David Hefer's '12 column ("Objectification for fun and profit," Sept. 30) serves as a comprehensive example of all the things that can go horribly wrong when men try to confront issues of physical objectification from a specifically male perspective.
Hefer's analysis begins and largely rests on the idea of a hypothetical man named Otto who, when confronted with columnist Camille Spencer-Salmon's '14 piece ("The problem with Thayer on a Friday night," Sept. 22), is utterly bewildered as to why anyone would feel unsafe or angry about being catcalled and thus objectified. In this hypothetical, Otto cannot identify with these feelings of malaise because he would personally enjoy being catcalled and objectified, getting "high fives all around" if it were to happen.
This leads Hefer to conclude that since Otto feels good about being objectified, objectification is not a bad thing and really just needs to be more normalized across gender differences. This conclusion is, of course, one that can only be reached by a man who has never personally felt or tried to empathize with the fear and discomfort that accompanies a woman's experience of an entitled and highly sexualized male gaze.
By using this sort of gender-blind analysis to break down what objectification actually means, Hefer is doing work to delegitimize the discomfort that women feel when they are catcalled in the streets and ogled in their day-to-day lives.
Hefer's further argument about BDSM illustrates his basic misunderstanding of the situation. While it is true that BDSM often puts one person in a position of power and strips the agency from another, this is a condition that ideally has been consented to and agreed upon by both parties. Just as people who enjoy BDSM would not necessarily want a stranger they pass on the streets to strip them down and handcuff them to a bed, women do not want to be made into a sexual object by everyone who finds them attractive.
But this is not to say that Hefer is actively trying to perpetuate sexism. In fact, he goes out of his way to mention that while supporting objectification, we need to be constantly vigilant about tearing down the societal structures which make objectification a fear-mongering and unsafe practice.
It is this seemingly paradoxical relationship between analysis and intent that reveals the trap that not only Hefer, but many men fall into. If you were to ask your average Brown student, or even average man, I am fairly confident that he would not support rape and the systematic oppression of women. Rather, through socialization and learned structures of thought, many men fall into analyses and actions that perpetuate the very things they decry about sexism.
Though Hefer may not have bad intentions, his analysis fails to recognize the basic societal conditions which make the objectification of women wholly different from the objectification of men. As much as Hefer and every other well-intentioned man might want to live in a world where men and women alike can express their sexual desires openly and healthily, that world does not exist.
The fact remains that we live in a patriarchal society where significantly more women are the victims of sexual assault than men. Our society still brands women as sluts for sexual promiscuity and rewards men for the same behavior. Most of all, we very much live in a world where women have to be constantly careful and vigilant to ensure their safety.
It is in this world that we live, and our analysis about objectification must come from the realities and lived experiences of those who are most affected by it.
Whether public displays of attraction and sexual desire could become safe and enjoyable in the year 2100 is a question I cannot answer. Though Hefer is right to say that it is part of the human condition to be attracted to people we pass on the street, this does not imply that it is sound practice to let them know in a loud and threatening way. For today, and for the foreseeable future, catcalling and sexual objectification make many women feel unsafe and uncomfortable and thus cannot be tolerated.
At the end of the day, this means heterosexual men need to step back and reexamine the way they approach female love interests. Uncomfortable objectification does not only manifest itself in the form of catcalls on Thayer Street, but also in the way women are approached in every interaction where sexual interest exists.
We can objectify and sexualize each other, men and women alike, only when we know that both parties have consented to this type of interaction and feel comfortable and safe with its progression.
Chris Norris-LeBlanc '13 is from Rhode Island. He can be contacted at chris.norris.leblanc@gmail.com.
