Is it any more sexist to subject women as it is to subject men to sexualisation?

That’s not sexist, it’s called human nature.

It devalues people, judging them by their ability to attract based on their looks. True of both genders.

Comparing a female member of the human species to anything will, eventually, be labeled as sexist by someone, somewhere, at some point in time.

It isn’t sexist, but it is wrong.

Comparing two women is considered sexist because women have consistently been objectified by society.

Comparing two men is wrong, because it is ranking the value of the two men on subjective criteria that is arbitrary and based to a large extent on appearance, not substance.

I doubt if such tendencies qualify as sexist. They are certainly superficial, but is difficult indeed to bend human beings away from picking the pretty one.

You have more than one question here, but I’m going to address this one: “Can it really be sexist if the very same thing is done [to men]?”

Yes. Furthermore, it would be sexist in both cases (because if it’s sexist in the one case, then it will be sexist in the other case). One of the things that feminists have been arguing since at least the 1700s is that sexism affects men as well as women, and often at the same time. To take a well-worn example, consider the people who tell women that getting raped is their own fault because men are animals who can’t control themselves. This sort of sentiment is clearly sexist against both men and women at the same time. That example doesn’t directly answer the original question, though, so now let’s bring it back to a case where the exact same thing is being done to men and women.

Consider a society where there are two jobs available. Job A can only be done by men, and all men are required to do Job A. Job B can only be done by women, and all women are required to do Job B. Furthermore, these rules are explicitly justified and enforced on the grounds that Job A is “men’s work” and Job B is “women’s work.” Let us further assume, however, that there is nothing about Job A that requires one to be a man and that there is nothing about Job B that requires one to be a woman. Even if we stipulate that men are statistically more likely to be capable of doing Job A and that women are statistically more likely to be capable of doing Job B, it would still be sexist to forbid capable men from doing Job B and capable women from doing Job A on no grounds other than their sex. And it would be sexist even though the standard was being applied to both men and women at the same time.

Note, however, that none of this says that the specific example you mentioned is sexist. This is only an answer to the question that I plucked from the OP. In the case of rating the attractiveness of various men and women, I would say that it is not necessarily sexist. It could certainly be done in a sexist way, but aesthetic evaluation is not itself inherently sexist and thus can be done in non-sexist ways. I haven’t delved into the background of this particular case, so I won’t offer any opinion about whether sexism was involved this time.

Attractive people have an easier time in life than ugly people. I wouldn’t call that sexist, though it is superficial. That goes for both men and women. They get preferential treatment in hiring, promotions and even from customers. It’s human nature, right or wrong.

That article was the most vapid nonsense I’ve ever had the displeasure of forcing into my eyeballs. And I’ve read Twilight.

Sorry. What was the question?

I got distracted by Katy Perry’s amazing tits.

@Seek wow well hats quite the statement then haha. I hope you have recovered from the trauma of that awful book. Just kidding. But thank you for sharing your perspective. I trey to keep educated on gender issues. And sometimes I feel I may become a little biased unless I hear a perspective from a woman. So thank you for your perspective.

@Kropotkin You misogynist! I’ll be sending my Tumblr minions to deal with you! Jk

I think hot male or female celebrities who are trading on their looks are fair game for having their looks talked about. It’s when ordinary women are judged on their looks or remarks made about them that it is sexist.

I agree with @janbb

Also, objectifying anyone based on looks, sex appeal or even money, in the case of how many men can be exploited are all less than savory character flaws IMO. A women being valued only for her tits & ass is not any better or worse than only valuing a man for the car he drives and his bank acct. Objectification is objectification and exploitation is exploitation no matter how you slice it.

Ridiculous, demeaning to women & an outrage indicative of the seedy times we live in.
I mean, how could I possibly rate these women without banging them first?

Of course it’s just as devaluing, but look at how much society throws at women to be beautiful, thin, sexy, smart compared to what we toss at men, which is to drink beer and eat pizza.

What utter horseshit.

What was that comment in response to @ibstubro?

@Dutchess_III ”. . . but look at how much society throws at women to be beautiful, thin, sexy, smart compared to what we toss at men, which is to drink beer and eat pizza.”

I know of no actual evidence for this. One can’t just “look at society” and draw an accurate inference.

I also suspect that what you see when you “look at society” is probably quite different to what I or many others see.

So funny

Shiny. HAHAHAHA!
Ii meant to say earlier and don;t know if I made the point or not, but objectifying men is no more accecptable than men objectifying women. It ruins us and our capacity to interact with each other. It makes us dismiss people as useless if we’re not interested in having sex with them. And if we are interested in having sex with a person, generally that’s ALL we’re interested in. It’s as if we have no other drive than an unthinking, animalistic need to use another person to satisfy a temporary urge, then move on to the next. Almost as if we’re driven to try to create the urge and then find GAAAAHHHH. I’m tired.

@Kropotkin, yesterday we watched a The Italian Job on AMC. Good movie. But we had it recorded so we zoomed through commercials. As we were zooming there were back to back ads. One was for Victoria’s secret, and showed a girl, perfect body, wearing only lacy panties and a matching bra. Immediately following that was some restaurant ad with some guy shoving some hot dog dripping with chili and cheese and I don’t know what all, into his mouth. I’ll get a snap shot of them if you want.

This isn’t the society you see? Tell me what you do see.

I’ve seen a trend in the last 30 years where men are increasingly objectified through advertising, etc and have become increasingly conscious of their appearance. Appeals to their vanity is very strong in order to move product. Nothing sells like sex and men are certainly sexual. Cures for graying hair and premature baldness, pressure to sculpt one’s body like a movie star is prominent.

The latest thing in male underwear is a new kind of boxer/brief which gathers the male genitalia in a kind of sack in order to lift and push forward so they will always appear to have a prominent bulge in the front of their slacks—like you see in the movies. They are not much more expensive to manufacture, but the retail price can be ten times that of regular boxer/briefs.

The CDC has reported a proportional increase in body image pathologies in young men (especially between the on-start of puberty throughout their twenties) such as increased abuse of black market Testosterone, Human Growth Hormone and anabolic steroids due to Body Image Disturbance (BID), Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD), eating disorders, cutting, the whole nine yards. In other words, anorexia ain’t just for women anymore.

According to Psychology Today body image dissatisfaction has increased dramatically for both genders. Body image disturbance has become almost as common among men as among women. The high school and college years are especially brutal.

“For the past three decades, women and, increasingly, men have been preoccupied with how they look. But the intense scrutiny hasn’t necessarily helped us see ourselves any more clearly. While as individuals we are growing heavier, our body preferences are growing thinner. And thinness is depicted everywhere as crucial to personal happiness. Despite the concerns of feminists and other observers, body image issues seem to be only growing in importance.”

Maybe it is sexist, but I won’t go there because it doesn’t lead to a solution, only further argument and misplaced anger. But one thing is for sure: the effects are certainly unhealthy and individual homeostasis is a tangible, attainable thing.

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