Remember the douche-festival who created the ‘Hot Chicks of Wall Street’ tumblr and video?
Well, surprise, surprise! The dude (Steven Greenstreet) who thought that pointing out all the ‘hot chicks’ protesting at Occupy Wall Street was a great way to celebrate the “dedication and political strength” of women, is claiming that he has ‘empowered’ the women and refuses to apologize!
BECAUSE…wait for it….
He’s an ally, women! So shut up and listen.
You know how to tell if a man is an ally to feminists?
1) He doesn’t refuse to apologize when called out on sexism
2) He doesn’t defend said sexism by claiming it is ‘empowering’
3) He also doesn’t defend said sexism by claiming he chose to use sexist language because “it might catch more attention”
4) He doesn’t accuse feminists who call him out on his douchey behaviour of just ‘missing the point’. No, no, Steven, we totally get the point. You think sexism is fine and you think feminists ‘just don’t get’ how awesome sexism actually is (for dudes).
5) He doesn’t go with his ‘gut feeling’ when his ‘gut feeling’ tells him to go with ‘hot chicks’
And finally, most important of all:
6) He does not, not ever, try to throw his weight around by claiming that I WAS YOUR ALLY AND YOU’VE PUSHED ME AWAY WITH YOUR FEMINISMMMMM. *cry*
You are SO clearly not our ally, Steven. And we don’t want you as one. We don’t need men like you as allies, hokay? We need men who listen/hear. Not men who defend sexism on the grounds that it was just a ‘gut feeling’ or because it would get attention. We all know sexism gets attention. But yeah, you’re right, you are a marketing genius.
OH but OHHHH, are you SO “disappointed that these women are the face of feminism”? Do you think that is “such a shame”? Really? You know what feminists think is “such a shame” and do you know what feminists are “disappointed” in? That YOU, Steven, have anything at all to do with a progressive movement such as Occupy Wall Street and yet you are not progressive at all! You are just another entitled white man who absolutely refuses to believe that anyone could possibly have a perspective that is both different from your own and valid, all at the same time.
Tags: Douchebags, feminism, male allies, Occupy Wall Street, sexism, Steven Greenstreet
Tweet
Especially when said opinion is coming from women and/or is a critique of an action of his–questioning his privilege (to use and objectify women)! And then he tries to co-opt our language too (as is nothing new, all exploiters do it from the porn/stitution industry on down) and use it against us. Hey, can we turn the record over? Cuz I’m REALLY sick of hearing this track over and over and over and over and over again.
I find the video paternalistic in the way it videos the women in slow motion and with that patronizing “Hallmark commercial” background music, often just focusing on body parts, only smiling women….it reminds me more of a colonizer’s video of an “exotic” land or perhaps “exotic” animals than anything else. The video speaks for itself and it certainly isn’t taking these women seriously. It’s funny, every time I go down to OWS I talk to women who are serious, talking about serious issues, women who are angry, women who have a lot to say. Not just slo-mo smiley faces. I bet Greenstreet is the kind of guy who tells women to “smile”. That is clearly the only way he tolerates them as human beings–just look at his response to the unsmiling women reacting to his video. And you know, if the intent was what he claims, the simple truth is that he never would have named it that because he would have had respect for his subjects. But he clearly didn’t. They were just objects to him, for him to use to garner publicity to his own name. That’s obvious. His mendacity highlights itself. Seems like Greenstreet, like so many exploitative people, simply wanted to have his cake and eat it too: maybe we can pass it off simultaneously as a Hallmark commercial AND a Hot Chicks ogle fest, that way we’ll get twice as many viewers. Nothing says ‘feminist ally’ better than using women for personal advancement. And the idea that OWS needed greenstreet’s video for publicity? Yeah, that’s rich.
“They alienated a once-ally of theirs” Wow, so he’s just going to remove himself as an ally because some women called him out on his privilege? Good riddance then sugarcakes! It’s amazing how once these men realize being Pro Woman doesn’t give them cookies that they stomp and opt out of it with their arms folded. These are women with real opinions,thoughts, and feelings and some of them have been reduced to Eye Candy from some Librul Dude.
I think the occupation movement as a whole is intentionally and unintentionally sexist not just individuals and groups within it. The primary focus is on anti-corporatism. Feminist critiques of capitalism circle around it on the circumference trying to engage the centre. Other forms of domination like sexism (as others have mentioned) are equally and inseparably related to economic injustice. But because pornography, prostitution, sexual harrassment, rape and other kinds of organized violence against women are not sytematically directed at men, these types of oppression are not the “reason to be” of the occupation. Patriarchy predates and shapes capitalism. So does racism, homophobia, speciesism, classism… which are also male fabrications. In a white male imperialist society, capitalism arises as the most urgent crisis because it harms men, not just women. 9/11 was the same. In other words, will we ever see an uprising that elicits as much support for the deoccupation or decolonization of women’s bodies, aboriginal bodies and lands and nonhuman animals’ bodies as the one we have? Moreover, will we have a revolution that includes their entanglement in which anti-capitalism doesn’t have ascendancy?
Just even the score by creating a “Hot dudes of OWS” blog and video. Then the objectification can go both ways. I mean we all objectify people we are attracted to all the time anyway right? Lust and respect are not mutually exclusive.
You know what annoys me so much is that plain women, old women, won’t get microphones put in front of their faces. This is why this is so sexist to me.
If I went to a slutwalk protest in my jeans and a cardigan, which is what I usually wear and what I could easily be raped in, no one is going to interview me, but they will probably interview the transsexual in the fishnets.
When I look at photos of young feminists from the 70′s what I’m most struck by is the fact that they don’t look like they’re cultivating an image, their hair is long and unstyled, their clothes are practical and they’re wearing no make up, we’ve come so far from this, it is all so visual now.