself-- the faulty societally-ingrained role preconceptions we have-- is inherently incredibly conservative and creativity-blocking. By harboring it, we cripple the sexual and individual potential of our members.

I think that the best solution to the sexism problem has to do with promoting an attitude at the show, not by making rules, and I think we can do it, because we're strong, freely-sexual people who want to promote sexual equality. This attitude would be characterized by honest recognition of how our actions and shows play out sexual stereotypes, and the constant search for what's beyond them.

One aspect of this attitude might be that men at Rocky would be encouraged (expected) to put themselves on sexual display as much as women. It will make us better men. Another is that we should consider the sexism-jostling potential of our preshows. We can get more out of challenging our audience than playing to its fantasies.

Next week: How to get the most out of a rape fantasy...

Comments

[jrising.livejournal.com]

That's the way I was thinking about it before, but I'm convinced that the expectations go deeper than that. If men are such boiling vats of sexual desire, and if Rocky is a place to let that all out, why is it mostly the women who are letting it out?

It's great that people can display themselves at Rocky and be appreciated for it, and feel attractive for themselves and make other people happy. But it's expected that most of the people doing that will be women.

[just-al.livejournal.com]

When I directed, I encouraged men as well as women on this front. I haven't been there in a while so maybe things have changed... Never did I overencourage or try to force anybody who wasn't comfortable doing so. In fact if you weren't comfortable being "on disply" I didn't want you on stage looking awkward. It's bad for you and gives off bad vibes to the audience who are there to have a good time, get a little crazy and perhaps step just a tiny bit out of the box for that 3 hours a week they go to rocky.

Besides, to put in bluntly, most of the men I knew at rocky didn't want to be looked at to express their sexuality, they wanted to have sex and lots of it.

There have been those men at the show who really like to strut their stuff, and they were never discouraged from doing so, in fact I'm all for equal time even though I don't go out of my way to find men strutting their stuff. The FBC has always been about entertaining the audience, at least in theory.