30 Days of De-Objectification: Lust

30 Days of De-Objectification:

Lust

This post will deviate somewhat from the subject matter in the previous posts, but it’s still relevant to the 30 Days of De-Objectification theme.

We live in a society where lust is seen as the most important emotion and hotness is the most important attribute.

This statement is not mine. I believe these are the words of Meghan Murphy, creator of the Feminist Current website. In any case, I agree with this assessment.

This is by no means a new phenomenon.

Watching films over the years, it became obligatory to show (usually female) nudity and to have one or more obligatory staged sex scenes. The relatively tame “jiggle” shows of the 1970s gave way to more and more explicit sex scenes on television, usually focusing on female bodies.

Music videos, which existed in one form or another long before MTV was born, initially tended to showcase performances by bands. Sometimes videos, such as those created by The Troggs in the 1960s, were a little more involved, having a story along with the music.

Simply splendid.

Initially, I was very excited about music videos. But then they started being filled with the obligatory “video vixens” and I was bemused, discouraged, and not surprised. There is literally no video I can think of that wouldn’t have been better without the “video vixens.”

Sadly, this means I have a love-hate relationship with many videos by my favorite bands. Sometimes I love the song but hate the video. Sometimes I am divided on the video itself: there are parts of it that I like and others that I can’t stand.

 Here's an Iron Maiden video that I like.

I straight up despised the video for Iron Maiden’s “From Here to Eternity” until Beavis and Butthead helped me see the lighter side of it. As Butthead explains, if you told Maiden to get rid of the flame machines, they’d say “no way, Bunghole!” Thus, although the video still makes me roll my eyes, every time I see it, I think of Beavis and Butthead lampooning it, so it makes me laugh too.

Sadly, the video for “You Shook Me All Night Long” is half pure genius and half pure shite. It would be pure genius if the video vixens in the spin class were removed and the cheeky little black and white bits starring the band members remained. There are probably outtakes from the shoot that could be added back in. Or you could replace the video vixen spin class with the band playing.

Malcolm Young once said he didn’t want to have the band do videos which looked like they were made in a cabaret. I wish they’d stuck to their guns on that. I do understand that a lot of the older bands felt railroaded into having videos of something other than the band playing made. Anyway, the video for “Hail Caesar” is 100% genius (the synchronized swim team appearing in the video aren’t “video vixens”) so there’s that.

In any case, the horror of “Blurred Lines” tops them all in the field of odiousness. Since I would sooner saw my ears off with a rusty spoon than post that, and I don't want to saw my ears off with a rusty spoon, we just won't post that one.

A society which focuses on lust and hotness to the exclusion of all other qualities is a failed society.

This sort of attitude will be forced into extinction when people start to examine their motives and refuse to objectify others.

Wake up.

~The Cheese Hath Grated It~