You know the brand of feminism that spends its time whining about societal expectations regarding women’s appearances/behavior? The complaints they raise are counterproductive to their cause in that they draw attention to the kind of expectations they want to abolish.
If you’re upset that some guys judge women based on their looks, some companies market using sex appeal, etc., then the last thing you should do is try to fight them on their own terms. Analyzing the oppression/pressures/word du jour foisted upon your poor, helpless cadre of females by the evil overlords does nothing to alleviate the perceived problem.
“Now we’ve established those pigs like large breasts” isn’t terribly helpful and it just pushes the discussion in the wrong direction. The proper approach is to treat alternate forms of judgment/whatever as the norm. (Note that this is regardless of how you think people naturally behave. Take whatever standard you would apply and treat other people as messed up for not judging people by the standard you use. Instant moral high ground without ruling on the nature of Man.) You don’t have to specify a unit of measure that’s prevalent locally (be it pounds or kilograms, mph or kph); it’s implied; it’s the standard.
So why go about trading in the superficial? If an interview candidate brags about how many push-ups he can do, do you praise him as a paragon of masculinity or judge him based on his merits? There’s no lecture necessary; if he can’t present himself properly, he doesn’t get the job. If you do that long enough, anyone worth hiring won’t be talking about the number of push-ups they can do. The same goes for judging women by their appearance; stop treating their appearance as a factor, and eventually they’ll stop making it one.
Personally, I’m of the opinion that superficial judgments are rarer than most people think (and also that trying to look your best isn’t a bad thing in moderation), but I’m an optimist. The point is whining doesn’t get you anywhere. Treat your battle as won and eventually everyone else will see it the same way.
Constantine Nakos could not have put it better.
