Dearest Escher, I’m glad to see your emerging social and feminist consciousness. It’s important for anyone to feel that they have control over their own bodies and their interactions with other people. If you feel that you are comfortable with exposing yourself physically as well as emotionally then I congratulate you. However if you feel that continuing to post objectified images of women degrades and demeans yourself then I fully support that position as well. It’s all about finding a balance between what you feel is okay for yourself.

If you are interested in reading up on objectification of women within the media (generally related to cinema but many feminist critics have expanded on this)I would suggest a wikipedia search on Male Gaze. Male Gaze is a thesis developed by Laura Mulvey that explains that through the way we depict women in film and the arts we tend to reduce women to ‘objects’ that are bought and sold. By denying women ‘agency’ we as a society relegate them to a secondary subordinate position.

If you want to read Mulvey’s original article it can be found here

Another lighter take on Male Gaze can be found in this Dinosaur Comics

Of course not every feminist is going to subscribe to Mulvey’s thesis and many including Camille Paglia reject the overwhelming fascination with it. So as always YMMV.

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