{"id":7568,"date":"2009-03-10T03:45:19","date_gmt":"2009-03-10T08:45:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=7568"},"modified":"2010-12-23T03:59:51","modified_gmt":"2010-12-23T08:59:51","slug":"spoofing-sex-symbolism-for-boys-only","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2009\/03\/10\/spoofing-sex-symbolism-for-boys-only\/","title":{"rendered":"Spoofing Sex Symbolism: For Boys Only"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mercedes DeM. sent in this Vanity Fair<\/em> cover<\/a> (for April 2009)…<\/p>\n

\"pu1p3ehapkkz1o5pwwcpbyn5o1_5001\"<\/p>\n

…spoofing this previous cover<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"ap_vanity_fair420x300\"<\/p>\n

The women on the original cover are sex symbols.\u00a0 We should expect\u00a0gratuitous nudity.\u00a0 The men in the spoof, in contrast, are comedians and so a direct comparison, arguing that men’s bodies are more off-limits, would be misguided.\u00a0 (Not that I think an argument couldn’t be made, but I don’t think this set of images supports it.)<\/p>\n

Nor do I think that these images support the idea that we’re more accepting of variation in men’s bodies than women’s.\u00a0 If that were so, I think the men would actually be nude.\u00a0 Instead they’re covered up.\u00a0 My sense is that they’re covered up because their bodies are, according to\u00a0rigid cultural standards,\u00a0gross.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0The relevant comparison, I think, would be between the spoof cover and\u00a0a similar spoof cover featuring non-skinny women<\/em> in nude body suits.\u00a0 The fact that the former is funny points to how men are allowed to be many things.\u00a0 They can be good-looking and fit, OR they can be not-so-good-looking, but\u00a0rich, nice,\u00a0or funny.\u00a0 And we still like them.\u00a0 There is no disdain for these men.\u00a0 We may even like them MORE because they’re willing to pose in ways that reveal how imperfect their bodies are.<\/p>\n

I think we would be unlikely to see a similar cover featuring women, even women comedians, because women are allowed to be rich, nice, or funny but they must ALSO be good-looking and fit.\u00a0 A cover featuring chubby women would JUST be gross.\u00a0 It wouldn’t be gross and funny.<\/p>\n

Being good-looking and fit is ONE way for men to be admire in our society.\u00a0 Being good-looking and fit is a REQUIREMENT for women to be admired, no matter what else she brings to the table.<\/p>\n

I asked myself: in the entire history of Vanity Fair<\/em>, would we\u00a0be able to find three women with a similar body type to those men on the cover?<\/p>\n

I found two, both featuring Roseanne Barr (images here<\/a> and here<\/a>):<\/p>\n

\"capture1\"<\/p>\n

\"roseanne20vanity20fair20cover\"<\/p>\n

The covers feature a comedian who is well-known for being successful\u00a0while\u00a0bucking\u00a0social expectations for women.\u00a0 She’s the exception to the rule that proves the rule.\u00a0 Or is she?\u00a0 I certainly think so.\u00a0 That “Oh, Roseanne!” is about how crazy she is.<\/p>\n

In any case, notice that\u00a0she’s still a sex symbol, while the men in the spoof are decidedly not.\u00a0 They’re spoofing such symbolism.\u00a0 Roseanne, despite her wacky resistance,\u00a0still has to abide by it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mercedes DeM. sent in this Vanity Fair cover (for April 2009)… …spoofing this previous cover: The women on the original cover are sex symbols.\u00a0 We should expect\u00a0gratuitous nudity.\u00a0 The men in the spoof, in contrast, are comedians and so a direct comparison, arguing that men’s bodies are more off-limits, would be misguided.\u00a0 (Not that I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[218,244,55,2103,2096,2087,778,129,120],"class_list":["post-7568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bodies","tag-fat","tag-gender","tag-gender-bodies","tag-gender-femininity","tag-gender-masculinity","tag-intersectionality","tag-media","tag-sex"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7568"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31385,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7568\/revisions\/31385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}