I know I said I was done with this thread. Apparently I lied. ;-) But I had to jump in to completely disagree with your assertion wrt the underlying premise.
To my mind the premise is that there is a huge disparity in the way that women and men are portrayed in the media including the arts. Women tend to be sexualized far more than men and often in denigrating and offensive ways. That includes but doesn't have to mean nudity. People can point to exceptions but that doesn't change the fact that women are sexualized far more often and in different ways than men. This doesn't mean that sex is dirty or wrong or that it doesn't make the world go 'round. A bit of balance would be nice, that's all... Cheers, frank, back to spectating - for now Walt <ldott...@gmail.com> wrote: >I think the underlying premise -- that to portray a human as a sexual >being is to inherently denigrate other aspects of their humanity -- is >a >false one. > >All of this calls to mind a recent discovery for me: a woman named >Susan >Oliver. I just happened to see her in an episode of the Andy Griffith >Show that was on the TV at the bar where I worked and was struck by >just >how beautiful a woman she was, and as it turned out, a woman at the bar > >happened to know her name. > >So, I started doing a little reading up on her on the internet, and as >it turned out, she was an absolutely fascinating person. > >http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Oliver > >Now, to be sure, my initial impression of her was that she was just >drop-dead gorgeous -- which is an observation I wouldn't likely make of > >a male, no matter how handsome he might be. My interest just isn't >captured by attractive men. So, the very fact that I noticed Susan >Oliver at all could be laid at the feet of sexual objectification, or >sexism, whatever you want to call it. > >But, as I started to learn more about her and her accomplishments, I >developed a more wide-ranging kind of admiration for her. The fact that > >my initial interest in her was sparked by sexual attraction didn't in >any way detract from my appreciation of her as an accomplished woman >any >more than learning more about her considerable achievements minimized >my >appreciation of her as a smokin' hot sex kitten. > >It seems to me that in order to maintain the position that to the >portrayal of a beautiful woman's sexuality is dehumanizing, you have to > >start from the premise that sex itself is necessarily degrading to >women >and renders men incapable of appreciating them in a more holistic >fashion. That may be the case for some women and some men, but I don't >think it's true of the majority of us all. And I don't see how >achieving >a greater sense of balance alleviates the perceived problem, anyway. >Instead, it seems to compound it by saying, "Look, in order to remedy >the problem of sexual dehumanization, we're going to have to dehumanize > >the sexes more equitably." > >-- Walt > >On 12/8/2013 6:50 PM, knarf wrote: >> They're using young shapely women to sell beer and chicken wings. >That's not sexist? >> >> It's "tongue-in-cheek"? >> >> You know that may be worse than more blatant forms of sexism because >it normalizes it, it makes it okay in the minds of too many. >> >> Even if is tongue-in-cheek (which I don't buy) it's not harmless and >IT'S NOT OKAY!!! >> >> Anyway I'm out of this thread. It's doing nothing but infuriate me. I >don't want to lose friends because of this. >> >> Have a great evening. See you on other threads. >> >> Cheers, >> frank >> >> >> >> Paul Stenquist <pnstenqu...@comcast.net> wrote: >>> >>> Paul via phone >>> >>> Hooters is tongue-in-cheek sexism. No bare breasts there. Much less >>> exposure than at the beach. >>> -- >>> PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List >>> PDML@pdml.net >>> http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net >>> to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above >and >>> follow the directions. >> “Analysis kills spontaneity.” -- Henri-Frederic Amiel >> >> >> > > >-- >PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List >PDML@pdml.net >http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net >to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and >follow the directions. “Analysis kills spontaneity.” -- Henri-Frederic Amiel -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
