I chose to do my
Twine project on the topic of male objectification in our culture. I worried a
little about my relevance to the conversation and wasn’t sure that I would be
able to properly represent this issue. In order to do it the best way I knew
how, I wrote it from the perspective of a male character, but based it on my
own experiences and discussions that have led to this observation.
In ChimamandaAdichie’s Ted talk about the danger of a single story, she argues that if we
reply on one source for our information, especially in representing a culture,
the portrayal will be warped and inaccurate.
I often feel that how we discuss objectification in our media is also
one sided. That in no way means that woman aren’t objectified, or that we need
to abandon that topic in search of another, but I believe there are others area
in this issue that I believe needs to be addressed.
Natalie Dormer, Game of Thrones actress, in a HuffingtonPost article talks about how many of the men she works with are objectified in
the industry, and often typecast by their physicality. We ourselves can think
of examples without much imagination. We all know the man-get’s-sweaty-has-to-change-his-shirt
scene in films, or that moody workout where he does one crunch before wiping
himself down with a towel. Muscle shirts, the boys’ locker room, slow-mo shots
of the lifeguard, sex scenes, and the whole super hero genre waste no
opportunity to display the male figure. Take the Kraft Zesty salad dressing commercials as an example. What I find even more disturbing is some people are
fully aware of this objectification, but have no problem with it.
An article by
Elite Daily is titled, “Why It’s Completely Okay To Objectify Men… No It ReallyIs.” The author goes on to explain that indeed, she thinks that male
objectification is completely justified. She lists the damaging effects of how
women are viewed in the media and how their image is considered a reflection of
their worth. I, personally, have no argument with her there. But then she
claims that the physical appearance of a man has no effect on his status as a
person, and finishes the article with, “That’s why objectifying a woman carries
a heavier, more noteworthy meaning. When you objectify a woman,
you perpetuate the idea that her worth lies exclusively in
her appearance. When I objectify a man, it’s just… fun. And
that’s why it’s okay to do it.”
I have found
this mentality—that sexual comments about men is okay simply because there is
no consequence—appear far too often in my own conversations and experiences.
Girls in a movie theatre cheering when whichever current heartthrob rips his
shirt off is perfectible acceptable. A man commenting on the butt of an actress
bending over is more likely to be condemned. That isn’t to say that we should
stop fighting against the objectification of women. That is an extremely
prevalent issue. Instead, I’d urge for an expansion of perspective to eliminate
the objectification of both genders.
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