Male Sexual Objectification — At Last!

By Akela Talamasca on March 4th, 2010

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So, apparently some people think that the women of The View are guilty of male sexual objectification. By this they mean that this collection of obnoxious, shrieking, has-been harpies is treating their male guests in ways that would be considered inappropriate if the gender roles were reversed. For example: When interviewing Zac Efron about his recent photo shoot, Barbara Walters quipped, “If you went door to door showing everyone your chest, how did you miss my house?” The thinking is this: if an older man, let’s say David Letterman, asked this of Megan Fox, the media would hound him into his grave.

And yes, that’s one way to look at it. Another way is that it’s the male gender’s comeuppance. Let’s face it, men have been behaving badly for centuries. Women deserve to have a show where they can watch women of dubious prominence kind of “stick it to the man” as it were. I’d be more for this reversal if it were a different group of ladies doing the sticking, frankly, but I’m still all for it. And when was the last time you heard a guy complain that he was being sized up?

I won’t speak for women, but I know that men are no more immune to compliments than you’d expect them to be. I certainly don’t perceive any mean-spirited nature to what the hosts of The View say to their male guests; they save that stuff for each other. Honestly, this complaint seems picked right out of the ’80s, when men were expected to embrace their — ironically — “feminine side.” In the end, a statement must be accepted in the spirit in which it was given. Even if you don’t like the source, it’s meant to be a positive thing. Now, man up, Zac, and let Cougar Walters salivate over you!