In a thread debating Maggie Gyllenhaal’s attractiveness or lack of same, there were several posters who seemed personally offended that Gyllenhaal did not meet their standard of beauty. During the thread, Kimstu pointed out the strangeness of this phenomenon (post reproduced here with Kimstu’s permission):
It IS a strange phenomenon. There are actresses whom others declare beautiful whose beauty I cannot fathom (not Gyllenhaal whom I consider attractive) such as Uma Thurman. But I’m not MAD at Uma Thurman, and I don’t think she’s UGLY, I just don’t think her face is at all attractive. She’s mediocre at best, shading toward sub-mediocre, but certainly not a beauty, by my standards.
The interesting question to me is, why do some people feel pissed off that a celebrity is not attractive by their standards. U mad, bro?
I haven’t actually experienced too many instances of a friend being “mad” that a woman isn’t hot. But I will venture this theory:
Particularly in Hollywood, some women will get all gussied up (smoky eyes, revealing top, high heels, etc.) and then give the camera an unsmiling, come-hither type glance. It sort of has the effect of saying “Yeah, I know I’m hot.” Which can be awfully disconcerting when the woman is NOT hot.
While I wouldn’t call it angry, I have noticed that some celebrities are called out for not being hot, while others are largely left alone. I do think it tends to be the celebrities who wear the “I know I’m hot shit” look on their face that tend to be most criticized for not being hot enough.
The type of anger that also rises when Lena Dunham has the nerve to be naked in her own show. An ‘unattractive’ woman with confidence seems to rankle some people (mostly dudes). It’s a weird inability to say, ‘That’s not for me but I’m sure somebody likes it.’
Remember Batman is based on a comic book, a medium not known for realistic depictions of the female form. Women in comic books, especially women who date Batman, don’t tend to be the plain Jane, girl-next-door type. I’m not sure the problem there was that Hollywood showed us a woman who was relatively average, but, rather that Hollywood expected long time fans to believe that Batman would date such a woman.
Er, but the “mad” posters that the OP is talking about (in the thread I’ve now linked to above) were venting their outrage at Gyllenhaal for being so “ugly”, not at Hollywood for making a poor casting choice.
Why would they do that? As I said in the OP’s quoted post, I find this genuinely puzzling.
My completely unsupported supposition is that it’s a reaction to the fracturing of media and men starting to consume media that doesn’t regard women as sex objects first or that has begun regarding men as sex objects first. It makes them uncomfortable.
I have a friend - lefty, progressive sort of fellow. Ostensibly a full supporter of equal rights for women. But he gets seriously annoyed when attractive actresses don’t take their clothes off for the camera and equally annoyed when male actors do. This coming for a guy who has chided me for using the word “actress” instead of just a unisex “actor” :D. When I chide him on the obvious hypocrisy, not to mention the quiet misogyny and homophobia of his little annoyances he just laughs and shrugs his shoulders and says he can’t help it. He also complains bitterly of pretty young women walking around in scanty clothes in public, haunting him with their sexiness :rolleyes:.
He really perplexes me at moments like that - he’s smart enough to know better. Just a little broken somewhere.
Different POVs: Humans have a history of trying to impose Objective Truth into situations that are Subjective by definition. If you think folks get angry about your (obviously incorrect!) difference of POV about attractiveness, well, you obviously haven’t questioned their beliefs in God.
Nudity: Nudity is an awkward thing. If someone is being served up naked to appear sexy / be ogled, we have tacit permission to, well, ogle them. But if someone is just “hey, I hang around naked” it can be very off-putting. If Girls was Guys, and some random, pot-bellied, hairy, balding shlub spent a lot of time naked on the show, you don’t think folks would spend a lot of time going “ewwww”? Hey, more power to LD for doing what she wants for her show, but if she is saying “here I am, take it or leave it” she can’t be surprised if many say “leave it.” But - back to the first point about Different POV’s - there’s no need to get angry about it, but then again, that’s human nature…
Now, that’s an IMDB board, where I don’t expect deep, insightful posts. But around here, people do think before they post, and they still post like this. Better grammar, spelling and composition, but the same middle-school insults.
It may be a matter of, “This person is no more attractive than me/people I hang out with, but they’re famous and rich and lead a life I can only dream of. And that’s not faaaaaaair.” So they vent on a message board.
I did say she is not beautiful by my standards, clearly implying that there are other standards at play here. Other people DO think Thuman is a beauty, by their standards. I’m not seeing it, but I’m not thinking it’s counterfactual.
I don’t understand the cuckolding thing at all. As I understand it, being cuckolded means somebody is sleeping with your wife. How does that related to thinking a celebrity is not as attractive as others think she is?
Not sure what you mean. I was trying to say, I understand not agreeing with others that a particular celebrity is beautiful, who is supposed to be beautiful, I just don’t feel any anger or rage there. How does that detract from my point.
#4in the list is relevant, I think. Fundamentally, there’s a difference between male and female sexuality. Many men feel like women owe it to them to be attractive, the article writer calls it a form of social contract. Thus, when a woman fails to live up to those standards in their mind, they get angry.
For women, no such contract is presumed to exist, so while guys and girls can make fun of not so attractive males, its usually not done out of anger.
