The Pleasure of Objectifying Meghan McCain

Last night Meghan McCain twittered a low-res, black and white picture of herself holding a copy of a Warhol biography and most notably sporting what can only be described as a truly great rack. Immediately her 87 gajillion twitter followers went nuts; replying lewdly, criticizing her, demeaning her, defending her, praising her, jerking off to her, etc. It's the Internet, that's what happens. The only reason it's even notable is that the news blogs picked it up and this morning she addressed it in her Daily Beast column. 25-year-old women twitter scantily clad pictures of themselves into the ephemera every five seconds. But Meghan McCain is a notable Republican media personality so this photo spawned Boobgate.

That said, in the photo her breasts are awe-inspiring--cantilevered to a remarkable height by a well-engineered Wonderbra. She's kidding herself if she didn't think the millions of pervs trolling the Internet would crawl all over her. The reaction was instantaneous. The main problem is that she reads her replies. It seems like she got a little overwhelmed by the attention and sent out a few more ill-advised tweets ending with an apology.

In comparison, Arizona Rep. Jeff Flake recently took a bunch of shirtless pictures of himself camping out on a desert island and doing manly things like using tools. Yes, really, a GOP congressman did this. Go look! And he submitted the photos to to WaPo's style section with a sentimental essay about being a man. Seriously! Where's the fallout from all his prancing around shirtless? Exactly, there is none. Yawn. I bet he's totally jealous of Meghan McCain for getting all the attention. He spent a whole week mostly naked, spearing fish and building fires with his bare hands, and no one even looked. All McCain had to do was twitpic herself lounging in a hotel room eating take-out.

But back to the McCain twins. I've had to edit, write and review a lot of bad lesbian erotica in my lifetime. I've edited entire anthologies of the stuff. I once read a story where someone described a woman's breasts as "twin puddings, creamy and pale." That kind of thing seriously sticks with you. You know how you're cringing right now? Imagine if you read stuff like that every day. I'm inured to female objectification. In fact, I participate with alacrity. All McCain needs is to develop a little insulation and not react immediately to criticism from knuckle-draggers and bible-thumpers. 

I'm more into her breasts than her politics, but I say she's on the right track with the boob pics. I think exploiting your femininity to distract the patriarchy while you make your point heard is a good tactic. In a society that doesn't care what women have to say, it's actually a great tool, clearly more useful than killing fish with a sharp stick-doesn't that guy know he can just go to Whole Foods?

Remember how second-wave feminism said we should eradicate gender difference as a way to level the balance of power. Yeah, that'll never happen. Besides, more and more science tells us that gender difference is rooted in biology. It's not just our bodies; it's also our brains that are different. The problem isn't gender difference, it's the screwed-up, well-established hierarchy that grants power to the masculine over the feminine.

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I say we all go with it. The French feminists were all about a biological duality. Luce Irigaray instructed women to embrace femininity as a way of subverting it: "One must assume the feminine role deliberately. Which means already to convert a form of subordination into an affirmation, and thus to thwart it." See what I mean? The world wants to talk about women's bodies. Let them. Then while they are staring at your boobs, get some things done.

Writing a defensive blog isn't going to get her anywhere. She needs a stronger message and more confidence. She needs to use the attention she gets to disseminate her ideas. She's trying. I see how she's trying. She's got everyone looking at her but she's not sure what she wants to say. She's too busy fretting over the attention she gets. She has so much power and no idea what to do with it. When McCain learns to flaunt those Washington Monuments without shame, she'll see what I mean.

Read more of Diana's musings.