Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Are we all voyuers??

There has been this trend going in Facebook apparently started by women [which I seriously doubt] that women post answers in their status much like a meme, the question is known only to women.

It is an innocuous question with a provocative answer. It started with the bra colour question where women were supposed to write the colour of their bra. The question is sent in the inbox and you have to write the answer. How having everyone in your friends list and their grandmothers know the color of your bra helps breast cancer, I haven't been able to figure out.

For the latest one here is the message I received
Remember the game last year about what color bra you were wearing at the moment? The purpose was to increase awareness of October Breast Cancer Awareness month. It was a tremendous success and we had men wondering for days what was with the colors and it made it to the news. This year's game has to do with your handbag/purse, where we put our handbag the moment we get home for example "I like it on the couch", "I like it on the kitchen counter", "I like it on the dresser" well u get the idea. Just put your answer as your status with nothing more than that and cut n paste this message and forward to all your FB female friends to their inbox. The bra game made it to the news. Let's see how powerful we women really are!!! REMEMBER - DO NOT PUT YOUR ANSWER AS A REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE- PUT IT IN YOUR STATUS!!! PASS THIS TO ALL THE WOMAN YOU KNOW

And now women are putting down stuff like in on the couch etc. So it got me thinking that not only do we like to look in on the private aspects of other people's life but we want them to see ours, and then we put on an act and get outraged about infringement of privacy in our lives these days. I mean hello? why invite then get offended and accuse of trespassing?

So why do we do this? Is it to feel more attractive and desirable or is it a kosher way of advertising your femininity. Is it just the tease in us women. I fail to understand

What could this kind of status message have as its purpose other than to invite voyeurism and have others speculate especially men? Then to go on speaking about womens rights and feminism.

I think streakers are far more honest in their intentions - if you want attention have the bloody guts to be open about it and not hide behind stupid provocative Facebook statuses

5 comments:

Crazy Mom said...

I totally agree that facebook is used to hide behind. The first one about the bra was cute, now I think it is just people who have something to gain by learning something about someone they have no business to know in the first place!

John A Hill said...

Okay, so this kind of makes me smile. Apparently this wasn't an as well kept secret as the last round. I found out about the handbag thing within a few days of starting to see the posts.

On the one hand it appears innocent enough. On the other hand...well, telling everybody where you keep your purse in your house is a bit like publishing when you're going to be on vacation (and I see plenty of that, too). Is it really that smart? Do you trust all of your Facebook friend's friends?

When I look on my homepage, I see things that my friends have written on another friends wall. Even if I only see one side of this, I can figure out that somebody isn't going to be home for a while.

If I were a predator, I would know right where to look for keys and credit cards in many female friends homes. This is especially bad for college students that also post schedules and other info on Facebook.

And many of us have casual friends as FB friends--ones that we really wouldn't share personal info with in a conversation, but we'll post it on our FB status.

As much as I hate to see some people that update their status 10 times per day with meaningless drivel, at least that's not compromising their safety in any way. We just need to be more careful and more considerate about the things we post.

Sorry about the rant, Amber. I should get my own blog!
:)

Jean-Luc Picard said...

I knewe the real reason right away as I have many female FB friends

Loz said...

I saw a few of my Facebook friends write that and wondered what it was about. I did put it down to Secret Womens Business, which in my country has become a euphemism for crap [if you google it you may see why :)]

No Reply said...

I work in Greg time so please forgive my 2 month laps: just in case people miss the point, the purpose seems to be to market some idea by getting women to post something that seems sexually suggestive. It isn't about telling thieves where you keep your valuables; it's about using sex to sell something. That's how marketing works.

You have a great point that I completely agree with about people exposing their privacy and then complaining about invasion of their privacy the next day. Western culture is especially infected with this tendency of segregating what we do versus what we profess we do. This practice creates a dual existence for most people where we're afraid of being consistent.

Facebook is a public platform. That's the bottom line. It exists because people make money from marketing. People need to realize this is its nature as well as the nature on online communities in general. Don't put anything there you want to protect.

And on the other hand. If one uses a dirty word, then one ought not to be offended when it is used. That applies to privacy, hobbies, habits, whatever.

Ok, waiting for next post.