I feel like your strawman missed the point. No one claimed all men or women are the same, and literally no one said "Women have differing tastes. Men on the other hand all like the same." (or even tried to make that point)...
The point seemed to be that sexualization of men and women is different because not all women like the typical sexualized male man (as per the example given). That being different implies that men do all like the typical sexualized woman. Which is wrong.
(edit: just realized I did a reverse menandfemales)
Imo an important point to add is that sexualized characters aren't inherently bad. It's only bad when all or nearly all characters are sexualized. I like media with hot dudes, chicks, and everyhting else, but if all characters from 1 group are sexualized, then it gets weird
There was an Oglaf comic where the aliens noticed that the lobsteroid males looked like lobsters, while the lobsteroid women looked like hot human females in a sexy lobster suit. Same for the bee people, the bear people, the tree people. All the females looked like sexy humans.
They concluded that they had to team up and kill all the humans.
Exactly. Every character depiction is intentional. Sexualizing a character is not inherently bad, but it's clear what the point is when it's done.
If you are only sexualizing one type of character, then you are showing bias towards viewers. When this becomes the norm for most art in a society, it says that type of character (and the people it represents) is primarily there for sexual gratification. And when you do that to women, you create a culture where women are objectified as sex objects and little else is given value. It's inherently reducing a major population into nothing more than the desires of the dominant. I.e. oppression, and specifically in this case: the patriarchy.
It’s only bad when all or nearly all characters are sexualized.
I wouldn't even go that far. If you look into porn or porn games you'll see nearly every character sexualized in different ways depending on the intended audience. Romance novels are an example as well. And when the point of the media is titillation and sexual gratification; that's both good and expected.
Agree on your last sentence. I think one of the big problems is that women as a whole are disproportionately over sexualized and when they are sexualized, it tends to be a lot more blatant.
There absolutely are plenty of works of media where male and female characters are both sexualized. But there's also many where only the female characters are notably sexualized (or are so damn heavily sexualized that the sexualization of the male characters pales in comparison).
Also: Compare Chris Hemsworth (who usually stars in movies made primarily for men) with Robert Pattinson (Twilight, among other movies that he's less ashamed of).
But, let's not pretend that the Schwarzeneggers and Hemsworths (and male-targeted comic books) don't fuck up male body image. Sure it's a power fantasy, but for most men it's not attainable (in part because a lot of (if not most) of these action movie stars take PEDs ... I mean I guess normal people can take PEDs, too, but they shouldn't, it's quite unhealthy). Especially if we consider how much modern western society promotes behaviors that make people obese.
Patriarchy and objectification harm everyone? Like, can you think of someone who says otherwise? The problem is that when someone says "This comic is not for me because it objectifies someone like me" is usually the only circumstance that others respond "it objectifies someone like me too!" Like yeah, you maybe should have thought of complaining about that, rather than using that rebuttal as an attempt to stop the conversation.
To go along with this comic we have to imagine that women are not attracted to fit men. And while it is true that some women like femboys or dadbods, that is not the majority. A significant number of straight women are attracted to guys with gym bods. If that's correct, then this wouldn't be a false equivalence since both genders are being sexualized unrealistically.
Instead of calling it a false equivalence, I think the point could be made more diplomatically by stating that two wrongs don't make a right.
It's not the source of this comic, but the same artist that made it now makes a cute and fun to read college AU with the same characters that updates daily. It's been going for a decade now, so you'll have a lot of catching up to do, but if webcomics are your jam then I highly recommend. www.dumbingofage.com
Aa a man, something about this rubs me the wrong way. Not in the way their Dollarstore Comic Book Guy is uncomfortable because that's just fetish shit. I've become desensitized. It feels like they're making a lotta big swings that do not land. I wouldn't go so far as to say they've constructed a straw Man but this whole dialogue is set up in a way that doesn't seem authentic. Yes, I can agree that depictions of men in comic books is probably directed toward men but there's this assumption that it can't be serving multiple demographics.
I dunno. I probably won't think about this comic again after I leave this comment.