Female objectification

[Crezth]

Of course not. Obama beat McCain because everyone was afraid of Miss Teen South Carolina being one heart attack away from the nuclear codes.

That's your professional opinion, is it?

 

[Neonanocyborgasm]

Ahhh yes, we shouldn't prejudge people based on outward appearances and biased suspicions. Human nature, unfortunately, does exactly that.

 

[Hygro]

Well, Czerth, it certainly played a role.

 

[GinandTonic]

Clearly women are objectified. Clearly they are judged more on their appearance than men. Men are judged on things that are irrelevant to their field too but it tends to be less harmful. When that cricketer who was done for drink driving last year after driving to the supermarket in the middle of the night to buy a screwdriver to free his cat trapped under the floorboards, many a "politically correct" comedian commented along the lines that as a man his not owning a screwdriver was more shameful than driving when microscopically over the limit. In the end his camp had to tweet-leak that it was one of those wird new star screws.

Not that any of that equates to what is inflicted on women, substantially by other women, but it goes to show that preconceptions around the importance of being able to fill traditional gender roles is rife right across society.

 

[Crezth]

Well, Czerth, it certainly played a role.

But Hydro, to what extent was it a deciding factor in the election?

 

[G-Max]

But Hydro, to what extent was it a deciding factor in the election?

Dude, did you actually watch that Katie Couric interview?

 

[Hygro]

But Hydro, to what extent was it a deciding factor in the election?

Dude, did you actually watch that Katie Couric interview?

When I find myself not only agreeing with G-Max (which happens) but agreeing with him and the way he's posting, he's almost certainly correct.

I can't give you any statistical Palin Regression models but I can tell you that narratively it's very clear she put a lot of people in the Obama camp. I know a lot of Republicans who voted for Obama but while most of them were going to anyway (as he's one of the best rhetoricians, speech deliverers, not that liberal, and had the biggest potential to bridge partisanship of anyone--something I've given up on) the Palin thing solidified it for them.

Also, who's Hydro?

 

[Disgustipated]

oh btw Palin didn't actually say she could see Russia from her doorstep, that was a Saturday Night Live spoof that somehow got attributed to something Palin actually said.

 

[Traitorfish]

Ahhh yes, we shouldn't prejudge people based on outward appearances and biased suspicions. Human nature, unfortunately, does exactly that.

You really shouldn't have a Nietzsche avatar if you're going to resort to "human nature" to explain things.

 

[Crezth]

I can't give you any statistical Palin Regression models but I can tell you that narratively it's very clear she put a lot of people in the Obama camp. I know a lot of Republicans who voted for Obama but while most of them were going to anyway (as he's one of the best rhetoricians, speech deliverers, not that liberal, and had the biggest potential to bridge partisanship of anyone--something I've given up on) the Palin thing solidified it for them.

Also, who's Hydro?

I'm not sure Obama would have necessarily lost if there was a different vice presidential candidate, which you essentially confirm in your admittedly barebones analysis.

Also, sorry, I guess I didn't read your name properly before addressing you. Imagine that.

 

[Neonanocyborgasm]

You really shouldn't have a Nietzsche avatar if you're going to resort to "human nature" to explain things.

In any case, my point is that people "objectify" all the time. Making immediate judgements based on outward appearances happens all the time and under many contexts. All of it is a judgement with little and false evidence. If you don't appear to an interview dressed in a manner that an employer expects, he objectifies that you will not be able to do your job. He has no idea if you have any of the skill or determination necessary to do so. His bias is based on outward appearance. If you show up at a demonstration brandishing an assault rifle, people will objectify you as violent, and will run in fear from you. Perhaps you simply carry guns all the time, and had no intention of using that rifle, but people there will not wait to find out. I face the same objectification all the time at work.

If I show up wearing a Hawaiian shirt and a pair of shorts, people will believe that I don't take my job seriously, even if I perform flawlessly. So I never dress that way to work. Instead, I wear a dress shirt, pants, and a jacket. Even if I accomplish nothing of importance at work, people will still believe that I am great at my job. (I even wear a local football team's pin on my jacket, even though I could care less about football.) That's how objectification works, both in positive bias and negative bias.

The injustice of the world is such that people tend to jump to conclusions from outward appearances. There's no hope of removing that injustice. Best you can do is avoid it by appearing to be what is expected in a given scenario. If women don't want to be objectified as sex objects, avoid dressing and behaving in a manner that suggests it. Conversely, women can deliberately dress as sex objects when they want that kind of attention. Of course, some people are just too stupid or ignorant and will make whatever conclusions they want, but this works most of the time.

 

[Borachio]

If I show up wearing a Hawaiian shirt and a pair of shorts, people will believe that I don't take my job seriously, even if I perform flawlessly. So I never dress that way to work. Instead, I wear a dress shirt, pants, and a jacket. Even if I accomplish nothing of importance at work, people will still believe that I am great at my job. (I even wear a local football team's pin on my jacket, even though I could care less about football.) That's how objectification works, both in positive bias and negative bias.

The injustice of the world is such that people tend to jump to conclusions from outward appearances. There's no hope

There's a reason for all this prejudice, though.

Evolutionarily speaking, people use prejudice and preconception in order to reduce the processing required in order to act quickly in a given situation. This gives us a series of simple look up tables for correlating, say, appearance and performance. Which mostly work just fine. See a sign saying "butcher" and your prejudices tell you "here,there be meat". It's difficult to imagine a functioning social world without prejudice.

 

[Borachio]

5 char

 

[IdiotsOpposite]

My name is "Mr Slut".

Your name is not "Hey, Baby!" http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1976223

That thread, I'd say, is fairly typical of that sort of debate: full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Also, if "hey baby" offends that woman, she REALLY needs to avoid certain American bars.

 

[G-Max]

Question: why would some humans rather let their biological cravings go unsated than fulfill them with people to whom they have less than a certain level of emotional attachment or physical attraction?

 

[Traitorfish]

Because people aren't machines.

 

[Borachio]

5 char

 

[Traitorfish]

Just about everything.

 

[Borachio]

5 char

 

[Traitorfish]

Which is my unreconstructed humanist's way of saying "yes".