rebecca_l

Ditto Paul.

Paul, I promise you'll make the same wages as the ladies (or at least 77% of what they get paid)! But if all you get paid in is saucy compliments, I can't help ya.

"...because they look better...and that signals a positive and prosperous future..."

The better women look, the happier and more successful they'll be in life. Thank god that's not true for men and they get to rely on their brains and ambition, or Bill Gates sure would have been in one hell of a pickle.

"...but I'm pretty sure homo sapiens would be extinct if we men went around horny for older women..."

Aren't barren and unnattractive women useless? God, I just wish they would stop existing, all those shrews do is hamper the menfolk's noble work of propagating our species!

"Maybe willful participation in these works gives them a sense of worth?"

Is there any more rewarding feeling for a woman than being sexually objectified in this day and age? And is there any better way to deal with possible trauma then taking off all your clothes and being made in a faceless, selfless object with which to procreate? Not that I can think of!

You're part of the problem and your opinions are offensive. Good day.

Paul, I'm happy to agree to disagree and I also agree that this photo is very suitable for discussion! It does bring up a lot of interesting topics (I guess I'll give it points there) that, if you can't tell, I do like debating!

I hope you'll indulge one last question: You don't mind being photographed nude but would you feel as comfortable posing like the naked woman in this photo, to be posted for public consumption on this site? If not, I hope you'll consider why this particular presentation of you and your body is unacceptable in your mind but acceptable in this young girl's mind. If you would...then do your thing. :)

I don't think she's not consenting. That has nothing to do with whether or not the treatment of the subject is degrading. You can consent to be degraded. And no one is suggesting women need to or should turn to burqas (I don't know why that's even been brought up). In fact, I really don't see much of a difference between taking degrading photos of naked women for the benefit of men's sexual "fantasies" and popping a burqa on them. Just two sides of the same male hegemony coin, really.

Neither of which I'm interested in seeing depicted in a photo with no clear meaning.

"...If she had been black, *overweight, up on a table..."
I can't edit it anymore!

I just bring up her physical appearance because it's often considered the beauty norm in the context of the Western and arguably world media. That fact that it is again represented here as such reinforces my opinion that this image is for the sexual gratification of the heterosexual male and little else. If her appearance had deviated from this norm I don't think it would be any less offensive, no. If she had been black, up on a table and in this position I believe the demeaning nature of this pose wouldn't have been as easily ignored because she would no longer be considered a sexual object. But then, if she looked like Precious I very much doubt this picture would have been taken at all.

As far as men being the dominant sex...I don't even know where to begin.

The nude feminine form in a receptive posture can never be degrading.

It can never be degrading to you because you're a man. But for anyone who recognizes in this image the continued dominance of the heterosexual male's gaze preferred, i.e. "nude feminine form in a receptive posture," representation of the (thin, white, blonde) female, this pose only strengthens the belief that a woman's value lies in her sexuality and that is DEGRADING.

I'm cynical about most nudes but when they go the extra mile of this kind of pose up on a stand like she's about to be frisked by a judge at a dog show, I can't even pretend that I'm taking the artist's "vision" seriously. The image as a whole is too weak for me, anyway. I think marrying the ambiguous nature of his message/image with the strong response her pose elicits is a mistake; I have no idea what the artist wants me to see and the image offends me.