The Objectification of Men

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so...how does everyone feel about it. does it annoy you? does it offend you? do you enjoy it? are you ambivalent toward it? do you care? and why...

― di, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

As a college kid surrounded by bored cretins who do nothing but jack off over Counterstrike network games, I'd say they fucking deserve it. Rubber plants are more animate.

― Honda, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

What kind of objectification is the question, I guess...

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I love men.

― 1 1 2 3 5, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

what kind do you object to, ned?

― di, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

objectification of people you don't know is good because then you don't have false impressions of them.

― hamish, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Sorry to start the thread off on such a brash note. I just wanted to say that I'm not aiming this at any Counterstrike players here since I'm sure your true online activity is ILE (which i must say, is miles better).

― Honda, Wednesday, 5 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Sorry folks I don't understand the Question :( Gale

― Gale Deslongchamps, Thursday, 6 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

what kind do you object to, ned?

Hmm...you know, I don't know! Maybe I'm too easygoing on the subject?

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 6 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I like being objectified. Feels sexy.

― RS, Thursday, 6 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I have a very animated rubber plant. In my possession it's grown from 3 to 6 feet tall, spawned a second stalk (now pushing 4 feet), and a third (1/2 foot). I have mad rubber plant growing skillz!

― AP, Thursday, 6 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

well people *are* objects. big fuckin deal. most of em you'll never have to deal with on any deeper level.

― unknown or illegal user, Thursday, 6 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I think it's odd, basically because it's a tad gender-bendy. When you see a poster of a muscled up, lip-puckering man with a clean shaven chest, there's something very definitely homoerotic about 99% of the men-as-meat advertising out there. Rarely do you see a hairy, balding sex symbol of a man. Or even just hairy. Or even just a man who isn't puckering his lips. There is a reason they're called "pretty boys" rather than "handsome men", although both phrases make me feel a little fruity.

Does this mean I'm homophobic? No, just an observation, unless you consider "fruity" a derogatory term, in which case I suppose I'm a malicious bigot.

― Nude Spock, Thursday, 6 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I like objectification of women better

― dave q, Thursday, 6 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I've never really noticed it happening on any personal level. Unrealistic body-image media pressure sure, which is a side of it I suppose.

― Tom, Thursday, 6 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I am very much in favour of the objectification of men, I do it every chance that I get. Sometimes a rare example doesn't mind, but mostly they seem to mind very much, get very irritated and call me a stalker. ;-)

Maybe we should ask Gareth? How do you (and your hair) feel about being objectified?

― kate, Thursday, 6 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't understand why pictures of muscley clean shaven men have to be homoerotic, spock. Surely they are appreciated by women as much as as by gay men? Or are notions of attractiveness more homogeneous in the gay community?

― Nick, Thursday, 6 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Hamish! You are alive! My little object of entertainment and lust...

― Menelaus Darcy, Thursday, 6 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh, my rubber plant makes its magazine debut a week from Monday (backdrop to model doing herself w/ banana). Objectification of fruit, anyone?

― AP, Thursday, 6 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

As a cardcarrying OBJECTIFIER OF MEN for the past five years running, I have a professional interest in seeing that tolerance of the practice continues to spread. Therefore I propose that Kodanshi come forward with the relevant pics...

― Tim, Thursday, 6 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

my flatmates have been busy objectifying men at mostbeautifulman.com

― gareth, Thursday, 6 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

So he drove me home in the van, complaining "Women only like me for my mind"

Is objectifying someone the same as fancying them for their looks? If so, I objectify about half a dozen women a day. Now I feel dirty.

― Nick, Thursday, 6 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I like Brad Pitt's arm muscles.

― toraneko, Thursday, 6 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I like being objectified. Doesn't happen often enough.

― Sterling Clover, Thursday, 6 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Nick, I wasn't trying to say good-looking + muscley = homoerotic, especially. But, from what I gather, there is something gender-bendy to a lot of male model photography, though. It's like, "well, that's a good-looking, strong man, right there... so why is he in such a feminine pose, puckering his lipstick with another guy giving him sort of a come hither look?" That's not to say that gay = feminine, but in the cases where gay = very masculine (Tom Selleck types), my gaydar doesn't work. Some of the best homoerotic ads lie in the pages of Details magazine, by the way.

― Nude Spock, Thursday, 6 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

>>I've never really noticed it happening on any personal level. Unrealistic body-image media pressure sure, which is a side of it I suppose.

this was the kind of objectification of men i had in mind when i posed the question/s. so... any men care to talk about how it makes them feel exactly? do you feel pressured do measure up to the big buff guy in his undies flexing his abs and pecs? do you think men or women are judging you if you don't look like him, and does that annoy you? come on boys, rant!

