Feminism and hairy legs.
Arvida Bystrom - Swedish artist & model
Popular Instagram personality Arvida Bystrom managed to get a little bit of attention for herself recently when the unusually hursuit Swedish model posted some pics of herself posing in Adidas footwear with some noticeably unshaven legs.
The mind-numbingly predictable response came right on cue with online trolls throwing some misogynist abuse, according to regular trolling S.O.P's, and media outlets dutifully reported said misogynist abuse, as they do.
I appreciate what Arvida is doing but does it not highlight the futile nature of the whole thing. What passes for feminist debate these days is really just a neverending loop whereby a woman does something relatively innocuous, generally on social media, and the anti-feminsts yell vitriolic white noise at no-one in particular.
With the article about Arvida you look at the picture, scan the comments, shrug your shoulders, get a little frustrated, then shrug your shoulders again.
It's a prime example of what defines the modern world: a pointless little ritual repeated ad infinitum in the online space where none of the participants have any intention of genuinely trying to engage with anyone else and obviously don't expect to influence others or achieve something that may resemble an outcome.
(The violent clashes in Charlottesville and Berkeley not withstanding, showing it can sometimes spill over into the real world).
The only upside is that the woman-haters can only form a metaphorical mob these days, as opposed to the good old days when they could make a genuine example of a woman who had dared to challenge the patriarchical stereotypes; Hypatia being stabbed to death by a virulent pack of rabid christian men and literally torn limb from limb; and Joan of Arc - whose behaviour so scared the shit out of the church that she was tied to a stake and burnt alive, a precursor to the epidemic of witch burnings that came afterwards in the 16th & 17th centuries. Mercifully things have improved.
One would think the first thing the feminists should do is take control of the discussion but they've never proven very good at this.
And it's only going backwards as it gets mixed up inextricably with pop culture and the corporate world sets the terms of the debate.
Throughout the twentieth century it was Emmeline Pankhurst, Gloria Steinem & Germaine Greer throwing their intellectual heft and passion into the contest, stirring things up with their natural flair for dissent and disruption.
Compare that to what's actually going on with Arvida Bystrom - a highly paid model, being paid a rather handsome sum for an endorsement contract, by a large international fashion label, the campaign being orchestrated by a phalanx of advertising professionals.
These days feminism in the English speaking world largely just revolves around the vacuous goings on of Lena Dunham, Kim Kardashian & and their ilk. Frankly, it's incredibly depressing.
We appear to be reaching a stage though where if we leave it up to women to drive the feminist agenda on their own we're going to be waiting forever and I'm too enamoured with the idea of the 3000 year old patriarchal status quo - and the shitty masculine stereotype that accompanies it - going the way of the Dodo to put up with that. If Beyonce and Anita Sarkeesian are at the vanguard I'm adamant men need to start piling in and telling the alt-right/gamergate crowd to go and fuck themselves.
It's probably not really in the spirit of things - and a little counter-productive - to have a dig at the feminists, but when a snivelling little fool like Milo Yiannopoulos is your main opponent and you're not making progress you really need to call for reinforcements. I'm just saying.
The project we call western civilization has been rolling on for at least two and a half thousand years, making relentless cultural progress in every aspect, except one; misognyny has never budged and after more than two millennia remains completely undiminished.
Whilst we don't burn women alive anymore the role women should be playing in society evidently still isn't happening. We need to see men being far more proactive with this and as a starting point we just need to commit to making concrete contributions in the workplace, the sporting clubs and anywhere else that men are trying to perpetuate the patriarchal status quo.
Don't just make meaningless comments on twitter and facebook or post selfies wearing t-shirts. Because that's not what a feminist looks like, it's what a lazy, cynical dipshit looks like.