Thursday, February 28, 2013
ThoughtLeaf (Seth D. Michaels)
"The song, the reaction shots, and Seth MacFarlane's general attitude are all based on a commonplace and awful trope: that sex is a contest, and that men win and women lose when sex or nudity happens. It's an archaic, prudish, creepy concept that derives from twisted notions about female purity and women-as-property.
"MacFarlane thinks if he has seen a woman's breasts, he has won and she has lost, and he is now entitled to gloat about it... Even if your character is naked because she's being raped, it still amounts to a victory for Seth MacFarlane to have seen your breasts.
"MacFarlane presents the whole skit as something he shouldn't do, which makes it even worse, because he wants to get credit for the cleverness of his idea while also pretending it is beneath him. Which is completely candy-ass and cowardly.
"The sexuality-as-contest-between-men-and-women thing is bubbling underneath so much that is awful: rape culture, workplace harassment, slut-shaming, abuse-themed porn, pick-up artist culture, etc., etc. It sets aside women as a separate thing from a person, and makes them into an object that is 'ruined' by sex or nudity.
"In a culture with a healthy attitude about sex and sexuality, MacFarlane's song would have no sting at all, because nudity in film would be a completely different sort of animal... [T]here wouldn't be shame associated with having been naked on screen...
"We don't, yet, live in that culture."
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