Open Source Boob Project

Posted by Sabotabby, Punkassblog at 4:35 AM on April 24, 2008.

In LiveJournal Land, an interesting hoopla has erupted around The Open-Source Boob Project. The story starts at ConFusion in Ann Arbor, an annual sci-fi, fantasy, anime, gaming, comics, etc., convention. If you’ve ever shown up at a con wearing a set of boobs, you know that the gender and personal space dynamics can get a bit—well, touchy. It’s not that there aren’t female geeks (and if you don’t read her already, check out Karen Healey for awesome feminist analysis of comics and geekdom), but the majority of cons are still sausagefests and not always female-friendly.

This year’s ConFusion took the creepy vibe that women often feel at cons to a whole new level, however.

“This should be a better world,” a friend of mine said. “A more honest one, where sex isn’t shameful or degrading. I wish this was the kind of world where say, ‘Wow, I’d like to touch your breasts,’ and people would understand that it’s not a way of reducing you to a set of nipples and ignoring the rest of you, but rather a way of saying that I may not yet know your mind, but your body is beautiful.”

Obviously, the solution to our sexually repressed, sexually confused culture where women are objectified and reduced to a collection of body parts is to instigate a con-wide gropefest. Being geeks, the guys in charge of this project decided that the gropefest needed to be perfected and streamlined, so by Penguicon, they had two sets of buttons that could be issued to women, advertising the availability status of their ta-tas.

I can only assume from reading the post that an empowered, post-patriarchal utopia ensued.

Oh, it didn’t? I wonder why. Springheel_jack has an excellent smackdown:

The ferrett wonders why a man’s asking, out of the blue, if he can feel up a woman’s boobs shouldn’t be understood as “a way of saying that I may not yet know your mind, but your body is beautiful.” But this is simply to ask why he shouldn’t be able to continue to treat women as they have always been treated. Body first, sexual delectation to men first, as object first, “mind” - i.e. as a human subject - very firmly second. It’s simply to intensify the condition of patriarchal gender relations that already existed - or, to put it more simply, it’s a frustrated man’s fantasy of putting women back in their place.

And here we have the usual libertarian solution to everything - in the name of a false individuality, itself the product of an illegitimate reification and universalization of the social conditions of propertied white men - we have a retreat into the worst of the dark days of gender relations before feminism, offered as a so-called “advance” into a “more honest” and “freer” world. This is pernicious masculine ideology at its most pure and most insufferable. In the name of “empowering” women, we have…more of the same poison that women have been trying to free themselves of for all this time.

Go read the whole thing—I can’t add much to his analysis beyond to say that it’s spot-on. Obviously, this is not just about geekdom. Certain problems are more pronounced in geekdom because a lot of the standard modes of interpersonal relations and social niceties go out the window (and rightly so). But the patriarchy doesn’t. You can tell, because no one was proposing an open-source nutsack-grabbing project.

Look, I have a nice set of boobs. Really nice, according to some. Ever since I got them, I’ve been fending off assholes who think they have the right to grab them, whether I want it or not. I don’t need a button to advertise whether my boobs are touchable or not—if they are, gentlemen, you’ll know about it.

Update: Misia has a response. You should read it.

Tagged as: sexism

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Not enough going on? [Report this comment] Posted by: uluro on Apr 24, 2008 5:09 AM    Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] With Iraq, global warming, unemployment, housing loss, hunger, the idiot administration etc. Can't the writers for AlterNet find SOMETHING else to write about? Come on! Boobs? Panties? Give us a break, already! [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] No one proposes nut sack grabbing cause geeks figure women don't want to grope them [Report this comment] Posted by: rfrancis@godisdead.com on Apr 24, 2008 5:57 AM    Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] First I want to say, keep libertarianism out of this, it has nothing to do with this. Second, there are a few things one needs to know in order to understand guys. 1) All guys, sans ones with no libido at all, which are very few, want to get laid. Guys live for getting laid. 2) The better a guy's ability to flirt, the more likely he will get laid. 3) Most geeks have no ability to flirt. This is not a feminism issue or patriarchy issue or a putting women in their place issue. If you understood geek guys better, and in this case these guys probably are more nerd, dweeb, or melvin than just geek, you would realize that they are just trying to come up with a new strategy to get laid. It is clearly a very poor one, but that is all it is. Guys NEED to get off, the same as any creature in the animal kingdom. That's why Bill was getting BJs in the Oval Office from Monica. That's why Eliot was paying ungodly amounts of money for N diamond sex workers. It is pretty much why the world goes around. Getting off is why humanity exists, it is why every species on the planet that is here today exists. Cause getting off has been a main part of life for that species. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] » Get off what? Posted by: Zenobia » RE: Get off what? Posted by: JimmyVaughan » RE: Get off what? Posted by: e rice » RE: Get off what? Posted by: wal55 » good point Posted by: e rice » RE: Get off what? Posted by: hermjo » RE: No one proposes nut sack grabbing cause geeks figure women don't want to grope them Posted by: Xynyx Pathetic [Report this comment] Posted by: BobS on Apr 24, 2008 7:01 AM    Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] The ideals of the Free Open Source Software movement(FOSS) include respect for members of the community. Yes, the FOSS movement is very white and male, but many of us are not happy with that situation and would like to see that changed. FOSS is about a community of people coming together to create a software project for the good of all. It's hard to see any good coming out of the "Open Boobs Project". This "project" is antithetical to everything that the FOSS movement stands for and should not under any circumstances be confused with it. Bob Simpson The Bobbosphere [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] Of course, that begs the question [Report this comment] Posted by: JimmyVaughan on Apr 24, 2008 8:34 AM    Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] The author writes, "Look, I have a nice set of boobs. Really nice, according to some. Ever since I got them, I’ve been fending off assholes who think they have the right to grab them, whether I want it or not. I don’t need a button to advertise whether my boobs are touchable or not—if they are, gentlemen, you’ll know about it." OK, so show us your boobs, please. That said, it would be a Hell of a lot more fun and informative than this article. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] » No sense of humor, I see. Posted by: JimmyVaughan » RE: No sense of humor, I see. Posted by: Xynyx » Reading comprehension deficit Posted by: JimmyVaughan » RE: eading comprehension deficit Posted by: e rice » RE: No sense of humor, I see. Posted by: wal55 » I'll give you a perfect example of self-absorbed Posted by: JimmyVaughan » RE: I'll give you a perfect example of self-absorbed Posted by: wal55 Well [Report this comment] Posted by: ssjknux on Apr 24, 2008 9:39 AM    Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] The “geek” areas of the entertainment industry are perhaps the strangest cultural regions in their attitudes toward women. Unlike other predominantly male subcultures such as fishing, hunting and mountaineering, the geek culture is largely creative, and requires creation of characters. Fictional characters in the geek culture, unlike literary characters, tend to be the outlets for the repressed desires of geeks, and the primary creators (especially in science fiction, anime and manga) are male. Most females who venture into this creative territory are forced to either adopt misogynistic archetypes or risk critical and commercial failure. For example, it is not uncommon for female illustrators to adopt the standard practice of giving their women characters breasts twice the size of their heads. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] » female science fiction writers Posted by: e rice This is pretty simple [Report this comment] Posted by: Smackback on Apr 24, 2008 10:40 AM    Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] A bunch of nerds at a con got to feel some boobs. That's the last time some of those nerds will ever get CLOSE to scoring with a chick. All this was, was just another fantasy role-playing game for the nerds at the con. Let's move along, folks, nothing to see here. :-D [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] » RE: This is pretty simple Posted by: Xynyx