You know what’s weird about the video below? The media are more indignant about the video than they are about Mayor Bob Filner’s behavior! How dare people re-appropriate a sexist song to mock a creeper?
Wait, that’s not weird at all. This seems to be the standard line: when a powerful man is accused of sexual misconduct, the source must be discredited by any means.
For a brief moment, I thought you mean the green rectangular mutant pig that explodes in your face when you said creeper.
Then I saw the video and it makes much more sense now.
What a great video. Hilarious!
From the linked article: “[Blurred Lines] has chosen to demean women to get its message across.”
Is this projection? I don’t always recognize sexism (I come from a family of strong women – my mom was the first woman to buy a house in Iowa in her own name – so feminism always seemed reasonable and I didn’t think a out it much), so tell me if I’m missing something here. How is a video of professionally dressed women dancing demeaning?
As the hyperskeptical geniuses have been telling us, only the man’s word and precious reputation matter.
Well you see, when professional models dress in their business clothes they are asking for it. So Mayor Filner is just obliging them. The demeaning part is when they are shamelessly instructed to participate in a message that “no” means “no”.
Don’t you see? The original Blurred Lines was pretty blatantly sexist, and included naked women prancing about. Therefore, any video that uses the same tune, even if it deplores sexism and keeps its women participants fully clothed, is similarly sexist. Maybe because the viewers are all imagining the women naked.
I think this song is way better than the original.
PZ
Well, you can pretty much guarantee Filner is….
From the first link:
I’ll assume Ms. Libby isn’t familiar with O’Shaughnessy’s We Are the Music Makers:
Music and satire are excellent ways of disposing of terrible people in power–you get the public to laugh at them. It’s hard to be afraid (for varying values of “afraid”) of someone when you’re laughing at them and then it’s easy (or at least easier) to dump them out of office.
On his show, Conan O’Brien pointed out that Anthony Weiner’s antics have received far more media attention than Mayor Filner’s. Being a comedian, he took this as a slight on California and set out to demonstrate that his state’s sexual harassment scandal was more newsworthy since the allegations were more serious and Filner actually holds office.
If it weren’t for his jokes Filner would hardly be in the national media at all.
It’s hard to be afraid (for varying values of “afraid”) of someone when you’re laughing at them and then it’s easy (or at least easier) to dump them out of office.
So…you’re saying they need to cast Riddikulus?
Legitimate News is Serious Business. Libby was unavailable for further comment as she was busy trying to “balance” the story by finding a pro-harassment source to lob softball questions at.
New rules everyday. I hope I’m not supposed to imagine everyone naked.:-0
I have to point out that the difference between Bill Clinton and Bob Filner is that Clinton was only a marginal creeper and that some women testified that he understood the concept of consent quite clearly.
So a horndog like Bill can get some strange while mostly respecting consent, but Filner crossed the line many times. Maybe what Filner wanted all along was to get off on the creep effect.
I am reminded of an ex-gf. Her grandfather liked to watch her, but it was more important to let her know he watched her than to be able to continue watching her. I think it’s extremely creepy he got off watching her put her crotch against the pool circulation jets, but as long as he never told her, no harm to her. But he wanted to tell her, he wanted to shame her even if it meant he could never watch her again. Shaming her was better than watching her.
And consider recent studies of serial acquaintance rapists. They don’t rape because they can’t get the sex they want, they rape because rape is the sex they want.
Creepers are fine for mocking–and I can certainly see why the media, and any reasonable person with an interest in bucking sexism from a level-headed and consistent position would be as indignant about that video as about the subject of it.
It’s rich that the knights like Myers who are always tilting at the windmills of sexism (both legitimate and absurdly illusory) like self-righteous Don Quixotes, seem to miss the sexist flavor of above video, not to mention the blatant (and typical) sexist flavor of the original Blurred Lines, not to mention most rap/hip-hop/other urban pop video style.
Did you actually watch the video, Myers? Maybe you missed the standard fare of attractive model-type females prancing in video, playing into stereotypes even as they critique and condemn the subject asshole politician. Better start evaluating what you put in print and getting some consistency in your rants before you post.
“Seem to miss”? He’s mentioned it twice. Once in the OP and once in the comment thread.
Attractive “females” “prancing”? They’re women, dancing.
“Playing into stereotypes”–how, by being attractive and dancing?
Did you miss that the women in the vid represent young staffers? Did you miss their reactions to the politician character?
Explain why you think “attractive model-type females” “prancing” in a video automatically means “playing into stereotypes.” Be specific. What stereotypes, exactly, do you think the women in this video are playing into? Show your work.
Better still, quit pretending to care about sexism, quit making inept attempts at a “gotcha!” and just go away.