I wonder if some of the negative effects that people have, because there is a standard that is held up to them that they can't meet, aren't caused by the person's lack of self acceptance?
Again I am not saying objectification is a good thing and I am not offering excuses, but I may be coming at this from a different perspective.
In the early 80's I joined a nudist club. I met my wife there. Her family had been members before I joined. She, her mom and step dad and her three sisters were members. I met my future in-laws in the nude. Now there are very few if any good looking bodies at a nudist club. The majority of members are older adults who's children have moved out of the house. But there are families whose kids were born nudists and who grew up without any sense of body shame or desire to meet someone else's criteria of what they should look like. I think it is because they were never taught to feel that way. They see all kinds of bodies and all ages and know pretty much that people are not perfect by a long shot.
You couldn't make my wife feel bad by objectifying her nor any of her sisters. We have gone to nude beaches where guys make fools of themselves trying to be voyeurs. My wife and her sisters just laugh at them and get dressed if they are persistent.
My point is that we as a society are very immature and the fact that we let ourselves be objectified may just be because we were taught to feel that way. Someone with a healthy body acceptance can't be objectified.
My wife and I have been putting on more weight lately and I asked her , "shouldn't we be working our more and losing weight?" Her reply was, "you do what you need to do for you and I will do what I need to do for me." I respect her for that.
= new reply since forum marked as read