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The Rez Dog Calendar:  Role Models or Sex Objects?
(4/15/05)


A response to Rez Dog Calendar:  Role Models or Sex Objects?:

>> If you don't like it then don't buy it I guess. <<

I wouldn't buy the calendar myself. I wouldn't have taken the time to comment on it myself, since pictures of scantily-clad women are ubiquitous in our society. But I tend to agree with King that promoting women as sex objects is bad, not good.

*****

>> I don't think calendar models nor any type of flesh peddling is a good role model for little girls (being a father of 2 "tweens aged 10 and 11 1/2) and I hope it's not marketed as such (btw I already read the Rez Dogs response so I'll go with them on this one.) <<

The calendar itself peddles flesh. How it's marketed is a secondary issue.

>> I don't think this sets back Indian rights or woman's issues etc like I'm sure so many will. If you don't like it then don't buy it I guess. <<

The calendar may set back women's rights even if no women buy it. Saying that whoever doesn't like it shouldn't buy it doesn't address the social problem.

If the calendar isn't a problem, how about if I get one for your girls? I'll add a note stating the calendar's message: that this is how women get ahead in our society. Okay?

*****

>> The problem is that all the gnashing of the teeth towards provacatively dressed women never addresses the underlying biological fact that men are visually stimulated and generally enjoy seeing a woman's body. That isn't going anywhere. <<

The part where men kill, enslave, and brutalize women has gone somewhere. That attitude was a prime result of treating women only as biological (sex) objects and visual stimuli. We've replaced it with a more honest and accurate view of women as full human beings, with both biological and nonbiological aspects.

>> The truth is many women do get ahead based on their looks in society. Not something to nurture or encourage but the reality of life. <<

Again, that reality has shifted markedly over time. We can keep shifting it till it reaches the lowest possible point.

It may still exist, but (as you say) we don't have to nurture it. Right now society is nurturing it—almost as much as ever.

>> If my daughters see it I doubt they will be forever tarnished or traumatized -- they have female bodies too so it's nothing new to them. <<

Have they asked you for plastic surgery yet? What would you say if they did?

>> The calendar doesn't do anything for women's rights one way or the other in my mind -- society is so shallow at this point that people wanting to be this type of model is symptomatic of the problem, just like wanting to be on reality TV or American Idol. <<

Until we come up with a way to cure the disease, all we can do is treat the symptoms.


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