I was able to attend the presentation and discussion of the film "War Zone" facilitated by professor Shawn Townes, Ph.D. The film is a documentary created by / staring Maggie Hadleigh-West and concerns her and other women's experiences with men and sexual oppression/violence and cat-calling on different city streets. (New Orleans and New York City)
Professor Townes was great, and so was the film, but the overall experience was a mixed bag. I am happy that events like this are presented at Foothill - it is positive and important work to discuss the dynamics of gender and sexual oppression, especially as it lately seems to have fallen out of the forefront of people's minds, as opposed to the place it had in the 60's and 70's.
What was disappointing was the attitudes and ideas that some of the guys who showed up held, even after the movie, which at the end had a very explicit and horrifying replay of a 911 call of a woman being raped and the hour or more of discussion we had. It seems that they just weren't able to see the very real and direct correlation between harassing behavior such as objectifying women and cat-calling them on the street has with rape culture - like they aren't aware that rape culture exists. I for one had trouble sleeping after hearing the call on the film.
Something the filmmaker talked about was a memory of almost being abducted by a man on the street and her thought that it was "inevitable". Along those same lines, I find myself simultaneously not surprised by the attitudes expressed by the men in the room as well as their apparent decision to retain their attitudes about cat-calling. What's wrong with paying a woman a complement after all? It seems an impossible task to express how situations make something appropriate and not appropriate and how this behavior is still rooted in the belief that women are merely sexual objects to be admired and displayed for men and how that goes a step further in creating an environment in which women are unabashedly harassed and violated as a mater of course.
Professor Townes was great, and so was the film, but the overall experience was a mixed bag. I am happy that events like this are presented at Foothill - it is positive and important work to discuss the dynamics of gender and sexual oppression, especially as it lately seems to have fallen out of the forefront of people's minds, as opposed to the place it had in the 60's and 70's.
What was disappointing was the attitudes and ideas that some of the guys who showed up held, even after the movie, which at the end had a very explicit and horrifying replay of a 911 call of a woman being raped and the hour or more of discussion we had. It seems that they just weren't able to see the very real and direct correlation between harassing behavior such as objectifying women and cat-calling them on the street has with rape culture - like they aren't aware that rape culture exists. I for one had trouble sleeping after hearing the call on the film.
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