"If you hate men, we want to see photos of you in sexy lingerie"

This article was sent on to me today by a well-meaning friend who felt that I should be entering the competition to 'Find Australia's Sexiest Feminist'. While I appreciate the sentiment, I think I would sooner stick hot pins in my eyes.

According to the article, the competition is designed to act as an 'olive branch' to ladies everywhere after a public outcry over a previous competition in which men could win their girlfriends a boob job by sending in photos of their cleavage.

Magazine editor Paul Merrill went on to say:

'We're calling for feminists all over Australia to show that women can be sexy even if they disapprove of sexy women'.

Apparently the grand prize for this competition involves a 'sexy photo shoot'.

I feel the need to point out here that Mr Merrill appears to have completely missed the point about why this sort of attitude to women is so gosh darn offensive. You see Mr Merrill, it's not that we 'feminazis' disapprove of sexy women or that we even hate men - that suggestion in itself is offensive as I personally love men, admire sexy women and count myself as a Feminist. Burning the bra and man hating is not what it's about. Put simply, Feminism is the 'radical' notion that women are human beings who deserve to be treated as equals, not as objects put on this earth for men to enjoy and treat as they see fit.

Katha Pollitt, one of the great feminist writers of our time summed up feminism best when she wrote:

A feminist is a person who answers "yes" to the question, "Are women human?" Feminism is not about whether women are better than, worse than or identical with men... It's about justice, fairness, and access to the broad range of human experience. It's about women consulting their own well-being and being judged as individuals rather than as members of a class with one personality, one social function, one road to happiness. It's about women having intrinsic value as persons rather than contingent value as a means to an end for others: foetuses, children, the "family," men.

I also find the sentence 'even if they disapprove of sexy women' somewhat curious. Is he suggesting that sexy women only have big boobs (preferably fake ones)? I'm wondering if Mr Merrill considered that the reason people were so offended by the competition is because many of us are tired of the unrealistic expectations our society places on women to look and act a certain way in order to be deemed 'acceptable' and/or 'sexy'. Why should a woman have to have fake boobs in order to be deemed attractive by men such as Mr Merrill? What is wrong with having small boobs? (I'm not even going to attempt to unpack the reasons why a requirement of the competition is that a woman's male partner must send in the entry....)

I can't speak for every other woman in the world but I see sexy as something other than the physical appearance of a person - big fake plastic boobs and skimpy underwear are not what makes a person 'Hot'. Sexy to me is a woman who has confidence in herself, who is smart and independent and knows that there is more to life than being stuck in the kitchen, 'servicing' her husband and popping out babies simply because that is what society has dictated her role to be. It's about having the same amount of freedom and choice in life as a man does and I make no apologies for that.

On the flip side, Sexy to me is a man who knows and understands that a woman is his equal, who respects and encourages her independence and intelligence and finds this quality attractive. Who knows that a woman has so much more to offer than sexual gratification, a womb and dinner on the table every night and seeks to discover what those qualities are and celebrate them with her as his equal.

I truly hope that nobody enters this competition. To do so would be playing right into the hands of those who seek to make a mockery of something that is integral to a fair and just society and conforming to an unrealistic representation of how women should look and behave.

I also hope the winner of the Boob Job is a transsexual. That would be awesome.

;)

[Thanks to the Madame for the inspiration]