Saturday, July 16, 2016

Understanding Dani Mathers

You've probably read about Dani Mathers by now: Playboy Bunny of the year (that's a thing). She's a pretty, blonde lady model who snapped a picture of a naked woman in a gym locker room of a naked woman showering with a pic of herself laughing and a stupid caption shaming the woman for not being as attractive as Dani Mathers.

I won't repost the pic because the woman never consented to the picture and reposting it all over the internet as news outlets and social media is doing is a continuation of victimizing the woman. Personally I believe everyone who has posted it is culpable.

But Dani Mathers... we're going to ignore her fake ass apology because well, what she said in essence isn't true. What the truth most likely was is that she posted the picture as a meme with the intent it would go viral and put her in the limelight. She wasn't counting on the backlash, she thought people would laugh. That woman showering was a prop in the picture of Dani Mather's life.

And that's the point to me. What happened in this situation becomes a parable for what our society has become. Dani Mathers, in that one picture, became Donald Trump. Became AllLivesMatter. She became the Stanford rapist.

Dani Mathers showed herself as America has become: lacking empathy. Seeing the world as nothing but a major prop in the meme that is her life. She didn't think that she was violating that woman's privacy by taking a naked picture of her in a law-protected private area. She saw a great chance to maybe gain more Twitter/Snapchat followers. The naked woman was human, she meant nothing.

We could use this situation to discuss the websites created for men to post naked pictures of ex-lovers/wives/girlfriends and why they aren't being prosecuted (with the zeal that Dani Mathers is). We could discuss the guy who hacked into celebrity phones and posted their private nudes (has he been caught or prosecuted yet?) But well, those are male on female crimes which doesn't count in America. However let's get the Bunny.

I do feel Dani Mathers deserves to be prosecuted. Don't get me wrong on that. I also know that what she did isn't going to open any meaningful discussions about women's bodies being private and sex crimes against women. So we won't bother to go there because that stuff doesn't matter to most white male Americans.

However, we need to recognize that our society is turning into a society of Dani Mathers. Disconnected from others. Unaware of decency or caring. We're turning into a society that can hear or read Donald Trump's speeches and not be disgusted by his xenophobia, racism, misogyny. We've become apologists for the worst our society has to offer.

The internet has jumped on the Hate Dani Mathers bandwagon and it doesn't mean a thing. Because an attractive, young woman doing what she did fills everyone with malicious glee to persecute and destroy. Men, women, children and dogs are all posting about how ugly the model truly is on the inside and what a vile creature she is. These are many of the same people who believe the drunk woman who got raped behind a dumpster by the Stanford swimmer shouldn't have been drinking so much.

Yes, Dani Mathers did something vile and she will be prosecuted for it. She'll probably serve more time than the Stanford rapist and she'll probably have less opportunities for the rest of her life than he will. Memes will continue to appear making unaware people the butt of their jokes and no one will bat an eye. We'll see the majority of America elect a president who mocks women for their looks and being on their periods and decent people will despair but most Americans won't give a damn.

Yes folks, this is your America. Do with it what you will.

5 comments:

  1. I am terrified of a Frump presidency, and hope and pray that more people wake the hell up before November--and early enough to jump through all the hoops the rethuglicans have put in place to keep non-white, conservative citizens from voting.

    But yes, we can be sure that woman-on-woman violence (because, as you said, what this woman did violated another woman's rights), will always be condemned more loudly than male on female violence.

    Empathy? As rare these days as common sense.

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  2. I'd never heard of her or this situation until your post. WTF!!??

    Karma is a bitch and her day will come. Not so sure about Trump.

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    1. Romance author Beverly Jenkins says: "Karma is not a bitch, unless you are."

      Indeed.

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  3. Well, Trump is definitely a "bitch", but I meant he never seems to collect consequences for his outrageous statements/actions, like other folks do. Pisses me off!

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  4. This our America: at a national convention for one of the two major political parties, one of the speakers incites a lynching mob against the presumptive candidate for the other major party.

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