“When you see dat ass on campus, sneak a picture and snapchat it to us,” tweeted Bobcat Ass (@OUGotAss) early Monday morning. On a mission “to find the best ass on campus,” Bobcat Ass operates much like other unofficial Ohio University Twitter accounts such as @BoBcAtAsS, @BoobsAtOU and @OUBobcatBOOBS — you send a picture of a woman’s assets, preferably in OU gear, and the account managers post it anonymously.
After all, what’s the point of boobs and butts if you have to remember that they’re attached to humans with names and agency?
To be clear, we are talking exclusively about women, as defined by primitive anatomical reference points. “(S)rry but we only take female butts.. #nomen please,” @BoBcAtAsS stipulates, and Bobcat Ass jokes with hipster heterosexism, “Should we put guys asses on here too for you? #fag.”
Although Bobcat Ass later amended the profile to read “Dont be a creep,” deleted the “sneak” recommendation, and clarified to me through a tweet reply that “there will be no nonconsentual ‘sneaking’ or ‘snapping’ of any girls around campus,” the account managers have yet to answer how they intend to verify that subjects themselves submit images and they also declined to be interviewed for this column.
@BoBcAtAsS seems not to be concerned at all with the question of consent, featuring photos of people at Courtside and Baker who don’t appear to be aware that their pictures are being taken. Likewise, @BoobsAtOU does not specify for whom the directive “Snap them t--s at parties and some s--t” is meant. The overall attitude of these accounts seems to be, as Bobcat Ass argued, “if they’re wearing it shouldn’t everyone get to see the beautiful sight?”
Add this to some not-so-subtle fat-shaming (“When that biddy got a thigh gap that’s that s--t I do like”) and a rapey faux-apology (“this account’s run by my d--k, I have no control over it”), and Bobcat Ass reads like a Molotov cocktail of misogynistic objectification. And yet, Bobcat Ass believes differently: “There are plenty of other accounts that ‘objectify’ women. We praise women.”
Let’s pretend that all of these accounts cared about consent and somehow found a way to post only images they were certain had not been taken by “creep(s),” ex-partners in search of revenge or third parties in an attempt to slut-shame women.
Bobcat Ass’ differentiation between objectification and praise is completely absurd. Reducing women to disembodied, interchangeable and rankable parts, these accounts dehumanize people into sexually provocative things.
A campus where women are nothing more than a compilation of sexualized body parts for the Twitter-sphere to critique is a campus where a woman’s worth is measured by her sex appeal, which she does not have the power to define. It is a campus where women are merely butts and boobs to be gazed and acted upon; a campus that denies personhood to more than half its students.
I’d recommend that Bobcat Ass take up a new mission, like finding the best way to dismantle the rape culture it’s currently perpetuating. But what would I know? I’m just an ass in need of praise.
Bekki Wyss is a junior studying English literature. What do you think about the sexualized anonymous Twitter accounts? Email Bekki at rw225510@ohiou.edu.
