“There is a shot of [Morris] pushing the iron to my face and ironing my crotch. … That seems more like female empowerment.” (source)THIS is where I reached my limit. Okay, go ahead, do a photo shoot glamorizing domestic abuse. It makes you--pardon my French--an insensitive assface, but go right ahead and claim that you "didn't know" that people would be upset by the photos. We could maybe, maybe buy it and assume that you are actually just a colossal idiot instead of a giant tool. And then you go and spout off crap like this.
Look, before we go any further, I'm not trying to trivialize the complete and utter tastelessness of these photos in regards to domestic abuse. They're gross and twisted and, to be completely honest, not even that good. I don't consider myself a photography connoisseur or anything, but I can say unequivocally that pretty much anyone with a model, some makeup, and a white background could have taken these pictures. Seriously, I could go recreate them in my living room right now. (But I won't.)
So I'll admit, I was already disinclined to meet Shields's defense with anything more than an eye-roll and a snort of disdain / disbelief / disgust / dis-all-of-the-above. But then he decided to work the feminist angle. And I was puzzled, to say the least.
So let me examine this and make sure I've got it right. Violence is "empowering" as long as it's a woman inflicting it on a man? WHAT? Oh, okay. That makes total sense. It's abuse when she's sporting a black eye, but when he walks into work on Monday with iron-shaped burns all over him, everyone goes, "Gee, his wife/ girlfriend / female roommate sure is EMPOWERED!" That's sick. If that's what female empowerment looks like, no wonder feminism faces such stiff resistance.
Look, I get it. No one wants an angry woman coming after him wielding an iron. I'm not debating that. But herein lies the problem: the world basically thinks of all feminists as iron-wielding crazies, hellbent on beating men into submission. That is not, nor has it ever been, the goal of feminism. The goal of feminism is fair and equal treatment for women and men. It's right there in the definition of feminism in the ever-infallible Oxford English Dictionary:
Feminism: the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men.See? Nothing in there about compulsory man hating. Nowhere does it say that I have to earn my empowerment through any UFC-type battle scenario. Which is lucky for me, as the extent of my workout for the last three months has been power-walking down the street and playing WiiFit. Also, my only iron is travel-size and barely heats up past room temperature, which means it'd be pretty useless in the crotch-burning arena. But I digress.
Let me come right out and say it. I'm a feminist, and I am proud to be one. You can say I'm overreacting, that I just like complaining, that I want attention, but I don't see it that way. All I'm doing is standing up for myself, my mom, my grandmothers, my sister, my best friend. I'm standing up for my friends who won't stand up for themselves. I'm standing up for my little cousins, who are too young to know what sexism is but will someday probably experience it firsthand.
And that's why this bothers me so much. Deserving and expecting fair and equal treatment is not the same as assault and battery, and for one petty, fame-seeking little man to publicly declare that the two are basically the same thing is wrong. Generations' worth of work have gone into the feminist movement. Both women and men have devoted their lives to fighting for female equality. And here comes Tyler Shields with his ridiculously warped ideas on empowerment, ignoring fifty-plus years of dedication, diligence, and struggle. And we're supposed to be what, thankful?
Luckily for him, I think he'll find most feminists prefer blogging to iron attacks.
