Friday, January 14, 2011

Objectification: Two Sides

Too often I hear how porn supposedly degrades women, and how every expression of male sexuality aims to objectify women, transforming them into a commodity that exists to be used up and then discarded. This is the line where equality feminism steps over into misandry. I wouldn't claim that there are no men who mistreat women, but at the same time, it is unfair to blame male sexual biology as the cause of some social deformity (the inability to treat women like people) and proof that males are animals and morally inferior to females.

Not every man who submits to lustful thoughts is committing objectification - or at least, those attitudes regarded as "objectification" are a healthy component of a sexual attraction that includes other components, such as regarding the object of attraction as a human being. It's simply too much to condemn the male sexual impulse as something wrong and disgusting. Some men abuse it, this is true - just as some women abuse their sexual impulses - but most do not.

The "drooling male horndog" is a natural part of a healthy sexual culture. One should not be ashamed to be found sexually attractive - do not assume that it is a requirement that this attraction go hand in hand with an animalian disregard for your basic humanity, or an excuse to throw all civility out the window. As long as I hear about men objectifying women by responding to their sexual appeal, I will complain about women objectifying men by reducing them to unthinking brutes who can't control their sexuality, and can't think of anything other than consumption when amidst the throes of sexual arousal. There are two sides to objectification, you see.