Dave's Wibble, Rants and Stuff

I mentioned I'd discuss this in my last post, so here goes. tyrell and [Unknown site tag] kicked the whole shebang off by posting a video of men in giant robots fighting over a woman simpering in the corner. (The video has been removed before I could see it which is a shame, 'cos steampunk giant robots just sounds cool). The objectification of women in this clip however is not cool.

Given when they're trying to set this then I suppose I'd expect her to sit quietly in the corner and let them get on with it, but because its not Victorian melodrama there's no reason why she shouldn't tell them both where to get off. Without seeing the clip I don't know if the giant robots would distract me enough to not mind the sexism.

Similarly in Transformers there are two women with useful skills, one of whom barely uses them- instead of which she gets someone else to work for her. And the other one, as innerbrat notes is sexualised in virtually every shot. Now I can understand that when the young hero gets her to look at his engine- he's 17 and actually talking to the girl he's fancied for god knows how long. After that one scene we get the picture. He likes her, he's in awe of her, and yes, she is very attractive, but is this really neccessary? Then again Michael Bay isn't a subtle director. Maybe he didn't think the audience would notice, so he had to keep hammering the messsage home. Whizz! Boom! Bang! Pretty Girl! Crash! Thud! Smash!

Objectification of women is a problem. Maybe not for the middle-class university-educated people I surround myself with, but outside of this world? Yes it is. The Sun still publishes Page 3. Benny Hill is ridiculously popular in Europe- and if they brought it back on British TV it'd probably get massive ratings.

Boiling it down to biology, men (subconsiously at least) want to breed with as many partners as possible, producing as many children as they can. With this kind of inbuilt preference there's going to be objectification of women and women's bodies. As soon as these attitudes colour your interactions with people then there's a potential problem. I'd like to think that in an enlightened western society that men were able to override these feelings and ignore them, except between consenting adults.

However in most areas of the world this is very much not the case. I can't count how many adverts I saw on the tube today with attractive young women trying to persuade me to buy something. And the sad thing is advertisers won't stop using this technique, because it works. Beacuse my fellow men continue to objectify women, and will buy things because it might attract a pretty girl to them. (Like women are really turned on by your mortgage). It just pisses me off something chronic. Nearly as much as using couples in these adverts (but that's just 'cos I'm single and bitter about it.)

Christ that's a lot of unfocussed waffle.