I had decided to take a week off feminism. I had been non stop organising to make a success of Make More Noises latest feminist event The Elephant in the Room. I was knackered. I swore I would take some time out. I had logged out of Facebook and I was ignoring my inbox.
I decided to go and see a mate who I had been neglecting for a while.
It was great to reconnect. She’d just opened up a boarding house for dogs in her living room. Like a growing number of women she has taken the plunge and decided to become self-employed. She spends her days looking after other people’s pets, and she had 3 Pomerarian charges.
They were Disney personified - the cutest and most loving creature imaginable. Needless to say I was lost.
“They’re porn star dogs” said my mate eventually.
“WHATT!?” I said?
“Their mums are porn stars” she said, correcting me quickly. “They’re always off on shoots” she said.
"Do you think that’s why they have them?” I asked? "Cos they feel so bad?"
“Yeah probably” she says. “That's what their mum says anyway.” After spending an afternoon lying in a puddle of dogs listening to her boyfriend rant loudly in my ear about "trannies and pervs" I could see why. They were very therapeutic.
My friends daughter is somewhat obsessed with the porn stars and their 124,000 instagram followers. She’s just finished her GCSE’s. Furtive, into hair and make up and smoking weed. She’s also an aspiring Instagram model. This is the new normal. Shy teen girls desperate for validation idolising women who get abused on camera for money.
Her mother and I do not agree on feminism. She doesn’t see the point. She thinks men and women are equal now. I think she thinks we're all a bunch man hating lesbians with shit shoes and saggy tits. However, like most working class women, while she would never label herself a feminist, she gets it. Instantly. If you told her sex work was empowering she'd do her eyebrow thing and give you the silent treatment for a week. She is worried for her daughter.
Then her daughter notices something. A rash by the dogs groin. We look closer and we see a tattoo. No that can't be right we say. We look closer and we see what it says. “Gay lover.”
This is not a drill. It’s an actual tattoo. On a dog. What the fuck.
Google says it’s legal. Somehow. We see a range of hipster looking dogs. With hipster looking tattoos. It’s a thing that people do now. It was such a problem in New York that in 2014 they passed a bill to ban body modifications for dogs and cats.
What the fuck is wrong with people? Who the fuck tattoos their dog? For fucks sake twats. What sort of edge lord trash can thinks that’s OK? You see, this is why people need boundaries.
Now I have no idea who tattooed that dog but I have my suspicions. Is this a feminist isue? Is it wrong to wonder why a woman who works in porn might have issues with judgement and appropriacy? To question the people she surrounds herself with?
Porn teaches women that they are not allowed to have any boundaries. They are not allowed to say no. Is it any wonder that a person whose own boundaries have been eroded might not understand why it’s wrong to permanently disfigure an animal who is unable to consent?
The dog tattoo incident opened up a whole can of worms as my mate started telling me about some more weird dog minder shit.
She tells me about a man who called her the other day. Says his dogs were abused by a dog minder. Now the dog can’t stop mounting women. He went on for a while in explicit detail before my mate realised he was just another fucking pervert. Like that dude who chased her around the field the other day when she was walking her dog. Nothing happened, he said he just wanted to talk to her before taking the hint and telling her what a stuck up bitch she was being.
My mate still gets funny when I mention the F word. Defensive, like she knows I’m on to something. I’m reminded of the Andrea Dworkin quote. “Many women, I think, resist feminism because it is an agony to be fully conscious of the brutal misogyny which permeates culture, society, and all personal relationships.” As much as we try to block out the reality of male violence we are living in an increasingly pornified world. We can’t identify out of reality. Like a dog with a tattoo. This shit is fucked up. Cruel and pointless and permanent.
By DJ Lippy
If you want to support the blog why not subscribe to our mailing list or follow us on Facebook or Instagram. Do you write, draw, meme, code? Are you a social media whizz kid? Join us and Make More Noise! Drop us an email on MMNPublications@gmail.com