WDNFA?
Gibson's Misogyny Drowned Out by Mass Media
It's funny how people assign primacy to things.
On YouTube, this particular 2 minute phonecall from Mel Gibson to Oksana Gregorieva is consistently titled with the words: racist, racism, but no sexism? No misogyny?
There's even a video trying to appease the masses by reminding all of us that the reason Mel gets angry (battering not mentioned, abuse not mentioned) is because he is spiritually hurting. Cry me a fucking river.
Better yet, why don't we look at other women in Mel's life who've had a similar experience of him. Violet Kowal, one of Mel's ex-girlfriends, told the Australian press that he was violent and abusive. The funny thing is that the article was keen on focusing on Gibson's racist language. Kowal also explained that Gibson would scream racist obscenities at her. She said she got very close to calling the police. Well, we know why so many women don't call the police but that's another blog post. The point is, this guy has a fucking track record of violence against women but again, the racist angle is getting much more media attention.
It seems trying to find Mel's misogyny in today's media is like wearing red tinted glasses to look at red text. Why isn't his misogyny given primacy?
I propose that the reason has to do with *ho hum* the invisibility of male privilege. It's a bigger crime to be a racist than it is to be a misogynist because well, hey, it's just hatred of women right? No big deal eh? Especially since women lurve being called bitches and getting breast implants.
What. The. Fuck.
In the phonecalls that were recorded and published there was one racist comment. One. Let's not forget that the comment was a rape threat. Am I the only one who heard that comment as more of a misogynistic comment and less about race? Prior to that comment he was belittling her for her appearance and how she dresses. He was calling her a slut.
Whatever you think about racism you should also think about sexism. Neither one should be given primacy over the other. Again, it's up to the feminists to point this out and refuse to be silent about it. Be prepared though; there's an entire media mouth that will shout you down.
hint: We still need feminism
1 comment:
When I first heard the recording I thought it was ridiculous that only the racial slur was mentioned considering the level of controlling, slut shaming verbal abuse spew by Gibson, however I think that we need to be careful when we discuss this issue. Mel was being a racist and misogynist just then. He not only threatened rape, but also implied that black men (because let's not lye about who whites in the U.S. attribute this word to) are roving around in neighborhoods waiting to rape (why he choose that word also says something about his thinking). In a society that has clearly made it more acceptable to be sexist than racist when we pit the two concepts against each other (and doing so erases my existence), feminist can not fall into the trap of trying to put sex above race as a counter. The comment about seeing the statement more about misogyny than race teeters close to doing just that.
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