MEDIAWATCH: Verity Johnson doesn’t get the feminism she was promised
Verity Johnson isn’t happy with the puritanical call out cancel culture post MeToo feminism she’s ended up with…
Unsexy is the new sexy at Victoria’s Secret
I’ve written before on how you can’t go into Bras N Things right now without getting a motivational podcast from a pair of hot pants. Sex toys are being rebranded as “self-love aids” by Cotton On. Fashion has rejected ass-hugging skinny jeans in favour of shapeless, sack-style Mom jeans. Sexy brands are frantically rebranding in a sexless way, for fear that wanting to be hot is now somehow passé.
They’re partly reacting to the chilly breeze of #sexnegativityblowing across the edges of popular culture; marked by the resurgence in popularity of extreme feminist authors like Andrea Dworkin, stars like Billie Eilish who pioneered non-sexy chic, and the fact that young people are having less sex than previous generations. Compare that to the Sex and the City era, and today feels surprisingly… regressive.
But while sex negativity may be dripping into the back of society’s mind, it’s not the whole picture. The backlash against sexy isn’t really coming from women’s desires; we aren’t suddenly waking up and thinking, I want to feel as glamorous as a tea bag that’s been left in the sink plughole overnight. (And interestingly, this is what an unimpressed Twitter user said when VS dropped its new look.)
The problem is that we still want to be sexy, but companies don’t want to sell sexy any more.
The new VS look is indicative of a post #metoo sector, and society, which is so scared of getting sensuality wrong that now it just won’t sell it. It’s the same fear bubbling up beneath this new, puritanical popular prudery.
God. That’s depressing. This wasn’t supposed to be the point of #metoo. It was supposed to be about stopping those in power from sexually harassing and abusing those who work for them.
…current woke dogma states anyone suggesting heteronormative sex might in any way shape or form be pleasurable is probably a sex offender.
I think culturally between men and women we are where we were in the 1980s with men and children.
Allegation after allegation of men molesting boys from the Church to the Scouts saw a cultural move in the 1980s which told men they shouldn’t be any where near children and if they were, they were automatically questionable.
Over this time you see vast numbers of men leave work where they interacted with children and men privately warned each other that they should never put themselves in any situation with children where an allegation could exist.
Even today you see the echos of that social change, and I think you have that between the sexes now.
Millennials are having less sex because they are terrified of the other with a society sending never ending mixed messages on sex plus the nightmare of micro aggression policing and the ability to make any accusation online in real time…
Jimmy went out clubbing one night and was hanging out with a girl. They were both drunk and had taken drugs and ended up back at his flat. She got into his bed, took off all her clothes, fooled around for a bit and then decided she’d had enough (as is a woman’s prerogative) and left. Jimmy can’t remember exactly what happened. He blacked out.
The next thing he knew the girl’s male flatmate from upstairs was at the door of his room – and beat him up. The girl said he had assaulted her when she had said no. Jimmy can’t remember what happened. He feels terrible about all of it.
…together this makes for a toxic cocktail of anger, confusion, anger, hurt, anger and more anger.
If you talk to men privately about the post MeToo world there is a real fear of women now and the total removal of having any interaction at all from mentoring to socialising.
It’s considered safer to segregate on gender lines, which suggests the only winners as Verity is finding out in the gender wars is that no one wins.
The blistering distance between gatekeeper media and the overwhelming masses during the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard defamation case cemented into place a cultural backlash to MeToo that threatens to erase much of the progress we’ve achieved.
The overturn of Roe vs Wade reminds us what is at stake.
All hail our new ‘genderless good – heteronormative sex bad’, Brave New World.
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The natural progression of identarian beliefs. Narrow down the frame until the aperture is effectively closed.
Vive la revolution!!
Please, please, please let 2023 be a year of social and political change!
Spot on Fantail, the revolution will not be criticised.
“The problem is that we still want to be sexy, but companies don’t want to sell sexy any more. It’s the same fear bubbling up beneath this new, puritanical popular prudery.”
If there is a recognition that this dynamic exists, what does it say about identity based power dynamics in modern society, especially the dimension of sex and gender? What does it say about the credibility of woke neo-marxist cultural versions of conflict theory? Ironically this is likely to reestablish the social norms of chastity and traditional marriage (see ‘tradwife’ movement) with a distain for sex positivity.
No doubt 8.5 wave woke feminism will formulate a satisfying narrative of how this is oppression of female sexuality, an example of systemic sexism with the explicit assumption that it benefits men. Instead of a predictable outcome of activism based on narrowly defined equity politics rather than genuine egalitarianism. It also chimes with the line in 1984 “There was a direct, intimate connection between chastity and political orthodoxy.”.
I confess a degree of Schadenfreude when woke activists are utterly successful yet get the opposite of what they want, typically the exact outcome they claim to be fighting against. This comes from a reliable inability to imagine second and third order consequences, boomerang theory in action.
“The problem is that we still want to be sexy”
I thought the lesson of contemporary woke feminism is that female empowerment comes from acting like stereotypical men. Women being sexy encourages objectification so perpetuates male oppression of female bodies. The twitter cancellation mob should be going for Verity and her internalised misogyny any moment now.
The new VS [Victoria Secret femme underwear designs] look is indicative of a post #metoo sector, and society, which is so scared of getting sensuality wrong that now it just won’t sell it. It’s the same fear bubbling up beneath this new, puritanical popular prudery….
If you talk to men privately about the post MeToo world there is a real fear of women now and the total removal of having any interaction at all from mentoring to socialising….
All hail our new ‘genderless good – heteronormative sex bad’, Brave New World.
(Excerpts from the post.) Women are encouraged to be demanding even bitchy – so people in general take them seriously and give them what they think is their due. But this is based on what middle class women with elevated opinions about being deserving have been encouraged by ambitious secondary schools to be excellent.
You can’t be top or perfect all the time and the desire to compete, excel, lead and be right goes against the previous idea of being able to work well in a team, get on with others. If you can do that you might also get on with the boss and negotiate a wage rise:https://newsfounded.com/newzealand/asking-for-a-raise-my-boss-laughed-in-my-face/
Moral outrage sparks big fires at times, hurts, burns and doesn’t allow for humanity to be non-conforming at times and to choose odd and kinky approaches. It’s all what we think of things, and when rules and guidelines are set up that don’t allow for being human, it’s easy to be Wrong. Then to be vilified for it as Julian Assange in Sweden was.
But the lethal trio is: puritanical popular prudery. Together they will wipe out pleasant, enjoyable, relaxed society with occasional extras and true love between sexes which can still be found – somewhere.
Millennials don’t go to Victoria’s Secrets for sexy underwear – and I don’t think anyone would go to Cotton On for sexy. Maybe I should get my 25 year old to send Verity her got- to company’s website. As for the rest of it I say this simple thing: talk to your kids honestly about sex all their life and teach them to be themselves, not worry about what everyone else is doing (again – all their life)
“The girl said he had assaulted her when she had said no. Jimmy can’t remember what happened. He feels terrible about all of it.” Awww didums he may have raped someone but we should feel sorry for him because he got drunk and doesn’t remember. This is not woke to expect people to have some control over what happens to them.
Yep, this is Playboy now folks:
https://www.insidehook.com/daily_brief/arts-entertainment/playboy-first-gay-male-cover-star-bretman-rock
Soooooo sexy! Can’t wait to see the centrefold.