I found myself staring at this picture for a good solid five minutes, because I can’t fully make up my mind about it.
My rambling is after the jump.
Category: objectification
Seeing women like objects
Apropos our earlier post regarding what it would be like if every Olympic sport were photographed like beach volleyball, some new findings from social psychology:
‘Local processing underlies the way we think about objects: houses, cars and so on. But global processing should prevent us from that when it comes to people,’ Gervais said. ‘We don’t break people down to their parts — except when it comes to women, which is really striking. Women were perceived in the same ways that objects are viewed.’
In one experiment, women’s (and not men’s) sexual body parts were actually recognized better when presented in isolation rather than in the context of an entire body.
“Philosopher’s Photo shoot Presents Women as Stupid Sex Objects”
That’s the title a major Danish paper gave to this piece written by Mikkel Gerken, University of Copenhagen; Berit Brogaard, University of Missouri, St. Louis; Anna-Sara Malmgren, Stanford University; Anders Schoubye, Carnegie Mellon University; and Andreas Stokke, The University in Oslo. It’s great.
The international reaction was due to the fact that the photos contribute to a huge problem in the profession: unfortunate stereotypes. This problem has been given serious attention internationally. The pictures have, therefore, been seen as a big step back, to a time not so terribly long ago, when male philosophers quite often would consider female philosophy students potential sex objects rather than individuals who could contribute to the profession.
It is discouraging, though not unsurprising, that the Danish debate resulted in people seeing those who called attention to the problematic aspect of the photos as sex-phobic puritans. This kind of reaction is among the things that contribute to an uncomfortable climate for female students.
Who wants to draw attention to a problem if the automatic reaction is that you are sex phobic or one of the American religious puritans?
This kind of accusation is absolutely ludicrous, but it also hinders constructive debate. You can easily be a radical hedonist and still believe that the pictures are problematic. Danish liberalism is, of course, entirely consistent with the empirically well-founded assumption that gender stereotypes can help to maintain an underrepresentation of women in certain contexts.
Interview with Vincent Hendricks
who still, quite clearly, isn’t getting it. Among other things, he clearly thinks that the main issue is whether he *intended* to be sexist. Sigh.
A: The photos have been criticized for maintaining gender stereotypes, and for being quite sexist. Is it okay to display sexist pictures for the purpose is charity?
V: It is, of course, reprehensible if charity work adds to chauvinism or sexism, racism or other prejudice. It was not sexism or anything like that that was driving my willingness to participate, and I don’t think the charity initiative youmeshopping.dk or magazine Connery.dk intended these photos to be an expression of sexism. I am not the kind of person who would want this to happen, and I certainly do not want to be perceived as a male chauvinist.
Cynthia the inanimate 1930s superstar
I have a longtime interest in the concept of treating things as people. But even if you don’t share my interest, you’ve got to be fascinated by this tale of Cynthia, a major 1930s celebrity, fixture of the trendy dinner parties and gossip columns of the day– who just happens to be a mannequin.
(Thanks, Mr Jender!)
Religious modesty and the female body
There’s a wonderful op-ed from yesterday’s NY Times by Rabbi Dov Linzer on religion-based calls for modesty and control of the female body. Linzer begins by discussing the case of an 8-year-old Israeli girl who was spat on and called a whore by a group of grown men who felt she was not dressed modestly enough. Says Linzer:
What is behind these deeply disturbing events? We are told that they arise from a religious concern about modesty, that women must be covered and sequestered so that men do not have improper sexual thoughts. It seems, then, that a religious tenet that begins with men’s sexual thoughts ends with men controlling women’s bodies
He continues:
The ultra-Orthodox men in Israel who are exerting control over women claim that they are honoring women. In effect they are saying: We do not treat women as sex objects as you in Western society do. Our women are about more than their bodies, and that is why their bodies must be fully covered.
In fact, though, their actions objectify and hyper-sexualize women. Think about it: By saying that all women must hide their bodies, they are saying that every woman is an object who can stir a man’s sexual thoughts. Thus, every woman who passes their field of vision is sized up on the basis of how much of her body is covered. She is not seen as a complete person, only as a potential inducement to sin. . .
At heart, we are talking about a blame-the-victim mentality. It shifts the responsibility of managing a man’s sexual urges from himself to every woman he may or may not encounter. It is a cousin to the mentality behind the claim, “She was asking for it.”
So the responsibility is now on the women. To protect men from their sexual thoughts, women must remove their femininity from their public presence, ridding themselves of even the smallest evidence of their own sexuality.
Linzer goes on to characterize this as “a complete perversion of the Talmud”. Highly recommended reading.
Photoshop by Adobé
This will make a handy little addition to Feminism classes… (Thanks RW!)
Fotoshop by Adobé from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo.
Men Photographed in Stereotypical Pin-Up Poses
Via @petapixel I came across this photo project by Rion Sabeen entitled “Men-ups”. It’s for a calendar that you can order.
At Petapixel it says:
“Men-ups!” is a humorous project by photographer Rion Sabean featuring men doing pin-up-style poses. It’s interesting how much more absurd some poses instantly look when they’re being done by men.
I do find the pictures funny, in a way, and the poses absurd, but I don’t find them more absurd because they are done by men. I always find them absurd.
However, it is sort of interesting how the absurdity of it all apparently gets more obvious in general when it’s men rather then women doing the posing.
Edit: Oh rats, we already had a post on this one, my bad!
Miss representation
Here’s the trailer for the film Miss Representation that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this January:
Miss Representation 8 min. Trailer 8/23/11 from Miss Representation on Vimeo.
I hadn’t heard of the organisation, probably because it’s US oriented, but I hope the word spreads. You can find more about them here.
Thank you @PhilosopherLiam for drawing my attention to it.
Vegetarian porn
The always-surprising folks at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have announced some details about their latest public awareness campaign: porn! Yes, that’s right. Porn. For the ethical treatment of animals. So obvious I’m sure the people over at the ASPCA are wondering why they didn’t think of it first.
By way of explanation, PETA – no stranger to racy ad campaigns, including those “I’d rather go naked than wear fur” photos – claims that their sexually charged publicity material has often been their most successful. So they thought it would make good sense to step things up a notch, and produce actual porn. For the animals, you see.
While there’s porn out there that’s made with specific ethical principles in mind, this is the only case I know of – though I’m not exactly a porn scholar – in which the porn itself is intended as a way of communicating an ethical or political message. One wonders how exactly they plan to accomplish this. How do you make porn that evokes thoughts other than “hey, check it out – porn!” (etc.)?
You can read more about PETA’s porn adventures (and see some. . .interesting pictures from PETA’s previous campaigns) here.
