Women Lech on Men. Film at 11.
Dec. 21st, 2009 03:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anotheranonI had planned to write a more thoughtful pondering of this, but cold medicine dizzies have kind of cut off my language centers. Short version: We can talk about objectification, as a concept, and whether or not it is good – I know it pisses me off, often – but we shouldn’t ignore the fact that women and men are both capable of it. (advisement - lots of sweary language at the link).
Because I find it both amusing and irritating that it is assumed that (straight/bi) women don't enjoy looking at attractive members of the opposite sex - they do, and can be just as weird and piggy about it as men can be. That this is news boggles my mind - all those screaming Elvis and Beatles fans ~40 years ago weren't just hollering over musical talent.
Culturally, perhaps it's excusable in teenage girls because they're not supposed to know better, and what's eyebrow-raising about the Twilight* fandom is that 1) it's also older women doing the screaming [ed. Why? Why? Pattinson needs a comb more than anyone on the planet] and 2) the main star is playing along, rather the way hot women stars are expected to pander to mainstream straight male tastes (also not new - Tiger Beat posters, anyone?).
*Have not seen the movies or read the books, though I've read excerpts (crap prose alert!). I could write a tidy screed about the sexist problems of Twilight but others have done it more cogently than I ever could, and have actuallysuffered through read the source material.
Because I find it both amusing and irritating that it is assumed that (straight/bi) women don't enjoy looking at attractive members of the opposite sex - they do, and can be just as weird and piggy about it as men can be. That this is news boggles my mind - all those screaming Elvis and Beatles fans ~40 years ago weren't just hollering over musical talent.
Culturally, perhaps it's excusable in teenage girls because they're not supposed to know better, and what's eyebrow-raising about the Twilight* fandom is that 1) it's also older women doing the screaming [ed. Why? Why? Pattinson needs a comb more than anyone on the planet] and 2) the main star is playing along, rather the way hot women stars are expected to pander to mainstream straight male tastes (also not new - Tiger Beat posters, anyone?).
*Have not seen the movies or read the books, though I've read excerpts (crap prose alert!). I could write a tidy screed about the sexist problems of Twilight but others have done it more cogently than I ever could, and have actually
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no subject
Date: 2009-12-21 09:21 pm (UTC)It's all about the marketing. Hollywood knows that there's a far bigger market in het/bi women who want to see Hugh Jackman shirtless than in either straight or gay men who want get an eyeful of his bare pecs.
If there was not some pandering to that market, Jackman wouldn't have to keep in such good shape.
No, no, what creeps me out about the whole Team Edward phenomenon is that a sizable percentage of it comes from *women old enough to be his mother.*
But that celebrity men get objectified by women? So not news.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-22 02:00 am (UTC)I also don't get the perving on teenage boys thing - the age of consent thing squicks me, and personally I didn't find teenage boys appealing when I was a teenage girl. YMMV, I guess (?)
no subject
Date: 2009-12-22 01:15 am (UTC)*I'm actually suffering through the audiobook of Twilight. It is so ungood, girl. Ungood is not even a word, but for Twilight? It fits.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-22 02:03 am (UTC)Also, my sister read the whole series a couple of years back when she was substitute teaching 9th graders - she figured it would be good to know what their fuss was about. Suffice it to say she told me not to waste my time :P