Sexual objectification isn’t wrong, it’s natural

Last year, The Sun was officially taken off the SU shelves because of its infamous Page 3. The Sun was banned for a number of reasons, but the main reason was said to be “sexual objectification”.

I’m a woman and I’m not Lena Dunham so, yes, on nights out with friends I have had the uncalled for, undesired “compliments” from drunken men from across the bar. Most of the time it’s irritating. But let’s not kid ourselves and say we never find it flattering. What we don’t like is the groping, touching and harassment that follows, obviously.

What we also don’t like is the feeling that as women we are there to “please men”. We have our own lives to get on with so who are they to declare their attraction to us so publicly when we’re just getting on with our business? When you get cat-called, ignore it and keep walking. Let them appreciate you from afar.

But when we’re 70, old and wilting we’ll look back on the day we had legs nice enough for men to notice from a distance. So let’s ignore it but secretly enjoy it shall we?

Appreciation of Alex Pettyfer

There’s nothing wrong with objectification. The models on Page 3 have chosen it and get paid for it. Sure, you don’t choose to be cat-called, but cat-calling is a problem of etiquette and not sexism. Those men aren’t shouting “women are inferior”, they are shouting “I am attracted to you”. Those men are rude, they are not sexist.

And are we going to pretend we never objectify men? Who hasn’t seen Magic Mike?

We objectify men all the time whether it’s Justin Bieber, David Beckham, George Clooney, name who you want. Let’s not pretend we know the deep personalities of these people. We like these men for their bodies and their appearances.

Women do get objectified more on average, don’t they? Yes. There are reasons for this but none of them include this entrenched mass sexism in our society that certain groups would like us to believe.

Men have higher sex drives, on average.

The desire for sex is driven by objectification or the “appreciation of a body”, so straight men do objectify women more. You can say it’s right or wrong, it won’t make a difference. Objectification is natural, because it’s necessary for sex. Women also objectify men, but not as much because on average we’re not as horny.

Attractive women sell stuff better than attractive men.

Women like looking at women and men like looking at women. This is great for advertising. That’s why there are more female models. In short, we all objectify each other and it’s in our nature to do so. There’s a time and a place, so open objectification like cat-calling is wrong simply because it’s rude, not sexist.

Nobody has ever died from being cat-called. Go home, hug a pillow and watch Channing Tatum get naked. You’ll recover very quickly.