The Expert: Sex sells, but it's time to move on

Much as I hate to admit it, particularly in print, I’m a fan of the reality TV talent show. Many a Saturday night has been given over to the X Factor and I’ve been watching Britain’s Got Talent over the last few weeks. However my love affair with BGT came to an abrupt end on Monday night when I watched the two female judges, Amanda Holden and Alesha Dixon, drool over and objectify the male contestants in the French group Cascade.

I’ve been very open in the past about my complete disdain for the objectification of women in advertising and in the wider media and I would be a complete hypocrite if I didn’t call out the fact that this horrible phenomenon is slowly seeping across the gender boundaries.

Amanda and Alesha are just one example of where the objectification of men has made it into the mainstream with very little backlash. Take a stroll though the streets of Cork City and you will see the latest advertising campaign from Batchelors. Billboards with half naked men asking ‘D’ya wanna spoon?’ while suggestively licking a spoon accost you from a height. One might think it was meant to be satirical but when you follow through to the Batchelors Facebook page, you can see photos of girls in green bras and white shorts helping to promote the half naked farmers. And all this to sell a tin of peas?!

The evolution of objectification in the mainstream media and advertising from the female form to the male is not something anyone should be happy about. It is not ‘equality’.  In fact, it should be a wake up call to men and women that now is the time to end advertising and media that sexualizes and objectifies people.

Feminists are often accused of wanting to only make things better for women, but that is rarely my experience. They are as concerned about how the many multimillion dollar industries of porn, beauty and fashion are affecting their young sons as well as their young daughters. While the simple truth is that these industries predominantly target women, in ten years time the statistics will be closer to 50/50 than we would like unless we do something now to challenge the exponential rise of this type of advertising dialogue. 

The aim of feminism in challenging objectification has never been to have men portrayed as sexual objects to the same extent as women. The aim is to rid ourselves of these narrow definitions of man and woman, masculine and feminine, male and female. We need a public discourse that moves away from celebrating six pack abs and double D breasts to celebrating all kinds of women and all kinds of men; one which believes that gender roles are evolving processes not staid definitions.

Starting that discourse and having that discussion is neither ‘a women’s issue’ or ‘a men’s issue’. It is an ‘everyone’ issue. 

Linda Kelly is co-founder of @corkfeminista