In anomalous zones, society tolerates departures from fundamental norms. ... The customers of prostitutes "could experience the suspension of the values theoretically governing outside the district at any time through an easy exercise of mobility." Rather than view the spaces of prostitution as spaces of subversion, I focus on what such temporary excursions on the part of the customers enable. Their temporary abandonment of societal norms does not weaken these men's claims of respectability, but, rather, it puts the mark of degeneracy on the women in prostitution and thus reaffirms the men's position within the dominant group. That is, once men leave the space of degeneracy, having survived it unscathed, they return to respectability. In this way, prostitution reaffirms not only the hierarchies of gender but also of class, race, and sexual orientation.

-Sherene Razack

Race, Space, and Prostitution: The Making of the Bourgeois Subject

The Body

 

This outright hatred of so called ‘fatness’ enables an all-out war on the body.

This relentless war demands the complete disconnection of the body and the soul.

At birth these two were one, but, acclimating within a body perfectionist culture forces the soul to vilify the body.

The body, once at peace with the soul, is turned into the enemy being fought.

 

Once the body is twisted into an object of disgust, the soul begins the attempt to control itself by fragmenting into shards.  

This splitting of the soul is unavoidable as control mandates the mind to divide into a ‘me’ that’s being controlled and an ‘I’ that’s doing the controlling.

This leaves the body disconnected from the soul and the soul fragmented in pieces.

We, as human beings, have been fragmented by our culture, left to feel nothing but abhorrence for the body, which merely becomes a vessel holding a ruptured soul of nothingness.

 

This body warfare will always end in devastating losses as it is an endless struggle in a culture that inherently contradicts itself.

Capitalism demands souls to accept a narrow definition of body perfection in order to make souls feel inept and buy more to perfect the body, but Capitalism also necessitates the ceaseless consumption of goods, including the great amount of goods we ingest into the body.

In this Capitalist World-System, the soldiers at war with their bodies 

Will. Never. Stop. Fighting. 

because peace commands a complete revolution of the system.

Gail Dines on Pornography & Pop Culture

Gail Dines talks in this lecture about the pornography industry.  She begins  by talking about the history of pornography, and Playboy and Hustler's begining in Capitalist America.

She continues on to talk about our image culture, where stereotypes of femininity and masculinity are continually bombarded upon us through magazines, movies, celebrities, music, etc.  She speaks of Jessica Simpson, who has become the laughing stalk of American media (just as Goldie Hawn and Meg Ryan were before her).  She states that when we laugh at her, we laugh at every woman because it reinforces those very stereotypes about women. 

Food For Though: The Reader Inscribed in the Text: When you look at an image of a person in a magazine, who is the presumed spectator of the image?  Who is the image geared to?  What is the image trying to communicate?  She then talks about the "fuck me" look; this image is bombarded upon men in our culture, and it is what this image to the right illustrate.

She then goes on to talk about the glamorization of the "perfect"  woman for men in our culture, shifting from the "perfect housewife" image to the "slut, brainless" image of women.  She speaks about Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Anna Nicole Smith, and Pamela Anderson who are given stardom but then spitted out by our culture for being "whores" and useless.

Lastly, she speaks about the porn industry and the glamorization of violence against women within the porn industry.  Gail Dines ends the lecture by stating that she isn't against porn itself but the culture that is perpetuated within the porn industry, and I couldn't agree more.

Update:  Here is Gail Dines website

Ani DiFranco

Ani DiFranco is a musician and a feminist whose songs center around politics, feminism, religion, racism, sexism, etc.  I highly recommend checking her out.  Her music is so diverse lyrically it's almost unbelievable.  She's really talented.

Songs I recommend:
Not a Pretty Girl
Blood in the Boardroom
Shameless
Talk to Me Now
Origami
Adam and Eve
Manhole
As Is

Both Hands
Untouchable Face
Dilate
'Tis of Thee
Serpentine
Fuel

 Also I recommend a song by Rilo Kiley called Silver Lining and No Man's Woman by Sinead O'Connor

Media Education Foundation

Here you can find many GREAT documentaries for FREE (other than a slightly annoying watermark on the films...).  The full length videos are offered as previews for purchase considerations of colleges.  While the semitransparent watermark "For Preview Only" is embedded over the films, I highly suggest checking them out. 

Media Education Foundation is committed to exploring how the media (particularly advertising such as TV commercials, Magazine ads, and the like) affect our culture.  There are several categories of films to chose from including gender, politics, race, health, and commercialism.

I highly suggest Killing Us Softly 4, Micheal Kimmel on Gender, and Codes of Gender found under the the category of gender.  I also recommend Red Moon under the category of health.  All of these are great for some interesting conversation about gender issues.  

Here is Micheal Kimmel on Gender from youtube without the watermark:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-rpbihTvlY&feature=PlayList&p=14C11A9B6693D5C6&playnext_from=PL&index=11

Here's Killing Us Softly 3 on youtube, although I highly recommend Killing Us Softly 4 too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svpMan9cWyo&feature=PlayList&p=14C11A9B6693D5C6&playnext_from=PL&index=9