Can I shout out a “thank you”? This thread has been mostly fantastic, IMHO, and it’s all due to @Melizmatic.
ETA: It’s been too long without a picture. Please give me something.
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You took my idea , ran with it, and made it your own.
ETA:
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Your wish is my command:
Now that may look like shameless objectification, but it’s (kind of) not. That episode of Firefly begins with Mal stranded out in the desert nude, and the rest of the episode explains how he got there (he tried to work with a known con artist to steal a priceless object from a rich man’s collection. She double-crosses him at the last minute and dumps him in the desert to die. Fortunately his crew comes to the rescue… though not without a smirk or two.)
But this is shameless objectification:
Then again, just about everything Lucifer Morningstar does is shameless, even when he’s quite literally given someone the clothes off his back. His pal Detective Chloe is not impressed.
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Yes, ma’am, that’s what I’m talking about.
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Captain Jack!
I love how ambiguously pansexual that character is…
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This topic makes me uncomfortable, but not for the reasons most would think. I’m going to get somewhat personal here, so be forewarned.
@Jilly’s initial comment talks about how beauty brings about intense reactions. The topic is full of posts that, without question, have brought about reactions that differ quite substantially from a normal thread. I don’t doubt that it’s a combination of subject matter and eye candy, and brilliantly illustrates the issue in question.
I live on the opposite side of the spectrum. I am morbidly obese, and where many have had to endure the inevitable “once over” from those speaking to them, who would look at them as eyecandy, I instead get to watch them look me over, with their eyes usually travelling to my stomach, realizing they’re mentally classifying me as “fat” or “unattractive” or whatever the opposite of eyecandy is.
I see the beautiful examples of the human body in this topic and am uncomfortable because I both see something unattainable (as is true of the majority, which again was the OP’s point), but also the question: “Am I, being the opposite of these people, reviled further if I show any outward sign of my attraction to them? If I’m already triggering what I can only assume are subconcious thoughts of revulsion, how should I be behaving?”
I’m not female, so I certainly can’t relate to that sort of objectification, but I do think I have a better understandingt hen most males of what it feels like to be judged before you’ve even opened your mouth.
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You touch on a very good point. Men still tend to suffer less stigmatism on the lower end of the overweight scale, but the higher anyone climbs and “fat person” is all that many people see, until “person” drops out. As was pointed out in the split thread, turning a person into an object of revulsion is still objectification.
That said, breaking out of that is still easier for men than women, simply due to fact that as a society we still can’t let go of the idea that one of a woman’s main roles is to be an object of desire. Men don’t have that same default expectation put on them, so (as a whole) are more readily forgiven and less harshly punished.
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I don’t know either, and I’m on the other side of fence, that is, a woman who does not wear makeup. (Unless theatrical, costume, or under duress.) Has this decision cost me? Yes! I’ve been harassed both on the job and by random strangers.
I get it, no matter what I do, I am failing someone’s expectation of what a woman should do and be. But at least I get to sleep in a few minutes longer. And I look just as good when I’m camping/hiking.
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Thanks for sharing. I think that many people who do not fit into the categories of beauty that are promoted as “the right ones” would get what you’re saying and empathize with it. Objectification isn’t just about making beautiful people objects, but about making the rest of us feel insecure enough that we go out and buy the things that will supposedly make us “beautiful” by societies standards…Just know you’re beautiful just as you are!
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Also with the hair: the majesty that is Daveed Diggs:
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relieved it’s not a manbun
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Ugh
Man buns are the exact opposite of ‘yum.’
If you ever see me post one, it will be ironically.
ETA:
Indeed; he’s got a tousled mop of luscious, unruly curls to rival my own.
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Related: I knew a guy who was functionally blind. Had some vision, but needed coke bottle glasses just to read 100pt fonts etc.
Then, at about age 30, he had eye surgery that restored his vision to bad-but-reasonably-functional.
Afterwards, that time was known as “the month Dave discovered girls”…
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I don’t mean to infer anything about @MalevolentPixy’s feelings on the subject, I just like the way these two quotes go together 
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I’ve been obsessing over this for the last hour. This just seems so crazy to me.
“Cougar” is a for older women who seek sex with younger men. It’s about judging the desire of the woman.
“MILF” is a term that comes out of the discord between our societal ideas of the sanctity of mothers and the obvious fact how sexually attractive a woman’s body is has nothing to do with whether she has children or not. People are attracted to women who are mothers, but that’s not acceptable, especially when it’s your own mother or the mother of a close friend. So it’s directly acknowledging the tension in that.
Confusing those two terms seems so fucked up to me. It’s almost like most of the people who would actually use those terms (as opposed to mention them or discuss their etymology) are idiots who don’t give two fucks what the words they are using mean and just want to make jokes about having sex with women in their 40s and 50s like that’s somehow an inherently funny subject…
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One of the many many reasons I hate Erica Ehm is her coining of the phrase “yummy mummy”. /gag
But! She had a point!
When she got married and had kids she suddenly was not seen as a sexual being anymore.
Because once you have kids you never have or want sex ever again, apparently.
Jean Kilbourne covers this in her amazing series: Killing Us Softly (a docu series about portrayals of women in advertising) Prior to kids and marriage women are temptresses, sexual objects, bodies used as lures to sell all sorts of products. But after marriage/children the ONLY thing a woman is used for in advertising is selling food. Thats it, thats all. We go from girl, to temptress to hag in a scant 30 years. Its an amazing series, and 100% relevant to this thread! I’m amazing I didn’t think of it before!
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Oooh she did a TedX in 2014!!
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