By Alexandra Brodsky • @azbrodsky • 11 years ago

Viral misogyny alert: “The Women of LA”

Ugh. The Nice Guys of OKCupid “DJ Lubel”–the guy behind the Murray Hill video from 2009–has released a new spoof music video, “The Women of LA,” complaining about how bitchy women won’t provide the sex he and his friends deserve. The clip is so awful for so many reasons that I don’t know how to levy a real critique, but here are some highlights:

  • The entire video is based on the premise that women owe men sex, and that if a guy isn’t getting laid, it’s obviously because of the ladies’ flaws, rather than his own. We’ve been over this before.
  • Despite the DJ’s desperation to convince one woman to sleep with him, he expresses nothing but disdain for the whole female population of LA. Apparently these bitches “all look the same,” are greedy and materialistic but financially dependent on their parents, and care about nothing but wealth and fame in a partner. But still, this guy really, really wants to fuck one of you (because men are allowed to be shallow, even though women are not).
  • The video singles out Iranian women for special stereotyping, adding a dose of racism to make sure the overwhelming misogyny isn’t monotonous.
  • At multiple points, men bemoan the sobriety of LA women since “one wine’s not enough to get between their thighs.” Apparently the idea of sleeping with a woman who wouldn’t get into bed while sober doesn’t bother this crew.
  • Part of the video is a spoof of RENT. Because comparing not getting laid because you’re a jerk to dying of AIDS sounds like a great idea, right?
  • Keep an eye out for some requisite body shaming. The skinny girls won’t sleep with these guys, but the idea of sex with a heavier woman from the Valley is assumed to be laughable, as is sex with a drag queen.
The Women of LA

Don’t bother watching the video. Really.

To the inevitable trolls: “it’s just supposed to be funny” isn’t an excuse for this. That defense is disrespectful to comedy, since it’s based on the presumption that humor has no relation to reality, and fundamentally misunderstands bigotry. Most people don’t set out to be sexist, but that doesn’t mean their words and actions don’t perpetuate harmful beliefs about gender and sexuality.

Washington, DC

Alexandra Brodsky was a senior editor at Feministing.com. During her four years at the site, she wrote about gender violence, reproductive justice, and education equity and ran the site's book review column. She is now a Skadden Fellow at the National Women's Law Center and also serves as the Board Chair of Know Your IX, a national student-led movement to end gender violence, which she co-founded and previously co-directed. Alexandra has written for publications including the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Guardian, and the Nation, and she is the co-editor of The Feminist Utopia Project: 57 Visions of a Wildly Better Future. She has spoken about violence against women and reproductive justice at campuses across the country and on MSNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, FOX, ESPN, and NPR.

Alexandra Brodsky was a senior editor at Feministing.com.

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