Posts Written by Elizabeth
By Elizabeth Mizon • 10 years ago

Feminism: Connection & Progression (aka What’s Next?)

In the twenty first century, what, and where, is Feminism? There are close to 4 billion women in the world now, and the personal is ever political; that’s a buttload of politics. Are we still solid, guys? Would addressing you as ‘girls’ instead be patronizing, or more feminist? (I have many more questions, the masses. Please do not flame me yet. [P.S. How many readers constitute a ‘mass’?])

Aren’t we due another wave? There’s only been a few, and feminism’s totally internet-famous now. Today, internet culture has revolutionized life for everyone, not least those engaged in the gender equality movement which is at once exciting, thriving, and relentlessly, miserably co-opted. Just this week, the #nomakeupselfie campaign, for example, while raising money for a good cause, has simultaneously unleashed the ‘bravery’ of women who briefly don’t wear make-up as a defiant act in the name of freedom and peace and charity or something.* (The date is 21st March 2014. #Progress! [Have you looked at any rape statistics recently? Maybe 2014 could be the year we engage with that via hashtag!] )

Where can we possibly go from here? Is the concept of ‘post-feminism’ still a joke? Do I ignore or denounce Bill Maher’s pseudo-liberal sexism? How feminist is spending all day on social media sharing videos about advancing equality, of which none encourage spending vast chunks of my short life on the internet sharing videos?

As a distraction from the nervous determination for answers and clarity, and the accompanied sweating, ...
By Elizabeth Mizon • 10 years ago

What’s Worse Than Sexual Objectification?

Picture a strong female. Either a real one that you know, or a character in a story. She has a name, and, please, some defining characteristics and purpose.  Now: objectify her.

Thank you. The thought experiment is now over. But one last thing before you go.

What did that look like? I am going to assume, quite safely, that your woman lost clothing, changed poses, became younger, and was suddenly holding firearms.

Did you note that I specified ‘strong’ female, instead of just a normal one? Did you wonder why I felt the need to employ this already tired definition?

Sexual objectification is the most visually enticing and rampant extension of objectification, and consequently the most discussed in cultural discourse and at the forefront ...

Picture a strong female. Either a real one that you know, or a character in a story. She has a name, and, please, some defining characteristics and purpose.  Now: objectify her.

Thank you. The thought experiment is now ...
By Elizabeth Mizon • 10 years ago

Women in Pornography: Annabel & Grace

I was first introduced to Sex: The Annabel Chong Story in the second year of my Film Studies degree in a week titled The Pornography Debates, part of the segment on gender representation. Now that I choose to write about gender in culture I regret not plunging myself into full engagement with the course; but despite my mental absence, I remember this documentary with trepidation.

Grace Quek is a Singaporean woman, better known under her porn star alias Annabel Chong, who gained notoriety for breaking the record for having sex with the most men at one time (251 in 10 hours) in The World’s Biggest Gang Bang. Her story caught the attention of student filmmaker Gough Lewis (who I recently learned was her ...

I was first introduced to Sex: The Annabel Chong Story in the second year of my Film Studies degree in a week titled The Pornography Debates, part of the segment on gender representation. Now that I choose to write ...
By Elizabeth Mizon • 10 years ago

Beauty That’s ‘Real’

“Love the skin you’re in!”

“Real women, real beauty.”

“Beauty at any size!”

You’ll likely recognise the above phrases, which, rather than necessitating quotation, were plucked from my arse. I mean mind. (Bum/mind/waist-to-hip ratio; telling the difference is as hard as it is futile.)

Such clichés are the mantras of the body-positive ‘movement’: a barrage of messages women have been receiving via advertising campaigns and glossy magazines in recent years; a compassionate and diligent deflection against beauty standards imposed by advertising campaigns and glossy magazines, in the preceding and, indeed, same years.

On the Huffington Post this week, ‘Health Coach and Emotional Eating expert’ Isabel Foxen Duke posted an astute article titled ‘Why ‘Love Your Body’ Campaigns Aren’t Working’. Highlighting the above paradox of the ...

