This makes me really angry.
They are making fun of Johnna Mink, making fun of feminism, making fun of pole dancing, and making fun of the crazy idea that maybe, JUST MAYBE, the whole smart/sexy dichotomy is stupid. In 3½ minutes, that video manages to reinforce practically every negative stereotype about pole dancing, women who pole dance, feminists, and more. Overall it’s damn misogynistic.
And yeah, I know, the Colbert Report is all satire. THAT’S WHY WE LOVE IT. But this? This is not making fun of the stereotypes.
This is making fun of women who pole dance, and laughing at the idea of it as something (god forbid) empowering. Same old, same old. The mock-news-segment is called “Difference Makers” - you know, women who matter, women who are doctors, lawyers, politicians… oh, except, there’s a pole dancer! Teehee! Isn’t that funny! They juxtapose a student saying, “The spins are the most empowering” with a shot of her doing a V-spin - and it’s clear we’re all supposed to laugh. And, of course, they make it look easy, like it’s something anyone can just walk up and do. Which is exactly what most people think of pole dancing already.
The message is clear: Johnna Mink and her students aren’t “difference makers.” Not really. (’Cause, see, it’s satire, folks!) The men like ‘em because it’s ALL ABOUT THE MEN (why wouldn’t it be?) and these women are just deluded and stupid. Stupid for pole dancing, and even stupider for finding it empowering.
I just had to let that rant out, because this kind of thing gets me fuming, and also makes me very sad.
And, even though for the most part I’ve given up “pre-emptive notes” at the end of posts, opting instead to simply delete comments from people who are stuck in a horrible Groundhog Day-esque loop of 7th grade, I’m adding one here, just because. So! Don’t come around here and tell me I’m “too sensitive” or I should “get a sense of humor” or I’m “reading too much into it,” etc. As if I’ve never heard any of THAT before. And as if that doesn’t exemplify a very relevant point about women’s voices being trivialized and dismissed.
Okay. Now that that’s out, I can get back to positive things.
READ ME: Disclaimer
13 Responses to "I can tell you where to shove that pole"
you know Amber, i watched, and really didn’t laugh. and even though i don’t feel *exactly* the way you do on this subject, i just didn’t find it funny, because you know, i was thinking of you and i knew that it would piss you off.
(plus, i’m a little disappointed in how dismissive it was. because, you know women only do that stuff for men, c’mon if you are going to do something on faux feminism… hello! there are plenty of “feminists wait” nutjobs to choose from)
Hmmmmm…I don’t know. I’ll have to revisit when I’ve slept but…I did see *some* making fun of stereotypes. The guy from Hustler was definitely one big walking stereotype and…I’m not entirely sure what stereotype there is about a feminist teaching pole dancing. There are definitely stereotypes about pole dancing, but Johnna Mink certainly wasn’t portraying them…
I get why you’re offended, but I’m not quite there. The spin shot was a cheap shot (org: low blow…I said was tired), but I wouldn’t expect anything different from The Colbert Report. That’s what they do.
It felt like a less-than-funny segment, but it didn’t feel misogynistic to me. I dunno. Maybe my exhausted li’l idealist brain is just seeing what it wants to see. Lemme sleep on it and revisit.
the teacher seems like a really nice person, the women seem to be having fun…empowering shimpowering…they are enjoying themselves, thats what matters.
Jenny, if you’ve followed some of the stuff around the blogosphere and also in books such as Ariel Levy’s Female Chauvinist Pigs and Pamela Paul’s Pornified… well, you’d get it more, I think.
This is just another excuse for us to - gasp! - talk on the phone, and I will tell you all about it. Nothing could be quite as bad as me trying to explain that feminist blogosphere wasp/bee thing, right? ;)
Agreed, of course. I used the word “empowering” because a few of the women in the video used that word to describe how they feel about pole dancing. And that’s how I feel about it for myself, too.
I know I tend to be much more casual (trans: less informed) in my feminism, but I honestly don’t think the intent in the sketch was malicious. Again, perhaps I’m just projecting or perhaps I’m just exhausted and will have an entirely different opinion later but…
I guess maybe it’s a question of intent vs. results. While the resulting video is offensive (on a sliding scale), I don’t think it was intended to be offensive, which is why I’m less bothered by it. The argument that intent can go fuck itself because results are what matter is valid, but…I side with the former.
