Anyone noticed the billboards with the naked male cyclist on them?
I'm facinated. After how ever many years with the objectification of women being a hot issue, this billboard seems to have appeared without any comment.
In this case, I think there is an interesting distinguishing feature: normally, the male gaze isn't represented anywhere in the image, but the billboard includes a woman looking at the guy. Also, you often have the female face being edited out (the dehumanising aspect), but in this case the female gaze has no face, and the object (male cyclist) does.
If the roles were reversed, I would expect people to be really, really offended. But nothing in this case.
I'm confused.
Posted by carla at July 17, 2003 10:55 PM