We began to touch on the subject of objectifying men in last
Thursday’s class. Is it ok to objectify men? Do women objectify men in the same
way? Are men asking for it? In that same sense, are women asking for it?
The idea of objectifying men is of much less concern for our
society than the objectification of women. While women get a lot of support for
their efforts to stop the objectification, men do not. Why is this? We’ve
already seen in Mike’s last post that men get photo-shopped just as much
females and we’ve read in Aubrey and Taylor's (2009) study that this does affect male self-consciousness
and sexual confidence. So where is and why is there a difference between the
male and female objectification?
Most recently, the film Magic
Mike hit it big in the box offices. Women of all ages ran to the movie
theater to get their fill of abs, dancing, and pure sexiness. I read various
articles, tweets, and posts that said how it was about time that women got the
opportunity to stare at men just like men get to stare at women. Forget the
quality of acting or the emotional plot line -
this movie was novel because it allowed women to stare at men’s bodies
for an hour and a half – and that’s it! The value of this movie was nearly 100%
based on the men’s bodies in it.
While many movies focus on the bodies of women and their attractiveness,
I do not think that female objectification is taken to the same degree that this
movie took it with men. Could you imagine if a movie about 5 female strippers came
out? How would people react if men were lining up outside the theater to drool
all over 5 female bodies??
Because there is clearly a difference here, I started
wondering why. I read an interesting article about Magic Mike and why it is more tolerable to objectify men – and why
objectifying men really isn’t even the same as objectifying women.
The article strives to claim that both male and female objectification
are degrading. However, while female
objectification reduces a woman’s power in Hollywood movies, male
objectification actually strengthens and worships the male. How can
this be?? The article shows how this might just be plausible…
- Women’s sexuality is highlighted in movies to help make their seemingly powerful personalities seem less strong or worthy
o
For ex; Anne Hathaway in Love and Other Drugs is naked for most of the movie. While she is a
strong, tough female, she appears to be very weak because she is butt-naked
more often than not.
- To make women relatable, you have to show their weaknesses and strip them of their dignity- says Anna Faris
o
This is often done by focusing on their bodies
- Male objectification does not strip men of their power, but actually gives them more power
o
Men with great bodies are seen as powerful,
successful, and highly admired – case in point with Mike from Magic Mike who always has tons of
screaming girls around him.
o
He also exerts power over the women as he is
stripping- taking the lead, telling them what to do, etc.
- Men that are objectified in movies are still given personalities – usually hidden tenderness, thoughtfulness, and lovingness.
o
Females that are objectified rarely have
personalities or any redeeming qualities
- Finally, the way men and women admire the opposite sex is different
o
Women scream, drool, and go crazy for sexy men
o
Men seem to sit back and take in the view of the
sexy woman as if it’s her job to please him
After our discussion on Thursday, I think this article about
Magic Mike sheds light on why we
think it’s more acceptable to objectify men than women. While women are reduced
by objectification, men are empowered. Clearly objectification is not the same
for each gender. As one commenter on the article said…“let’s all objectify each
other! That’s equality, right?!” … well, I’m not so sure now.
Swong, S. (n.d.). Magic Mike Matthew McConaughey Strip Scene: How Modern Movies Objectify Men. PolicyMic.
Retrieved August 7, 2012, from
http://www.policymic.com/articles/9592/magic-mike-matthew-mcconaughey-strip-scene-how-modern-movies-objectify-men
I was just thinking--there kind of IS a movie about female strippers out there: "Coyote Ugly," anyone? They're not strippers, obviously, but the women in that movie are there explicitly to serve the men in the bar, to dance in front of them suggestively, and to display their rockin' bodies for every eye to see. I think you are dead-on when you say that men are usually more empowered by their objectification (the whole, "yeah I DO look good" attitude) and women are more degraded. However, I think the women of "Coyote Ugly" are more of a contradiction to this idea since they are local celebrities and tough as nails. I think it could be argued that they bask in their fame and even Piper Perabo's character (what's-her-face) expresses how badly she wants to be a Coyote, a sort of sexual goddess superwoman. Obviously the movie exposes that it wasn't really "all that," like she thought it would be, but from all appearances it seems like these women are empowered by the objects as Coyotes (although you can only look, and not touch).
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