Because I’m approaching Tyler Durden levels of sleeplessness here and because, you know, it all comes back to Craig Ferguson in my head…I think this might be another example of how comedy benefits from a woman’s perspective (or a feminist perspective, if you will). According to imdb (oracle that it is), all the writers on The Colbert Report are guys. This bit, like any number of sketches on the Late Late Show - where all the writers are also guys, feels a lot like the product of a room full of straight guys where the humor gets progressively, or regressively, baser. I swear, put a woman in the room and the dynamic shifts. Think SNL under Tina Fey. The whole show was funnier because more perspectives were included.
Tired…babbling…usurping your blog. Sorry. :( I will eventually write my own fucking post about the comedy thing because, dammit, I want in on the funny.
Rusty and I were talking about this last night. And it’s a common theme in feminism… hell, in just about any ‘progressive’ cause (anti-racism, queer rights, you name it). See, I don’t care if it wasn’t malicious. That means absolutely nothing other than, okay, so you’re not an actively mean person intentionally seeking to tear down others. Great. You’re a normal human being.
And actually, in some ways, the “not being malicious” thing can be seen as worse, because that is institutionalized sexism/racism/whatever, where you don’t even give it any thought, it’s ingrained, it’s the default, you don’t even know there’s something there that you should be concerned about. Which is a privilege for those who don’t have to be concerned about it because it doesn’t directly and immediately affect their lives.
So, ultimately, the thing I keep coming back to is: I don’t care about intent. I care about effect.
Perhaps we will agree to disagree, in that case.
More later, maybe. But I got so exhausted and upset talking about this last night, I might need a break.
One other thing… I don’t think it was intended to be offensive in the sense of the writers sitting around going, “Hey, you know what would be awesome? Let’s completely trivialize a group of pole dancers who identify as feminists! Let’s make them look stupid and make their opinions look ridiculous and worthless! Bwahahahaha, that’ll show those bitches!!”
No. I think it was more, well, everybody knows that feminism and pole dancing don’t go together! So let’s do a sketch about it! This will really make a statement! It’s great satire because, ya know, this is like Feminism Lite, and conservative men can dig that, because it doesn’t make them uncomfortable! But we’re progressives and we know that’s silly!
(All of that on a more abstract, unspoken level.)
Bah. If I ever sleep again, perhaps I’ll be able to communicate. For now, let me just say…
I agree - the ingrained sexism is far worse. It’s normalized and accepted and “just the way it is” and then I throw my shoe at their head because there is no reasoning with “the way it is.” I agree.
Aside from that, I don’t know.
One minor note. I didn’t think that the video made pole dancing look easy. I’ve never seen pole dancing before, and until now, I’ve always assumed that it was easy. But when I saw that video, I was like “Holy shit! No way!”
traveled here after reading your comment at Feministe. what bothers me–beyond the tackiness of the entire segment (but then i’m an old lady feminist)–is how passive we seem to be about the absence of women guests on either jon stewart or colbert.
Naomi, I agree completely. I see it all over the place on these liberal political shows. When they have the token woman on that misogynist Bill Maher’s show, it’s only so he can snarkily dismiss her and go overboard twisting her words to tear her down. He listens with perfect respect to the male panelists’ opinions.
I hear what you’re saying Amber. And agree with Naomi and KA 100% about the treatment of female guests on some of these shows.
But I think the Colbert piece was funny. I laughed my ass off. I am a former pole dancer by profession and I’ve considered doing pole dancing fitness classes in my little town where none of the gyms seem to be offering it.
I think Johnna Mink is a genius- she gets the men’s money in the clubs and gets their wives’ money in private trainings. Of course, it would have also been labeled as misogynist had Colbert pointed out himself that it is in fact women who oppose sex workers more than men do. Of course guys like sex and boobs and half naked women on poles, that is a fact that women can and should use to their advantage.
Johnna Mink diffuses a lot of the resentment and content between sex workers and the ‘civilians’ by saying to them ‘you can do this too, you can explore exhibitionism and feel great about your body.’ Isn’t a lot of women’s anger at exotic dancers rooted in these feelings of inadequacy?
With all of the ‘real’ media coverage of sex work, I have to say that the Colbert piece was a welcome light-hearted laugh. As afr as feminism- I personally think, as a feminist, it needs to be made fun of sometimes. I mean seriously, do you know of any other social rights movement who so actively and aggressively rejects its own constituents based on age, occupation, class, etc? I don’t feel the least bit guilty about getting a good laugh at the expense of feminism. {I guess I’m going to be unpopular around here after that comment!}
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