Sexism at Rocky
Oct. 31st, 2006 05:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jrisingElaina 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...
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...
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no subject
Date: 2006-11-02 01:05 am (UTC)If this were a question of simple fact or opinion, your division would make sense. This isn't a question of whether something is blue or red, or whether it should be red instead of blue. Our assumptions about the situation help define the options. For example, I attended essentially every preshow meeting for halloween, and I didn't notice anything sexist about them until Elaina pointed them out. But seeing the show again yesterday, I had to admit that to any outsider's eyes, there are parts that are blaringly sexist.
I think what people are responding to is much more complicated. Sexism is an abstract concept; it doesn't *really* exist in the world, but it's a useful model for an effect we can have. No one disputes that it's mostly women putting themselves on display, or that people have been offended. But we get to decide if we want it to be mostly women, and how we want to go about offending people. This isn't about sensitivity or standards of gender equality. It's about what we want to be, and whether what we want is what we have.
I think people are responding to the word "sexism" more than anything else, and the worry that that word is somehow going to make us have less fun a time at Rocky. It shouldn't do that at all. Thinking about sexism is just an excuse for encouraging our men to be more outwardly sexy, and for coming up with preshows that present real sexuality instead of traditional sex roles.