12 September 2008 @ 09:55 am
Thought Experiment  
I've neeeever done one of these memes before. First time for everything?! But since I lack a concrit post, this seems as good as anything. Hit me with crit!


«The ‡RP Concrit‡ Meme»



So last night, while every other channel on TV was showing stuff commemorating 9/11 and the World Trade Center, E! (being the very tasteful programming it is) was hosting a biography special on...Hugh Hefner. As I'm sitting there with my pop tarts for dinner, wondering why on earth I'm watching this, something odd occurred to me. You've got Hugh Hefner, this 70+ billionaire with all of these 20-something blonde chicks just swooning themselves over him or his money. But what if those roles were reversed? What if you had this 70+ billionaire of a sex magazine empire who was a woman, and she was surrounded by a harem of 20-something hot guys? I mused on this to one of my classmates also in the lounge, and he freaked out. I'm guessing most people would freak out at the thought, too.

Hence, thought experiment: WHY is it (vaguely) socially acceptable, perhaps even "cute," for an older man to be sexy and have young, hot chicks be interested in him, but the reverse situation of an older woman with young, hot men is considered so very reprehensible, or at the very least creepy and wrong? How come men have the potential to be "sexy" way into their senior years, whereas a woman's age limit for sexiness is almost always about half of that, if not less? Older men can jump back into dating perhaps after a failed marriage, but if a woman misses that chance while she's still young and beautiful, it's boo-hoo too bad for her? It seems...really odd, somehow.

Drawing: I have FINISHED my work for Digital Sets, yessss! Will probably post that today, assuming I can get videos to work on Photobucket. I'm also thinking about posting those 'boards I finished here.

Writing: Articles for the Daisychain Wiki, and copy-pasting shows for [livejournal.com profile] jerrythefrog.
 
 
Current Mood: working
Current Music: Kate Bush - Waking the Witch
 
 
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[identity profile] ormery.livejournal.com on September 12th, 2008 05:39 pm (UTC)
Because a woman's function in society is to look pretty and heaven help her if she doesn't, whereas if a man isn't the most conventionally good-looking thing ever he can still be attractive for his accomplishments, talents or attitude. Because women are for sex and not actually proper humans the same way men are. Duh.
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[identity profile] lynxgriffin.livejournal.com on September 12th, 2008 10:59 pm (UTC)
Oh, but of course! Must've been to easy mulling over silly female matters to figure that one out. 8/
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[identity profile] ormery.livejournal.com on September 12th, 2008 11:10 pm (UTC)
I know, right? I have to unscrew my womb before reaching thought-out conclusions otherwise my poor ladybrain collapses in on itself.
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[identity profile] tafkae.livejournal.com on September 12th, 2008 09:18 pm (UTC)
I wanna say that, on some level, it's a biological thing. It's not at all unfathomable for a 70-year-old man to father children, but in a 70-year-old woman, menopause makes it nigh on impossible. And the theory goes that, fair or not, societal norms have been built around these biological precepts. There are just as many beautiful old ladies as handsome old men out there, and forming the image of Hughetta Hefner in that light, I can actually kind of see it.

... To be perfectly honest, though? I think both Hugh and Hughetta should keep their sex lives to themselves.
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[identity profile] lynxgriffin.livejournal.com on September 12th, 2008 10:55 pm (UTC)
I can see that...especially since biological aspects for women being the "baby-makers" factor into stuff like beauty standards almost more than anything else does. Makes me wonder how much of that "revulsion" is biological, and how much of it is societal.

That would most definitely be preferable. 8/
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[identity profile] lucky-dance.livejournal.com on September 13th, 2008 12:06 am (UTC)
That is gender stereotyping in our society. America, like most of the world, is a patriarchal (spelling?!) society. I could so go into it like crazy, but think about the fact that the Pageant society as a whole gives the most scholarship money for women.

Women and Gender Studies minor...yeah. If you are actually really interested I can point you in the direction of a few interesting articles or short stories. My favorite is X: A Fabulous Child's Story by I forget who, but it really talks about gender socialization in America.

Yay fighting gender stereotypes!!!
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