Objectification of men in media

[TheSmileyManGuy]

I'm gonna go with yes for this one.

This is my evidence for why I think men ARE objectified in our media (Sorry I can't embed, but its on Vimeo, not YouTube) :

Male Objectification - a Supercut [http://vimeo.com/68266579]

 

[Ihateregistering1]

Basically every episode of "Arrow".

I like the show, but it's basically a rule that, in every episode, there must be at least one scene of Stephen Amell working out with no shirt on. It serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever (except to show that he's a bad-ass, which he basically shows in every episode anyway) and is very clearly nothing more than eye candy for the female (and a small percentage of the) male audience.

 

[Erttheking]

Basically every episode of "Arrow".

I like the show, but it's basically a rule that, in every episode, there must be at least one scene of Stephen Amell working out with no shirt on. It serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever (except to show that he's a bad-ass, which he basically shows in every episode anyway) and is very clearly nothing more than eye candy for the female (and a small percentage of the) male audience.

Yeah, but at least he does a hell of a lot more than just stand around looking pretty.

And the show does balance it out with Sarah showing off her ta-tas a fair bit.

 

[xochiquetzal]

I find (as a woman) that usually when a man is sexualized the audience gets like a shot of the man and his torso then shot of a woman/women looking at him. usually to try and excuse the sexualization. like "don't worry straight man! you are not looking at Thor... Jane is looking at Thor! you are not gay" and even then the camera is static and far away rather than up-close and personal as to not "give the wrong idea" to the male audience.

When it happens to women it's more or less just a shot of her ass without the reverse shot of a man looking because the makers of the product assume that A) the audience is male and therefore stupid, and B) you need a shot of the woman's ass, otherwise you will throw your popcorn to the ground and storm out of the cinema. sad really.

And that's not even touching upon the ever preset 'toxic masculinity' side of objectification and idealization of men in the media and how the constant policing of what a real "Man" is supposed to be like being spoon fed to young boys leads to them getting terrible, destructive, self entitled tendencies that limit who they can be as grown ups and how they can perceive themselves. and then that shit filters in to reality where all the boys who grow up with that crap basically have to go through the plot of fight club metaphorically before they can have real meaningful relationships with women and the rest of the world.

Bottom line is content creators objectifying/idealizing men for other men is a problem. but it's not the same problem as content creators who objectify women for men.

 

[raikagetaicho]

I am confuce this is a gaming site or a gender study site.

 

[Theodora]

Yes, men get objectified just like women. It happens. Anybody that says it doesn't is stupid. The difference is, men don't piss & moan about it because, at the end of the day, we just don't care.

Yeah, those moaning women, it's not like they spent centuries being oppressed by men or anything.

Coming over here, taking our Playboys and our sportsball.

OT: objectification happens, but not even nearly on the same level as women. That doesn't lessen it in any way, but I'm not going to pretend the White male demographic is hard done by at any point in the near future.

How can you say it doesn't "lessen," it but then belittle it by saying its not the "same level as women?" How is it less or not the same level?

Plus we are talking about Males in general. Or are all males white now in the topsy turvy SJ Universe?

 

[nomotog_v1legacy]

I am confuce this is a gaming site or a gender study site.

Well this is the off topic form. That said people have a interest in how different genders are represented in media and this includes games.

I don't think we even have as much of a handle on what male sexiness looks like. You know because so much of our media is done from a prospective that doesn't find men sexy. Your going to get a lot of personal examples rather then one clear dentition.

One little nugget you can use is that if you can't see a characters face they might be objectifide.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

Since romance novels are coming up a lot in this thread and I'm wondering how many people have actually read a romance novel, I think, for the sake of discussion, a distinction needs to be made.

Any romance novel worth it's salt first and foremost is a novel, they put effort into the story and the story just happens to contain a lot of sex scenes. The people, even the guy on the cover are characterized. To put it bluntly, an objectified character makes for bad storytelling.

The issue here is not with the novels themselves, but with the cover art, the advertising component and it's laughable how often sex is used to sell a product (even when the product may not have anything at all to do with sex).

 

[BoogieManFL]

I think it happens almost as often as it does for women, but most people don't really care or think it's that big a deal. So much that most probably don't even notice it happening right in front of them.

And to be honest, I think men can be objectified even if they aren't the focus, when things are done to women in media that is obviously meant to target men. Such as the Game of War commercial that has Kate Upton in it. There is only one reason she is in the video and we all know it. Sure, in a way she is being objectified but it's relative. She's being paid for it and she chose that life for herself where such a thing is in a sense, required.

While playing Mass Effect 2, there were several camera angles that blatantly were focused on Miranda's ass. Yes, nice bum and all, but that was the sole purpose of the angle. Not because it was just the right place to put it for the situation. The fact that it was directed at me as a hetero male gamer slightly annoyed me.


Men's brains react when they see women, I think much more so than when a woman sees a man, and the fact that so much advertisement and media is designed to target that biological fact. I find a bit objectifying.

 

[Veylon]

On the other hand at least these "objectified" men tend to look fit and strong. Frankly I wouldn't mind if objectified women looked powerful and capable. When Thor fights it looks like he's doing damage. Compare that to Black Widow in Avengers, who looks like she's doing a gymnastic dance routine while the enemies around her throw themselves on the ground in second hand embarrassment.

I, too, would be much happier if our society could stop equating "sexy" with "ill-dressed bonerack". I kind of feel embarrassed as a man that the bar has been set so low for us. As though we couldn't find a woman likable unless she's got big tits and is half-naked.

Ahh, Patriarchy - the wonderful thing that's terrible for allgenders!

No kidding. It not only reinforces gender roles for women, but for men as well. Men can't cry, or enjoy certain things, or be open with others, or a whole host of other things. It's certainly not as oppressive towards men as women, but I don't feel like it's doing me any favors in my life.

 

[Leoofmoon]

The Twilight series. Everybody gets objectified in that.

*flips table* you bastard...