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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

In being sick of the way women are endlessly objectfied and treated like pieces of meat?

184 replies

Janos · 02/07/2007 20:42

Rant alert!

I'm just so f'ing sick of it (pardon my French).

It's everywhere, on television, when you walk into the newsagents, advertising billboards, shops - AAARGHH!!

I don't remember it being like this when I was younger. Perhaps I was just more innocent then or maybe its got worse. Depressing to think what view of women this encourages, and that my DS will grow up seeing this stuff as a matter of course.

sigh

Am I just a raddled old prude or what?

OP posts:
Dabbles · 02/07/2007 21:15

you know what, I was at mil todays browsing therough Lookagain catalogue, and ws SHOCKED by the clothes aimed at 9-15 yr olds, they basically were dress like complete sluts... fair enough 15/16 u cant really control them at that age, but 9 fgs??

I worry for my dd's!!

(also, i think the secondary school that banned girls from wearing skirts ws pioneering!)

am also sick of going into shops and magazines and shitty tabloid papers wher ekids can see having upskirt shots, ffs!

Bainmarie · 02/07/2007 21:17

I really really hate it, makes me and

Dabbles · 02/07/2007 21:18

Really elf1981?

but swearing bothers you?

"Music
TV
R&B, though am having to limit my music listening to my MP3 player so my daughter doesn't hear the swear words!
"

but you'd be alright with your daughter dressing like a whore?

sweetcherrypie · 02/07/2007 21:19

To be honest i think women have never been so powerful as they are today. Yes of course women arn't as powerful as men but it was much worse years ago, women have more say now then ever before.

PinkyRed · 02/07/2007 21:19

YANBU. I do think it's getting worse than it was when I was younger (I'm 33 btw) and it scares me that younger women don't even seem to see any alternative for themselves.

Original poster
Janos · 02/07/2007 21:20

LOL..I'm so worked up about this I can't format properly...

It's so heartening to see that loads of you feel the same way. Especially people who are way more articulate than me.

Seeing all these images, everywhere must surely have a negative effect on people - men and women. They sure as hell piss me off.

Just thinking out loud here.

OP posts:
ELF1981 · 02/07/2007 21:22

LOL you searched my previous posts?!! What thread was that even on?!

No, I dont let anybody swear in front of my dd. And I dont dress like a whore, thank you very much. I dont bring trashy magazines into my home, if I have to read them I read them at work. We dont buy a paper and I certainly would never have the page sun norks staring at my dd while we're having breakfast.

So I would hope that dd learns from my influence.

In general though, I dont feel things have gotten any different from when I was younger. It's just different women getting their norks out. And you cant all tell me that you haven't slathered at the recent adverts of blokes baring all but their cocks in adverts.

Dabbles · 02/07/2007 21:23

NO , i checked your profile to see if u had a dd or a ds

DoubleBluff · 02/07/2007 21:23

I got really annoyed at a music video depicting scantliy clad women crawling on their hands and knees takig letters in their mouth to their male boss.
I was fuming!
And the majorette one just soft porn!
And we are supposed to laugh along because hey it is all 'ironic'?

PinkyRed · 02/07/2007 21:23

But sweetcherrypie what do you mean by 'more powerful'? I agree we've come a long way from the Married Women's Property Act, but your post sounds like you think the job is done.

Rape conviction rates are going down, women's wages still lag behind men's, our MPs are still predominantly male, there are still few women in the boardrooms of top companies. On a global level, women are still more likely to be illiterate than men, and a 12 year girl dies during female genital mutilation.

I know the objectification of women is only one aspect of oppression, but it's part of a bigger picture that doesn't seem to be getting better the way we all thought it would ten or fifteen years ago.

Dabbles · 02/07/2007 21:24

so its okay for society, but not fo ryou and your dd?

lol

sigh, of course not! maybe if they had got their cocks out i might have... anyways am farrrr too busy slagging off the women to notice the men!!

sweetcherrypie · 02/07/2007 21:26

No i wouldn't say womens job is done, i mean women have more say now then they have ever done before in the history of well women.

Original poster
Janos · 02/07/2007 21:26

PinkyRed, I'm the same age as you - I;m sure it is getting worse.

I just hate, really hate, the way women are portrayed as pieces of meat. It's just....aaargh!

