Ah, the familiar strains of the equalist argument blithly denying the power gradients and class structure present in society. It warms my heart when this old chestnut get brought out displaying the deep level of ignorance and self-importance of the dude that is usually mansplaining it to me.
But hey-hey, hyperskeptics lets look at some evidence…
Google Searches for Sexy Alcohol Ads
Sexy Alcohol
Google Search for Sexy Deodorant
Google Search for Sexy Clothes
Google Search for Sexy Car Ad
Google Search for Sexy Burger Ad
Well daaaaaaamn son, it looks like there might be a slight difference in the level of objectification between women and men.
bleatmop
Mystro
The Arbourist
Dead Wild Roses 
11 comments
May 12, 2014 at 6:21 am
john zande
Our new friend, Richard, seems chatty. Seen his latest to you?
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May 12, 2014 at 10:10 am
The Arbourist
@JZ
Yeppers. The wall of text format seems to be his friend. :/
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May 12, 2014 at 11:44 am
The Arbourist
@JZ
Response waiting in your spam queue, many links. :>
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May 12, 2014 at 11:49 am
john zande
Sorry, cleared :(
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May 12, 2014 at 12:21 pm
myatheistlife
So, would it be better if men were objectified equally or if there were little to no objectification at all?
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May 12, 2014 at 1:45 pm
The Arbourist
@MAL
The later, of course. MAL. Objectification isn’t good for anyone.
One of the common arguments that is put forward, often by men, is that “well you have a point about female objectification, but men are objectified too”…
The argue is correct on the surface, but neglects to address the differing scales and implications of what being objectified means as a woman versus being a man.
Objectification is bad for both, but differing scales and consequences tend to make the objectification in general, much worse for women.
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May 12, 2014 at 2:37 pm
myatheistlife
Without arguing either way, let me ask another question: Given the state of our societies and the inherent differences, historically and factually, how would we rid the world of objectification? What is the method for doing this? I ask this with a specific thought in mind – natural selection.
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May 13, 2014 at 9:40 am
The Arbourist
@MAL
We would, as a society, realize the harm objectification does to people and do our best to minimize it in society. Objectification is just a small part of the larger task of regarding women in society as full human beings.
Specifically, I would start in the media and begin changing the way women and men are portrayed. The media serves to amplify many of the corrosive aspects of society – changing media to reflect respect for women and men would be a logical first step.
I’m a little fuzzy on how this relates to the topic here. Our civilization has removed us from most of the brute pressures of Darwinian natural selection.
Therefore, is the natural selection angle even relevant to this discussion?
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May 13, 2014 at 3:40 pm
The Intransigent One
I think – and if I’m wrong I apologise – myatheistlife may be about to argue that the objectification of women is a necessary step in the human male’s mate selection process, without which our species would die out? LOL forever at that idea. (Cuz you totally can’t get it on with a person you regard as a full and equal human being, didn’t you know?)
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May 13, 2014 at 7:41 pm
Reneta Scian
Also, given the way the media objectifies women and men, even those are as contextually different as the way male and female heroes/heroines are rendered in comic books. Even if you could make a case from the media about male objectification, males are always put into positions of power in “Sexy Ads” never in the position of disempowerment. It’s not just the objectification we should be paying attention, but also the messages hidden in their objectification. Only some European ad campaigns vary from that with notable frequency. There is also a few photographers on the web who take photos of men “looking vulnerable” as a way to show this paradigm. If every sexualized ad of men makes them powerful, and every sexualized ad of women makes them passive slates for the sexual desires of men, then what kind of impact do you think that’ll have. Behavioral psychologists have already proven that those things do affect us, in big ways that we aren’t all entirely aware of.
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May 13, 2014 at 11:47 pm
VR Kaine
Related but perhaps off-topic: where’s the line between what a woman wants to show and what someone else says she can/can’t show, should/shouldn’t show, and who draws it? (Obviously not men – we’d on the one side have Hustler Honeys and on the other, women in burkas?)
Regardless, as a guy I wouldn’t even try and introduce the equivalency argument. Laughable as it is, what would be the point of saying it anyways? To say that we men are victims? To say that we’re all the same? I see:
“Poor, poor Fabio – his objectification leads to so many men getting groped, propositioned, intimidated, attacked… worse. He has it so rough, and as men, so do we.” Nah – not buying it.
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