Why feminists don’t support Lebanon’s Jacky Chamoun
It isn’t enough for an elite athlete to compete. She also has to strip naked
Despite being irritated by the behaviour of Lebanon’s politicians over the whole skier-naked-in-the-snow debacle, I’ve also been surprised at how few feminist voices came out to support Chamoun. But thinking about it, I think I now understand why feminists might be queasy about supporting her.
No issue is ever clear-cut; there are always competing layers to understanding a given situation. With Chamoun, while feminists might support her right to do what she likes with her body — and would certainly be irritated at any attempt by politicians to appropriate it for their own purposes — some might also question why she chose to display it the way she did. In a way, Chamoun’s semi-naked photo-shoot speaks to a very modern problem, of sexuality in an age of relentless display. It speaks to a very narrow definition of what sexuality, especially female sexuality, is and how it is displayed and defined.
The modern world, in some ways, is very restrictive about sexuality, especially female sexuality. The panopticon gaze of the media — both the mass media and social media — privileges what can be seen, what can be displayed. That which can be shown in high-definition colour is filmed, and that which cannot be is forgotten. It’s like trying to make your voice heard as an introvert in a world of extroverts; the very notion of “making your voice heard” is an extrovert construction.
The media machine seems to want women to be sexually liberated, but that sexuality has to be displayed. It cannot be hinted at and not displayed, it cannot be expressed in private but not displayed in public. The only sexuality is a public sexuality. It sometimes feels like the mass media is saying to women, “If you want to be a sexual creature, let’s see it. Strip.”
It doesn’t feel like women are allowed the space to enjoy their sexuality in private, but not in public. I can’t think of many celebrities or women in the public eye who dress in a — I can’t think of the right word here; not ‘attractive’, not ‘sexy’, not ‘sultry’, I mean a way that allows women to enjoy their clothes, enjoy how they fit, enjoy what they display — and yet are not sexualised. They have to be commodified by the media. The message seems to be that if a woman wants to be sexy, she has to prove she is sexy. “We have to see it,” the mass media seems to say. “Strip.”
And that, I think, is what makes some people uncomfortable with Jacky Chamoun stripping for a calendar in the snow. Because it feels like she has to. If you watch the video, there’s a slightly icky undertone to it, of this 22-year old being pushed a bit to undress and be photographed by older, fully-clothed men. That part has been slightly pushed aside by the conservative-liberal spat. But the wider point is that it doesn’t seem like it’s enough for Chamoun just to be a woman who is an elite athlete. She also has to strip. We — however you define “we”, the media, men, the watching world, a click-hungry internet, whatever — have to see her naked.
And so I get the uneasiness some feminists have about supporting Chamoun, not because of her choice, but because of the context in which she chose it; not because of the act itself, but because of the context that surrounds the act.
My original post on the reaction of Lebanon’s government is here. There are further links to external reporting on the story there.
(These thoughts, rather naturally, reflect only my opinion, not that of any organisations or institutions I am affiliated with.)