Dunno about you all but I am a woman and my sexuality is only a small part of who I am. It doesn't define me.

I feel that all this stuff sends out the message that women are only worthwhile if they're young and attractive. Don't we have other achievements to be proud of apart from how pert our breasts are, or how shiny our hair is?

OP posts:
madamez · 02/07/2007 21:27

What bothers me is that almost anything any woman does is seem as a compulsory either/or choice for EVERY woman, with no possibility of just being yourself and doing your own thing. Ie, if you don't have children, you're a selfish bitch, if you do have children, you're betraying feminism; if you like sex and like to wear revealing clothes you're an ignorant slapper contributing to other women's unplanned pregnancies, b ut if you cover up you're frigid and humourless...

Men's appearance and behaviour is not discussed in this way nearly as much, because men are percieved as human beings, where as women are percieved as not quite fully human, not able to make free choices or act in their own interests. That's far more of a problem than short skirts.

NikkiBFG · 02/07/2007 21:28

Totally agree with the OP!! No wonder eating disorders are on the increase!

Dabbles · 02/07/2007 21:30

ALSO HAS anyoen seen the satellite channels, the ones near the end where they have 'live chat'? which is basically women rubbing themselves and gettign their tits out, while men phone in and wank off ot them live on air (audio is muted) seriously. ffs its outrageous....

I mean live web cam sex site are bad enough.., but on the telly? society gone too far??

sweetcherrypie · 02/07/2007 21:31

I don't see it like that. I think women are standing up for themselves and expressing their sexual freedom (of which women never had years ago) and should celebrate their sexuality, not hide it away.

aimeesmummy · 02/07/2007 21:32

One of my friends used to be Advertising Executive for one of the well-known mens mags and I once asked her why most magazines had pictures of good-looking semi-naked women on the front and she said "Because men desire and women aspire" - the assumption, possibly based on research (?), is that blokes all want to shag those women and women all want to be those women!
(She also told me that Posh insists on the absolute final say on all approved pictures of her in any magazine and the amount of retouching and airbrushing she insists on before she gives final approval is unbelievable, and that her skin is horrendous - made me feel slightly better!)

ELF1981 · 02/07/2007 21:32

Lots of things seem okay for society, it doesn't mean I have to let dd think that is the correct way.

I think its sad that we whitewash everybody and say that because there are naked women, or women are seen as objects that is what our children will aspire to be.

Yes I find it sad that there are kids out there who want to be the next Jordan or the next Jade, and go on Big Brother etc, but I dont think that is a much of a % people think or just because women are viewed as objects.

I personally dont feel there is more than what there was when I was growing up, but maybe that is because my parents was cautious about what we saw / read. So I am perfectly aware that women are seen as objects, but at the same time, totally aware that women do not have to go down that route, we have brains Goddammit and we're going to use them!

And, to be fair, like I said before, pick up a copy of heat and you'll find a couple of pages dedicated to totty. The new D&G man anybody?

ViciousSquirrelSpotter · 02/07/2007 21:34

Not often I wholeheartedly agree with Madamez but in this case I do.

PinkyRed · 02/07/2007 21:34

Exactly Dabbles - this normalisation of porn just drives me insane. It's like porn has been separated from sexual life and become part of the everyday, which has to have an impact on the way women are viewed in day to day life surely. Like Janos says, our sexuality is only part of who were are, but as porn is presented as just another lifestyle option, like watching tv or shopping, it becomes all that women are.

rantinghousewife · 02/07/2007 21:34

Elf19.. you seem to have missed the point that society doesn't objectify men the same way as it does women.

Original poster
Janos · 02/07/2007 21:35

"Men's appearance and behaviour is not discussed in this way nearly as much, because men are percieved as human beings, where as women are percieved as not quite fully human, not able to make free choices or act in their own interests. That's far more of a problem than short skirts"

Yes, I agree with this entirely.

OP posts:
sweetcherrypie · 02/07/2007 21:36

A woman can do exactly the same thing as a man (sex) yet unlike the man, she is critasized for it and labelled for it.

PinkyRed · 02/07/2007 21:38

I don't agree with the argument that it's ok to have naked women because there are naked men. The power balance is different between men and women, because of history, patriarchy and because of the difference in physical strength. The meaning of a naked man is different to that of a naked woman because the position of a man in society is different from that of a woman.

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