Science Shows Men Objectify Women
...thats not funny either...
This study is the least awesome study I’ve ever read. I’ve shouted and complained before about men objectifying women’s bodies. Just the other day I was walking from getting lunch to go back to work and say a man, literally lean 1/2 body out his car and yell at a woman crossing the street “Hey baby! That ass would look so good with me in it.” and today just outside of Starbucks there were 4 guys commenting on every single girls body as they walked in to get their coffee.
Maybe I’m just not watching for it, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a women lean outside of her window to catcall at a woman crossing the street. Nor have I seen a group of girls standing outside of a store purposely watching men walk into it and commenting on their “fine asses” or “beautiful men titties”. Men objectify women.
And now, we can prove it scientifically. When a man is show a picture of a women who is less than dressed the region of their brain that is associated with tool use….lights up. They literally associate that woman’s body with the same purpose as a hammer or a drill. (hardy har) …And they would use the same words to describe using the woman…like pushing, grasping and handling.
But wait! That’s not even my favorite part…
And in a “shocking” finding, Fiske noted, some of the men studied showed no activity in the part of the brain that usually responds when a person ponders another’s intentions.
This means that these men see women “as sexually inviting, but they are not thinking about their minds,” Fiske said. “The lack of activation in this social cognition area is really odd, because it hardly ever happens.”
What?! Wait! Waaait! aaaaand:
And the men who scored higher as “hostile sexists”—those who view women as controlling and invaders of male space—didn’t show brain activity that indicates they saw the women in bikinis as humans with thoughts and intentions.
Scientists have seen this absence of activation only once before, in a study where people were shown off-putting photographs of homeless people and drug addicts.
…Those men associated women on the same level as homeless people and drug addicts. How charming. Now of course one of the first questions that comes to my mind after being grossed out is “well, what about women?” and …”well, is it the society? or is it evolutionary?”
In regards to the women, if they were shown men in sexualized outfits (or lack there of) they probably won’t have the same reation, only because women are turned on and look for mates who have power and wealth. So, if the men were run with affluent symbols attached to them, that could result in similar studies, perhaps.
But Fiske doesn’t think such an experiment would work the same way, because women usually react to men they desire by “interpreting their minds, thinking about what they’re interested in, and then trying to please them,” she said.
So are these traits simply evolutionary? And if they are - should they be allowed? I really don’t think its healthy for a man to see a woman’s body, disassociated it as a person and reassociate it as a tool… and then to top it all off they completely disregard what the woman is interested in or would agree to doing. …scary hairy, IMO.
These traits are probably at least based on some evolutionary / genetic predisposition, even if culture (memetic predispositions) could have a greater effect than we imagine.
Should they be “allowed”? Um, well, of course, but that’s not exactly what you meant by “allowed”.
I do think we’ve evolved rationality beyond nature, providing us with power with which comes responsibility… ah, the joys of having eaten from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. 
So the question to me is just, what values are worth pursuing, how do you promote those values, and at what point are we going too far in fighting our nature for some… uh… “higher ideal”. (Hello religion! ?)
’tis a tricky balance.
I’ll quit babbling for now.
It’s weird that the study doesn’t show faces… sometimes studies set themselves up in ways that encourage dehumanization - the Stanford Prison Experiment is a more famous example.
Well, the skeptic in me has to ask some basic questions first. How reliable are the interpretations drawn from their data?
There are neat studies which electically stimuate the left temporal parietal junction to induce an Out of Body experience. The conclusion that this region is responsible for creating the feeling that we are “in our bodies”. This seems more straightforward and easier to quantify than the conclusion that they draw here.
So… I don’t know.
Must we generalize so? Never once did I view a woman in this objectifying manner. I recently read a study that suggests that atheists are more anxious than people who believe in god, but that certainly gives no one the right to generally state “Atheists are more stressed out than Christians.” Some men objectify women. Probably many do. Some Christians have a much brighter outlook on life because of their belief in a higher power. Some government employees drink coffee. Some teenagers listen to Britney Spears. But stating this kind of stereotype as fact?
Katie is correct to a certain extent that yes, men do objectify women. It is also true that women speak roughly 30,000 words a day and men about 10,000. I am not comparing the two examples directly but merely saying that men and women have different physiology, and this causes us to have different impulses. In an ideal world men would always treat women with respect, and women would never rip other people’s lives apart with gossip. Men have parts of their nature they need to fight to be civilized, and women have different parts of their nature they need to fight to be civilized. The question to answer is what document, rule set, or instruction manual will enable both men and women to fight their individual natures? Let’s answer that question individually and use that value system to teach our children.
Lol I googled this topic out of curiosity. If it were biological and uncontrolable then all men do it. You shoudln’t generalize it just makes excuses for them. Not all men had that brain activity, my bet is the only ones who did have been influenced to see women that way through the way we manipulate women as sex objects in society (Women treat other women that way too). And alot of women are attracted to hott men eg movie stars, look at how much attention the twilight guy gets compared to say an ugly movie star. Maybe u dnt like eye candy guy’s fair enuf, but alot of females do and alot of reseach has proven that particulairy in females with high self esteem eg what most men have. Guys just get more physically aroused that’s all, so they tend to often like porn more, but you can get excited and feel attracted to someone without geting arounsed in your genetials, so the fact women dont doesn’t make us non visual, just respond to differnet visual stimulisis of men, eg hott romantic hero not hot porn star, again not all women think like this tho, and Im not talking about emotion either, that rush hott guy’s givev u, I’m quite shocked u as a female say u dnt get this but I understand people are different. I have read this study myself the point of is was to not make out like men are like that just some and I know u say that but you kind of seem to present it and the title like all men do.
Un;ess you gay off course, then you wouldn’t know how women feel about men, sorry just tht of that. It is a good aticle but I dont think its fair your title. It kind of misleads and aot of men excuse their behaviour with things like this.
When morons “do science.” Wow.
So the headless bikini women (is this a neutral presentation?) are objects, because the ‘tool use’ area of the brain lights up. What insightful interpretation of data! How can we be sure that *is* the ‘tool use’ area of the brain? It could very well be the ’sex’ area of the brain, could it not? Which came first, sex or tool use?
Here’s an equally intelligent and defensible spin on the same data: men are sexually attracted to a pair of pliers. Shocking. Disturbing.
Wow! Talking about hating on men!
Some men objectify women, and they should be chastised for doing so.
But not all men do. Many men are married and are faithful to their wives. They work hard to provide for their families. They spend a lot of quality time with their children.
Judging an entire gender - based on the actions of certain members in that geneder - is stupid, sexist, and ignorant.