All day long I have been fuming about this and I am glad that I waited to post it. I COULD BURN

[Locut0s]

235. This is much less about a hyper sexualized culture and more about a hyper violent culture...

I've been trying to stay out of these threads as much as possible but I have a few things to say.

First let me say my condolences to you, your family and that poor woman. What that animal did, and yes he's nothing more than an animal, can't be excused in any way shape or form. And by disagreeing below with some of what you wrote, this is in no way, shape, or form an attempt to excuse any form of rape or violence against women.

I fully agree that violence against women is a huge problem in our modern society.

I also agree that sexual objectification IS a problem. However I think here things are much more complex than many might think. A large part of the sexual revolution of the 1960s was the sexual empowerment of women. No longer were women denied their own sexuality, to be seen as mere play things for men's sexual gratification. Before the 60s the concept that a woman could be proud of her sexuality, could openly and freely express her sexuality, would have been blasphemous in most circles. Many women felt just so empowered though during and after the sexual revolution and the majority of feminists of the time saw this, I believe rightly, as a huge step forward. But what exactly are we talking about here? We are talking about the freedom of women to feel empowered and SHAMELESS about having, wanting, and indeed flaunting sex. A right that men have enjoyed throughout history. This was a levelling of the playing field. When men show off sexually what do they do? They flaunt those aspects of themselves that are seen biologically and sociologically as sexy. The same is true of women. Women felt empowered to look sexy, most importantly ON THEIR OWN TERMS! They dressed sexy, not cause they wanted to please their man's sex drive but because they wanted to please and show off their own. Something they had never had the right to before. And here I think is a something very critical, a sexually empowered woman flaunting her sexuality, as is her right, is going to look similar to a purely male driven hyper sexualized world where a women's sexuality is subservient to a mans. The key difference is empowerment, equality, and shamelessness.

A good argument can be made that we haven't gone far enough yet in this direction. That a lot, even most, of the sexual imagery in modern media is driven by male gratification alone. I believe this is true. But I also believe that a more healthy, equal sexual landscape would not necessarily mean the removal of sexually graphic imagery and graphic displays of sexuality. Again I go back to the critical point being what is driving the display. I'm not sure you can say de facto that what Milie Cyrus did was a pathetic attempt to kowtow to the male viewpoint, because I believe she could indeed have felt that she was doing something sexually empowering of herself. Now if you want to make the argument that it was too crass / low brow, that it speaks poorly of her intelligence etc, that is a separate discussion. Madonna is another woman in the media who tends to like to flaunt her sexuality but she is more often seen as a strong, empowering image.

When it comes to rape, most people seem to agree, most places I've read, that rape is more about violent control than about sex. It's true that sex is used as a tool to control, but it's the control itself that most of these deranged men seek and that they find most gratifying. I find it interesting that it's in the cultures where women are denied their sexuality the MOST is where treatment of women is at its worst. The image of rape is far more about this:



Than it is about this:



And while I lack the statistics I'm quite sure there is a closer correlation between violent and controlling cultures and the poor treatment of women than overly sexualized cultures. I see a closer connection between the "rape culture" problem we have and the "culture of violence" we have that has steadily become nothing but acceptable background noise.

I am NOT going to make the argument that rape for men is as serious a problem as it is for women. That's a silly argument to make. But I AM going to make the argument that rape of children by pedophiles is a very serious problem. And here too it's all about power and control, sex, if it can even be called that at this point, is more the tool by which said control can be exercised.