Before you come back to comment,please read all the links in Amanda's post. There's alot to go through there,and there's some good stuff in the comments(I have a feeling this one is going to generate alot of discussion on feminist blogs,rightly so,so the comments may go nuts )
I'm no prude,but I do have boundries that are comfortable for me.That comfort zone has changed many times over the years.When I was young,I was alot wilder than I am now. I believe it's perfectly normal and ok to be sexual and have some fun with that,but be careful and be smart,it's a zoo out there,in more ways than one.
Girls Gone Wild is different,it's not fun,and I spotted it early in,just from the commercials. Maybe it's because I have a daughter close to the age of the young women who have made this douchebag wealthy(along with a little group of his pals) and my Mom Radar went off like a motherfucker seeing these commercials. Then I started hearing little stories about general assholery among the men present at these filmings and frankly it makes me fucking sick.
As Amanda points out,there are plenty of young women who enjoy being exhibitionists,and if that's their thing,I say go girl,but remember,it really is a zoo out there.Be smart,be safe,and have a blast.Just know that you cannot control every situation you'll run into,don't ever think you do,because that will get you hurt or dead eventually.
What I am about to say will initially seem to run counter to any notion of me being a feminist. And Women,especially Mothers of young women of the GGW age also need to be confronting this issue.However,because this particular enterprise has at it's very heart a deep hatred of women,any female resistance or confrontation to these fucking creepy scumbags won't be taken seriously and won't put the fear of god into the men responsible for this shit.We need men to step up with us. This needs to be shut down. (and note,I do not feel this way about porn in general,there's an element to GGW that differs from what someone like Larry Flynt does.Larry doesn't hate women.)
I just get the feeling that a few dozen really pissed off fathers,older brothers,uncles and boyfriends showing up at Spring Breaks,various resorts and bars on the beach,confronting these assholes and putting a barrier between them and their prey(and make no mistake,there's a HUGE preditory element to this,and it's open,blatant and cheered on.That's very scary to me as a female person)would put a stop to it.Stalk the bastards and have a group show up every place they show their faces.Kind of a Patriot Guard type thing.Run the fuckers out of town and let the kids party without this crap in their midst.
You know,it also does our young men no good at all to allow this kind of shit to go unchecked.Yes,I know these are young adults,and they're gonna screw like bunnies,and that's pretty much none of Mom and Dad's beeswax.Throw in alcohol(and other stuff that shows up at parties),large groups and all those dynamics and people will get hurt.It's pretty inevitable.Teaching guys that this is ok,and seeing guys get away with it and get rich off it is not really going to serve these young men well in the event that they actually do want to have healthy relationships with women at some point.Being an asshole shouldn't be a quality to earn admiration,or a free pass.GGW is abusive,and really,this is something tangible that could be confronted and stopped. Not just out of a protective instinct towards the young women involved,but the young men too. The business communuity should not be allowing these people into their venues either.If I owned a bar or resort,the second I saw these assholes show up they'd be gone.
Does this make me a meddling old biddy? I just know that if this phenomenon had been around when I was that age,all my male relatives and family friends wouldn't have put up with it(and the women I grew up around would have made damn sure the men knew about it if they didn't).There would have been a line of formidable men wielding ax handles to deal with these guys.Most of the men I grew up around would have been appalled that these guys were showing up where young people gather to party and preying on females and they wouldn't have been scared to confront it.
Besides,there's enough GGW footage to splice and re-splice together"collections"to create more weatlth than most people dare to see in a lifetime.If the now rich owners of this franchise went totally out of bidness tommorrow,no one's gonna suffer much.Where's the backlash?
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