Monday, April 30, 2018

30 Days of De-Objectification: Wrap-Up

December 12, 1937 - August 21, 1974

30 Days of De-Objectification:
Wrap-Up

Back in 1981, there was a television show called Walking Tall, which was inspired by the life of Sheriff Buford Pusser. The real-life Sheriff Pusser fought corruption in McNairy County, Tennessee. He was due to portray himself in the sequel to the 1973 film about his life, but died under mysterious circumstances in a single-car accident. Many people believe that his vehicle was sabotaged.
One of the lines in the theme song for the television show was “sometimes right hurts you more than wrong.”
I was struggling with a lot of issues at that point in my life. I was sixteen years old and far from popular. I gave in to peer pressure in several instances because I wanted to be liked. Still, I tried to make sure that my core values didn’t change. I didn’t join in bullying kids who were even less popular than I was. I did, however, do some things that I’m not proud of, mostly minor acts of vandalism on school property.
I also allowed boys to do things to me that I really didn’t want to do, because I wanted to feel loved. Instead, I ended up feeling even worse about myself.
I haven’t had an easy life, and I haven’t always done the right thing. I’ve learned a lot of hard lessons.
Many years later, the line from the theme song of that short-lived television program that I loved still sticks with me. I still try to live by it, even though I’ll probably always fall short.
Doing what’s right isn’t easy, especially when you’re young and wanting to be accepted.
Sometimes the “cool” thing is the wrong thing.
Some people act like it’s cool to belittle other people for aspects of their appearance, such as their size and the clothes they wear.
Those who belittle others to make themselves feel big tend to be extremely insecure. They take their own self-doubts out on others. These are hardly people that should be emulated.
It seems to me that some people join in the trend of expressing lewd and objectifying thoughts about people like actors and musicians because those individuals don’t seem real to them.
They are real, no matter how remote they may seem to be.
Most people do not like being objectified.
I would be extremely creeped out if I were to discover that someone had been writing graphic sexual fantasies about me and perhaps pairing me with one of my associates in these fantasies.
It seems very disrespectful to me to objectify anyone, let alone someone markedly older than myself.
I’ve found people who are a good deal older than me attractive. I couldn’t imagine implying that these men were fodder for sexual fantasies, let alone broadcasting such fantasies for public consumption.
Nobody should be thought of as only a sex object, and people who have become vulnerable due to infirmity should be afforded special consideration in this regard. I say this as a person who is experiencing deteriorating physical health myself. The last thing I want is for someone to look at me and see nothing but a thing to be masturbated over.
I am unsure how anyone could fail to see it as anything but incredibly insulting to look at a picture of a person who accomplished a great deal in their life, and instead of thinking “I really admire what this person was able to do,” the viewer of the photograph thinks: “Damn, he was hot! I want him to ram his rod up my coal chute like a runaway mine cart!”
I sometimes wonder if younger people have been taught the concept of putting themselves in another person’s shoes.
Would the people objectifying older and dead musicians like to have others objectifying them in the same way?
“Your accomplishments are meaningless. Only your genitals matter.”
That’s pretty disgusting.
I’m fairly sure everything I’ve written in this series has made not one damn bit of difference.
I wrote it anyway, because, if intent means anything, I’d like to think it made a difference on some level to the people being objectified.
I want them to know that their accomplishments matter more than their sex appeal to me.

~The Cheese Hath Grated It~


2 comments:

  1. I've never understood this. Is it the high of a momentary self-gratification that blocks out all your troubles and then becomes a cycle, a habit, an addiction?

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    1. Probably something like that. I think they feel like these people aren't real, so it's okay in their book to write crude things about them for public consumption. Um... there are FICTIONAL characters, who actually aren't real, that you could do that with instead. Just a thought.
      I would die of embarrassment if any of the more explicit things I wrote in my personal and private notebooks when I was a teenager were ever made public. At least some members of the younger generation seem to have no sense of shame in that regard. I don't think this is a good thing.

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