The Perfect Woman

I came across this photo while doing research for the presentation I give to schools, conferences and youth groups.

And I can't decide which is more disturbing:  That a woman would do this to herself thinking it's fun, and hysterical and good for a laugh....

Or that someone has posted it online with the caption "The Perfect Woman?"

Comments

[Adele]

What gets me down the most is how women participate in misogyny. The fact that someone--presumably--wrote "The Perfect Woman?" underneath is boring to me: it's just another countless example of sexism; however, like you said, why would she participate? Why would she think this is good for a laugh? Doesn't she understand the joke's on her? It's like when a womn says "Oh no way, I'm not a feminist" and it's true that she might just be afraid of the "f-word", but still, it just makes me think that she doesn't care about herself, and is aligning herself with a misogynstic, homophobic mass culture led by men.

[Adele]

*--a man, presumably--

[Ran Barton]

The scholar in me felt compelled to look at the image, and if I may say so, I think the beer taps are edited in, and not present in real life.

Even if they weren't edited in, I can see this taking place as a moment of adolescent idiocy, in which the woman and the man had no deeper sense of meaning than the basic joke.

Any man who has lived with a woman who is nursing will tell you that it changes the way one thinks of breasts, and (assuming the woman has a sense of humor) adds a peculiar new dimension to how the woman and her breasts are viewed while the nursing is taking place. That may not be what this photo was meant to represent, but I'm just saying a picture like this does not look to me to be purely misogynistic.

[Audrey]

Good point on the photo shopping. I actually didn't notice that originally cause I was so hoppin' mad... but in some ways, I'm actually more distressed now... Because the likelihood that a woman photoshopped the image to appear the way is does is pretty much slim to none.

So that means that some guys out there probably did it...perhaps mostly as a joke, but then again, probably with some truth buried in there somewhere.

Not misogynist? Then WHAT is it? Just fun and games? Photoshopped or not, it seems pretty disrespectful to me... and even more troubling if the young woman's choice/agency is taken out of the discussion....

[Marjorie]

Well, I would definitely have to cast my vote more towards misogynistic . . . and also very, very lame. I'm so glad you posted this because it's really amazing to me that someone would find...what? humor? in this. Or have taken the time to photoshop this together? It's so very stupid.

Ran--I see what you're talking about with the idea of nursing humor--in all the nursing that's gone on around my house for the last few years, there's definitely been tons of jokes and humor about it. Some really funny stuff happens when you're nursing. But in this picture I, personally, really don't see the warmth that usually goes along with that kind of humor. It's so much more about objectification.

[Grace]

I found this link on the Feministing group on Facebook.

http://tastybooze.com/2007/10/anyone-else-thirsty/

Except this doesn't appear to be photoshopped. The comments are creepy as well (especially the "is that a wedding dress?" one).

[Perfect Woman Project]

The Perfect Woman...

I'm doing a project to question "girl culture, body image, celebrity hype and more..."

Check it out: www.perfectwomanproject.com

I'm asking men to submit their idea of the perfect woman for them... so far the submissions are pretty interesting. It seems that the media focuses on things you can do to improve your looks, while these men are more interested in the whole person.

Thanks,
-Perfect Woman