Last year, the Globe & Mail in Toronto, Canada, published a nice piece about International Anti-Street Harassment Day. One year later, during International Anti-Street Harassment Week, I’m very disappointed to say that they published a terrible piece written by a 58-year-old man about how wonderful it is to stare at the body parts of young women he acknowledges to be the age of his daughter, and how it’s a good thing that men like him do this.
From beginning to end, the tone of the article irked me. The entitlement. The male gaze. The age gap was plain creepy and disgusting.
No, there is nothing wrong with people looking at each other, but there is something wrong with objectifying other people and believing their purpose is to be attractive, for you. Young women are going to work, going to meet friends, going to classes, you know, doing things that people do, people who have pursuits and interests and are not just ornaments to be stared at.
I would suggest that men NOT keep staring at women, despite what the author argues. It will make us feel more comfortable in public places if we are not constantly being sized-up in a sexual way by men. Plus, added bonus, we will have time to solve problems like world hunger if we do not have to spend our time looking for escape routes and memorizing what people look like for future police reports because we’re not sure if the creep staring at us intends to try to follow us, grab us, or assault us. I often hear women say that the men who just stare at them are more scary/unnerving than the ones who yell stuff but move on because of this very reason. You don’t know what they’re plotting as they stare.
Meghan Murphy at The F Word Feminist Media Collective wrote a great piece about the article yesterday:
“…Much of the piece is dedicated to pornified descriptions of female bodies. That, in and of itself, could and should have (in my humble opinion) led the editors to question the usefulness and/or necessity of publishing the piece. The lack of thought, research, and analysis which fills in the empty spaces in between descriptions of Brown’s favorite 20 year old body parts should have been the second clue.
It’s not that Brown wasn’t able to find folks who agree with his thesis, which I summarize as such: “It is not only biologically natural for me to objectify much younger women, but they actually like it.” He does find men and even women to help ease the little guilt, shame, and uncertainty he may have around his fetishization of the female body. His male friends are, unsurprisingly, just like him. They support his hopeful thesis that says: “this is not only right and natural, but good.”
For example:
[Y] holds up his BlackBerry. “I don’t see what’s wrong with it. In a world where, thanks to this thing, I am only two clicks away from double penetration and other forms of pornographic nastiness, the act of merely looking at a girl who is naturally pretty – I mean, we should celebrate that.”
Another friend takes it further. Acting as though the objectification is a compliment:
“Beautiful women are like flowers,” W interjects. “They turn to the sun. But if they don’t receive a certain amount of attention, they wither.”
Oh dude. You are so right. If you don’t stare at my ass I will actually die.
As if the flower analogy wasn’t enough to signal red flags with “Women are not human beings, they are pretty things that exist for me to look at” written all over them, the idea that women will wither and die if old dudes stop objectifying them really solidifies the deep misogyny of these kinds of arguments and beliefs….
Though Brown claims that the intent of his article is to “investigat[e] the famous male gaze,” he has zero understanding of it. The male gaze is a concept which was explored initially within feminist film theory and has since extended into an explanation and analysis of the objectifying, disempowering male gaze. So when a 58 year old man decides that a 20 year old woman is a beautiful flower which exists in order for him to look at, he dehumanizes her. And, as many of us know already, dehumanizing a human being is a dangerous thing. It means we no longer need to treat said human being with respect. A body part is just a body part, not a whole, complex being with thoughts and feelings.
One of the most minor consequences of the male gaze is that, and I will speak from personal experience here, a lifetime of being looked at makes you feel as though your self-worth is largely dependent on your ability to be desired by men. This is not a good thing. It is something many women fight at every turn. Yet we still internalize that male gaze. This means that many women see themselves through male eyes. We also believe, to a certain extent, that we exist for your viewing pleasure. Should women really have to fight to believe that their value exists outside your desire?
I won’t speak for any other woman aside from myself at this point, but “Hi, Ian Brown! I am a woman and I don’t want you to look at my ass. It doesn’t feel flattering, it feels creepy. It makes me feel self-conscious and it makes me not want to leave my house. I may be too old for you at 32 (gross!), but many old men stare at me regardless. I hate it. It makes me want to punch them. So stop. Please. I guarantee your penis will survive.”
