insensitive attitudes towards male genitalia?
Friday, December 24th, 2010Insensitive attitudes towards male genitalia.?
First let me say that I acknowledge that there are many forms of sexism and violence occurring against women and I am 100% against that. Now that we have got that out of the way, let me talk about some specific forms (subcategories of anti-male sexism) of sexism against men and boys. Not all sexism and such, just some of it.
Insensitive attitudes towards male genitalia can consist of visual and symbolic imagery, written or spoken speech as well as regulations and actions.
-Popular media:
Numerous movies, movie ads, commercials, music videos, tv-shows, public service announcements, video/computer games, objects sold as gifts, educational books and websites etc.
have made light of male genital injuries, castration and sometimes involuntary circumcision. For most part this boils down to attacks and accidents involving testicles, often with a female offender (which adds a gender/sexual dimension to the issue) and where the viewer is expected to sympathize with the offender and the victim is made out to look undignified or ridiculous. In rare cases, male children may be depicted as falling victim to abuse.
Scenes of intimate abuse are occasionally highlighted in a movie ad or trailer.
Abuse may also be symbolic as in a commercial depicting a woman chopping or crushing plant products symbolizing male genitalia.
You can walk into a bookstore and end up looking at a book cover depicting a woman kicking a man’s groin. This was a personal experience and the book concerned martial arts and self-defence.
No reasonable man has a problem with women’s self-defence. It’s only antagonistic and possibly offensive to have images of unsightly things in clear view. Violence happens all the time, but we don’t have to highlight it. There’s a time and place for the discussion of any single issue.
Another issue is how the natural design of the male reproductive system is occasionally called out as a ‘design flaw’ of evolution; the implication is that the external location calls for a special explanation. To teach a male that his body was born ‘flawed’ can obviously have implications for his self-esteem. Here are a few websites (of reputation) of educational purpose which advance just that cause:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/advice/factfile_az/testicles (the URL has changed from the former http://www.bbc.co.uk/switch/surgery/advice/body_mind/boys_bodies/testicles/
but the advice has not)
Quote:
“So why store such vital bits of equipment in a flimsy skin sack, ready to get kneed?”
How about this?
http://www.scarleteen.com/article/body/anatomy_mans_best_friend_male_sexual_anatomy
Quote: “They’re incredibly sensitive to touch and pressure, as any person with testicles who’s ever been kicked in the crotch can tell you.”
Both of these sources are authoritative and both of them seem to associate male anatomy with violence and pain. I suppose it’s easy to see why this could be perceived as offensive, but it is seemingly ingrained in our culture.
An example of this is how female physiological functions and perceived problems such as menstruation is compared with testicular injuries. This comparison is made suspicious by the fact that menstruation is a NATURAL event and a sign of normal health and development, while a testicular injury has nothing to do with development and good health, quite the opposite.
There is no crosshair or target there.
The male genitalia is far more exposed than the female kind and readily palpable through clothing. The involuntary insertion of a finger into the vagina has been prosecuted as digital rape. An offense of this kind can be seen as violating the whole of a female’s bodily privacy.
In a similar vein, we could see incidents of females laying their hand on a man’s crotch and grabbing his genitalia as a form of rape as well, as it encompasses and violates the whole of his external and accessible genitalia similar to how digital penetration violates a woman. The relative vulnerability of male genitalia (in the given context, at least) also arguably adds to the seriousness of the offense. At the current, however, it may be perceived that many people would react more strongly to an incident of a man palpating a woman’s mons (not to mention digital rape) than the male equivalent, which may not be justified.
Included here are offensive, constructed (but reality based) quotes of the kind one may find teenage girls or even adult women using in everyday life. These help to illustrate the diversity and logic of sexist attitudes towards male genitalia. Rebuttals are included.
“Balls are a design flaw (so women can hurt men…It’s good that men have a weakness.”
This is a rather callous argument or an insensitive joke which is similar to saying that God/evolution made women smaller and weaker so men could dominate them if they wished.
The average man is not violent but the joke is equally insensitive towards the average man. “I’m glad I’m not a guy!”
This saying or a variation of may be heard or seen when discussing an incident of male genital trauma. To make such a comment is obviously insensitive and potentially illustrates poverty of imagination.
It would be equally insensitive for a male to make such a commentary regarding a woman’s misfortune, though this more rarely seems to be the case.
