Phwoar! Admins we fancy

[Brandenburger Toro]

Phwoar! Admins we fancy

Your restraint is peerless (smiley thing)

[Bored Of Education]

Phwoar! Admins we fancy

The album was called "Smell of Female" WE

[G-Man]

Phwoar! Admins we fancy

Compaining about sexism isn't about saying it's really not on to talk about who we find attractive (both Wyatt and myself have contributed to the various who-we-fancy threads), it's bits of the other stuff.

Yeah, you see, I'm probably likely to agree with you; I hope that I have not done anything that could be interpreted as being sexist or otherwise offensive, and I don't like terminology of "skanks" and all that. But there is a fine line being drawn here, and I don't quite know where that line is. And I don't know whether those who are drawing the fine lines are imposing a sensibility which may be excessively cautious.

So if I want to point out that I find a woman particularly attractive, I might rather not do so because I fear getting jumped on for being some sort of caveman chauvinist.

Perhaps it would be fair if those who tend to adjudicate such things would offer friendly words of caution rather than pouncing on people
who they believe to be offending, instead of expressing outrage. In the past that hasn't always been so.

[Wyatt Earp]

Phwoar! Admins we fancy

Well, I dunno. I think people should pounce on stuff they think's pounceworthy, really. I'm not sure where all this lack of clarity is coming from: the distinction between "I fancy so-and-so" and "So-and-so is a skank" seems far from subtle.

[Guff Daddy]

Phwoar! Admins we fancy

Perhaps a "Fanciable Skanks" thread is in order?

[My Name Is Ian]

Phwoar! Admins we fancy

Damn. I had a very insightful post about Floella Benjamin, but my connection dropped and it has gone now.

[G-Man]

Phwoar! Admins we fancy

the distinction between "I fancy so-and-so" and "So-and-so is a skank" seems far from subtle.

Of course. I said as much. Outrage at words like "skanks" is fair enough. But the pouncing hasn't always been as clearcut as that.

[Heliotrope]

Phwoar! Admins we fancy

I know I'm on the record as not being a fan of including images in posts, so that may cloud my judgment, but it also seems to me that when you post an image of the woman you find attractive, it's objectifying.

Look at the earlier post about Carla Bruni. Her own name was never mentioned at all, but the poster sure could take the trouble to post a nude photo of her, even though people had already complained about the new OTF being not work friendly.

[My Name Is Ian]

Phwoar! Admins we fancy

The strange thing about that (and I'm not referring to the post on here, which I didn't see) was that the photo that I presume was being referred to was on the front page of the Daily Mail this morning, and that the Metro chose to print it in it's full, well, "glory" yesterday, too.

[Wyatt Earp]

Phwoar! Admins we fancy

Coffy, I dunno if I'd agree (though you're better placed to judge than I am, being a VICTIM of PATRIARCHY!!!!!!!!!!!!) if we're talking about random images of pretty/handsome people just looking pretty/handsome, but nudey pics being bandied about--yeah, that does feel kind of commodifying. I don't think in this instance that was remotely the intent, but...

[G-Man]

Phwoar! Admins we fancy

That's the key, I think. What is the intent?

Posting an "objectifying" pic of Bruni can be an ironic commentary on the current objectification of her in the British media (I guess that was the intent). Objectifying her in that context is, of course still possible. But would it be as unacceptable to say: "Wow, she is pretty and quite sexy" as it would be to say: "Phwoarrr, I'd like to do her doggystyle!"

Perhaps comments that would be seen as complimentary by the person being discussed should be exempted from censure? Surely very few woman would object to being told, with sincerity, that she is beautiful and even sexy?

[Anton Gramscescu]

Phwoar! Admins we fancy

I dunno if that covers this instance, PT. Carla Bruni flounced a while back and hasn't been seen on OTF since.

[Bored Of Education]

Phwoar! Admins we fancy

I don't mind the "pouncing" really. As a pouner and pouncee,I would rather have comments "pounced" upon and have a debate out in the open where it is useful and informative rather than have any thread on such grey areas drowned at birth for subjective reasons.

