(A click bait picture?)
I have really enjoyed all the comments and feedback to my More Thoughts on Women, Oppression and Porn post. Thanks again to @veralynn for inspiring it with her post here.
Most of the comments to my post were very thoughtful, even those from folks who disagreed passionately with me. I'm grateful for the debate and dialogue. That's what Steemit is all about!
Only a few comments were snarky, but I liked some of the snarky ones best since they perfectly illustrated the very point I was trying to make--that women are shamed whenever they seek to use their inherent sexual power to their advantage, especially their economic advantage, in ways that are not controlled by men. This comment from @cogliostro was particularly helpful in making my point:
cogliostro (6) · 13 hours ago
My normally sweet girlfriend complained about SteemIt being open on my screen, calling it "the women spreading their legs site again". I get that you're going for max clickbait, but come the hell on. How low can you go.
Please make the broad with her legs spread go away from the top of my SteemIt feed.
To be clear, the image he was referencing was this one:
(The controversial photo of @steemed-open)
It was this simple image of a sexually powerful women that inspired his rant. Notice the accusation of "click bait", a term he used derogatorily, implying that there is something unseemly about a woman making money from her sex appeal. (Cindy gets the SBD from many of the posts on my blog, btw, ). Just to drive the attempted shaming home, he snarked "how low can you go?" (emphasis added), and he referred to my lovely wife derogatorily as a "broad." His disdain was readily apparent, no?
But...why? Why was he so incensed or perturbed about a simple picture? Was he just embarrassed that his wife caught him staring? After all, it's a picture of much more than a crotch, but even assuming it wasn't, what's so threatening about a clothed female crotch? Men "manspread" all the time without shame. Women can't?
The obvious fact is, every image in every post is intended as "click bait". Some are just more effective than others. Every image is carefully selected to draw the reader in, or at least it should be according to the most successful authors here on Steemit. Provocative headlines serve the same purpose. And yet its generally only sexually powerful ones in general, and of sexually powerful women in particular, that are shamed so. If I had posted an image of a man in the same position, would he have been so shamed? Of course not. Doesn't anyone wonder why?
With that thought in mind, I responded to @cogliostro as follows:
[-]sean-king (8) · 13 hours ago
Ever heard of "manspreading". Tell your wife it's not just for men anymore.
And that "broad" is my wife. Do you regularly call women 'broads', or just sexually empowered ones? And do you even know what the term means?
I chose the image purposefully and not just as click bait. If you read my post you would get the symbolism.
At this point, a whale decided to intervene in defense of @cogliostro. @rainman replied to my comments above as follows (and then promptly down voted my entire post, costing me several hundred dollars:
[-]rainman (7) · 11 hours ago
It's still clickbait and a cheap trick that you didn't really need in this post. You could've at least used a more SFW picture as the leading picture and included the current picture further down, that way we wouldn't all have to see your wife spreading her legs everytime we open steemit.com..
Once again, notice the attempt at shaming. "Clickbait" again. "Cheap trick". Implying that the picture was almost NSFW.
My questions for @cogliostro and @rainman, or any readers who agree with them, are simply these: Ignoring religious sensibilities for a moment (I'm not interested in debating anyone on the basis of religious teachings), what makes a picture of a sexually powerful woman "low" or "cheap"? Why do you resent it more than say, an equally appealing "click bait" image of...anything else. Is it not the fact that the effect of these images is so predictable? Isn't that what you truly resent--the power of the image and its undeniable influence over the masses and, if you are honest, even over you? Isn't that really why you derogatorily call it "click bait", because even you couldn't resist? Isn't it your own shame that's the real problem?
Of course it is. It's the feminine power, and your inability to defend against it, that's so threatening. It's that which you seek to contain and diminish and mold to suit and serve you. After all, it's almost like women have an unfair advantage over you, right? Your scorn and attempted shaming are thinly-veiled attempts to deflect attention from this obvious truth, and to discourage women from exploiting this power in the future.
Well friends, fortunately or unfortunately (depending upon where you stand), @steemed-open and I are pretty shameless. So, you can expect much more so-called "click bait" in the future. Feel free to downvote it if you feel so compelled. But if you do, I'd at least appreciate a rational and thoughtful explanation as to why. Let's have a constructive and respectable debate, okay? No, you don't owe me that, it's just common courtesy. Plus, it will benefit the Steemit ecosystem overall. But, if you can't articulate a rational and thoughtful explanation for your down vote, then perhaps you might revisit your own prejudices and biases before making silly comments and vindictively down voting.
In any event, I won't (usually) post images merely as "click bait". Even when I post just an image without much commentary, there will usually some important symbolism, or artistic merit (I hope), for those with eyes to see it. "Click bait" implies leading with something enticing and then failing to deliver anything substantive. Click bait is just a tease. But based upon the nearly 130 mostly thoughtful comments on my post linked above, I think I delivered much more than a tease. And I'll strive to continue doing so going forward.
EDIT:> My lovely companion and the subject of most of my photos, Cindy, just made her formal "introduceyourself" post. You can get to know her a little better at @steemed-open.