I am yet to be completely convinced that gender-flipping doesn’t just co-opt the actions of our oppressors. But hey, I’m late to most intellectual parties and I’m at least glad that people feel empowered enough to respond to pop culture* in ways that I often feel, at best, able to ignore and, at worst, thoroughly demoralised by. Even more complicated about gender-flipping is the way that its practice gives the inevitable air time to the icky original.
But dammit, sometimes my aesthetics don’t marry my politics perfectly, and I kind of like Mod Carousel, Seatlle-based boylesque troupe, and their response. And the thoughtfulness of their own response, to the whole storm in a tea cup.
“It’s our opinion that most attempts to show female objectification in the media by swapping the genders serve more to ridicule the male body than to highlight the extent to which women get objectified and does everyone a disservice. We made this video specifically to show a spectrum of sexuality as well as present both women and men in a positive light, one where objectifying men is more than alright and where women can be strong and sexy without negative repercussions.”
*don’t start me on the new Justin Timberlake clip.
eleanor j jackson 