Would it be wrong for me to say that Carla Bruni isn't all that and needs to get herself around a couple of bacon sandwiches? Just as a "for instance"?

[evilC]

Phwoar! Admins we fancy

[evilC]

Phwoar! Admins we fancy

Wyatt Earp wrote:

Coffy, I dunno if I'd agree (though you're better placed to judge than I am, being a VICTIM of PATRIARCHY!!!!!!!!!!!!) if we're talking about random images of pretty/handsome people just looking pretty/handsome, but nudey pics being bandied about--yeah, that does feel kind of commodifying. I don't think in this instance that was remotely the intent, but...

This reminds me - the cover of this week's Times Higher Ed is rather good:



I'd also like to say that I find gratuitous nude pictures of people ...well, gratuitous! Quite frankly, people look better clothed, I feel. Flesh can be so... so *icky*!

[Crusoe]

Phwoar! Admins we fancy

I've never been sure whether it's prudishness or something more worrying, but there's so much more fun in the hidden and its unwrapping.

[Gerontophile]

Phwoar! Admins we fancy

I dont think it is prudishness. More the idea that what you cant see is likely to be better in your mind, than when you actually see it (massive generalisation, but it works for me).

[Crusoe]

Phwoar! Admins we fancy

Yes, that's true. Phrasing in terms of the hunt being more fun than the kill is horribly crude, but for me there's truth in it - the excitement of not knowing for certain, the hopeful expectation, is almost always better than the actual fulfilment. Not just because reality doesn't often live up to imagination, but also sometimes because the fulfilment / completion / understanding (this doesn't just apply to sex, or to nudity on the way to sex) leaves a slight emptiness - a kind of "well, that was fun, what now?".

[evilC]

Phwoar! Admins we fancy

Exactly.

Kylie is a good example. Stunningly beautiful, but in a way that is hard to define, so universal is her appeal. She has also had some remarkable looks/outfits over the years. But do I want to see her naked? No way! That would be the quintessential "Oh!" *shrug* moment.

[Wyatt Earp]

Phwoar! Admins we fancy

See, part of me would love to see Kylie Minogue naked. But I don't think with that part.

And the part I do think with tells me that Kylie's sexiness is incredibly culturally situated. Yes she's a pretty woman, but what makes her extraordinary is the way that basic attractiveness is enmeshed in, and acquires meaning from, all those strands of popular culture: that whole Paul Morley thing, y'know? Without that enmeshed-ness, she's simply a pretty woman, of whom there are a fair few in the world, let's be honest.

Our todgers have given us chaps lots of pleasure over the years of our lives, no doubt, but when they're allowed to set the agenda in conversation, I think things get dull. Dull amongst other things.

[Crusoe]

Phwoar! Admins we fancy

Very true.

Edit - this was post number 69 for me. Um.

[Guest]

Phwoar! Admins we fancy

This was part of why I posted that rant about romance back on Valentine's Day. Possibility is soooooooooo much better than past or present reality. Even miserable old me can feel it.

Oh and in the words of Chrissie Hynde

Got rhythm, I can't miss a beat
Got new skank, it's so reet

[Er Liquidatore]

Phwoar! Admins we fancy

Posting an "objectifying" pic of Bruni can be an ironic commentary on the current objectification of her in the British media (I guess that was the intent).

Indeed, I thought it was pretty bloody obvious myself.

[Felicity, I guess so]

Phwoar! Admins we fancy

Today's G2 special on Carla Bruni contains a cringe-inducing account by a victim of partriarchy (Katherine Viner? I think) of Bruni's speech yesterday, where (hey! get this for left-field imaginative comic genius she intersperses Bruni's lines with lines from 'Je t'aime.'

Laugh? I nearly moved to France

[Andy C]

Phwoar! Admins we fancy

Lyra wrote:

Oh and in the words of Chrissie Hynde

Got rhythm, I can't miss a beat
Got new skank, it's so reet

But that was just Hynde singing about what she smoked in Knightsbridge, wasn't it?