It’s so close yet so far away.  December 9th my roommates and I will continue the three year tradition of dressing in our baggiest sweatpants and sweat tops, making a carb buffet and tearing through a few too many bottles of cheap white wine.  We are not grieving over a recent break up or wallowing in the angst of final exams, December 9th marks the day of the Victoria Secret Fashion Show.  We can’t help ourselves we have to watch.  We laugh at Taylor Swift trying  too hard, argue over which ‘angel’ is our favorite, and gawk over Adam Levine’s stoked reaction when his then fiancee (now wife) Behati emerges in all her symmetrical, glittery, feminine,  liberated glory.

We insist on wearing sweatpants as an act of deviance to the overly proportional and the clone like cheekbones of each model.  We eat nachos, brownies and pizza hut because we don’t know what pisses us off more when the models report enduring three months of vigorous workouts and diet regiments to prepare for the big show, or when they report that they don’t really exercise and just eat whatever they want.  And we drink wine because well things like this are simply better drunk.

What is it about this yearly televise program that  merits such a calculated tradition and such an obsession?

The Victoria Secret Fashion Show showcases a lot of blatant pleasures.  Beauty, popular music, fashion (micro fashion), and spectacle.  We watch women like Cara Delevangeline who myself and another 9 million people follow on Instagram simply walk up and down a runway in underwear that one in the right mind would ever wear under a pair of skinny jeans.  The program gives you behind the scenes access into the glamor of being a model with the hair, the makeup and of course the girl talk.  You are swept into this lollipop universe where you are lead to believe that these women are not only successful, beautiful, young, smart but empowered.

Empowerment.  These women describe the Fashion Show as an honour where they get to feel confident, sexy, desirable and above all empowered in all their femininity.  The whole claim seems outrageously counter intuitive.  You have countless grown women who call themselves ‘angels’ working their way up some model hierarchy to “earn their wings” through a tireless process of strutting, hip swaying, lip pursing, kiss blowing and eye winking .  However because they are “empowered” it becomes an idolized process.  Is there a line and can it be crossed?  Is it simply a matter of taste?  Does the fact that the charade of hegemonic femininity is made by the white blonde baby faced angel walking in high heels in a set of knickers that costs millions of dollars make it tasteful and a showcase of beauty.  We watch it and know it is terribly wrong, but excuse it because my roommates and I are college educated young women who can put the spectacle in perspective and not internalize society’s obsession with thinness and perfection.  We instead eat our stuffed crust pizza in protest, boo Taylor Swift but we can’t deny that the guilt for skipping the gym come  morning doesn’t sting a little harder on December 10th.

Jackson Katz is the founder of the Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) Program that has been implemented across college campuses across North America.  Given the name MVP, commonly referred to as Most Valuable Player, specifically targets male sports athletes, teams, coaches and athletic administration on issues of gender violence, rape culture, and sexism.  Katz, an ex collegiate level football student-athlete himself, believes athletes are a prime demographic for models and workshops because of their unique position in society and within their communities.  Male athletes are six times more likely to commit crimes of sexual assault than their non-athlete male student counterparts.  UBC has had their own controversy involving UBC varsity athletes, in the fall of last year (2013).

In October of last year the UBC men’s hockey team was found to be associated with the highly controversial twitter account @UBCDIMEWATCH.  @UBCDIMEWATCH was a twitter account that served the purpose of alerting UBC student’s where attractive (dime= 10/10 on the looks scale) women could be found around campus.  As well as the account would post photos of women around campus without their consent or even without their knowledge that the photos were being snapped.  The tweets ranged from harassing women, to degrading comments to just simply pervasive tasteless creepiness.

The following photographs as real tweets from the account that has since been terminated.

UBC’s athletic department came under fire for the twitter account and its association to its men’s hockey team.  The department did they’re best to keep the attention off their athletes as only one student-athlete was ever called out by name.  The department did confirm that action was taken and that athletes who were involved were suspended from practice and competition.  Involved student-athletes and well as the majority of the departments head coaches were also required to attend a sexualized violence and harassment that was lead by Jackson Katz himself.

