Can we talk about the Babe of the Week threads?

[T'Baio]

Without judgment, I was wondering if we could talk about the Babe of the Week threads? Maturely and without malice. Without talking about banning them or censoring them, or treating them as if they're the bastion of free speech or the most important things in our lives, either.

I was wondering if there was anyone else out here who is uncomfortable with them? Is it just me...having some of the most popular threads on the board be about rating women's physical features? Are they an indication of harmless male attraction, or an indicator of continuing patriarchal misogyny? Or something in between?

Sometimes the comments in the threads can be harmless, perhaps. But also some of them can sometimes be downright mean spirited. Is there a line that should be drawn? Or is it a good idea to perhaps have the mean spirited people self identify?

I'd love to just have a discussion about what people think, if anyone is uncomfortable with them, why people are totally cool with them or what they represent to everyone.

Hopefully this can be a really thoughtful discussion....

[Methos]

i don't perticularly mind them to be honest... aside from my annoyance at the constant skinny blonde steriotypical girls coming up week after week...

as for having threads specifically about rating womens features... womens sexuality is a major point of the world... there's no denying it... TV shows, advertisements, commercials, movies... everything runs on sex and featuring sexual content...

I work in the adult industry, and none of the women i work with see anything like this as bad... sexuality is part of the world and people are going to discuss it, it's not demeaning or bad towards the women involved or anything like that.

as for the comments... there is a line to be drawn, not for the comments per se, but for bad taste and the fact there are some younger members on the site... teenage members here are going to notice sexuality sooner or later, but i do agree that there are some comments that go a bit too far towards the 'bad taste line'.

M

[Robert Maxwell]

The thread is all about sizing women up like pieces of meat, which is why I don't participate. I find it disgusting.

[OmahaStar]

I don't care one way or the other about the babe/hunk threads. As with others that don't hold my interest, I typically skip by them and move on to the next thread.

[RandyS]

Methos wrote:

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i don't perticularly mind them to be honest... aside from my annoyance at the constant skinny blonde steriotypical girls coming up week after week...

M

Agreed. That's one of the reasons I don't participate anymore. And another thing, why is every damn girls 25 years old and under? There are attractive women out there 35 and up, you know.

[Lindley]

Nice pictures sometimes. I don't bother voting though.

[infinix]

RandyS wrote:

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Agreed. That's one of the reasons I don't participate anymore. And another thing, why is every damn girls 25 years old and under? There are attractive women out there 35 and up, you know.

Natasha Henstridge is way above 25 and a bit passed 35. I'm sure a couple of other "babes" on there are older, too.

But the reality is that this is supposed to be Hollywood's babes, and we all know babes in Hollywood have a strict expiration date.

[Methos]

RandyS wrote:

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Agreed. That's one of the reasons I don't participate anymore. And another thing, why is every damn girls 25 years old and under? There are attractive women out there 35 and up, you know.

completely agreed... should be an 'alternative' thread as well, for those of us that like their girls outside of the 'normal' guidelines of attractive

M

[Misfit Toy]

OmahaStar wrote:

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I don't care one way or the other about the babe/hunk threads. As with others that don't hold my interest, I typically skip by them and move on to the next thread.

This is pretty much how I feel too. I'm just glad that it's down to these threads instead of the "boobs of the week" or "butt of the week" threads that used to infest TVM.

[scotpens]

Robert Maxwell wrote:

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The thread is all about sizing women up like pieces of meat, which is why I don't participate. I find it disgusting.

Guys enjoy looking at attractive women, grading their physical attributes and personalities, judging them on a 1–10 scale, fantasizing about them. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s nature. It’s reality. Always has been, always will be. Deal with it.

[Itisnotlogical]

I don't like them either. Quoth the posters of those threads:

Yoda wrote:

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Pretty much this, except that equates to for me. I go with the Breaking Bad philosophy. No half measures.

CaptMurdock wrote:

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I had to flip a coin between UP and Sideways. She has a very cute face, but you call that a figure??

In the end, I went with a (reluctant) Sideways.

(NB: I know the term "butterface" but is there such a term as "butterfigure"? If not, Dibs!)

Vendikarr wrote:

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I am 51 and tend to look at women the age of my daughters or younger as children.

My daughters being cheerleaders killed the cheerleader fantasy for me too.

JoeZhang wrote:

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low fat-content, so likely to lack much fatty tissue around her labia and thus be deficit in terms of her suitability for sexual congress according to my judging criteria.

Am I the only one who sees more than a little bit of sexism in these comments?

[captcalhoun]

no one's forcing you to read it, if you don't like it, don't read it.

although, i do agree some of the comments are a bit much.

[Robert Maxwell]

scotpens wrote:

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Guys enjoy looking at attractive women, grading their physical attributes and personalities, judging them on a 1–10 scale, fantasizing about them. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s nature. It’s reality. Always has been, always will be. Deal with it.

Of course guys enjoy that. Does that mean they should be encouraged to make a public show of it? Have they no sense of decency or shame?

I'm not even against discussing attractive women or anything like that. What I have a problem with is the way they're reduced to nothing but a "thumbs up" or a "thumbs down," based almost entirely on their looks (after all, it's a "babe" thread, not a thread about their intelligence, sense of humor, generosity, etc.)

The days of treating women as nothing but objects are over. People who do it deserve any derision they get.

[TheSeeker]

I am not ashamed to say that I enjoy looking at beautiful women so that's why I participate. Hell, even my wife enjoys seeing who the babe of the week is.

Yes, there are plenty of posters who are way out of line with their remarks but there is nothing inherently disgusting about saying whether you find someone attractive or not. It's something we all do in our heads just about everyday. Some of us are just able to express it more maturely than others.

[Admiral_Young]

I've participated in the threads and voted and occasionally commented, but mostly don't bother with them. The comments I think are what people seem to have the most problem with...but yeah otherwise I don't really care about the threads. I think they've been around as long as I've been here.