A previous post got me thinking about this.
So many college men have posters of half naked women hanging on their walls. And when asked why they have them I find the general excuse to be "I like the magazine" (thats usually titled at the top), or "Because thats a really nice looking car in the picture". But we all know that a poster of that same magazine or a poster featuring that same car can be found without a half naked girl posing along with it. And its usually not even that the girl is posing 'along side' the car, the car is posing 'along side' her. The girl is generally the main focus and all attention is put on her, not the car.
Now, the thing that gets me most about these posters isnt the fact that the women are the main focus. It's how I see guys who have these posters being extremely critical of girls who look like ladies in these posters. If they see a girl wearing a ton of makeup and half clothed, they are so quick to judge her as a 'slut' or 'whore' for making themselves look that way. Yet it is ok for them to have pictures of women looking exactly like this hanging on their walls?! It's extremely hypocritical! In my opinion girls dress this way to mimic how the women in these posters look because they think thats what guys like. Personally, I don't understand how some guys can have these posters hanging on their walls, yet be so critical of women who dress like these women and wear heavy makeup like them.
Hmmm that is really interesting and I agree - it's very hypocritical as well. Personally, I've never really talked to a guy who has those types of posters and as to why they have said posters hanging on their walls, so what you have to say is a new piece of information for me. Yet I think you're exactly right - there definitely seems to be some sort of double standard in place - men condemn women for looking like "whores" or "sluts" yet (unconsciously or not) encourage it by buying these posters; and on the flip side, women behave and dress this way because they think it's what men want but in reality, men will condemn them for it. I think this definitely plays into the male gaze. After all, would women dress like this if they didn't get rewarded in some way for it by men?
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