Well, a parody of Paris Hilton on sayobject.com, to be precise.
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About the Paris Proposition:
After talking with our Object: It’s How You Say It group, a lot of thoughts sprung up for me regarding Paris Hilton.
When Paris came up and whether we should approach her (or should I say, “it?”, being that in many ways she is “object” in the very black and white sense of the word), there were a couple of points made as to why we should stay far, far, far away from anything having to do with her.
Jill Soloway and Lindsey Horvath inspire me because they are activists and thought-provoking feminists. When I heard that Jill would be starting this OBject-obJECT thing, I jumped at the idea. I’ve noticed that her insight is almost always from angle that has been overlooked in an already researched issue or is just something new altogether. I knew this group would be something new wave.
To help me stay true to that, I wanted to look further into some of those points made at the last Object meeting as to why we need to stay away from Paris:
Why feed more attention to Paris:
What I think is so great about this new group is that all of us women were most enthusiastic about the inclusion of ALL women regardless of their job status, choice of make-up, sexual preference, how much cleavage they let pop out, how many people they’ve had sex with, and if Sex in the City is a show they love or detest, etc. etc.
This is one of the many factors that will make our group so special and modern! It angers me to the rut of my gut in the hut of my womb, that “feminist”, which simply means: of or relating to or advocating equal rights for women, has developed so many nonsensical bad connotations that even women hesitate at titling themselves feminists. For me, this is most detrimental to feminism today and we need it removed in order to go forth, live well, and prosper.
When we brought up Paris in discussion, I think we may have tripped into a hole that we are desperately trying to climb out of in the first place. This belief that by highlighting her or women like her in any form, we are putting the lights out on us is yet another example of female division in our unfortunate dog-eat-dog, or the media painted: cat-eat-cat world.
Right away, an exploration of how she came to be, why the media is so gung-“HO” on her, and whether or not we can poke OUR big sticks into figuring it out, as one of our MANY topics for us to investigate, turned into a fear that she would then become our only symbol. That she would be the only woman representing us and that she would take attention away from what we are striving for.
If we are talking about inclusion of all women, then by crossing Paris out straight away aren’t we closing the door on women that need their eyes opened most and on the women who we want most to hear us? As a woman of Arabic-Israeli decent, I’ve learned that a great way to move forward in controversial debates is to listen to all sides so that forces can join together to do the fixin’. We need an open environment so our honesty can come out. If we have this kind of environment then the real truth of why women do what they do and where it comes from can be exposed and then worked through.
But, Paris is some stupid rich girl who made millions off of objectifying herself and she’ll never change. She sucks and we’re wasting our time:
First off I hesitate calling someone stupid before I’ve ever gotten to know them personally or have actually sat down with them myself. A lot of times that I’ve done that I wind up wrong and then I feel like an idiot for making presumptions. Her media character is most certainly stupid but I wouldn’t necessarily rule out that the person underneath that image isn’t capable of anything positive. And since her media image is such an already powerful international influence, trying to shift it in a different direction can be a wonderful undertaking and can have huge positive effects.
The fact that she’s a famous millionaire has no bearing on me believing that she can’t change. And though she isn’t Madonna or Angelina, it seems to me that media exploited figures go through self reevaluations and change more frequently than most.
I’m not going to pretend I haven’t loathed her sayings, how she wastes money that can go to good, and how she sells prostitution but…I can’t hate her as much as I want to. I mean is it her fault she was born into huge wealth? Though she became famous off of a sex tape, doesn’t she claim that it wasn’t supposed to get out and that she didn’t want anyone to see it? I have hesitation to believe she didn’t want it to get out, but then again, I don’t have any legitimate reason to back up my hesitation. After that, in the grand scheme of things is she selling sex more than most of the women in our media headlights? And is it her we hate or how the media focuses attention on her? On her end she just may say that she has used her money to start up her own businesses through her television show and perfume. She may feel she’s empowering for women. Who knows if anyone ever truly broke it down for her how her actions are effecting our youth and society in a negative and hazardous way.
