#women as sex objects

[isawthismeme]

Black people and women have been overqualified for every position in America since July 3rd, 1776. It is the progress of white people and of men to finally get over their racism and misogyny that is allowing people into those spaces. Remember that.

[blk-chauvinist]

At HoochieCon, Black women’s sexual power and agency take center stage

(I did not make this up. This is an article taken from the LA Times 

Event creater and curator Zorine Truly dances at the HoochieCon party on Saturday in Glendale. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

BY MARTINE THOMPSONJUNE 23, 2023 9:53 AM PT

When taking in the images of Black women that adorn the gallery space at HoochieCon, it’s clear the creator and curator, Zorine Truly, 37, has a major soft spot for hoochie mamas — fly Black women who harness the power of their sexuality and creative expression as they see fit. Photos on the walls of the Glendale event space Junior High depict women with artful multilayered updos reaching for the heavens, big smiles sparkling with gold embellishments, vibrant acrylic nails as imaginative as they are long. Nostalgic portraits of friends turning up before the social media boom are spotlighted along with cherished TV and movie characters.

These women may not have an abundance of money, but they draw on their unique flair, swagger and innovation as a tool to show up authentically and claim space in a society that tells them they should shrink. Truly knows these women — often classified as hoochies — have always been more than a punchline in a movie or a mood-board fixture divorced from their humanity. Hoochies flip narrow, misogynoir-fueled ideas of what a good or respectable or fashionable woman can look like and look damn good while doing it. And as Truly explains to The Times, hoochies — in their many iterations over the decades — have long set the blueprint for popular trends and it’s high time they received their flowers.

“Simply put, hoochies are pioneers — for so many different genres of things,” says Truly, a North Memphis, Tenn., native and self-anointed Hoochie Historian who translates her research on hoochie culture into bite-sized videos. Interspersed with glimpses into her personal life and adventures around Los Angeles (like casually cutting up with Janelle Monaé at their Age of Pleasure party), Truly’s posts range from celebrations of prominent women and rituals in hoochie culture and their undeniable impact on fashion, beauty, art and pop culture to thoughtful deep dives that contextualize significant cultural moments, like Brandy and Monica’s ’90s smash hit “The Boy Is Mine.”

Graphic art on display Saturday at HoochieCon, a gathering celebrating Black style, culture, femme artistry and sexual freedom. (Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)

The pull to honor this rich legacy in a major way compelled Truly to launch HoochieCon, a group exhibit featuring mixed-media art and music honoring Black women pioneers at the center of hoochie culture. The exhibit, which was co-organized and hosted by the popular queer community space Junior High last weekend, kicked off with three days of activations. The exhibit’s opening day featured the type of moody bisexual lighting that promises a good time. Attendees from near and far came decked with joyful energy and their interpretation of comfortable hoochie attire, and a stripper pole that was added to the gallery for the special day was put to good use thanks to the trio of dancers (Phoenix, Ziyah, Brooklyn) who blessed the space with their skills.

The intention at the heart of HoochieCon resonated with a range of Angelenos on their own journey of discovering and embracing their authentic self and sexual agency, including Earyn McGee, 28. “I am the oldest daughter in a Black family and definitely felt like I had to perform a certain way of being and show up physically a certain way,” she says, noting the baby steps she’s been taking toward less filtered self-expression now that she’s grown. “Even with my outfit for today, I was a little bit nervous but I was just like, ‘I’m trying to be in theme. This was an idea that I had and I’m just gonna go with it.’ I’m trying to do all the things that would’ve made kid-me happy.”

