“What women look like is not simply a matter of individual choice”

Shadow Self by Alison Jardine: @alisonjardine on Twitter.

On Friday, “Robyn Doolittle: Sexiest Sexy Lady vs. Bad And Ugly Feminists” was the topic of discussion on Global News’ morning show. This conversation not only shows the way in which choice feminism/individualism/neoliberalism has turned feminism into a big dumb (but sexy!) joke, but also how deeply stupid news anchors are.

Read the rest of this post at Feminist Current.

A few comments:

A favorite tactic of men is to accuse feminists of being ugly.  That accusation has kind of a point though.  An ugly woman finds out so much sooner what the world really thinks of women.   Because a woman’s looks are everything, she has no social capital.  She is treated badly and justifiably hurt and angry because of it. She has nothing to lose by becoming a feminist.

A pretty woman is easily hooked on social acceptance,  more addictive than crack.   She gets plenty of goodies from being visually pleasing to men;  preferential treatment when getting hired and increased access to male-owned resources, for example. Pretty privilege is real.  It isn’t real power so much as it is increased access to resources, but it is having influence and options that ugly people don’t have.  It is little wonder so many conventionally attractive women become invested in patriarchal mores.   Why resist,  and deal with angry men and all the other crap society throws at women who don’t comply? These women still want to feel like feminists, though, so they mislabel their beauty compliance as feminism.  And the male-dominated media is only too happy to give them a platform.  The more a woman upholds the patriarchy, the more likely she is to get favorable media coverage.

Actual feminism usually involves stuff that makes men uncomfortable.