schlotzky's buns [Content Warning]

[Lady Ten]

I ate at a Schlotzsky's restaurant today. So, in the grand family tradition, like my father before me, I'm going to take this opportunity to complain about marketing ploys.

Before Schlotzsky's made a fool of itself and had to change owners, the main advertizing slogan was "funny name, serious sandwhich," and that was the general tone of all their marketing. Dignified stuff. Now, on the other hand, it's "lotz better" and a whole bunch of annoying buns puns. The latter manifests itself in various ways, but for now, let's talk about the signs on the bathroom doors (yes, they go there).

On the door to the men's restroom, it does not say "men" or have a stick figure or any of that. It says, in big blocky letters, "MANLY BUNS". No joke.

On the door to the women's restroom, the corresponding sign reads... "shapely buns". Think about this a moment, if you will. The word "shapely" does not indicate any one shape in particular. It simply means well-shaped; in other words, "shaped in a way that is pleasing".

So, to recap, men's butts are manly, and women's butts are pleasing. These phrases as a means of direction on bathroom doors only makes sense from the perspective of an orientation attracted to females. Literally, when I first saw the "shapely buns" sign, I had to look to the other door before I figured out what was going on. In sum, whenever you try to use the restroom at Schlotzsky's, the signs take it upon themselves to remind you that the design team was run mostly by straight guys.

Even if, for some odd reason, you think that is the ideal hierarchy, taking care of business is an odd time to be throwing that in someone's face. It's just a bathroom sign, yeah, I'm aware of that, but analyzing smaller things like these are how we're able to reveal a larger picture, pointing toward that same old pervasive and obnoxious notion that "men are men, women are objects of desire".

If you're going to make stupid butt jokes on your doors, just be consistent about it and call them "womanly buns".

[cloudbat]

I am simultaneously amused and very annoyed. Idiots.

[vbfdoee]

This should just be my default reaction image. Women are constantly judged by their suitability as sexual partners for heterosexual guys, who are the only truly dominant voice in our culture. Subtle stuff like this sends a message that eventually becomes subconscious: women need to put themselves on display for men. Argh.

[cloudbat]

That is a beautiful reaction image and my respect for you has just gone up.

Ehhhh, that's arguable, and women can easily by objectified by lesbians as well I presume. I'm only trying to be fair to all parties here though, I pretty much agree with you. XD

[vbfdoee]

Eh, lesbians don't have male privilege. I imagine that makes a difference.

[mistytail]

Not to mention lesbians are also objectified by men. Forgive me if I'm oulling another content warning, but you know male privelige exists when lesbian porn is often made for the gratification of atraight men.

[vbfdoee]

Or when lesbians are approached on dating sites by straight men looking for a threesome.

[mistytail]

Clearly the best lesbian threesome is three women. Why do these men not understand this. Why.

(I'm sorry, I'm probably making at least one person uncomfortable right now. I talk like a sailor and have the mental equivalent of a storm drain.)

[cloudbat]

It's pretty hard to make me uncomfortable, (this doesn't even come close xD) can't speak for everyone else. I'm mildly worried Ten will unleash the dogs of war on me though.

My own personal amusement aside, I imagine you're right male privilege does make a difference. However, not all women protest like they...I really don't want to say 'should' here because as Grey correctly states, that is a dangerous word. Could? Let's go with could.

[mistytail]

Because protesting gets you called bad names I can't repeat on this forum that are used to control us on the basis of our sexuality. We are punished for being actively sexual and we are punished for being actively un-sexual. We're not meant to be sexual beings, we are meant to be sexual objects in the eyes of the patriarchy. We are not to seek out pleasure, but we are to accept the advances of men and give pleasure to them at their every beck and call.

Of course all men aren't like this, to say as much would be ridiculous and untrue. I happen to be lucky enough to know lots of good, wonderful men in my life. However, media portrayal of women, even in the subtlest ways, as Ten points out with these bathroom signs, is always passively sexual - we do not seek out pleasure. Our sexuality is based on our appearance. Sexuality is about looking good and pleasing men. Men are men, and women are objects. This study shows that is in fact a literal statement: sexualized images of women cause the parts of the brain assosciated with using tools to activate, but the areas for social cognition showed no activity whatsoever.

Hence why signs like the ones mentioned in Ten's post exist. Women are not even human to the patriarchy.

[cloudbat]

^^; As an asexual myself I generally don't think that way, but you bring up valid points.

Yep, I remember learning that. Sigh.

Well...I think that's taking it a bit far, but I agree that gender equality (although I know that term in of itself could be debated) is still far off.

[Lady Ten]

Oh my gosh look what all happened to this thread while I was gone.

I'm really glad that people are responding to this and share the same problems with it that I do, but wow I step away for one day and -- should I put a content warning on this? I thought it was a pretty mild subject. Just talking about bathroom signs. Well, I don't know, it--

Well.

Maybe.

Okay.

Yeah.

Threesomes and porn. Yeah. Content Warning.

Thank you for sharing that study, though, Misty. That's interesting. More research could be done on this -- although I disagree with the conclusion on how to go about that -- and it seems to confirm what we've been saying. And it's true most women don't even bother to notice or make and critical statement about these things, because being enmeshed in the culture, they have subconsciously (or consciously, in some extreme cases) internalized and accepted it. "That's just the way it is" and that crap. In academia, they sometimes call it hegemony. Domination by consent. Doesn't make it less nasty -- just means that people are more blinded to it even being there. Takes a while to learn to recognize these things. There's not an overt aristocracy in place, not where I live, but you can tell who has more advantages by which groups end up reaching the positions of power more often than others, and there's always a reason for that.

Me, I don't care about being treated like a "sexual being" or whatever that is, I literally do not care, but I do care about this message of "btw you're a sexual object" being thrown at me when I'm just looking for a toilet. I don't want to be constantly evaluated on that basis when I'm just going about my life. Settle down, patriarchy. Settle down.

[mistytail]

I'm sorry, Ten. I feel like I should just change my name to "content warning." I'm planning on being a part-time peer sex educator so you know where my mind is 24/7. My minor in women's studies doesn't help with this. D8

I agree though - women's first qualifying trait should not be their sexuality. Whether anyone chooses to be sexual or not is their elected choice that should be respected. (And hey, sometimes you're born just not a sexual person. That's cool too. I love wverybody.)

Anyway, yes. Sorry for ruining your thread, Ten ;n;

[vbfdoee]

*suddenly wondering how many aces there are here*

I'm ace, and so are Grey and Cloud... we should do a survey of how many things we have in common on here.

[Lady Ten]

Homestuck Pokemon asexual traditionalist neopets tumblr Doctor Who nerds?