"the reduction of personhood to simple physical objectification"
(snip)
…the conversation is pointedly nasty, gendered, and misogynistic and embodies what all girls and women in our culture, to a greater or lesser degree, endure every day, in ways both outrageous and subtle. The assault on our body image, the hypersexualization of girls and women and subsequent degradation of our sexuality as we walk through the decades, and the general incessant objectification is what this conversation (is about)'
~ Ashley Judd
Sea posted this before, and maybe someone else too, but I wanted to highlight these ideas in particular, once more.
And of course Ashley was roundly attacked after she fought back against this typical obsession with women's looks... hardly surprising to anyone here I'm sure.
There are some aspects of feminism that speaking out about will guarantee you get nasty responses from both men and women on the left and right. The idea of women's looks being public property is just one example.
It's sad that a simple concept like objectification, something NOW has been battling for decades, is still so poorly understood.
= new reply since forum marked as read
and then grow up with it. We know how it makes us feel and yet, we're told objectification doesn't exist and is bs science, even from some of our supposed 'liberal', feminist supporting males. It's so disheartening and defeating. You can't change a problem if you fail to see there's a problem. The lip service some give just makes it worse.
Forget those who are more concerned with attacking feminists than recognizing the damage done by these crowd-pleasing things, and how they negatively affect women. The crowd loves it, so it will be very slow to change. There are more and more people waking up to this every day.
I think it'd be one thing if the hurt was intended and not from 'our' side. I think it pains me more when some think they're somehow elevating women and then pat themselves on the back at the same time they're denying us our feelings and experiences. They play it off as if nothing we say matters and we don't know what we're talking about... and somehow often gain majority support. Sometimes I feel like I need a therapist. 
that all these harmful things are really fine and dandy. But there have been lots of times when the majority of people thought that all kinds of stupid and harmful things were just fine... so you just have to ignore the illogical arguments that just because a lot of people like something, that that makes it ok.
But things are changing. Look at how well Ashley stood up for herself and spoke out. And Jennifer Siebel put that awesome documentary Miss Representation out there, and there's Object! UK, and About Face, and Geena Davis started an institute to study gender in media.
We were put off track for a few decades, but we are slowly building momentum again. 
