Society & Politics

Male Objectification: A Hypocrisy

I’m not saying every woman objectifies males with malicious intentions, neither am I trying to shame or vilify women who like to admire a man’s physical appearance. Lastly, this is not meant to offend anyone.

The female body is something that we are so use to seeing in the media to appeal to straight men, bisexual men lesbians and bisexual women. You walk through a mall and it’s guaranteed that you’ll stumble upon a large advertisement poster showing a partially clothed woman posing in provocative manner. Ironically some of those posters are not meant to cater towards men but women because it gives the subliminal message “you can look like her”.

Now let’s talk about something different shall we? Women aren’t the only ones you see in ads, for some reason there’s a growing number of ads depicting partially clothed men. Most of these ads are actually supposed to cater towards men believe it or not, since they give the message “you can look like him”. But what about the ads that are meant to cater towards women? Well, there’s two possible explanations for female objectification of males.

Male Objectification: A Hypocrisy

Explanation 1: Women are more visual on average than originally thought:

The official explanation given is that women are much more “visual” on average when it comes to attraction than originally thought but are just too shy to show it because of “societal norms”. This explanation has so many holes in it.

1.) If women are more visual than originally thought then why don’t more women openly admit they are visual?

Surely with all the new rights and privileges women have, there would be a lot of women openly admitting they find the male body to be sexually arousing but they are not because that explanation isn’t entirely correct considering that many women still openly deny being turned on by the sight of a attractive male.

Male Objectification: A Hypocrisy

2.) Why start the objectification late?

Women have had more rights and privileges for a few decades, yet the objectification of men barely gained momentum in the 2010s coincidentally around the same decade when 4th wave feminism rose to prominence.

Male Objectification: A Hypocrisy

Explanation 2: it’s to empower women at the expense of males:

This is the more probable explanation. It seems that the reason why the objectification of males is more popular now, is because it’s just to “empower” women not so much because women find the male body to be a turn on.

1.) A double standard.

The biggest issue isn’t the objectification of males, most males don’t have any problem with being objectified. The problem is the hypocrisy, why do people get offended when a woman is objectified but label male objectification as “admiration of the male body”? Why is this considered unacceptable?

Swimsuit competition
Swimsuit competition

But this is considered completely acceptable

2.) Barking up the wrong tree:

It could also be that they are just trying to get “revenge” on men by reversing the objectification. Which is wrong because they are targeting an entire sex. Two wrongs do not make a right.

Male Objectification: A Hypocrisy

3.) Attack on the heterosexual male:

It’s a way of trying to suppress and or limit a straight male’s sexuality. Notice how there’s no outrage when women admire or objectify the body of other women but get hostile when a man admire’s a woman’s body.

Male Objectification: A Hypocrisy

4.) Attempting to establish dominance over men:

Lastly, it seems that the feminists are trying to establish dominance over males via objectification.

Male Objectification: A Hypocrisy

So, it’s highly unlikely that many women who objectify men do so simply because they find the male body to be attractive. They may be also doing it for “Empowerment” and revenge considering how many women that objectify men are vocal about about their misandry.

Suistudio reverse objectification
Suistudio reverse objectification

As a straight/heterosexual man, I personally don’t care if you truly want to admire a man’s body because I know there are a few exceptional women out there who are very visual when it comes to attraction. What does bother me though is the hypocrisy and use of the moral high ground fallacy to shun males who admire the female body while giving the green light for women to objectify men.

Stigmatizing male admiration of the female body while making it acceptable to objectify or admire the male body in retaliation isn’t going to solve any issues, it’s only going to cause men to resent women. Quit blaming males and the imaginary “patriarchy”, there are plenty women who also objectify the female body.

The one thing male or female objectification have in common is that that they are occasionally used for marketing purposes because sex sells. After all, ads are meant to get the attention of potential customers.

But still, don’t be hypocritical. Don’t get offended when a man stares at a billboard showing a partially clothed woman when there are women who do the same thing in regards to billboards showing a partially clothed man. Don’t get mad at guys doing this

Male Objectification: A Hypocrisy

When you are doing this

Male Objectification: A Hypocrisy

So, there’s nothing wrong with admiring the opposite sex. Just don’t be hypocritical about it. Let men admire women’s bodies, they are not hurting anyone.

Male Objectification: A Hypocrisy
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