Primero: Viva Espana!! So happy that Spain won the World Cup! Now, on to more important matters. If you know me, you know that I’m not big on sports. Sure, I watch Yankees games with my Dad when I’m home, know basic rules to most sports and have played (bench warmer) on a few high school teams but you won’t find me seeking sports out in my day-to-day life. That’s why I find it incredibly funny that the first time I actually cared to know what was going in the sports world was when I spent this past June in Spain studying abroad for part of the summer. Generally, if I have any interest at all in a team or in a game it’s mostly because I want to know more about the players...you know, as people. I’ve generated several theories about these guys, especially one a few years ago about how Melky Cabrera and Robinson Canoe were secret gay lovers. And about how Jason Giambi was manic-depressive. And about why black basketball players only marry white women. But these are stories for another time. My main point is that the only way I’ve been able to get into sports in the past is by envisioning the life stories of those who played them. Not so in this case: I was only in it for pure “objectification” purposes.
What better way to celebrate the diversity of people on this planet then by seeking out the hottest soccer players from 32 teams around the globe? I mean there were dark ones, thin ones, ripped ones, short hair, braided hair, brown eyes, green eyes-- there was really just a lot of beauty to take in at once. Yes, sometimes I did want to know where the players were from and how they got to this point but, more importantly, I just wanted them to take their shirts off every now and again.
Let me take a step back, though. The reason I put the term “objectification” in quotes is because I hesitate to use that word as freely as other people tend to sometimes. Objectification is most definitely a real phenomenon but it doesn’t mean that something bad or dirty has happened every time someone appreciates another person’s body. For example, as I was sitting in a room with a group of Spanish men and American women watching the match between Spain and Honduras a few weeks ago,I looked over to the girls and said “I love objectifying men" with glee as if this was some type of revenge for all the women in the world who’ve been gawked and stared at throughout their lives. At the time I felt I was objectifying them by the very act of watching them run around and insisting in my own head that they were nothing more Adonises. Indeed,in my mind, I had done what men do to women all the time: I had turned them into desirable objects.
But question: isn’t our status as sexual beings a large part of what makes us human (and not inanimate)? We got here because our parents had sex. In fact, besides test tube babies, everyone on the planet who’s ever lived came as a result of sex. It’s not something to shy away from or think of as some nasty part of us. I don’t think that the mere act of appreciating the physical qualities of a man or woman constitutes as "objectification." It just seems like a term that is thrown around to loosely and that it waters down the potency of what it actually means to shape someone into a thing or a tool rather than a being.
To make this distinction a little bit clearer, let me use some real world examples. I spent a month in Spain and had more compliments thrown my way simply walking down the street than I ever have in my 20 years living in the US. Whether it was the the novelty of it or my general excitement to be living in a new place, I never felt as if I’d been turned into an object just because people were reacting to my presence. I was just being me, walking down the street and if someone cared to holler, that didn’t diminish my human value in anyway shape or form.
On the other hand, there are definite times when women (and sometimes men) are looked at purely as objects, and at these moments, objectification becomes a real issue. Video vixens, for example, act as if the only thing they live for is sex and pleasing men. No surprise here: that's their job. I'm not trying to pass a moral judgment on their professions but I am willing to say that they allow themselves to be portrayed as accessories for men's fantasies. None of these rappers seem to value what pleases these women or how they can work to mutually turn each other on. The women, like props, are in the background of the scenes to make the male leads seem extra capable and attractive. Whether the man looks like Rick Ross or Nelly, all women around them are (unrealistically) excited to be in the shot, just to be near a rap star. Whether the sexy scenario makes sense or not, there they are. The video girls in skimpy clothes are just dying to turn around and back that thang up for whoever can get them on TV.
In thinking about this term objectification, there are definitely many loopholes and subtleties that are difficult to discern but if I can try to illuminate it, I think this is it: when I watch teams of beautiful men doing what it is they love the most (i.e. playing soccer), it’s not designed so that I look upon them with lust. If it happens, that’s simply a byproduct. If instead they went out into the field and started flexing particular muscles to an all female and homosexual male crowd, then that’d be a different story. They would then be purposefully acting in a way that demonstrated that they knew how they were supposed to perform in order to excite other people. Likewise, if a man notices and comments on a woman's beauty with a "Que Bonita"without an expectation of her doing anything in return for the compliment,this is not objectification. If, on the other hand, he says, he whistles and says "Hey yo, Ma, can I talk to you for a second?" with an expectation that she walk over to him, that's, again, a different story.
There's room for us as sexual beings to notice and appreciate the beauty of others without looking at them purely as our playthings. Attraction is fun but using someone isn't. These are difficult topics to wrestle with and I wish I could be more clear. Why am I always looking for a clear cut, black and white explanation, though? What's up with that?
