Men Are Objectified, Too!

 This is one of the arguments defending sexist depictions which, while not completely wrong, also aren’t completely right. In visual media all over the board, there are objectifying ways men are portrayed, as there are objectifying ways women are portrayed. The way they are objectified, though, is not the same.

 

When women are objectified for the male gaze, which is the standard gaze in visual media, they are sexually objectified. They are shown in a way which emphasizes the body parts men usually enjoy looking at: breasts, butt, thighs, groin. They are made sexually desirable, someone the viewer can imagine to have sex with.

When men are objectified for the same male gaze, they are shown as hyper-masculine. They are shown in a way which plays into the images of what makes a ‘real man’: overly muscled, square face, harsh features, tall, powerful. They are made into wish fulfilment, someone the viewer wants to be like.

 

This becomes very obvious when you look at role-playing games for computers and consoles.

Most male options for the looks are supposed to make the character more imposing: ridiculously large shoulder pads, heavy armour, everything to make the body appear even more massive than it already is. They are supposed to command respect or even fear.

Female options, on the other hand, do not make a female character more imposing. Instead of covering the body in a layer of thick armour and making it look more massive to command respect or fear, female characters are clad in clothing which would not protect them at all in reality - even though armour is meant to protect people. Female clothing options usually bare as much skin as is possible.

While male characters might have some trouble fighting in their armour, too, due to being swathed from head to toe in heavy metals and leather, female characters wouldn’t last a minute on the battlefield in their metal bikinis (which are often even worse than the infamous metal bikini Princess Leia wears in “Return of the Jedi”). The men are at least adequately protected from projectiles or blades, the women are not.

 

Yet, over-the-top anime characters who fight bare-chested are often pulled out to argue that men are objectified as well - so it’s fine, both sides do it. What is not included in this argument, however, is that those men are not objectified by women or to please women. Those men serve as self-inserts for the male viewers while the women serve as objects of lust and sexual desires for the same male viewers. It doesn’t take a lot of consideration to see that this is not equal - both is done for the pleasure of the same audience.

First of all, objectification is not fine, no matter which side does it. Objectifying someone should never be considered ‘fine’ at all. Characters aren’t only there to look at, they’re also there to tell a story and that should be their first job, not the second one after ‘looking sexy.’

There are some anime which are actually infamous for their many ‘panty shots’ (“Agent Aika” comes to mind for me - I do enjoy the stories, but they’re full of those shots). This expression describes scenes shown at an angle which makes it possible to see underneath the usually short skirts of the female characters and ogle their panties or scenes deliberately and without good reason putting female characters in poses where their panties are visible. It’s part of what is usually described as ‘fan service’ - giving male fans an additional incentive to watch the stories.

 

Now, while a woman might be visually designed to be a sexual object, that doesn’t necessarily mean she can’t be an interesting character or kick ass. As mentioned above, I love “Agent Aika” despite the many panty shots and the anime-typical well-shaped characters. Yet, it definitely keeps female audiences from identifying with her as much as male audiences identify with the hyper-masculine male object of desire. It’s one thing to identify with the alpha uber-male who gets the woman in the end and will vanquish his foes. It’s another thing to identify with the sexually attractive and in the end sexually available woman who might be as powerful as she wants but will in the end serve the male character’s story and not her own (this is actually where “Agent Aika” differs a lot - Aika needs no man to save her and she’s the one who vanquishes her own foes). While this can be fun once or twice or a few more times, if it’s your only choice, it does get boring.

 

That doesn’t mean I’m all against showing women who are sexually attractive and like having sex - men have for too long assumed that women have no sexual desires of their own -, but I find it annoying when that’s all the representation I can find. Yet, a lot of the time the women are even more sexually available than sexually active (meaning the sex is not instigated by them, but by a male character), which also doesn’t send the right message.

By now, we do have a character stereotype which helps a little with bringing down the uber-male - the himbo in all his good-looking, but non-toxic splendour -, but it’s still rare to see a more masculine and less sexually attractive woman being portrayed positively. There are examples, such as Ripley from “Aliens” or Furiosa from “Mad Max - Fury Road” and more who are not defined by their attractiveness, but they’re still niche characters. Even the Bride from “Kill Bill” is first of all attractive in her tight-fitting yellow clothing and deadly only secondly, although she certainly does have a lot of agency, which is to be praised.

It would be nice to see more of a balance for male and female characters alike. Not every male character has to be extremely masculine in his looks and not every female character has to be sexually attractive. It would in general be nice to see more ‘average’ characters - and not just ‘Hollywood average’ characters, either. ‘Hollywood average’ is still very attractive by common people’s standards.

TV series, when not made in the States today, often have a less limited range of characters. It would be nice if that were true for characters in other visual media, too. It would be nice to have more people from the streets in stories, people you could meet outside - and not just if your ‘outside’ happens to be Hollywood.

 

It would also be fun to have at least one game where the male characters are portrayed the way female characters normally are and vice versa - a game where I can have the male hero with a more pleasing athletic build instead of that of a bodybuilder and a female hero who is muscular and has a range of scars all over her body, showing how much of a veteran fighter she is.

Or just, you know, a female character who gets some regular armour and a male one who gets the same type of armour, safe for a few details which differ in their physiques. No metal bikini and no ridiculous shoulder pads.

 

Remember, even though men can be objectified as well, this is usually not done for the female audience. Objectified characters in general are mostly objectified to please the male audience. It would be nice to have characters in visual media who are not objectified and better represent the whole of mankind - the attractive and the not-so attractive, the old and the young, the male and female.