OldBlue1999;842683265 said:
There is some serious irony and a major disconnect in the few of you who see professional modeling photos as offensive objectification of women on a website that has as its raison d'tre the objectification of young adults. These hypothetical female victims you dream of coming to the defense of are, for the most part, figments of your paternalistic imaginations. Get over yourselves. Women are fully capable of making their own decisions; they don't need your help or protection unless they ASK YOU FOR IT. Do you worry about the psyche's of all the young boys who visit this site to read about Goff and Brown and Rabb but will never even make their HS team because they're not physically able to compete? Because I never see you complain about it the way you do with girls. Let. It. Go. You're embarrassing yourselves.
I don't think I've ever read a more pedantic, self serving, sanctimonious defense of men being jerks in my life. Yes men looking at cheesecake photos is an act of feminism. Let's all stand up for women's rights to be ogled. I hear that is women's number one concern. Fight against the opressors who would ask for respect for a woman's intelligence and personality when obviously women just want us to admire their best traits. Their asses and their breasts.
I really don't care about you looking at pictures of women who have specifically chosen to pose for said pictures and no one is trying to protect THEM. However, 1. There is a time and a place for it. Like on a hottie thread. And there is a degree. This is a recruiting thread. A little boys will be boys is one thing, but the obsessive bullshyte is annoying as hell.
2. Are the models asking for help? No. And I'm not offering. They want to pose, that is there business. You want to look? That is your business. Wouldn't have it any other way. What is annoying is the constant drumbeat that guys only care about snagging some hot babe and that a Cal degree means hot girls from dumbass schools will be diving at your feet. It is disrespectful to both men and women and particularly harmful to girls and young women. I find the juxtaposition of these posts and talking about a teenage daughter jarring.
While there certainly are women who have been ogled on the Internet, and asked for the behavior to stop (see Alison Stokke) paternalistic defenses of models is not what this is about. It is about using these pictures as a jumping off point for a message that is completely disrespectful to all women. And maybe you haven't heard it, but many women are asking for our help.
I'm just presenting the opposite point of view. That many of us guys don't think the number 1 criteria in a girlfriend or wife is being a curvy yoga female. Because that is what the (ad nauseum) message is here. Not that curvy yoga females are best to look at on the Internet. The message is come to Cal and find a girl like this. And the message is to women that this is what we value them for. Which I find particularly ironic considering that Cal is about the best place to find a super intelligent woman.
Sorry, but someone who constantly bangs this message is massively shallow. And the assumption that everyone is as shallow as they are is tiresome adolescent male bullshyte.
I add two points.
1. The objectification of women displayed on the thread is not analogous at all to the reason this board exists. The football and basketball players we discuss have devoted a large portion of their lives to developing their skills in their sports. Discussing that is not objectifying them. Most people would like to be analyzed based on the things that are most important to them and the things they have chosen to develop in themselves. It is a large part of the substance of who they are. Whether the NCAA treats them fairly or "objectifies them" is a separate issue.
2. Yeah, with the we are so offensively paternalistic argument. Tell you what. You want to say with a straight face that if you showed all of Shocky's posts and all of my posts to a large group of women that more would be offended by mine than his, be my guest. No one is going to buy that. I'm laughing at that. Let's just say I don't think you'd make the argument to a room full of women.