Eyes Up Here

So by now you’ve heard of Occupy Wall Street, but have you seen how “hot” the female protestors are? You can if you watch the video, “Hot Chicks of Occupy Wallstreet.” This video created by documentary filmmaker Steven Greenstreet has been making headlines since it hit the internet with a Tumblr of the same name. If you haven’t heard of the video here is some background. After seeing some attractive women at the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations, Steven Greenstreet made it his mission to film them for a video cleverly titled, “Hot Chicks of OWS.” That’s it. That’s the background. Are you inspired yet?

Greenstreet mentioned that initially he was only interested in taping the “pretty girls” and nothing else but once he started filming he was surprisingly moved by what the women had to say and that it changed the course of his project. Ah. I see. Greenstreet set out to objectify attractive female activists through camera but once he SPOKE to them he learned that they were articulate, intelligent, inspiring. Who knew that there was more to a woman than her breasts, her lips, or her bare shoulders? It’s embarrassing that he couldn’t be engaged before being sexually attracted. The message being reinforced by Greenstreet is that before anything else women will first be judged by their sexuality and then by their content but that’s only if you decide to talk with them. Is it really impossible to showcase the female protesters at Occupy Wallstreet without reducing them to “hot chicks?” I don’t know about you, but being referred to as a fluffy baby chicken has never empowered me.

Protesting against big corporation’s influence over the American government, these women are part of the self-proclaimed 99%. They are a group of people who are fighting to be taken seriously by the powers-that-be (a fight that 100% of women prepare for daily) and Greenstreet couldn’t find another way to express his solidarity with the movement than to create this video:

On his blog Greenstreet says his video captures, “the sexy side of protesting corruption.” Why does protesting corruption need a sexy side? I don’t recall learning about the “sexiness” of the Civil Rights Movement or the protests in Egypt. This idea of protesting having a “sexy side” trivializes who these women are and what they’ve set out to accomplish by occupying Wallstreet. Singling these women out for being “attractive” is patronizing. What is a protester supposed to look like? What are attractive women supposed to sound like? Try not to fall into that hole you’ve dug, Greenstreet. The women of Occupy Wallstreet are not there to be evaluated by you or anyone else, Steven Greenstreet. They are not there to give you something to look at. They’re there to be heard. How are you not getting it?