Valenti's ideas didn't come out of nowhere. Feminist philosophers like Martha Nussbaum and legal theorists like Catherine MackInnon have also talked about this. They are not merely targeting some objectionable crimes--they propose that our society general objectifies women and that women have it worse than men do by far. The Good Men Project and other pro-feminist websites like NOMAS insist that men should be very concerned about how objectification encourages harm towards women.
However is this really the problem people think it is? What exactly is the problem? What IS objectification anyway? Do nearly all men in Western society feel entitled to women's bodies as people from Jessica Valenti to Buzzfeed Articles claiming that men actually conspire in general to take advantage of women out of enttlement.
Men watch women in a way we’ve long since normalized. It’s normal for men to watch you when you enter a bar, to watch what you’re drinking, what you’re doing, in an attempt to get closer to you. It’s normal for them to offer you a drink, and when you say no, to press a little further with are you sure, come on, have one drink with me. (When a guy asks to buy you a drink, suggest he buy you a snack instead and see how that goes over.) Men watch women at the gym, at work, on the subway: In any space occupied by men and women, the latter are being watched. We’re so used to it that we hardly notice.
I think people use this word without really thinking about it and mean a number of things. But you cannot base common practices on assumptions alone--you have to be clear about it, especially if you're going to try to base laws and ecuation on it.
What I would propose is that this is not the problem people think it is. I think that problems that do exist are: human trafficking, rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, bullying--but these are actions of people behaving in a criminal manner and I don't think they are encouraged by our society in general. I think that we just need to learn how to better deal with the actions of the criminals and anticipate them. I don't think society's values in general are out of step with this. We just need to be more aware of the crimes and social misconduct and deal with them more effectively. So...thoughts?