She was fairly young when she was thrown into the media hands with a sex tape she claims she didn’t want exposed. By using the word, never, in “she’ll never change,” then I feel we are taking the backbone out of what makes any organization survive as we are then agreeing to give up. But “why waste our time” because….
Paris Hilton is such a joke!
Since she was a discussion topic in the first place then maybe she is much less of a joke then I would have originally thought.
And if she is a joke and I’m a feminist and I don’t want to even think a second about her then what does that do? I compared this to another fight I believe in as a way of understanding this better:
As someone who believes in the natural foods movement as a way of helping to fight sickness and environmental pollution, I personally never step foot into a McDonalds. Yet, by talking to the heads at McDonalds and by getting them to make healthful changes, then wouldn’t it be so much more beneficial then getting a health-food restaurant to announce that they’ve improved to being 100% organic.
But then again we can look at McDonalds and say, they’re a huge company that’ll never change. Yet, after the documentary of Fast Food Nation, the company was further exposed, and they are making changes. Now people who have never even looked at a salad are eating them because it’s on the McDonalds menu (it’s a start).
Let’s not let our personal feelings get in the way of the greater good we are trying to do. While we all “hate” Paris, the issue is bigger than us, and whether we like it or not, someone like Paris Hilton is a huge pop-culture influence. If it’s possible to veer that influence towards our goals then maybe it’s worth at least a further glimpse. Who knows what can be there for us if we don’t look. What if we find out she was raped as a kid, what if we don’t? Regardless, anything we deal with regarding her shouldn’t negate the other women we want to approach. As mentors for young women, we should definitely go to females we admire and respect. There’s no reason why going to Paris would make her our end-all-be-all woman.
I remember watching a show where everyone got up and applauded for this man who had been visiting a gang member in jail. This violent gang member, a young man who he kept on visiting started to wake up. Later the man wound up adopting the former gang member. By going to this kid who was seen as the enemy and creating change there, the effect was huge. I remember so vividly Bill Cosby, who was on the panel getting up and applauding.
In the end I guess I wrote all this because the idea of a feminist group opening to Paris Hilton really hit me as a new wave approach.
I just wanted to comment on this and say, one, that it is an excellently written insite into the topic. two, in my opinion, I feel that its probably best to not ignore paris hilton all together but at the same time also not make her a fixation of this site or movement. i think its important to look at the celebrities young girls (hell, women of all ages unfortunately) are influenced by today and try to understand why. That understanding can help bring a counter movement. you have to know your "enemy" to know how to defeat them. In this case I am not really refering to paris hilton the person as the enemy but the overwhelming media attention and focus on someone who is truly irrelevant to most peoples daily lives, or should be.
so to sum up i would say, yes, paris has a place in the discussion as would any waify, ditsy, overexposed negative celebrity idol who is part of the poisoness pop culture of today. but lets not make her a regular fixation. so many more important things to learn and do!
Sorry it took me so long to get back to this, we are reconfiguring the blog so that it will be by topic instead of by date....
In the meantime, my feeling about Paris is that "hating" Paris, Lindsey et al-- might be a big part of womens' impetus of trying to save feminism, but as a detective-- a sociology detective--I look at the Paris aesthetic--
FULLY AWARE that she is a complete heroine to many young women... even those who wouldn't admit it...
And also aware that when I was 20 or 21, no one ever could have told me to stop using my attractiveness as a tool for more power. She just happens to be better at it-- perhaps more focussed on it-- than many other women. She actually gets paid- ALOT- makes a living-- just to be her. Just to be attractive. A lot of women have to be attractive and be in porno to make a living. She makes a living just STANDING THERE, going to a party, being herself.
As she is at the center of so many of these conversations, why SHOULDN'T we want her to be part of our events? She doesn't have to be a spokeswoman, but maybe an attendee. Isn't this division at the heart of what feminism's problem is?
Also, perhaps this conversation is better suited up above at the 20 vs 40 conversation I started... feel free to post it there as instead...
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