It seems as though we are going backwards. We were doing so well in realising that all human beings are worthy individuals with emotional and intellectual depth, yet now so many of us don’t seem to see any problem with society encouraging many to reduce themselves to sexual objects. How is this rationalised?
edit: typo
Another question - you said things are going backwards. When do you feel that things were better, and what made that time practically better in terms of not objectifying people?
I am quite young, so most of my knowledge of the social conditions of the past comes from literature, which is of course a pretty bad source. But it really seems like it is much more normalised nowadays for men to view women as sexual objects.
Where I’m from, and probably where you’re from, 50 years back or so I’m very certain misogyny was far more common. I can see why sexualization might seem higher, and not be directly related to misogyny though. But, I think that’s because of the Internet and mass media spread making sex sources more common, as they do with everything else. Do you actually know how popular porno mags were back then (not that I do)? I doubt they would be archived as much as other parts of culture. Do you know if a 1950’s average Joe made less sex jokes than a 2020’s average Joe, especially of the former didn’t leave it on the Internet for everyone to see? My boomer relatives are dirty as hell. Hell, some of the first cartoons were for adults, if I recall.
One of the most objective ways to check would probably be to check sex work, how much has it increased or decreased.