Disclaimer: this blog relates only to the *look but don’t touch* principle. Men, women, the media or juries seeking to excuse abuse by claiming that the victim was “asking for it” by their choice of clothing reaches beyond the realm of fairness, freedom and human common sense, thus I will not address it here, where my readers are comrades in liberality and moderate views.
Objectification. It’s an interesting word.
Last week I took part in the annual Birmingham University Dance Society show; two fun hours of a variety of dances performed by 95% women pulled together by narrators and a brilliant tech and lighting team. “I rated each dance for sexiness, number 3 got 8 out of 10 for slutty costumes” said one male observer, and “there were definitely some whales in that last one. They really shouldn’t be wearing hotpants” said a female.
6 male dancers took part in a topless ballet dance in the second act. The eyes of everyone in the vicinity were drawn to their chests, and an outraged man was heard to say “Ladies, please! My face is up here!”
Nudity sells to men and women. I saw two men modeling underwear in a shop window in London a couple of weeks ago, and the crowd was enormous.
Sisters, let’s not victimise ourselves. The harshest criticisms and greediest glances come from heterosexual women. Neither the Burka nor “forehead tittaes” are strictly necessary. Let’s get a couple more guys to walk around scantily clad and redress the balance by giving as good as you get. Oh wait – summer’s on the way!
Suzy
see twitter for the forehead tittaes link
I think this advert for DIESEL which I encountered in Italy says it all:
“Sex sells! (Unfortunately, we only sell Jeans)” beneath a picture of a half naked man in jeans, or a women with the same jeans and what can veryloosely be described as a ‘top’. :p
On a similar theme, I cannot understand for the life of me why the political parties are lining up to get the ‘Mum’s vote’ at the election, tailoring policies such as flexible maternity leave to win over female voters, while parading the WAGs of the party leaders on tacky TV shows. If this is meant to be such a ‘modern’ election, how is it that women are still being patronised as if they are a minority who only vote for issues where there is something in it for themselves? How is it that women are being seduced by a beauty pageant of Sam Cam and Sarah Brown, when we are not voting for the relatives of the party leaders, or the party leaders themselves for that matter, we are voting for a political party and its manifesto. I wouldn’t be surprised if Gordon Brown’s kids were interviewed for CBeebies to win over mothers who have no minds of their own, but only vote along the lines of “Oooh, I love Samantha’s new bag” or, “Awww, isn’t Fraser cuute?”
I am a male voter and I care passionately about so-called ‘female’ and ‘soft’ issues such as health and education, probably more so than the perceived ‘male’ policies like defence and immigration; I vote for the greter good, not for what’s in it for me. But then again I suppose that’s what makes me Labour. When will policy-makers start directing their ideas at the electorate as a whole, maybe including something that would benefit the young for a change? When did we all become so shallow?
It’s all part of this shift to presidential politics which has coincided with the rise of a celebrity culture. I don’t like it personally, considering we in the UK have a parliamentary system with cabinet government. Unfortunately, I don’t see it going away any time soon.
Oooh, I love Sarah Brown’s new coat
Managed to find another example of female on male objectification in pop culture:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyBq21FtL1s&list=QL
Gaga’s doing it too but this is a more brazen use of partial nudity to get attention. There are always going to be lots of people willing to take their clothes off and pose for money. As long as it’s people of both genders we’ve got nothing to be afraid of.