On International Women’s Day: Women today still struggle with these prejudices

On the occasion of International Women’s Day, SRF is showing a miniseries called “Free Love!”. French authors Eloïse Delsart and Sophie-Marie Larrouy make clear what femininity and female desire can look like, far from the norm. And address widespread prejudices and issues affecting women today. We have summarized for you what it is about.

Considering the amount of time women spend bleeding, you might think that society’s approach to menstrual blood is relatively relaxed. Think! In advertisements for menstrual products, the blood is dyed blue, you only ask for a tampon with your hand up, and if you ever see a blood stain on your pants, you would want to sink into the ground in shame. Both in pornography and in everyday life, people act as if menstruation does not exist – hence the feeling of having to hide them.

People like to compare themselves. Especially when it comes to his sex life. Therefore, there are numerous statistics about the frequency of sexual intercourse, its quality, the length of the best part, and so on. Delsart and Larrouy make it clear: these figures cannot be relied on. American data scientist Seth Stephens-Davidowitz discovered this. So women only have half as much sex as they say in surveys, men even three times less often. Although women do not indulge in some sexual practices, men tend to exaggerate their performance in bed.

A writer talks about her poor relationship with her own body: no sugar since the age of six, food substitutes since the age of 12, and a constant back and forth between anorexia and self-loathing. If you don’t have fat reserves, you won’t ovulate – many models and athletes can tell you a thing or two about that. They ask the question of how to love yourself the way you are, while everyone around you suggests that you should be tighter, thinner and more perfect. When even the plus-size models on the catwalk have unrealistic proportions, it’s hard not to constantly compare yourself.

If you’re a woman on social media and especially on dating platforms, you’ve most likely been sent photos of a strange man’s penis without even asking. Surveys show that men also send photos of their genitals. However, so few photos of vulvas are sent that the subject is not interesting for research – at least so far. The ubiquity of the male primary sex organ cannot be denied even outside of science: whether in scribbles on the club toilet or in architecture inspired by it. Vulvas, on the other hand, are much less often a topic in a social and cultural context. The miniseries comes to the simple conclusion that sending unsolicited dick pics serves as a demonstration of men’s power over women and ultimately the world.

“The worst thing that can happen to a woman in the Western world is growing older,” say the two authors. When it comes to age, people cheat as much as possible. In porn, on the catwalk or in advertising, thirty-year-old women are sold to us as forty-year-olds. Anti-aging creams, cellulite treatments and the like help stop the bad image of old age from becoming more widely known. Women are more affected by this because the ‘fairer sex’ is more likely to be reduced to their appearance. Men, on the other hand, are much more likely to determine their self-worth by their success.

In 1992, only 24 percent of women in France said they had ever had anal sex; in 2019, that figure rose to 53 percent. Dealing with the backdoor is very ambivalent, especially among heterosexual men. True to the motto: “I’d love to take you from behind, but you can pack your strap-on right away.” According to the miniseries, this has to do with the fact that it suits the role of the submissive woman to ‘get it done’, but not the role of the strong man. And this belief seems to run so deep that it doesn’t even stop when the bedroom door is closed.

It is said to help with sore throats and wrinkles, make hair more beautiful and even have an anti-depression effect – semen. “Why are there breast pumps in pharmacies, but no sperm pumps?” the authors rightly ask. A Man’s World is obsessed with cum, the more the merrier. A large amount of it does not increase fertility, pleasure or anything else. And most women don’t like it so much that they want to consume it in large quantities.

Our society has a somewhat confused relationship not only with anal sex, but also with bisexuality. When women kiss, we love it. Female bisexuality is in fashion. The reason for this is as simple as it is absurd: it satisfies the sexual fantasy of heterosexual men. Bisexuality among men still has a negative connotation. On swinger websites, women say they are open to women, but their partners emphasize at every opportunity that they are strictly straight.

Three quarters of young people between 18 and 25 years old shave their private parts. According to the authors, this is not due to the porn industry, where the finger is pointed at so often. Rather, it goes back to an “old fear of her.” Body hair is wrongly seen as something masculine and therefore does not belong on a woman’s body according to social norms. Moreover, hair removal contributes almost two billion euros to the beauty industry’s coffers every year. Anyone who feels more comfortable with smooth skin should do this. But please don’t use it under the scientifically refuted pretext that it is more hygienic – because exactly the opposite is the case: hair fulfills its biological purpose.

(anb)

ARD also serves something stunning and surprising for Women’s Day, namely ‘Sexually Available’ by screenwriter and director Caroline Rosales. A multi-part like a wild, strong drink. There’s Miki (Laura Tonke), in her early forties and a “filmmaker”, i.e. the director of cheap commercial clips and even cheaper music videos, and Miki’s children keep a calendar with entries like “22 days until mom goes to jail”. Mother raped a man with a strap-on dildo.

At least that’s what the hyper-righteous August von Modersohn (Hanno Kofler) says, who can now finally imagine how women feel because “I’m now one of you.” What exactly is this man’s agenda that is more mendacious than a fake Gucci bag? And does Miki, known in the media as ‘The Rapist’, even have a chance? Everything is twisted in this hilarious miniseries that’s shockingly good and untamed, featuring gender war heroes like Lady Bitch Ray and Lilo Wanders in some pretty loud cameos. (Simone Meier).

“Sexually Available” can be seen in the ARD media library.