Women-Life-Freedom Movement in Iran

[Belacqua]

1) I’ve heard about foot fetishism but I haven’t heard anyone being stimulated by ankles. And that’s what I’m talking about. Isn’t fetishism a form of obsession?

It's been considered too sexy to show ankles in different times and places. How much of the body we can show, and which parts, is a cultural thing that varies according to place and time. If your whole culture says that showing elbows is provocative, then it's not fetishism.

Fetishism is a specific kind of thing. It isn't necessarily an illness or an obsession. It just means that you displace the "main event," so to speak, on to something else. There are men who get off on women's shoes, for example. Freud said this is because, for whatever reason, they were uncomfortable with full-on sex and displace the attraction onto something which is, for them, safer. These days, in keeping with a more tolerant age, this is considered less of an illness and more of an alternative lifestyle. 

But remember for Freud, the only "real" sex is the kind that makes babies. Everything else is substitution. Probably for people today, Freud's view on this seems unhealthy. 

2) You’ve made this remark before on the breasts. I know there were cultures in the past who showed them openly. The prophet Mahomed himself is said to have ordered the women of a given tribe to cover their breasts. But I’ve never heard such a thing about the Japanese. On the contrary. I watched the movie “The memoir’s of a Geisha” in 2005 and I think the obsession with the female body that is depicted in this movie is very similar to the “pious” Muslim’s obsession with the female body. 

Probably best to remember that "Memoirs of a Geisha" was a Hollywood movie starring a Chinese actress based on a book by an American. No doubt it's a titillating movie, but I wouldn't go there for historical accuracy. 

For example, the Chinese actress is beautiful according to our own standards, but would have been too skinny to Japanese people of the time, and her face not of the preferred type. They liked a rounder face with artificially high eyebrows. 

If the movie seemed similar to Muslim obsessions with the body, that tells us about American movie companies. And I think we all know that no one is more obsessed with female bodies than Hollywood. 

Freud calls this sublimation. And because of this sublimation issue in countries like mine or like India, you have countless killing of women that are related to some “love” or unrequited love issues. You don’t really have that in America. Here, the guy can just show up with a gun in his hand, shoot you, then shoot himself and the (corrupt) authorities will call it “murder because of love”. Again, could there be a “murder because of love”? – Isn’t that pure nonsense?

Not sure how it relates to sublimation. Freud (following the Greek philosophers he studied in school) thinks that Eros is the driving force in just about all human ambition. Sublimation is a GOOD thing. It's how we get civilization. 

3) No. But I am not even making a gender differentiation here. Supposing that your body is not totally repulsive for your age, even if you did something like that in school for instance, both girls and boys would stare at you. As I said this isn’t the African Savanah or some island in the pacific. People are not used to it so they will stare.  And it’s normal. You’re the one who is not acting normal in that case which is why there might be consequences

I think you're correct to say that it all depends on what we're used to. 

Even you were right in your relativism. Who cares about kindergarten children dancing for instance?
“Of they shall not dance on music. They shall learn the one true faith”
- How can you say this is not mental illness. 

It seems unhealthy to me and to you because we are from different cultures. 

Can we really diagnose different cultures as mentally ill based on these differences? 

Not to get all Foucault on you here, but the history of how we diagnose mental illness is a history of who has power in society. It is often a way for a powerful group to impose its will on another group. 

But banning Barbie dolls isn’t cultural. 

It sure as hell is cultural. It's all about teaching kids values. The body type, though unnatural, becomes an ideal, the goal of playing with them is to emphasize fashion, and the real goal of the toy is to get parents to buy an endless supply of new accessories. It teaches consumerism and self-worth through physical appearance. Arguably, consumerism and self-worth through physical appearance are very poor things for a child's mental health.

- No. Their brains are not working like our brains. That’s all I am saying.

Well I'm glad you have a perfectly healthy brain.