cui bono
cui bono's JournalBut that's not the issue. The issue is the objectification of women.
And the harm that these media images - which are airbrushed and photoshopped and give unrealistic "goals" for girls and young women.
Nothing wrong with a healthy sex drive and sexual attraction to whomever you are attracted to, but putting it out like this and ogling over the women in public is crass and rude and is objectifying women.
Again, rather than be defensive about it, why not just see that it bothers a lot of people and act accordingly, as a sensitive human being would do? If your female friends were in a room with you and you were ogling this cover and making comments out loud and they said it bothered them, would you not stop? Even if you aren't able to see the societal problem with it?
And regarding the societal problem, look up all the anorexia and bulimia that comes out of this media onslaught of these sorts of altered women's bodies cases. Do the search as "my friend ana" or "my friend mia". Those searches will get you to pages where females suffering from this talk about what they do and give advice to others on how to not gain weight and avoid eating food. There was a story I saw about a girl who was early teens who would eat paper to fill her up so she wouldn't be so hungry but was still not eating food that would put weight on her.
This sort of objectification contributes to that. As you are not a woman you won't be able to completely know what women go through and deal with, so perhaps you can take what they say into consideration and adjust your public behavior on behalf of their feelings. Have some sensitivity to it rather than be worried that you won't be able to have sexual desires. You can, there's just appropriate times and ways to express it. Imo, this is not one of them.
There was a time when people didn't realize that some varying degrees of racism/homophia were inappropriate or hurtful. As time goes on those views have evolved and changed. Sexism as well. Hopefully they all continue to change as more people become aware and evolve and decide to show some sensitivity to each group's plight.
As to your last paragraph. Do you believe that about racism and homophobia as well?
It's not just about the person it is directed at.
I would think a guy to be crass and rude if I heard him wolf whistle at another woman, it doesn't have to be towards me. And here everyone on the board can see it.
Imagine if you said something offensive to one African-American, would not all AAs who heard it be offended? It's not about the target, it's about the person who is doing the objectifying, about their attitude. And it's about the effects of that on society.
Honestly, I started becoming aware of all the sexism in our society in a class on Marxism in the early 80's because the male professor was in tune to it and brought it to our attention by him having every other person reading aloud substitute "she" for "he" because everything is written as if it only applied to men. It made me think about it.
Perhaps rather than thinking of it in terms of "sides" you can just think of it in terms of what women have to experience every day in their lives. It doesn't have to be a combative issue. Do you think of racial issues in terms of "sides"?
I think that may be part of the problem of these discussion on DU, they become so combative it's no longer about just looking at what a person has to deal with on a daily basis and thinking about how to alleviate that. Seems to me that if people know something is offensive and irritating to people they wouldn't keep doing it and trying to justify it, even if, or perhaps just because, they don't like the way someone is conveying their discomfort.
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