The next two days had a little something for everyone: a panel discussion moderated by Truly, a dance party (more on that shortly) and an outdoor market featuring Black vendors. Chef Rochelle Tyler of Selah Bakery served up vegan cookies with flavors like Hollaback Girl (banana pudding) and Babycakes (strawberry shortcake), while Cake Chemistry offered its boozy miniature red velvet cakes with Hennessy-infused caramel sauce and cream cheese buttercream. There were beanie purses and clothing designs by Beautiful Soul Childz for the avant-garde fashionista who’s gonna serve a look if nothing else, handcrafted jewelry by Skiin & Tones and Studio Ebunoluwa, Hooch Juice travel tumblers by High Standards Cosmetics to help the hoochies hydrate in style, and more.

With music being so deeply intertwined with hoochie culture, Truly knew she had to have space devoted to everybody coming together, dressing up and having fun on the dance floor. The experience of dancing and moving her body to good music in the company of new and old friends makes her feel tapped into a particular feeling of power. “There’s something powerful about dancing despite everything that’s going on outside and despite what’s in the news or maybe what’s happening when you go back to your house,” Truly says. “There’s freedom in getting together in community and seeing Black faces celebrate, regardless of what circumstance they face every day. There’s power, there’s freedom and there’s happiness in it for me.”

DJ Space Age was on music duty for HoochieCon’s dance-floor celebration and did not disappoint. Bangers from the ’90s and early 2000s that stand the test of time boomed through the speakers, eventually teasing out the most committed of wall huggers to let loose and shake a little something.

Dani Daniels poses for a portrait at Hoochie Con.(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)

For Danielle Daniels, 29, the visual nods to the ’90s throughout HoochieCon resonated instantly. “My style of dressing is ’90s style so I love the environment of HoochieCon. The bamboo earrings, the jackets, the clothes and the nails — it’s nice to come out and see a lot of girls with the same culture and idea of things and to be able to express ourselves together as Black women,” says Daniels, who considers Halle Berry and Natalie Desselle’s iconic BAPS characters major hoochie inspo for herself and her best friend. “I wanted to come and celebrate ourselves and the beauty that we bring to beauty culture and everything.”

Art on display at HoochieCon.(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

As Truly takes in the fruits of her labor, and the community that has formed around her first HoochieCon, she’s mindful to acknowledge the importance of giving respect and reverence to women who have pioneered and “touched popular culture for so long” without reaping the benefits or even receiving credit. “Not only did they pioneer it, they also had to suffer for it,” Truly says. “They had to suffer to wear their hair the way they wanted to. They had to suffer to wear their nails the way they wanted to, and gold teeth, and to be sexually liberated. They had to suffer to shine.”

One day, years later, people will look at images of Truly’s HoochieCon celebration. “What do you hope they take away?” I ask the Hoochie Historian.

“I hope they take away from HoochieCon the importance of being yourself, no matter what people might judge you by,” says Truly, releasing a deep exhale, eyes watering as she processes the idea of HoochieCon reaching people generations into the future. “It’s important to be happy with how you look, how you feel, how you dress, and the choices that you make, and that is the most important thing. I want people, especially Black women, to take away that they can be fully themselves no matter what that looks like and still be worthy of all the good things.”

[rabidbatboy]

“girlcock” this, “girlcock” that. what if I want to watch the corner of her eyes crinkle when she talks about the tv show she likes. what if I want her to be able to confide in me the things she never felt safe enough to tell anyone else.

[autosadist]

i don't talk too much about how trans women get treated in original posts because im not a trans woman and plenty of trans women on this site are sharing insights that i can just reblog but also sometimes i see other trans dudes talk about trans women in ways that make me want to step in 1 on 1 like "hey man, do you remember what it feels like to be a girl getting treated like a piece of meat by some guy you don't know then dismissed for standing up for yourself. because you're that guy now"

[pokemon-radical-red]

Trans men are literally just a joke to so many people. I’ve seen multiple Tik Toks like “When the trans man with HUGE BOOBS(!!!) in a crop top gets mad at me when I misgender him.”

One of these had the OP’s comment of “Why are so many people in my comment section being transphobic towards trans men?”

