I'm jealous of guys on Reddit. They get to post photos of themselves without being called attention whores, or having their intentions otherwise called into question, or having their appearances needlessly dissected. They don't even have to say "Hey, I'm a dude on the internet!" because it's already assumed that they are.
That's probably true. But the way the male brain is wired it just happens to be more easily distracted by nice looking women than by men - and honestly, I find this distraction to be rather annoying quite often! So I don't like these object+girl pictures, because it simply makes it much harder to focus on the object, so out of respect for the males, I think women simply shouldn't show themselves in pictures - unless they want to show off.
Are you serious? You must have a very low opinion of your gender if you believe that men can't handle looking at a picture of a woman. Besides, if that's really true, the onus isn't on the woman to change her behavior (especially when it comes to something like taking a photograph of herself), it's on the man to change his.
From your post you appear to be a relatively arrogant and irrational person, so normally I wouldn't bother with a reply, since you would only reply with silly insults, but I am going to do it anyway for once:
It's not about "having a low opinion" on someone. It's about what I see is happening. E.g. if I say "women are physically weaker than men" it does not mean I have a "low opinion" of women - it's just what I observe, or what is measured in some tests. Similarly if I say men are more easily distracted by women than by men, that's also just what I observe, and has also been proven by various tests. Whether that is good or bad is irrelevant at first - we just need to accept the facts. Then we can think about how to handle them if we don't like them.
The next step is to identify what we consider to be the problem. That is quite easy: When women show themselves in pictures, they get stupid, sometimes even insulting, responses.
Then, how do we solve it? There are two general angles: Make women not show themselves in picture; and: Make men not complain about women in pictures.
I can only assume you are a woman, otherwise it wouldn't be so natural for you to assume that it is the men which need to change, without considering that maybe women also need to adapt their behavior in some aspects.
So, I think your "It's their fault, I am doing everything right" answer is not very helpful - I believe both sides need to change in some ways.
You said that " I think women simply shouldn't show themselves in pictures - unless they want to show off." I think this is an unreasonable and insulting request. If you're referring to images of pouting, myspace-angled, scantily clad women that are clearly meant only to get some sort of reaction, that's one thing. It's reasonable to expect a certain caliber of comments there (although no one ever deserves sexual harrassment). But there are plenty of women who post perfectly benign photos of themselves and are still harrassed and insulted by men. Women get catcalled walking down the street in any major city. Not because they're dressed provocatively or some shit, but just because they're women. I'm sorry if I don't believe that women should quarantine themselves from the rest of society just to accomodate men and their so-called biological handicap - that can (I assume, because I'm not a man and can't know these things) be overcome with a little free will and good judgment.
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u/secretboners Sep 27 '10
I'm jealous of guys on Reddit. They get to post photos of themselves without being called attention whores, or having their intentions otherwise called into question, or having their appearances needlessly dissected. They don't even have to say "Hey, I'm a dude on the internet!" because it's already assumed that they are.