General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Posting T&A threads helps to create a hostile environment for women here. [View all]Flatulo
(5,005 posts)I believe the OP even had 'SI swimsuit' or such in the title. A picture posted on a cubicle wall (let's say the outside) is hard to avoid. You might have business reasons to travel down that hallway.
But one actually has to go out of their way to expose oneself to offensive material on a discussion board. It's not leaping out at you. You have to seek it out. It's work.
My objections to the objections are based on my sense that there's a creeping Puritanism surfacing here, especially in the last year or so, and the epicenter of this is the HoF forum. I've read quite a few threads on that forum, and see the members regularly fanning out right on cue to police any material that might be deemed objectionable, then complaining that this material, which they sought out, is objectionable.
I have no particular axe to grind against any HoF people, but I get the sense that they're collectively against anything related to their understanding of male sexual proclivities, which generally are reduced to 'men spend all their time whacking off to women, and we don't like this. Men are going to have to alter their behavior.' They seem to believe that every drop of spilt seed is an affront to women everywhere.
I don't know how to fix their issues with men objectifying women, but banning pictures depicting women in swimsuits won't do it. Victorian men whacked off at the sight of an ankle. Muslim men whack off at the glimpse of wrist peeking out from under a burka. Men whack off. I don't anymore because my sex parts stopped working years ago due to medication, but I sure exercised mine from the time I realized that my hand could reach it. I used to whack off at the sight of Bianca Lentini's knees back in the ninth grade.
So it seems to me that these objections are designed to accomplish one thing and one thing only - force men to stop whacking off. Men have been objectifying women for thousands of years for the purpose of whacking off. It's old brain stuff, but I don't believe efforts to rewire it will be successful.