What is interesting about the Dimewatch incident is the fact that while its link to the varsity athletics community amplified the publicity.  Jackson Katz argues that athletes privileged position on campus and their visibility amplifies the degree of their actions, as was proven in the Dimewatch incident.  Not that their status minimizes the inappropriate behaviour allegedly carried by the men’s hockey team and other athletes involved.

A new UBC based Facebook page has emerged that follows a similar premise.  “Marvellous Manbuns of UBC” accepts photo submission of men with manbuns around campus and posts them on their page.  None of the photos have the face of the individuals that are being photographs which is in line of Dimewatch’s signature creepiness and nonconsensual subject matter.

https://www.facebook.com/marvellousmanbunsofubc/photos/pb.1492424404372720.-2207520000.1416375050./1497050673910093/?type=1&theater

While the comments on Marvellous Manbuns is not degrading or of a crude nature, there is not reference as to whether or not these men are aware they are being photographed and having their photos posted on public internet.

What is the fascination with UBC and photos of the backs of people’s head?

Juno Abortion Clinic Scene

This week’s class took a different spin and was completed through on online module pertaining to Reproduction and its depiction in the media.  The particular aspect of the module

I watched the film Juno for the first time back when it first hit theatres in 2007.  I was 15 years old which was around the same age of the main character in the film Juno MacGuff.  It quickly became my favourite movie.  At the time I was living in Southern California and took every opportunity to flaunt my Canadian heritage and with the film being director and starred in by Canadians deepened my personal sentimental attachment to the story of the 16-year old girl (only 1 year my senior at the time) navigating the reality of an unwanted and unexpected pregnancy.  At the time I did not really pay a lot of attention to the abortion clinic scene however re-watching that scene again in particular presented the message it was sending in a new light.

On the one hand I think it is very powerful showing the option of abortion for women who are left with the decision to make.  Also the film does a decent job showing how accessible the process can be, as Juno enlists her friend Leah to call the Women Now clinic where they make an appointment for Juno’s abortion.  Juno’s process to take her reproductive health into her own hands faces very little interference until she arrives at the clinic and is met by school mate Su-Chin.  Su-Chin is a sole picketer outside the women’s clinic who has quite an impression on Juno.  She informs Juno as she is entering the clinic about her unborn child’s beating heart and that it already has fingernails.  Juno is then overwhelmed inside the clinic by all the noises of nails, nail tapping, nail filing, nail biting and nail picking.  Juno is then overcome with the reality of her situation.  The physicality of the fingernails, something so tangible evokes such a level of guilt in the main character that she flees the clinic in quite a dramatic fashion.

The guilt that Juno is faced with in the clinic is the sort of situation you’d be hard pressed for any 16 year old to have the tools to thoughtfully unpack.  I do appreciate that the film thought it was necessary to go through all of Juno’s options in her situation as both abortion and adoption were explored.  However the guilt narrative utilized by many radical pro-lifers is unsettling and manipulative.  Juno does make the decision to give up her baby to adoption on her own accord, it may seem.  Although her experience at the abortion clinic with Su-Chin is not uncommon, there is no one supporting her through that process, even the front desk receptionist at the clinic is unresponsive and not compassionate.  The clinic is never portrayed as a safe zone.  The exterior of the building is gloomy and not welcoming or encouraging of trust and supportive.  Juno’s agency in the situation is questioned and threatened, which is a common set of circumstances for many young girls in the same position who are not as fortunate to garner the reaction Juno got from her father and step-mother who are thankfully  very supportive.

I understand the movie would have lost its entire storyline had Juno gone through with the abortion and not been engulfed by the image of her fetus’ fingernails, however the emphasis on the guilt put upon this teenager is very real and prominent in the pro-life vs pro-choice debate.