Bigger bunnies to fry
Feminism starts at home, not the Mansion.
Universities are famously male-dominated places, so is it really surprising that The First Post online magazine has labeled York as institutionally sexist? Wait, though: it’s not what you might expect. They didn’t highlight the intrinsically patriarchal nature of academia, the male domination of key university roles, or the stereotypical roles taken by female students within campus politics. Nope, we were singled out because of a successful exercise club and a popular campus event.
While I can understand why Pole Exercise club and Goodricke’s Playboy Mansion nights have attracted attention, it seems unfair when they try to avoid overt sexuality in their advertising . Pole exercise is now popular means of keeping fit for both men and women. Wouldn’t it be better to see them as embracing their sexuality, rather than taking part in a degrading, anti-feminist spectacle?
In the case of Playboy Mansion, it’s easier to understand the objection. I’ve never been: not because I’ve reeled back in horror and disgust at their advertising, or the idea of people dressing up as wrinkly old men and kinky bunny rabbits - it just isn’t my kind of thing. In fact, the advertising that I’ve seen has been quite tasteful which, considering the theme, is something of an achievement. It would make sense to assume those who still find it distasteful don’t attend.
The article in The First Post implies that women today aren’t interested in their rights as women: that they embrace wanton sexuality and deride feminism, undoing the work of the 1960s bra-burners. However, this has to be put into context: for most young women today, feminism was the fashionable cause of their mothers’ and grandmothers’ formative years. Now feminism is a footnote in theory textbooks, with Germaine Greer waving a lonely, slightly loopy banner. Understanding the link between then and now is a process, a part of growing up and understanding. Until then, why not let young women embrace being women? There are much bigger issues for feminists to confront, both in the worlds of academia and everyday life: we ought to deal with them before poles and Playboys even come on the radar.
