No publication is complete without an occasional inclusion of the latest in the fashion world. I most likely would not have stumbled on this had it not shown up under a “rape culture” alert I subscribe to. Rape culture is a term that showed up five or so years ago, and it means a society in which the abuse and exploitation of women by men not only exists but is encouraged and supported and, by extension, a society in which males hold almost all of the power and privilege.
This has resulted in many things--none of them, as far as I can see, good. One is the rise of a militant type of feminism that seeks not to promote
women—a noble goal—but to belittle men. Another is the insanity that is
sweeping U.S. college campuses, one that is resulting in an accusation of
sexual assault being treated the same as a conviction and any insistence that the
accused receive due process being derided as coming from “rape apologists” and
as proof of male privilege and the existence of this rape culture--a circular argument if ever I heard it.
But what does that have to do with penises on dresses, you ask? Let’s start with the fact that the fashion collection is named, “My pussy, my choice.” Add to that a major motif running through much of the collection—“cartoonish penises in transparent latex and sparkly silhouette.”
And the reason for this…questionable…choice of design and accessory? “ ‘It's like playing the penis game,’ Namilia [the designers] said of its playful use of a symbol of male power. ‘The more often and louder you say it, the more harmless it becomes.’ ”
A comment made in reference to a bra constructed of
representations of male genitalia—one on each side—reveals what this is all
about. “Filling out sparkly 2-D testicles with breasts is a brilliant power
play.”
Power. Make men's most obvious physical difference from women a fashion accessory, reduce it to a meaningless pattern on a piece of clothing or, even better, something in which to insert a female body part, and men themselves are negated to something weak and laughable and pathetic.
Feminism
was about equality. It was embraced by those of both sexes as something whose
day was long overdue. This feminism is about power. It is the opposite of
equality. It allows no equality. If you question that, imagine the fall-out if
a designer of men’s clothing used the pictorial representation of breasts and
vaginas to decorate shirts.
Actually,
you don’t have to imagine. Just remember back a few short months. A brilliant
scientist, Matt Taylor, instrumental in the success of an important ESA
mission, had his career virtually destroyed because he wore, on camera, a shirt
that portrayed female film stars wearing bathing suits. Bathing suits.
He was bashed and ridiculed and demeaned by bloggers and tweeters across a wide
spectrum of individuals. Feminists demanded his resignation if not his head on
a platter. One male blogger with a wide readership wrote, “If he [Taylor] wore
that shirt around female colleagues it was automatic sexual harassment anywhere
in the US, and completely disrespectful to any woman in the room...."