It’s because you made this a safe space for people who hate trans men!!! You decided to describe trans men’s bodies in dehumanizing, sexualizing ways to make a joke out of us! In what world does “smh trans men are SO EMOTIONAL and expect us to instantly know everything about them and cater to them even though it makes my life so hard (I have to change a word),” not come off as repackaged sexism?

If you say that this is a made up situation, these people will immediately claim that this happens and has happened to them. It’s interesting that either they’re lying or they’re admitting that they’re sexualizing a real man’s body in a way that could easily trigger his gender dysphoria.

[nightlocked-in]

“peeta is bisexual” you guys are losing the vision. peeta isn’t even straight. katniss INVENTED sexuality for him. whatever katniss identifies as, he’s like “yeah, i’ll take that one” no questions asked

[spiderbitesandvampirevenom]

since i just saw ANOTHER fucking chaser post:

chasing is a form of sexual violence.

it is not just being attracted to trans women. it is specifically the act of searching out and using trans women for sexual gratification.

there is no instance where chasing is not sexual violence.

dehumanizing trans women and viewing them as sex objects is fundamental to being a chaser.

you cannot divorce chasing from sexual violence.

if you call yourself a chaser i am going to assume that you are sexually violent towards trans women and proud of that fact. you are not in community with me and i do not want to be anywhere near you.

if you call yourself a chaser, then you are an active threat to all the trans women you know.

[niiwa-angel]

Had dinner with some friends, all of whom identify as feminist, and we got on to the topic of the sex trade.

I brought up research I had done for a paper on sex trafficking and mentioned how lots of trafficking starts as consensual sex work, such as dancing or calming, and evolves into being pimped. I also brought up how when prostitution is legalized, human trafficking increases because men expect to be able to buy sex but women aren't willing to sell it so pimps turn to migrant women, the Indigenous, and other vulnerable women to meet the demand. I also brought up how dangerous sex work is because it's hard to stop a John in the act if he gets violent.

Their response.

"some women want to though"

Anger is not a strong enough word to describe how I felt. It was infuriating. And these are educated women! Liberal feminism truly is a disease. It rots the brain

[isawthismeme]

[cyanide-sippy-cup]

Friendly reminder that the guy who made Wonder Woman was polyamorous and based her on his wife and their girlfriend. Can you imagine? To love someone so much that you use your position to portray them as a literal goddess of love and hope and truth? And to fill that concept with so much love and heart that she becomes one of the three pillars holding up DC as a whole? Those are the things the world is built on I think.

[npdkondraki]

i fear some of you are unable to distinguish between sexual harassment and validating someones gender and that is an incredibly worrying thing to continuously mix up

[mithliya]

how are we supposed to view ppl like this as female & lesbians when there’s an entire community of them actively boasting about wanting to rape lesbians.

bonus bc it shows they have a “corrective” rape fantasy specifically:

[watermelinoe]

forced birthers think penetration is inherently dehumanizing. they think that because you let a man's penis inside you that you've surrendered yourself. you must passively carry his child because your body is no longer your own. penetration is domination and that's why they will never see women as fully human, because we only exist to eventually be taken by a man. none of the arguments about when life begins matter because the woman's life was never really hers to begin with.

[oneshotprincess]

annoyed at the world's finest episodes in s:tas having a lois lane love triangle shoe-horned in. world's finest crossovers should just be superbat going from gay mistrust, to gay awe, to gay pining, to i-would-trust-him-with-my-life (also gay)

[rofax]

I just finished reading Tender Is The Flesh by Augustina Bazterrica as the August read for my women's horror book club... and I also curiously looked online to see what other horror lit circles thought.

There is a very interesting trend of mixed gender spaces and especially men viewing Marcos as sympathetic throughout the book and feeling blindsided by the ending, and the women's responses being like, "I have just met this man and I hate him with every fiber of my being, i cannot stress enough the red flags he is throwing out."

[yunmeng-jiang]

workin on my first scum villain fic!!