“Love the skin you’re in!”

“Real women, real beauty.”

“Beauty at any size!”

You’ll likely recognise the above phrases, which, rather than necessitating quotation, were plucked from my arse. I mean mind. (Bum/mind/waist-to-hip ratio; telling the difference is as hard ...
By Elizabeth Mizon • 11 years ago

Thatcher: Yay or Nay?

Having made a plea to people on the day of Thatcher’s death to cease talking about it within the week, but preferably the next 48 hours “so we can start talking about things that tangibly matter again”, here I am 72 hours later, bringing it up once more like the hypocritical, contradictory human I am.

There are a couple of things that I am itching to address after being bombarded with questions from several sources, without and within, for the last few days. Here goes:

Q. Did Margaret Thatcher help Feminism™?

A. On close inspection, it appears that Feminism is not the simple unified monolith we want to believe it is. Visit Wikipedia’s entry for Intersectionality, and you’ll begin to see the brilliant ...

Having made a plea to people on the day of Thatcher’s death to cease talking about it within the week, but preferably the next 48 hours “so we can start talking about things that tangibly matter again”, ...
By Elizabeth Mizon • 11 years ago

On female nudity

The naked body. Our instinct is to bloody love ‘em. Looking at one, touching one, being wrapped up in and by one. Mm. Damn.

Such sensuality, intimacy and pleasure can be expressed and received from the wonderfully naked body. Plus, the hypnotic motion of some appropriately-placed flailing genitalia or boing-ing boobs can be fucking funny. For most, nakedness is beautifully and inextricably tied to sexuality, and (again, for most) the sight and feel of a naked body is one of huge pleasure. Yet, as certain as my base instincts are of their appreciation of nakedness, most appearances of nudes in my visual field result in my brain and spirit becoming indignant and wanting to phone Terry Wogan to complain. But, of ...

The naked body. Our instinct is to bloody love ‘em. Looking at one, touching one, being wrapped up in and by one. Mm. Damn.

Such sensuality, intimacy and pleasure can be expressed and received from the wonderfully naked ...
By Elizabeth Mizon • 11 years ago

An open letter to pornography

Dear Pornography,

We need to talk. It’s not you, and it’s not me. It is, in fact, them*. Similarly to the way nudity has been ruined by its brazenly fascist packaging in the media, as described a couple of weeks ago, in theory: you’re alright, Porn. You are not ‘wrong’. (Can I call you Porn?)

But, industry professionals and misogynist consumers, with the complicity of those willing to ignore the misogyny in favour of sexual relief, have capitalized on society’s more ‘edgy’ attitudes towards sex (you know, sexual violence, degradation and humiliation, unsettling power complexes, all that stuff) to the point where even the idea of you is now conflated with misogyny. If we are to have an adult conversation about ...

Dear Pornography,

We need to talk. It’s not you, and it’s not me. It is, in fact, them*. Similarly to the way nudity has been ruined by its brazenly fascist packaging in the media, as described a ...
By Elizabeth Mizon • 11 years ago

Navigating a culture of sexual objectification

…is something 52% of the population must do, daily.

In fact, it’s something 100% of the population must do daily, but 48% (probably) don’t internalise it as self-image. Although…I’m sure there are tribes that never see any mainstream media, and people who don’t leave their houses or have a television or have the internet….

I promise I’m trying, Inclusion and Accuracy.

Guesstimate: about 89% of the population see images, and films, and television programmes, and news items, and magazines, and adverts, and people that continue to sexualise females. Daily. It’s toxic, it’s both surreptitious and brazen, and it affects YOUR BRAIN. And it will affect the brains of your children if you don’t teach them otherwise. This is why when you see any ...

…is something 52% of the population must do, daily.

In fact, it’s something 100% of the population must do daily, but 48% (probably) don’t internalise it as self-image. Although…I’m sure there are tribes that never see any mainstream ...

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