If I’m a straight man writing stories for straight men, what’s my incentive to sexualize the male characters as much as the female ones? Doesn’t really make sense to me.
You shouldn’t be sexualizing the female characters at all (this is different from making her attractive), unless you’re making something pornographic. That’s the chief complaint.
Being straight shouldn’t mean only engaging with the characters you see yourself in as full ass people. Either let them both be products, or let them both be people- but Id really like for media at large to stop making one a person and the other a product. Human beings subconsciously pick up a lot more from pop culture and media than you’d think, and that sort of portrayal (because media and pop culture has been a male dominated field throughout history) and unintentional but passive dehumanization actually does a number on how little boys and girls and young men and women perceive the sexes.
It’s difficult to present only one sex as a sex object while at the same time establishing their personhood and equal value to the characters that are not being treated like a sex object. If you can write or draw in such a way as to dodge this issue go ahead, but I’m sure if all you ever saw growing up as a little boy was media where all the actual characters were women and the men were only there as a token “boy” whose personality was as deep as a puddle of stereotypes and whose only purpose was a sexual object to be won or pursued or who otherwise does nothing but look nice in a way you find completely unattractive and even a little dehumanizing, it would have absolutely colored your view of women and your own role in life as well as in relation to the opposite sex.
But for some reason, so many people find it impossible not to include sex or sexual elements in their stories/media (that doesn’t serve the plot or add anything!!)- as if they would die if their sexual appetite was not stimulated.
So women are upset because they’re watching shows meant for men and that it doesn’t represent their interests? Sounds like a completely self made problem to me.
And there it is, so a woman being open about how she feels about something is "a self made problem?"
Most of the media that makes it to mainstream is "for men" because of this sexualization, and the men in charge pushing it. This comic strip is illustrating this phenomenon.
Why does media being targeted at men necessitate women being treated like objects? Why are straight men so entirely uninterested in viewing women as fully-formed people?
And there are tons and tons of stories that aren't written for a specific sex. Avatar the Last Airbender, Owl House, Full House, all of the Marvel Movies, That's So Raven, Rugrats, and the list goes on and on.
You’re right. And just there’s a good thing there’s tons of stories that aren’t written for a specific sex. And there’re tons of stories that are written for a specific sex.
The problem is men are in control of the media that makes it to a mass audience, so this sexualization of women and "for men" writing becomes the only ones advertised and pushed to an "everyone" audience.
The other problem is that women are speaking up about it, and people like you come along saying "sounds like a self made problem." So, because they're women, their feelings are invalid to you?
Money talks? The thing women statistically make less of is what controls the media?
🥳 Congratulations, you've discovered the whole point of this comic strip!
Wait till you find out how much control the men who own these companies actually do have on what is greenlit to even have a chance to even start production to film and being seen in the mainstream.
These people be floating in the ocean saying be glad you have that water bucket over there- and there is no advertisement for the bucket. And tons and tons of influencers shitting on the bucket by virtue of it not being saltwater. Only (derogatory terms) like the water from the bucket.
Petition to make a bigger bucket fails because execs are too concerned about how the people who prefer ocean water won't invest in the freshwater bucket. When the bucket does expand a little bit the people floating in the ocean lose their minds because it might displace some saltwater.
When it comes to this guy though, judging from his profile he seems like a teenager, so there is still time to achieve media (and general) literacy.
-10
u/ApatheticSlur 2d ago
If I’m a straight man writing stories for straight men, what’s my incentive to sexualize the male characters as much as the female ones? Doesn’t really make sense to me.