Quote:
Originally Posted by Well Hungarian
Good post.
At the end of the day, the average man knows the chances of him finding a partner that looks like Angelina Jolie...or Miss Fortune are slim. Like, just a shade above zero.
As such, the average man also knows he has just about the same chance at having the body of a male model. Women too, realize these things when they are presented with oversexualized examples.
The difference is how males and females cope with this realization. The average male will just shrug his shoulders and eat another donut. The average female will feel bad about herself. This is where the disconnect is between males and females on this subject. It is hard for men to understand a woman's point of view, as it is for a woman to understand a man's point of view.
The same people that oversexualize also provide plenty of stereotypes of feminists, adding further confusion to the mix. Each side of this subject needs to be a little more forgiving and open minded.
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i'd also just like to add something:
yes, the media puts pressure on men as well. however, how does that pressure affect men in real life, really? you say most men would shrug it off, which is true. they can shrug it off because society has conditioned them, and told them from the start, that they have lots of good things going for them! they are strong, the providers; they have so many good male role models celebrated throughout history. they can be anything.
women, however, are not that lucky. there are a lot of campaigns trying to change that these days, but we're surrounded by images telling us that our worth lies in two things: our appearance, and our fertility. what if we can't have children? what if we're not that attractive? science is a man's field. math is a man's field. men can be fat, that's fine; they can still hold a job. if we're a little overweight, we're nothing. there are advertisements everywhere targeting women, telling us that if we're a little hairy, or a little overweight, we have no worth, and have to fix it
immediately. that if we're attractive, we don't need anything else in life. it's ok to do nothing. all you need is a man.
historically we've been taught that it's the woman's job to be subservient, and more recently, to be sexy. we're to be sexy, but not embrace our sexuality, or else we're ****s (or just asking to get raped... but that is for another time). and if we deny any of that, try to push past it, we're 'butch', we're 'ugly', we'll 'never find a man', like these are all the worst things a woman can be.
again, this is starting to change, and i'm really happy about it! but like you said, there is a difference between the pressure the media puts on men and the pressure the media puts on women.
i'm not trying to paint women as this horrible oppressed class. just that there is a lot more to this than first meets the eye.
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