I submit to you, the latest contribution to feminist-inflected introspection by Andy Hines. Over at Double XX, Hines writes:<\/p>\n
I\u2019m a stay-at-home dad to twin 4-year-old girls who are already smarter than me, and my wife is a brilliant doctor who kicks ass and saves lives every day. I grew up with big sisters and a mom whose authority was unbreachable. I celebrate every inroad that women make into business, technology, science, politics, comedy, you name it, and I get angry about \u201cslut-shaming\u201d or \u201cstereotype threat\u201d or whatever is the affront du jour. And yet, in the caveman recesses of my imagination, I objectify women in ways that make Hooters look like a breakout session at a NOW conference.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The breakdown: Hines experiences fleeting erotic images and fantasies when he encounters women in his daily life. The purpose of his essay is to explore the conflict between this (ostensibly spontaneous) behavior, and his felt commitment to feminism and to resisting the objectification of women by culture. He talks with some experts, he cites a Louie CK routine, and doesn\u2019t make any philosophical breakthrough more profound than to acknowledge that a passing thought it less problematic than an objectifying action. It\u2019s a piece of low ambition, but high (I\u2019d argue) usefulness, insofar as many male readers will be able to easily identify with this internal tension between psychology and ethics.<\/p>\n
The piece would be less noteworthy if it hadn\u2019t attracted all kinds of heavy fire. See the responses, ranging from scathing to incendiary, at Slate<\/a>, NYMag<\/a>, and\/or Jezebel<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Aside from being misplaced \u2014 and it is, it certainly is \u2014 all this vitriol is also counterproductive. In the interest of raising awareness, increasing participation, and promoting honest self-assessment, we should be encouraging the kind of introspective Hinds puts on display in his article. We need not laud the author for being in possession of objectifying thoughts nor for being gently self-flagellating about those thoughts, but we should applaud him for making his thought process about these issues public.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I submit to you, the latest contribution to feminist-inflected introspection by Andy Hines. Over at Double XX, Hines writes: I\u2019m a stay-at-home dad to twin 4-year-old girls who are already smarter than me, and my wife is a brilliant doctor who kicks ass and saves lives every day. I grew up with big sisters and … Continue reading Is this the most misconstrued male-written feminist essay ever?<\/span>