Objectifying and Sexualizing Men - My Day in an Alternative Universe

I began my day like every other, after my morning yoga and a cup of tea, I turned on the news to catch up with important events.

The world news was filled with repeated images of a nearly forty year old man, with obvious over sized pec implants in his overly tanned, unclothed, and oddly out of proportion chest, posing over and over and over in various stages of undress for nineteen of the twenty-two minutes of the half hour of morning news. News reporters attempting to find a story in the death of this middle aged, emotionally unhealthy but salacious and tawdry man.

After getting ready for the day, I drove to work, noticing the billboards that dotted the sky… one of a twenty year old, unclothed, young man, a house plant covering private areas, lounging on a red velvet couch doing his best to look as sexy and attractive as possible to entice buyers to purchase furniture.

Another, with a distinguished fifty-ish year old woman, in a peach business suit, surrounded by seven young men with open mouths and longing eyes, full of lust, hoping to get people to associate the lustful young men with the attire of the older woman.

I stopped briefly at the corner grocer to pick up a couple of items. Nine of thirteen magazine covers filling the racks near the check-out line were of scantily clad, sexy young men attempting to entice women with their sultry appearance. Titles of these magazines included: “Sex Secrets your Woman Wants you to Know,” “How to Please your Woman,” “What Women Really Want,” “How to Attract Women,” and, "Get her to Want You - Secrets of a Porn Star."

After arriving at work and turning on my computer, in one hour I had twenty-seven photographs of young sexy nearly nude men pop up somewhere on my screen selling a variety of things including lingerie, tires, perfume, restaurants, and soft-drinks. While a semblance of fabric nearly or barely covered the male organ on these airbrushed, and photo-shopped male models, nothing was left to the imagination.

During my lunch break, a National Woman’s Basketball game was playing on the break room TV on a popular sports network. Two dozen young men in what looked like uncomfortably tight, and extremely short swim trunks danced and gyrated each time a woman athlete made a hoop. These young men cheered, jumping up and down, jostling their bodies and clapping as they swooned over the women players.

During the commercial, more nearly naked, lustful, sexy young men filled the screen, advertising everything from razor blades to golf clubs.

One advertisement showed several magnified close ups of a young man's completely nude body from camera angles that cleverly obscured a particular body part. One showed five completely and clearly nude men standing closely together so as to hide various parts of their bodies from view.

Another ad showed a dignified women in her mid-forties dressed in an expensive power suit working at her desk, while a shirtless young man served drinks while obviously tempting her by pressing his lower body on hers.

A particularly uncomfortable add showed eight powerful, confident women sitting at a table at a local bar, laughing and joking about how they hate “ugly” men.

I skipped the get-together of colleagues after work since they were frequenting a local restaurant where the young men do everything they can to get women to give them a big tip. These young men pose, strut, wear the tightest pants possible hoping to give powerful, wealthy, perhaps lonely women a little thrill as they pretend to be sexually interested.

After a simple dinner, I flipped on the television where a popular game show was airing. A funny, sixty year old woman hosted the show while several shirtless, attractive, well built young men flipped cards, clapped, jumping, and cheered as each contestant answered questions correctly.

A public service announcement came up with a photograph of an older distinguished female physician in a white doctor's coat surrounded by five young male nurses looking at the doctor in awe of her superior knowledge and expertise.

A brief news clip showed several confident, brilliant young men addressing a panel of powerful political leaders asserting they are being degraded and demeaned in our culture. The eleven strong and dominant women leaders on the panel, all dressed in power suits, dismissed as nonsense the plea for respect from the young men.

Then.... I woke up.