Tag Archives: male gaze

The Soapbox: Women Wear Yoga Pants Because They Are Comfortable, Not Because They Apparently Give You A Boner

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Poor Nathan Graziano. He has an obsession and is surrounded by temptation all the time. He can’t stop thinking about women in yoga pants, especially now that us ladies are wearing them in places outside of yoga class. “Yoga pants have brought out my worst chauvinistic characteristics — the characteristics I’d like deny exist inside me,” he writes on The Good Men Project. “But when it comes to yoga pants, I can’t.”

Huh. I’ve never thought about it before, but I guess I get it. Yoga pants are tight. They hug hips, thighs, and butts. If they’re too small, they may even give you serious camel toe. (I will happily size up to avoid showing off my labia.) But, as the female friends Graziano talked to explained, yoga pants are also ridiculously comfortable. It’s why we have started to wear them outside of yoga class or the gym. I wear yoga pants basically all weekend, to run errands, to walk my dog, around the house, and sometimes to go to brunch. Yoga pants! They’re the best! Apparently some guys find them drool worthy — I’ve yet to be hollered at while wearing mine, but maybe that’s because I have no makeup on, my hair is unwashed and I’m in a rush to get home to eat my footlong Subway sandwich. The best thing about yoga pants is they stretch while I eat all the food!

But Graziano isn’t buying this whole “yoga pants are so comfy” excuse. They’re so tight, how could they be?! Therefore, us ladies must be wearing them because we want to turn guys like him on. Keep reading »

Is This Olympus Camera Ad Sexist?

One of the things that comes up in a gender studies class is the concept of the “male gaze.” Generally speaking, it’s the idea that men have a particular and at-times oppressive way of envisioning women (innocent, helpless, submissive, dumb, etc.) which is reflected through the media. The excellent blog Sociological Images hazards a guess that this Olympus camera ad, which appeared in an Australian graphic design magazine, is the very definition of the male gaze. But it’s not the pictures of the attractive women in different colors/tones that are the problem — it’s the caption, which reads “Never get bored of how your girlfriend looks again.” Personally, I think the ad is clever, not especially sexist, although I do understand how it could be read as privileging men to control womens’ appearances. What do Frisky readers think? [Sociological Images] Keep reading »

British Porn Mag For Women Models Only “Feminine” Men

Laaaaaaaaaaaaaa-dies! We’ve got a new porno mag out over in England!

But unfortunately, Filament received a sour review from the Daily Mail, which hissed, “Most of the boys pictured are effeminate and not arousing.”

Indeed, we, too, are flabbergasted with Filament‘s idea of what makes women wet. Apparently it’s skinny boy-men with soft features who either outright look like Rufus Wainwright or look like Rufus groupies. The porn mag’s web site explains Filament relied on both published academic research and their own online research to discover what turns women on and they came up with specifics like “men who are not muscle-bound” and “men with more feminine face shapes.”

No thanks! To each her own, we guess. Keep reading »