What is your take on the hoopla surrounding "Magic Mike?" I feel those men are objectified, especially Joe Manganiello. Anything I see about him on popular entertainment websites is almost always about his physique and how dreamy/(pardon my language) fuckable he is. To be fair, he does pose for the photos and he's well past teen-age, but it really kind of irritates me as I know there's more to him than his amazing physique.
Asked by
furiousk
Oh, that’s a good question. It often comes up with porn, too, or at least the argument is made that men are as objectified in porn as women are (and I side-eye that but that’s a different conversation).
I haven’t really been paying attention to Magic Mike but I just went and watched the trailer and that… doesn’t appear to have a plot at all, okay Hollywood.
The trouble with male sexuality as described by the media, and I’m not seeing any difference here, is that it’s always coupled with power, even when it’s supposedly for the benefit of the people watching who are sexually attracted to men. Female sexuality as described by the media tends to be powerless and passive, watched instead of doing the watching. Even when men are described as sexually desirable, it’s seen as a kind of powerplay - “look how hot he is and all the chicks he could fuck if he wanted to!” kind of thing. For these men in Magic Mike (they’re strippers, right?) there’s still that aspect of power: “look at all the women they have power over! Look at all their groupies! They could fuck any of them!” It’s a mater of actively fucking instead of passively (and with an inherent implication of lack of consent) being fucked.
And therein lies the issue: it’s not really objectification, then, but it’s also not pleasant. So what is it?
I’m not sure I know, but I’m open to discussion (tomorrow, because by God I gotta go to bed).
