sex and tools
“Images of women in bikinis prompted brain responses in men associated with using tools.”
now it makes a lot more sense why they booked Pamela Anderson as an actress on Home Improvement.
all jokes aside, my concern is more about this statement:
“Both women and men have something to learn from this line of research, Raison said. Women should be aware of how they are perceived when wearing provocative clothing, and men shouldn’t let feelings of impersonal sexual longing interfere with their more personal relationships with other women, including female friends.”
i know a great many women who believe/think/feel that they should be allowed to wear whatever they wish and not be judged for it and/or sexualized, and then there’s the hotbutton rape “she was asking for it” issue, often based on what a woman was wearing. i know this is a SUPER complicated and highly sensitive and controversial topic, so i was kind of shocked to see this in such plain writing on CNN.
i’m not sure how i feel about it, actually, but sexuality aside, i personally believe that how we dress/present ourselves has much more impact on our interactions with other humans that we ever consciously realize, or wish to be true. this seems to be another case in point.
and again, i’ve never been properly schooled in feminist theory, or evolutionary biology for that matter, so this is all just, you know, me thinking.
(tangent but a helluva story: Visual Rapists, Thieves, and Prada. related in that this woman obviously has experienced some serious sex-related trauma.)
Filed in culture and random linkage | Tagged with evolution, feministing, sex | Comments (4)4 Responses to “sex and tools”
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I was prepared to disagree with you (because the issue is so complicated) but I think you’ve hit the nail on the head.
I used to have really long hair, because that is the way I like it. I figured if anyone treated me differently for it then that was their problem. But my business and social interactions became much easier when I cut my hair and I have never had the energy to go back and “fight the good fight.” It is just too true that how people see you comes back on you in the form of how they treat you. Another brief example. I employ 40 folks in the service sector. They wear (some semblance of) a uniform. Often I will interact with customers (giving breaks and what not) while wearing a tie. And I am not nicer nor more skilled than some of my cashiers Yet I get treated with a lot more respect and berated a less often by customers — while doing the exact same thing they are doing! I am not at all comfortable with the idea that handling customers is easier for me because they give me a pass when they see my tie, and then I have to pretend like I know how hard my cashiers’ jobs are on a day in and day out basis? Please. People judge. They shouldn’t, but they do. And I am obviously “smarter and more successful” because I am wearing a tie. That’s hooey.
First of all, the conclusions that are being drawn from the research are invalid.
All that can be concluded from the study is that in heterosexual undergraduate men at Princeton (unknown age range), the brain areas associated with the intention to perform actions light up when viewing images of women in bikinis.
With a population of only 21 men, AND being only a single study, even this conclusion is not reliable.
It also seriously bothers me that they are making such statements about men, without even having an equivalent study in women.
Basically, the research on it’s most basic level is bullshit. I hate it when they publish shit like this and pretend it’s accurate scientific data.
But for sake of argument, let’s just say that all of these statements are true.
Certainly as women we can wear whatever we want, but this study shows us that bikinis (or something close to it) arouses men to “do” us, aka “procreate.” We are animals and this is part of what we’re wired to do. It bothers me when men are assimilated to neanderthals for this. Women are wired to be mothering and nurturing to their offspring… and sometimes this gets out of hand and assaults another person’s self, just as men’s instinct to “do” and “procreate” can.
And to play devil’s advocate, and probably hit a nerve of truth and piss off a few ladies:
YOU USE IT TO YOUR ADVANTAGE TO GET WHAT YOU WANT FROM MEN!
So please, writers and readers of this article alike, don’t get down on men for have normal human reactions, and pretend that women are any better. If anything, manipulating this reaction with your cleavage, your fancy shoes that make you stand with your back arched and buttocks pert and ready, your perfumes and shiny things… this is WORSE.
I can’t speak to the validity of this study, but the anecdotal evidence my life has presented to me seems in line with its conclusion and what Amy has to say that the way you dress influences how people treat you.
Should it be that way? No. Is it that way? Yes. Would people be foolish to not acknowledge what they see and work with it? Yes.
By “work with it”, I don’t mean to exploit other people, but rather to dress for the occasion and to be aware of the effects that other people’s clothing may be having on you.