Is This Mannequin MP3 Player Sexist?
Posted by: Susannah Breslin
Filed in:
news
11:30AM, Monday January 26th 2009
This converted mannequin created by Detroit-based designer Bob Turek is causing quite the blogosphere kerfuffle. In case you’re not clear as to what the heck is going on here, Turek remixed a mannequin torso into an MP3 player. Ergo, those are speakers in her boobs, plugged in care of her hoo-ha. As Turek explains: “As part of my object remix series, this stereo forces the music source into the center of attention and creates a radically new user interface.” Interface. Is that what the kids are calling it these days? Unfortunately, some people—some ladies—aren’t too happy with Turek’s transforming the female form into a stereo. Jezebel cries misogyny: “[I]t’s a headless, armless woman whose breasts and vagina are being used to provide power and sound for trivial things.” Boing Boingers are going at it in the comments: “Woman as a faceless functional object. That’s not such a new idea.” I think it’s much ado about nothing. I call for a commenter catfight!
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gillybeans
wrote on January 26 2009 @ 11:56 am: [report]
I thought it was kind of cool, but the cord plugged into the snoopy is a little weird and thin penis-like. Maybe funnier if it plugged into her bellybutton? It just looks like a stream of black pee.
Amelia
wrote on January 26 2009 @ 11:58 am: [report]
I guess I see why people think it’s sexist—the whole disembodied woman thing—but I also think it’s a cool way to reuse and transform an object into something truly functional. I dunno, I guess I just don’t see what the big deal is.
Simcha
wrote on January 26 2009 @ 12:03 pm: [report]
Oh my god, I would pay good money to turn my vag into an Mp3 player and my boobs into speakers! AWESOME
theothergyllenhaal
wrote on January 26 2009 @ 01:39 pm: [report]
Before I saw this thing, I was totally for female equality and women’s rights. But now…now I plan to crack some woman on the head with a club, bind her feet, and then have her make me a roast. All. Because. Of breast speakers.
Lynn
wrote on January 26 2009 @ 03:35 pm: [report]
I think people are making too big of a deal here, but then again I’m not usually sympathetic to things like this. I think a lot of people just go looking for things to get worked up about. And even though I can understand this way better than other things (like that Superman Obama picture), I still think people are taking it too seriously.
But it really creeps me out. The speaker/boobs and plugging something in to her crotch is just creeping me out to the max. I feel like I’m looking at a mutilated body, and while that doesn’t offend me, I sure don’t want to keep looking at it.
@gillybeans - “snoopy”??? HAHAHAHAHA! That is fantastic! I have to start using that!
Lynn
wrote on January 26 2009 @ 03:36 pm: [report]
Just to clarify, by “people are making too big of a deal here” I didn’t mean here, Frisky, specifically, and the lovely previous commenters, but I just meant people in general who are getting all worked up.
DrDoctor
wrote on January 26 2009 @ 03:43 pm: [report]
Does anyone realize that before this was a stereo it was just used to sell clothes? It has ALWAYS been a soul-less and virtually meaningless object. They just made it more functional than something nice to look at. So sexist…
You know if this came with a penis microphone and could be used as a karaoke machine that it just may sell like hotcakes…
Milla
wrote on January 26 2009 @ 05:13 pm: [report]
My litmus test for these kinds of things is usually this: would this garner the same reaction if it were a faceless, armless male mannequin? And would that product be possible?
I have a suspicion that we wouldn’t see that—cord coming out of the guy’s penis, tiny speakers embedded in his nipples? I’m inclined to cry foul. The project doesn’t seem about reusing an object, but about drawing attention to sexualized parts of the body and turning them into objects of use. There’s no functional reason to plug into the mannequin’s vag (seems kind of hard to reach, all jokes aside).
MarriedWhiteMale
wrote on January 26 2009 @ 05:41 pm: [report]
It’s pretty tacky. Probably geared to the college freshman aged male who thinks its “way cool”.
Abarita
wrote on January 26 2009 @ 06:48 pm: [report]
i personally think it’s quite interesting and dont find anything remotely wrong with it. crap, if i had endless amounts of money to throw around, i might even purchase one. it would be one hell of an ice breaker at parties.