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Am I Being A Prude, Or Overly Sensitive?

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RussH

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I saw the cover of the 2015 edition of the Sports Illustrated 2015 swimsuit edition, and lets just say the model has her bathing suit panties pulled down really low. As a normal male, it is very eye appealing to me, but as I briefly looked at it, I found myself incredibly saddened.

I was saddened because this young lady was willing to expose this much of herself for public view; yes she made lots of money and gained fame from it, but at what price?

It saddens me that a national / international publication like Sports Illustrated is so willing to sexually objectify women in this manner; dehumanizing them, and thus send a message to their male readers that it is ok to view women as nothing more than sexual play toys.
It really breaks my heart that this magazine will give guys the idea that it is ok to treat women as objects of desire. How many women will be subject to crude statements, sexual innuendos, and in appropriate touching just because Sports Illustrated wants to sell magazines?

When will the entertainment industry wake up and realize that they are the number one industry of sexual objectification, and abuse of women.

And guys, when are we going to realize that buying into this kind of entertainment by purchasing these magazines is propagating the abuse of women? We have to stop contributing to the dehumanizing of human beings leading to abuse of said humans .

Ok end of my rant.
 
Some women apparently are okay with sexually objectifying themselves. It isn't a hundred percent fair to blame it on the magazines themselves, although of course they have a huge influence, because they are the ones who are paying for it. But in all honesty, these women are the ones that are willing to be paid for it.

We see this all the time over here and I imagine you do too. "Celebrity shows boobs and ass!" "Celebrity who shows this and that!". And mostly it's women. These women are celebrated the most when they undress, not for their other qualities, let's say it's a disease that goes around in our society and it's affecting a lot of minds. Sadly. And sadly there are plenty of women out there who encourage it by complying.

In a way, they contribute to their own "abuse". Why? Good question. It would be interesting to sit one of those women down and talk to her, but she would probably say something like "it isn't wrong to show I am good looking, and proud of it". They always will have protective sentences lined up.

PS: I miss those days in which male nudity was seen as something beautiful. Somehow our society seems to focus solely on women, and you hear the sentence "who wants to see nude guys anyway", all the time. I'm not saying that men should start prostituting themselves on the cover of magazines. But wouldn't it be great if we could appreciate both female and male beauty in a healthy way. :)
 
@Radise you are correct that the women, sometimes, willingly subject themselves to this, but all to often the message they are given is if you will not do this, then you will not get the job. So, although they are willingly participating in the industry, I still think many times they are pressured into this with the promise of riches and fame.
 
@RussH I believe there are many better things to worry about than whether a famous, very well-compensated celebrity on a magazine cover is contributing to her own abuse, mostly naked or not. She is responsible for her own choices. You may feel sad, but please don't hold everyone to your personal standards.

There are a lot of things more worth getting upset about, such as the actual victimization of people who aren't able to make choices for themselves.
 
They are choosing to do this, have known a few in my lifetime who aimed to down this road and were confident and well aware of what they were doing. I knew one young lady who went into prostitution, not because she was desperate ( she had a good job) but she felt the hours suited her, money was better, and she could see no wrong in it.....which it isn't if it's her choice. It does saddened me, but I can see things from their viewpoint.

I remember the days of page three, and where it was perfectly acceptable to have a calendar hanging on the wall of nude ladies, in the workplace....but it never gave the majority of men reason to look onto the rest of us as sex objects, or abuse us. Men who do see women as playthings will continue to exist even if these pictures were banned.
 
Russ would you still feel this way if it were a man posing in the similar context? I'm just curious.

This kind of imagery has become very normalised and I guess its only natural that some people would feel ok about being part of it. I don't think there is any shame in it although it does create social problems. Its a complicated topic.
 
She is responsible for her own choices. You may feel sad, but please don't hold everyone to your personal standards.

Yes she is responsible for her own choices, but what make me sad is all the women that will be subjected to sexual abuse, verbal or otherwise, because men see women be objectified like this and think it is ok to objectify all women. these kind of pictures give men permission to act out toward women.
Russ would you still feel this way if it were a man posing in the similar context? I'm just curious

The answer is yes I would. I think the dehumanizing of men or women is sad and leads to further abuse.
Sadly though it is mostly women who are subjected to this.
 
these kind of pictures give men permission to act out toward women.

I completely disagree. Abusers don't need "permission" to victimize women. If their excuse is that looking at pictures of near-naked women caused them to abuse, they are lying.

Ted Bundy famously claimed that looking at pornography caused him to become a mass murderer. Of course, it is completely untrue that porn causes mass murder. If Bundy hadn't had access to porn, he would most likely have blamed something else for his actions.

The point is, to an abuser, it's never his or her fault. It's always something external that made them that way. This is bullshit. We all make choices, and they chose to abuse. Let's take the blame away from "objectification" or "permission" and place it squarely where it belongs: on the abuser.
 
These make me sad...

Some women apparently are okay with sexually objectifying themselves....In a way, they contribute to their own "abuse".

@RussH There are a lot of things more worth getting upset about, such as the actual victimization of people who aren't able to make choices for themselves.

Men who do see women as playthings will continue to exist even if these pictures were banned.

As a unapologetic feminist (and humanist), I think that it's more than this model's "choice" (and I looked up the cover picture, and it makes me sad too). There is systemic sexism (probably more acurately described as misogyny) that seeps into everything...across most cultures, but my experience is with Western culture. This is true for racism in the US (and a lot of other western nations) as well. To deny it's impact and influence is naive.

Yes, this model chose to do this and yes, she was probably paid well. But where did she get the offer? Would the magazine run this issue year after year if it didn't sell? Why is it one of their biggest sellers?

There is a lot more going on than this one model's choice. And as awoman, I find that it is worth getting upset about (or at least thinking about) - because it is about objectification and victimization.

Let's take the blame away from "objectification" or "permission" and place it squarely where it belongs: on the abuser.

And yes, absolutely, the abuser, rapist, murderer, is 100% responsible for his or her actions. But that person did not spring fully formed from nowhere. Misogyny is part of the air we breathe...and there are a lot of mixed messages regarding abuse (rape in particular)...add that to a certain personality and yeah, some of these folks probably think they have persmission to behave the way they do.
 
I'm not saying that it's this woman's whole responsibility. Of course not. Merely the fact that agency (individual decisions) are influenced by the structure (society) and vice versa. I think that women who respect themselves completely, or didn't have certain issues, wouldn't do this. But then of course those issues can be caused by society.

Yeah, it is sad. I hope it changes some time soon.
There is some change going on. But not enough yet.
 
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