General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: For those women who think objectifying women as sex objects is OK [View all]redqueen
(115,096 posts)I was completely oblivious to the issue of objectification, though. To me, it was just having fun and being sexually playful. I did notice that the intensity of sexualization was enormously off balance, though. But that was the only unfairness I noticed. In my naivete, I thought simply equalizing the number of sexualized images would = fairness for women. It should have been a huge wake up call when I started noticing the different ways images of women and men were treated. Even here, it was obvious. When I used to participate in the Lounge, I noticed that threads showing sexualized images of women were not trashed or criticized, but in my effort to 'balance the scales', my threads showing sexualized images of men were routinely trashed by men posting images of unattractive men. One was even locked, despite the thread showing sexualized images of women which inspired my thread being left open. That really should have been the wake up call. It was another step but it didn't cause me to make the switch from liberal feminism to radical feminism.
The thing is, I completely missed all the cultural messages involved. It wasn't until I saw first hand the different ways men treated women depending on whether they participated or not that it clicked. That was what finally made it all clear. Then I started reading about these concepts: objectification, the Madonna/Whore complex, the male gaze, etc.
After I started learning about these things, it was like a veil had been lifted. Suddenly so many things that seemed so inexplicable made perfect sense. Not that any of it was right, but I at least understood why the unfairness and inequality was there.
Sorry, started babbling there - but that's why I thought it was OK. I simply did not recognize the cultural context, the significance of the inequality, or the idea of objectification itself.