Comments on: Don’t get in bed with the Mothers’ Union http://zetkin.net/bed-with-mothers-union/ a notebook Wed, 18 Apr 2012 13:02:48 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 By: Jenn http://zetkin.net/bed-with-mothers-union/comment-page-1/#comment-497 Jenn Wed, 04 May 2011 11:19:35 +0000 http://zetkin.net/?p=335#comment-497 You're completely right. I'd go as far as to say 'sexualisation' is a nonsense word, at least in many of the contexts it's used in (for instance, dismayed cries of 'they're sexualising women!'). What feminists in fact are contending with is that women, in that they are gendered individuals, inhabit a status halfway between person and commodity. It's the commodification of sex, as well as all other basic forms of human interaction, that we should be / are against. What is bad about 'sex sells' is the 'sells' part. No part of what we are against contains the word 'sex'. Whenever the feminist movement (i.e. Dworkin and McKinnon and more recent examples) has gone down that route, it has set back the cause of sex equality by several decades. Plus, these Mothers' Union guys aren't helping their case with syntax errors like 'dad’s only treat'. I think they meant 'dads-only treat', which is quite different, since that wouldn't look like an attempt to reassure the kids that dad won't be asking for anything else (hey, their innuendo, not mine). If anything, calling it the Mothers' Union is pretty sexist, dealing as it does with the ideological side of mothers' care for the kids they have produced, and assuming that dad has no stake in this 'sexualisation' deal whatsoever (hmm, further creepiness). You’re completely right. I’d go as far as to say ‘sexualisation’ is a nonsense word, at least in many of the contexts it’s used in (for instance, dismayed cries of ‘they’re sexualising women!’). What feminists in fact are contending with is that women, in that they are gendered individuals, inhabit a status halfway between person and commodity. It’s the commodification of sex, as well as all other basic forms of human interaction, that we should be / are against. What is bad about ‘sex sells’ is the ‘sells’ part. No part of what we are against contains the word ‘sex’.

Whenever the feminist movement (i.e. Dworkin and McKinnon and more recent examples) has gone down that route, it has set back the cause of sex equality by several decades.

Plus, these Mothers’ Union guys aren’t helping their case with syntax errors like ‘dad’s only treat’. I think they meant ‘dads-only treat’, which is quite different, since that wouldn’t look like an attempt to reassure the kids that dad won’t be asking for anything else (hey, their innuendo, not mine).

If anything, calling it the Mothers’ Union is pretty sexist, dealing as it does with the ideological side of mothers’ care for the kids they have produced, and assuming that dad has no stake in this ‘sexualisation’ deal whatsoever (hmm, further creepiness).

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