Professor Caroline Heldman on the New Culture of Sexual Objectification

She's a talented lecturer, although she's way out there ideologically.

At Upworthy, "Being A Sex Object Is Empowering. Oh, Wait, No It’s Not. Here’s Why."

I agree with a lot of what she says, especially about the violently sexualized imagery, but when you get down to her solutions to an "objectification culture" it's mostly about boycotting and especially censorship. Note further that because this kind of zeitgeist sociology is at the forefront of "rape culture" feminism, her program forms a particularly pernicious form of misandry (e.g., the vicious "lads mags" boycott in Britain).



And note at the clip, Professor Heldman says, at about 5:10 minutes, "Most women are heterosexuals, and we are sexual beings, so why wouldn't we see half-naked men in advertising everywhere?" Now, besides getting some hoots out of the young women in the audience, Professor Heldman is speaking as though she's heterosexual. However, she recently posted a photo to Twitter of herself with her lesbian "wifey" Professor Danielle Dirks. Perhaps her meaning of "heterosexual" could go either way --- speaking of herself as a proxy for women everywhere --- but technically she's not likely to be attracted to "half-naked" men all the time, no more than I'm attracted to seeing hot men in women's magazines, or fitness magazines, or whatever. In fact, by misrepresenting her sexual orientation she sells her message to young heterosexual women in bad faith. It's not a clear objective fact that photos of sexually desirable women are essentially degrading ("objectifying") and hence violative of women's rights. It's simply a hypothesis of the radical Marxist misandrous paradigm. I mean really, you don't have to go far into the feminist fever swamps to find vile, vindictive and vicious hatred of men, from people like Amanda Marcotte to the even more (surprisingly) extreme Andrea Dworkin knockoff "Witchwind" discussed by Robert Stacy McCain a couple of weeks ago: "Mental Illness and Radical Feminism."

Notice how Professor Heldman's stealth radicalism, and her casually dishonest identification as heterosexual, poses something more dangerous to basic family stability and social decency than the crazed feminists like Marcotte and her ilk. Professor Heldman packages a really radical, totalitarian program in a sort of attractive, pretty-girl-next-door wholesomeness. Notice how she removes her false eyelashes at the end of the talk to great effect, wiping off her eye shade, mascara and lip gloss to reveal her pasty, puffy facial features. She's not so pretty when you take off all the cosmetic preparation, but then again, why put it on in the first place? Professor Heldman wants people to think they can have it both ways: you can reject the culture that puts a high premium on good looks and walk around like a unwashed bag lady, or you can preen around as a hottie, media savvy feminist professor, ramming man-hating cultural Marxism down the throats of generations of young women who fall for Professor Heldman's platinum blond mane and confident, smooth talking delivery.

As shirtless tennis stud Andre Agassi once said, "Image is everything." (Ironic, isn't it?)