Should Feminists Have Breasts

And if they do should they expose them? Hey I am not asking, it's the kind of stupid comment one expects from the rightwhingnuts not from the feminist bloggers. But in this case a feminist blogger attacked a sister blogger for using her breasts to promote her blog. Blaming her for having them, then flaunting them. I seem to remember something about Our Bodies Ourselves being a feminist slogan. That feminists have been at the forefront of the right to go topless movement.

Anyways the cheap shots started over her being in a picture with Clinton. Where she stood out prominately in front of him. Fully clothed. Wearing an outstanding sportsbra. Very unfeminist I guess. Except the point here was a bit of bitchy jealousy that she looked good compared the collection of male and female geeks around Clinton. Boy when the personal gets political, watch out for bitchy infighting. And really its not about breasts its about Clinton. But Ann

The real reason was this ad she has on her page for T-shirts for her blog.
Shows she doesn't always wear a bra.

Feministing Shirt (price varies by style)




Althouse goes ballistic about the picture, over the big breasts on the T-Shirt and in the T-Shirt. I love this stuff, I get to actually run this pic. Cause the bottom line is that its a subversion on typical male fantasy art of women that became popular in the fifties. They were called headlights back then. Which meant Tits, breasts, women drawn for Mens comics and later for pinball machines, tatoos, pinups, etc. with exaggerated pointy breasts. This is clever, on her T-Shirt she is giving the finger.





Boy if Althouse is that narrow minded and prudish about a T-Shirt ad on a feminist blog what does she think of the women who work the sex trade at Lusty Lady in San Fransisco. These sisters fought to unionize and are feminists who put the club under workers control.

Or those who work as Strippers and are not unionized but are exploited. Wonder if they could turn to her to lawyer for them. Or would that be a bust. Bette to contact the Exotic Dancers Alliance then Althouse. Because pride in oneself apparently is not ok for Althouse. Left leaning she may be but she ain't no libertarian.

Peel & play
Professor of strip Mary Taylor empowers women
by showing them how it’s done

I prod Mary about her work with the Exotic Dancers’ Alliance. I ask her whether a stripper really is in charge of the situation when she’s up on stage. Her answer is unequivocal, “Dancers are definitely in charge. There’s always the exception, but for the most part I think that a dancer is in total control of what she will tolerate from the customer.”

While clients aren’t a problem, shady club owners are a different story. Here, clearly, there are power issues. “Because of the stigma attached to the exotic entertainment industry, [strippers] are very afraid of getting fired from a club. They’re afraid of being blacklisted,” Mary explains.

“They have a customer base built up, and they could take their entire customer base with them and leave but they’re just so afraid of talking back to an owner. Until now, they’ve had no one stand up for them and say that it’s a legitimate industry. My job with the Exotic Dancers Alliance is to help them take control.”

She tells me about a club owner she once worked for in Scarborough, who walked in to the club, turned to the DJ to say, “Get that fat pig off the stage” in reference a dancer, before spinning on his heel and walking back out.

“I was standing there, and I just said ‘You’ve gotta be kidding’. This was a girl who had been there a long time. It was just horrible. And this girl had more clients than the average girl. She was bubbly, fun, cute and had a lot of customers. This same owner would not allow black girls to work in his club, or never more than one.”

This club owner, though, helped spur Mary’s change of career. “I got nine dancers to walk out of the club once. That was my first taste of activism. When the manager saw a whole herd of girls standing outside his office door, he started screaming and said ‘Ok, big mouth, what’s going on?’” Mary


Finally I will leave the last word to liberal catnip who summed it up excellently, and whose blog led me to this litte catfight....


Feminism, Breasts & Bill Clinton
It isn't the fact that a blogger with boobs met Bill Clinton that's the real issue here. What is obvious by Althouse's need to draw attention to one woman's pose in a photograph is that she would rather restrict another woman's freedom by attempting to humiliate her and then stand on her pulpit and call that real feminism. It's actually the antithesis of the spirit of the movement and Jessica of Feministing was more than justified in feeling offended by Althouse's post. And, I'm still waiting for Ann Althouse to define feminism for me as I asked her to because that's something she needs to think about.
Seriously.

Also See:

Feminism


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