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Elizabeth’s Cultural Moment: Sexualized/Racialized Violence is Sexy (NOT!)
New York comedian/genius Sara Benincasa shared a link on The Facebook a couple days ago that exposed the misogyny of some dumbasses at comedy.com Someone thought it was funny to make a list of the "10 Hottest Women With Shiners " which started with Dana Perino, Bush's press secretary,
who took one for the team during the shoe incident, and included some graphic photos of women with black eyes. When some commenters failed to see how this was promoting domestic abuse, I decided it was my duty a an angry feminist to bring this to y’all.
First of all, it doesn’t matter how the women featured in the post got their black eye (even if by a wayward shoe directed at Dubya). Suggesting that injured women are “hot” makes a pretty blatant statement. Glamorizing or making fun of women with shiners, can only serve to make domestic abuse part of the cultural norm, and completely diminishes the horror of violence.
Seeing this reminded me of a fairly recent ad campaign that has been bothering me. Remy Martin’s “Things Are Getting Interesting” billboards feature two women, one black and one white involved in some kind of lesbo-erotic bondage play.

But even if we lesbos with some kind of analysis of sexism and racism are turned on by these billboards, we are totally naïve to think they were created with us in mind. I seriously doubt that Remy Martin is catering to their lesbian customer base. They are catering to the misogynist male gaze that is excited by women portrayed as sex slaves just for them. Furthermore, the black woman in the ad is featured with chains in her mouth (there is even a blown-up section featuring just her, with chains in her mouth) — hearkening back to a time of black slavery, the black woman’s body as object — as a laboring body and a hyper-sexualized body. WTF, Remy Martin, shame on you.
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yay choice!
see, cuz choice is something for ALL THE HUMANS!