2014 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue Revealed.

[Warren DeMontague]

674. I'm not defensive, I simply don't agree.

And you're mistaken if you think I simply haven't been exposed enough to the these ideas, to simply be waiting to go "aha". I have, and again, I don't buy into it.

It seems to me that "objectification" is shorthand for people thinking other people are finding still other people attractive in ways the first group has arbitrarily deemed "problematic". Look up the definition for so-called "objectification theory"- there's no there, there. You'll see a lot of verbiage about "seeing people as tools" or "seeing people as body parts"... except, people aren't seeing these women on the beach as body parts, and they certainly aren't seeing them as screwdrivers or blenders. They're seeing them as attractive, sexy women in skimpy bikinis, and that drives some other folks bonkers.

What it boils down to, AFAIC, is "my lust is okay, but yours- you're doing it wrong".

I find a lot of things 'crass'. So, I ignore them, or don't participate. I find finger-wagging and excessive, ridiculous moralizing about consensual adult sexual activity "crass", and at least as subjectively offensive as anyone here finds the 3 women in bikinis. Am I entitled to expect everyone stop? They won't, whatever I say, I guarantee it.

If your female friends were in a room with you and you were ogling this cover and making comments out loud and they said it bothered them, would you not stop? Even if you aren't able to see the societal problem with it?

I might want to examine why they said it bothered them. Let me flip that around- if 2 gay men are holding hands, and someone else sees them and says "that bothers me", are the gay men in the wrong? Is the bothered party automatically in the right? Are you not able to see the societal problem with that?

Lastly, my "last paragraph" doesn't make any sense if you read it without the prior one. Let me reiterate, if you're trying to draw some parallel between finding people sexually attractive, even again on the basis of physical or superficial characteristics, and hate based upon race or sexual orientation, I think you're wrong. I know it's an axiomatic truth accepted in some places, but I still think it is flat-out false and prima facie absurd. Finding someone sexually attractive has jack diddly squat to do with hating them. Period.