Today, one of my friends sent me a link to this video. Titled Oppressed Majority, the film aims to flip the script of gendered violence and sexual assault by placing men in situations women often find themselves in.
The video is in French, so you need to follow with subtitles, but I just think it is such an interesting short film that really makes you think. It reminds me of something we talked about in my communication and gender class last year about female posturing applied to males. We as a culture find it so strange when a man in positioned in a stance, or in this case daily life experience, that we have constructed as feminine.
We become almost uncomfortable when we see the tables have turned and its interesting seeing women commit sexual violence against a man because its not a narrative we are exposed to (although I won’t act like it doesn’t happen- sexual violence occurs across all lines of gender and identity).
The part I found most interesting was cat calling at the man in the video. “Cat calling” or the calling out to women typically consisting of an unwanted comments of sexual objectification, is something I feel like only happens to women. It is something that becomes tolerated and a “just ignore them” issue. However, when reframed it disrupts our cultural understanding of these events we view as casual discrimination as a much larger problem than we give credit to.
What do you think of the video? Do you think the roles giving to the men and women in the film are accurate? Let me know below!
ShoutOut! James Madison University 