The fact that men believe women exist for their viewing pleasure IS A PROBLEM. It doesn’t matter how much men like it. I should be able to leave my house without feeling watched…
I’d like to be able to go to the beach without feeling as though I am on display, being judged, being sized up. I’d like to walk down the street in a dress without feeling like some 60 year old dude is fucking me with his eyes. It’s gross, not flattering. I don’t need the gaze of a 60 year old man to validate my existence. All that gaze does is make me hate 60 year old men.
I am not your right. No woman is. No matter how beautiful she is. You have no right to her. She is more than just body parts. Allow me to confirm what I assume was the fear which led you to write this piece, Ian Brown, you are a perv. Stop staring at us. We have the ability to exist without your eyes on our asses.”
If you want to write to the Globe & Mail to protest this article, please do (info via Hollaback Ottawa):
letters@globeandmail.com
Executive editor (Jill Borra): jborra@globeandmail.com
Editor of the “Life” section (Rasha Mourtada): rmourtada@globeandmail.com
Alice X says
Holly,
Thank you for taking the time to write this. It articulately sums up all the anger I originally felt at reading the editorial I have emailed Ms. Borra and Ms. Mourtada with a complaint and linked your article in it. Maybe it would be possible for you to attach a form with your own email to them in it for us supporters to quickly forward with signatures to the editors?
This is what I sent them:
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To the Executive Editor and the Life Section Editor:
I am writing to express my extreme disappointment with the publication of Ian Brown’s recent piece, “Why men can’t – and shouldn’t – stop staring at women” in the Globe and Mail.
I am a young woman who has grown up being not “looked” at as Mr. Brown innocently puts it, but leered at, stared at unblinkingly until I’ve had to nervously duck out of sight behind a subway station pillar or walk away in the opposite direction of where I was going, leered at with disgusting obscene smiles which grow bigger when they sensed my discomfort. I am a young woman who has tried to ignore the sense of inferiority which was instilled in me as a child by constantly being sexually sized up whenever I left the house by men such as Mr. Brown. I detest the false identity that Mr. Brown–who has never had to experience street harassment before in his entire life–has fabricated for women as desperately needing reassurance from men such as himself for their sense of self-worth, He shows no regard for how his actions might impact others and excuses himself not by stating facts, but regurgitating extremely one-sided anecdotes citing only men and the few women who share his sexist worldview. He even goes so far as to quote a man saying that women will “wilt” without being constantly stared at.
The overall tone of his piece is revealing. He salivates:
A pretty girl with too much bottom squeezed into her yoga pants – and, mysteriously, twice as sexy for the effort. A slim blond in enormous sunglasses…An expensively dressed and tanned woman climbs out of a taxi, so vivacious I panic and can’t look at her. Slim girls, curvy girls… each woman makes you think, parse her appeal. The busty brunette in her 20s is wearing a rich emerald-green ruffled blouse, but it’s sleeveless and obviously not warm enough to wear outside. …Would she be a sloppy mate?
This sort of nonchalant objectification exposes Mr. Brown’s sexism for what it is. He does not view women as humans, as people, but bodies–“busty brunettes” and “slim blondes.” His piece encourages other men to view women in the same way. He has no regard for whether it might make the recipient feel unwelcome or uncomfortable. I am used to seeing this disgusting, bigoted sense of entitlement on the streets of New York. But to see it condoned in the Globe and Mail was a shock. Furthermore, your newspaper should not be not a venue for an old man to spout his fantasies about “bottom[s] squeezed into her yoga pants” or his musings about whether someone would be “a sloppy mate.” I was embarrassed to see this non-journalism make its way onto the Life section of your newspaper.
There is a difference between free speech and allowing completely outdated, bigoted opinions in an award-winning, nationally distributed newspaper such as the Globe and Mail. I am not writing to complain that you published an article which I disagreed with. I am writing to complain about an article which expressed outdated, and overtly sexist viewpoints. The work of ending street harassment is shared by many NGOs and nonprofits, in addition to the United Nations itself. This editorial makes their work harder. Like an editorial in support of racial segregation during the shift towards integration, or one arguing against women entering the workforce during the early 1900s, it is on the wrong side of history.
I highly recommend you read Holly Kearl’s full response from the nonprofit organization Stop Street Harassment. It speaks for all women such as myself who have experienced the feeling of victimization from men such as Mr. Brown.
Best regards,
Alice X