2009 draws near…
All I can say is “good riddance”. I’ll probably do some epic wrap-up post, but I will save that for when I have more energy and desire to do so.
In the mean time, I want to talk about another thing that is near and dear to my black and twisted heart…
Rachel Cervantes has an interesting link up to a post on the dehumanization of women in photography. Not granted, some of those images are just outright fucking horrible no question, and I have never had much love for a great many of the PETA adds, however, I myself have been in a photo or two where “being seen as fully human” was so, not at all, on the agenda. And while the idea was not to make me look like an animal, but rather a…machine… I have come to the conclusion I have very, very mixed feelings on this whole issue and what, exactly photos that portray woman as something other than human might be saying.
Some of them, without question, are intended to humiliate and degrade and make the woman seem weak or defenseless. Others, however, while they may make her seem “other”, I am not so sure weak or any other such thing is the intent. I mean, sure, I’m not wearing a whole lot in that there photo and even less is even being done to “recognize my humanity”, but I am not sure I would want to run into me in a dark alley either, you know? And frankly, even Grace Jones in a Cage makes me wonder, because she looks like if anyone gets too close to that cage or she happens to get out??? She’ll rip them apart. I even get that on some level a lot of folk object to the idea of women being compared to animals or machines on principle because the it is denying their humanity…but well, humans are animals…and as far as the animal kingdom goes, we really kind of suck, so I think at times the comparison is not at all a bad one…
Then again, that’s just me. Being compared to apex predators and steel and gears will ALWAYS rate high in my book.
Thoughts on the matter, oh denizens of the Internet???
