(scene starts in 21:23 – 24:15)
In the scene from Ally Mcbeal, Ling is on the witness stand, explaining why a mud wrestling club she owns is no bad influence on the society – on the contrary, it’s allowing women to use their power (sex) over men and exploit them by doing so. Men are controlled by their “dumb-stick”, and instead of seeing mud-wrestling as degrading for women, Ling claims that it in fact reveals men’s weakness, allowing her to earn money on its back.
McRobbie discusses about the new approach towards objectification of women: “there is no exploitation… there is nothing remotely naive about this striptease… [the woman] seems to be doing it out of choice…” (Post-Feminism and Popular Culture, 259). I’m thinking of this sentence on two different levels regarding the Ally Mcbeal scene.
First, is Ling right? Who is the dominant gender in the operation of the mud club? According to Ling, the women take advantage of the lack of self-control men suffer from. Moreover, women use sex all the time in order to get their wishes (a point that appears more than a few times in the series) – it is not degrading for them, it’s degrading for the men, not realising who carries the “weapon” in the interaction between the species.
I don’t have an answer to this question. No doubt women do use sex as a weapon. But then, USE is such an active verb, and the obvious point to make here is that the role of sexuality in the society is something that hinders women. McRobbie would probably say that this is the exact fearsome move of the post-feminist movement – presenting sexuality as a conscious choice, made by strong and evolved women (to give Ally Mcbeal the credit it deservers, at one point Ling does admit the club might be degrading for women, but then – our society degrades all (men and women), and hanging on to these sexist club as the source of all evil misses the point – the clubs are no different to other, more “acceptable” aspects of our society).
The second level is the platform that conveys these massages – a late 90′ T.V series. This, again, suits McRobbie ideas about the way the new media spreads the post-feminist ideas. However, unlike her analysis of “Bridget Jone’s Diary” (p.261), here we see a form of popular culture which is self-aware, wishing to engage in the post-feminist discussion. Thus, we receive a show that intentionally confronts the principles of “old feminism” and not by sophisticatedly alluding to them (like Claudia Schiffer and the bra (p.259)). This makes me wander whether this is not post, but rather a legitimate part of the still existing feminist discussion.