Objectification, of any type, is a complicated issue.
From the “Supernatural” post, linked above, this comment struck me the most:
“It is worth remembering that the true ‘Freaks’ of our race are not in sideshows or fetish porn but are stars in Hollywood. Beauty like that [male or female] brings an intense reaction from an audience: We yearn towards it, we resent it, we lust after it, we have all of these complicated feelings about it.”
And before that endured this (seriously, my internal organs hurt looking at her waist):
I’m not interested in a debate about “hey, we showed you ours for years, so now you show us yours” – that frankly smacks of pre-school shenanigans behind the swing set. That’s not fruitful.
Seriously, is objectification, of any type, acceptable?
Also, we cannot talk about gendered objectification without talking about Bryan Fullers “Hannibal”.
How he treated the titular character is only how every female character has been treated since time immemorial but with that show and with that director and that character it served to make it “creepy” and “offputting” in ways no other show runner has managed. (Also made the show SUPER popular with the ladies and gay men)
I watch TCM all the time, and on Sunday mornings they have a program called “Noir Alley”. One of the promos for the show talks about how sex is shown implicitly in those films because of the old Production Code. One of them - for which I couldn’t find a clip - shows Richard Conte without a shirt, and a woman standing behind him, playing tic-tac-toe on his chest.
Clark Gable going without an undershirt in “It Happened One Night” - it’s not known if undershirt sales actually went down because of that, but just the fact that people think it did says something.
THIS…zomg…this was on the basement wall of the house I live in now…my dad’s mistress’s daughter lived in the finished basement, and when we visited them (we didn’t know about the affair at the time, or I didn’t anyhow, I was 10)…and she laughed at me when I gaped it at. Except I think he had the puppies covering his crotch. I’m not sure. I wasn’t turned on by it, because even then I wasn’t a fan, lol.
One of the things I really love about Netflix originals is that they’re not beholden to the same standards as regular broadcast television. Which means they can be really equal about what they show with no silly double standard.
Like my favorite show Sense8 which cannot resist a nude Max Riemelt.
Its funny cuz as much love as I have for that show, and those lovely hairless boys (LOL) they are so not my type.
I just like them… aesthetically? Its funny, I have a couple Dyke friends, and they LOVE this show, (also Tom Hardy).
And it just pure aesthetics. Like, no sexual attraction at all, just literal “eye candy”. I mean, how can you not?