― di, Thursday, 6 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

and is it more/less/equally damaging to men as the media images of women are to women?

― di, Thursday, 6 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Well, you see these pictures of big buff men, sporty types etc...and it all seems like such an effort just to have muscles and perfect teeth. And even if I did have muscles and good looks, I'd still be a bumbling mess of neurosis. So, nope it doesn't bother me at all.

― james, Thursday, 6 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i wish i still had hair. but i'd wish that even if there wasn't pixtures of guys with hair all the fuck over the place. so, no, big deal about that shit.

― unknown or illegal user, Thursday, 6 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i mean on the top of my head, obv. i still have my own eyebrows, etc etc.

― unknown or illegal user, Thursday, 6 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The vast majority of straight North American men over 30 look like they're about to keel over or burst like giant blood vessels anyway, so media images of The Buff Men might serve as a gentle reminder to at least try to keep their corpulence in check. More likely, The Buff Men will be completely ignored as freakishly unrealistic (perhaps computer-generated for ladies' wank mags) or discounted as steroid jock freaks.

― fritz, Thursday, 6 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

If I was overweight or unattractive, I might feel bad being surrounded by media images of perfect bodies, just like anyone male or female would. What is starting to bug me just a *tiny* bit is I'm just starting to feel a little bit older than what the ideal of beauty is. I mean if the average model is, I dunno, 24, that makes me 10 years older than that ideal. I mean, I still look good, and we're all getting older, but if anything affects me in advertising images, its the constant emphasis on being really young. But I'm doing ok... as long as no one finds that portrait...

― Sean, Thursday, 6 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't actually care. No-one in their right mind would objectify me anyway.

― Norman Phay, Thursday, 6 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

so... any men care to talk about how it makes them feel exactly?

Might have mattered to me at one point years back, but that person who I was seems not to have cared then, and I don't care now. I'm content -- others can chase after chimeras as they wish.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 7 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The thing that irritates is that if you don't look like the male model du jour, the only people who fancy you don't look like the female model du jour either. So you end up with annoyingly intelligent people when all you want is a trophy, and you'll never get one.

― dave q, Friday, 7 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley? That rich guy and whats her name, you know, Hugh Grant's girlfriend? Some other ugly dork and some dumb model? Never give up, every day is a new day.

― maryann, Friday, 7 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

To be honest, I think that if an intelligent boy wanted to attract a particular type of girl, the type we're referring to here, he would have to be a bit mean. Not more CYNICAL; more brutish. Of course it's easy to confuse the two. Not only that, but he would have to cultivate that attitude INTERNALLY, not just externally. Perhaps he's attracting intelligent girls by inadvertantly desiring them; you know, 'creating his own reality', but blaming the world? He ought to project the right energy.

― maryann, Friday, 7 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

'Brutish'? Alright, enough talk. Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen!

― dave q, Friday, 7 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

― Christy, Friday, 7 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

By the way, do you know Jandek?

― Christy, Friday, 7 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I've heard that he's unlistenable and pretentious. Not that you aren't, or anything.

― Christy, Friday, 7 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I just flew in from Los Angeles, and boy are my arms tired! You're a great audience. I was at a bar the other night, and I asked a guy to dance. He said no - his feet were aching! Thirty seconds later I saw him dancing with another girl. Should I have a) asked him who was his podiatrist or b) pretended to be dead?

― Christy, Friday, 7 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The "big buff guy in his undies flexing his abs and pecs" is not only aesthetically pleasing (according to many conventional definition) but also physically powerful. I think, generally, you'll find that men are more insecure about their social standing than about their innate physical beauty -- or, to put it differently, that men at times feel valued only (or primarily) as an object of power, whether it be social, financial, political, physical, or what-have-you. I mean, that's the old cliche, isn't it? Or at least also sprach Henry Kissinger. But I don't think we really have much of an established discourse for talking about the frustrations of men who voluntarily eschew that path for other things...

― Phil, Friday, 7 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Isn't that 'emo'?

― dave q, Friday, 7 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

That's not to say that gay = feminine, but in the cases where gay = very masculine (Tom Selleck types), my gaydar doesn't work.

[coff coff coff....]

― Kerry, Friday, 7 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah, I raised an eyebrow at that as well. Those Tom Sellack types are the most gay seeming of all to me. Then again, since I'm gay, my gaydar is probably better.

― Sean, Friday, 7 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

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