OBJECT

OBJECT: It’s How You Say It.
Is there power in being a sex object? Or should we object to objectification? Do you want to be an object and an objector?
Whatever you’re thinking right now is part of The Conversation. Say it out loud.
OBJECT is a group of women having a conversation about women. Sex, relationships, power, feminism, politics, Paris, Lindsay, Britney – let’s talk. Let’s have some fun. Let’s kick a little ass.
ABOUT US
OBJECT coalesced in the spring of 2007, inspired by the feminist consciousness-raising sessions begun in the late ‘60s. Based in Los Angeles, the confab was sparked when some of its founding members objected to billboards promoting the film “Captivity” that presented graphic depictions of violence against women. The subsequent removal of the offensive images provided a lightbulb moment, reminding OBJECT’s initial objectors that they have the power to effect positive change. It also suggested that this power could be realized by other women and used for further good. The next step was The Conversation.
The Conversation is a safe space in which all women and girls are invited to explore the many and varied meanings of female empowerment. Through The Conversation, we are committed to sharing perspectives, breaking barriers and striving for understanding. We believe in the art of conversation and that all OBJECT’s participants are artists. We trust in conversation for conversation’s sake. There are no stupid questions or wrong answers. There are no taboos. There is no judgment. There is only our mutual growth in the hothouse of open communication.
L.A. OBJECT’s participants, who meet casually once a month to have The Conversation, are writers, teachers, producers, activists, mothers, actors, publicists, students, visual artists, entertainment executives and achievers in other fields representing a broad spectrum of ages, backgrounds and beliefs.
THE CONVERSATION
The Conversation is in Los Angeles. The Conversation is wherever YOU are. The Conversation is online and offline.
To join The Conversation here, get down with your bad opinionated self at OBJECT Blog. Or just read and listen. Or take a picture or make some art and post it. There are lots of ways to get in on The Conversation.
HOW WE SAY IT
The word “object” has very different meanings depending on how you pronounce it. One way to say it is OBject (emphasis on the “ob”), as in “sex object”; another way to say it is obJECT (emphasis on the “ject”), as in, “I object to that characterization of women.”
Old-school feminism was about objecting. In the late ‘60s, women began talking to each other about their common experiences and realized that they were objects in their own homes: wife, mother, cook, laundress, nurse, maid, consort. They also started talking about how women were perceived outside the home (if they were perceived at all), in the media, in the arts, in the culture at large. They began to understand that they were unwittingly limiting their personal power by allowing themselves to be treated as objects. Women who were viewed as reinforcing the stereotype of woman-as-object – prostitutes, porn stars, strippers – were considered part of the problem.
New-school feminism was about understanding the power in being an object, the power in being the object of (generally) male affection. The term “sex-positive feminism” was coined to reflect our growing understanding that as long as we give consent, we can do anything we want with our bodies and still be feminists. Sexual freedom was considered an essential part of women’s freedom, and sex workers were welcome to share their unique perspectives. We came to own our sexuality and desire and could call ourselves “object” with pride.
Now-school feminism is about … Hmm … let’s see … Anna Nicole’s dead, Paris is in jail, Lindsay’s passed out in the back seat of a car. For better or worse, Girls Gone Wild, Suicide Girls and paparazzi crotch shots are intensifying the “pornification” of America. By having The Conversation, OBJECT is trying to figure out if there’s something more, and if not, how we can create it.
The fact is, we don’t think we have to pick one meaning of “object” over another. As women, we contain multitudes. We objectify ourselves and we object to our objectification. We are the sacred and the erotic, the Madonna and the whore, the virgin and the slut (sometimes all in one day). Integrating our selves is key to realizing and celebrating who we are. OBJECT is about understanding who we are as subjects.
How do we begin to integrate our selves, define ourselves, honor ourselves? By, among other things, setting our own boundaries and breaking through those set for us. OBJECT is about supporting each other in this challenge. No matter how you say it, OBJECT is about presenting each other with alternatives, options and choices that are right for each of us as individuals.
HOW YOU SAY IT
Of course, how WE say “object” is only part of The Conversation. How do YOU say it?
We have a blast at our OBJECT conversations. We talk about sex; we talk about relationships; we talk about power; we talk about our little sisters and our mothers; we talk about Paris, Lindsay and Britney; we talk about Oprah, Angelina and Rosie. Our dream is to talk about this stuff with YOU.
If you’re in the Los Angeles area, join The Conversation in progress. If you’re anywhere else, start your own OBJECT Conversation and tell us all about it. If you’re in middle school, high school or college, start the Conversation with your friends and their friends and let us know how it goes.
CONTACT
OBJECT can …
… send a speaker to your school or organization to address the confusion women feel in navigating the territory between OBject and obJECT.
… supply a pundit to your media outlet to comment on the pornification of America and alternative female role models.
… provide a facilitator to help launch your OBJECT conversation
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: 323.632.7737
Web: www.sayobject.com
Blog: sayobject.blogspot.com

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