From: sstoney (sstoney@pdq.net)
Date: 08/24/02-07:59:14 AM Z
Judy, if I understand you correctly, you are saying that there is somehow a
causal relationship between the existence of erotic images of women in our
society, and the difficulty women have reaching high levels of power (for
example, making partner in a law firm when your boobs are sagging). I
understand this argument: the essence of it is that when women are seen
everywhere in the media as sex objects, it makes it difficult to see them any
other way.
But this argument has some weaknesses. First, if you are saying that it is
mainly young women who are seen as sex objects, but not middle aged or older
women, then it should be no problem for middle aged or older women to be taken
seriously at work. The problem would exist mainly for younger women. So, the
argument fails logically there.
Also, if the presence of erotically charged imagery were the cause of
oppression
of women--a principle or main or determining cause--it is hard to explain the
fact that the regimes in the world that are the most oppressive to women--for
example the late, unlamented Taliban regime--also ban erotic imagery of all
kinds. In fact they also ban even non-erotic images of women, or indeed even
the sight of a woman’s face in real life.
Again, if there were a causal relationship between erotic imagery of persons
and
their oppression in that society, it would be impossible to account for the
fact
that the ancient Greeks idealized and eroticized the male body, almost to the
exclusion of the nude female body, yet men in ancient Greece could hardly be
said to have been powerless!
The logical fallacy at work in the theory that erotic portrayals of women in
the media cause the oppression of women is the fallacy of thinking that
because
two things exist in the same society at the same time, that one must be
causing
the other.
While it is offensive when men sexualize women in the workplace to the
exclusion
of seeing them as competent workers or to the point that it compromises their
dignity, it does not follow that it is offensive for men and women to enjoy
erotic portrayals of the human body in art or the media. In fact, I heard
about
a study that showed that if men look at women’s breasts for fifteen minutes a
day, it prolongs their life as much as if they jogged for thirty minutes a
day!
It lowers their blood pressure and in general makes them healthier. So, there
is are compelling public health reasons for looking at Charis sprawled in the
sand.
--shannon
"The charm of simple good manners is almo
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