General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: It is not about the swimsuit issue it is about basic respect for women [View all]The Straight Story
(48,121 posts)Isn't that interesting when people perceive what you wrote in such a way?
See that a lot around here.
"When I first saw the swimsuit issue posted here I was not upset about it at all, in fact I fully admit I found the women on the cover attractive."
You weren't upset and found them attractive - now how about we read a ton of things into that you didn't say? Because that is the sort of thing that is going on and that is where these flame wars come from.
Implications are read into things that are not there, people get accused of misogyny because they are not as offended as they are supposed to be, etc.
"We need to understand that someone who was the victim of a sexual assault may have a very different reaction to a sexualized photo than you or I"
You mention rape and photos of how women are dressed. Are you saying that those women who chose to dress that way somehow are related to rape? These women didn't have the right to do the job they chose, rise to the top of their modeling career and be featured in a high profile magazine because that cover may upset some other women and somehow all that relates to sexual assault?
Are you saying women on DU should be protected from seeing such women (and it was posted by a woman iirc)? What if a woman here is a model, photographer, etc and found the whole magazine cover interesting on an artistic level - should that person refrain from posting and discussing it all?
We are adults here, all with our own set of issues and problems relating to a million different things. Women and men should be treated respectfully here as a group. But within those groups you will have some that are more upset about something than others. Some women here made their feelings quite clear on the issue in that they weren't offended by it but were upset by other women telling them they should be. Were they respected?
Personally, as I have said elsewhere, it (and many other things), probably didn't belong here in GD. It is easy enough to trash thread and move on or just not reply (and I exercise that option often).
What was done is exactly what you are complaining about here - people took a lot of things as something they were not, assigned motivations to them, accused people of misogyny and more, and basically folks were told if they were not as offended as someone else they were not liberal enough.
It is not about the cover, it is about the insinuation that others are something they are not because they dared to not get as upset as others did.