teenagers, seen from a distance
which, upon closer examination, looked like this:
teenagers, seen from a shorter distance
i look up and saw this:
corner of Glades and Butts Roads
it was only then that i finally looked to my left:
BP service station in Boca Raton
given the bikinis, i had assumed that the teenagers were holding some manner of car wash, but it was actually a protest against the oil spill in the gulf, and the whole experience left me feeling unsettled, wondering about what psychology was at play in the minds of the young people.
on the one hand, there is clearly some political impulse, taking to the streets to make and hoping to impact the world in a positive manner. although my own cynicism and burgeoning curmudgeonry lead me to doubt the efficacy of protests like these, i can certainly relate to that teenage feeling of wanting to change the world. as Homer Simpson once told his idealistic daughter Lisa, "I used to believe in things, too."
"Homer the Great"
on the other hand, after many years as an aspiring feminist (and, perhaps, some years as an actual feminist), i have become very wary of protests which rely upon the presence of female bodies as a means to draw attention to their cause. this was most clearly evidenced yesterday by the fact that not one, but two semis drove by blowing their horns at the young women – while i was stopped at the traffic light.
making this scene even more problematic was the eerily indeterminate age of the protesters. they may have been in college, but schools let out here last week and it seems equally likely that these were high school students, meaning they may or may not have been 18, and adding an especially disturbing "Barely Legal" feel to the whole affair.
all this is pure speculation, of course, but it left me wondering about the balance between the private and public realms, the body as a site/sight of protest, and the entanglement of intent, naivete and misogyny. in my own estimation, the protesters' intent, no matter how just, cannot hope to compete with the weight brought to bear by our society's misogyny and fetishization of the pubescent female body.
this is not the fault of the protesters. the young women were not necessarily wanting to be looked at, and the young men were not necessarily twisting their mustaches (if they could grow mustaches) as part of some malicious conspiracy against womanhood. sadly, they were all just playing their parts in the society we have constructed, the society we have inherited, and the society that some of us still hope to change.
I imagine I would have had similar feelings had I seen this. I actually think that protests like this are very important, and am so glad to see young people involved with this, and am pleasantly surprised that individuals who look pretty "mainstream" are even getting involved. However, the protests stem undoubtedly from a reaction to the way BP had disrespected the earth. I do feel that there is a connection between the disrespect and violence that people commit against the earth and that committed against women. The honking, therefore, puts a damper on just how much those gawkers will actually take away, what messages will stick with them. The girls, either conciously or unconciously, are using "sex" to sell a political message. It's just as disheartening as the the PETA "I'd Rather Go Naked than Wear Fur" campaign.
ReplyDelete