Joanna Schroeder talks about the newest incarnation of ‘Hot or Not’ and muses on whether objectification like this is good for society.
We’ve been talking a lot about objectification here at The Good Men Project. About how it affects men as the object, such as in the film Magic Mike and how it affects men when they are the ones who own the gaze, as Jayson Gaddis discussed.
But we haven’t gotten down to the nitty gritty of who wants to be objectified and why, and whether it’s okay in the instances of those who, for whatever reason, enjoy having an objectifying gaze upon them.
One thing I can say for sure is that anyone who tags their Instagram photos with #Hotstagram is looking to be objectified… Once you tag your photo with that hashtag, you’ve invited Hotstagram to pit you against other people of your sex (so far there are only “male” and “female” competitions, sorry to all the Zie’s out there) in a side-by-side battle of soft-focused iPhone self-portraits featuring puffed-out lips and push-up bras.
As a user, you are instantly invited to click on who is hotter, and then you’re given more and more and more and more and more pairs of photos until ten minutes have passed and someone says, “Hey, what’cha doing over there?” and you realize that what you’ve done is slip down the Hotness rabbit hole and accomplished exactly NOTHING! And you’re embarrassed about what you have just been caught doing and so you say, “Umm, shopping for groceries online. Do you need any cereal?”
Wait! you say. Where have I heard of this before… It’s so familiar… Oh yeah! That movie about Facebook!
You’re right! Hotstagram is basically Mark Zuckerberg’s Facemash game “Hot or Not” which featured heavily in the film The Social Network—except using Instagram photos.
So what do you think, is objectification like this okay because the participants have chosen to put themselves up to be judged based upon nothing more than one photo?
Is Hotstagram a symbol of just how shallow our society has gotten?
And why are there so many celebrity pics in with the photos of allegedly-real guys on Hotstagram? Do they not get enough submissions from real-life, non-celeb men?
Would you ever submit a photo to Hotstagram?
Photo courtesy of Flickr/atelielove
Funny how all the hottest men are either celebrities or models, while most of the women seem anonymous.
“Everyone wants their 15 minutes and people can now become famous simply by existing.” (~Ulysses) I can’t get over at how shamefully true that is. But I 100% agree with Ulysses here: the application in and of itself isn’t too terrible, but it’s definitely not a step in the right direction. A far cry for attention. But to further your point on objectification, Joanna, I think it’s ok for people to want to be objectified when they decide it’s ok. Something like Hotstagram probably isn’t the best way to venture out there but hey, who am I to judge if… Read more »
Josh Homme, of Queens of the Stone Age, said it best in I’m Designer: “My generation’s for sale, beats a steady job. How much have you got? . . . The thing that’s real for us is fortune and fame. All the rest seems like work.” Yes it’s unhealthy. No I don’t feel bad for giving people what they want, though I rarely visit such sites. Everyone wants their 15 minutes and people can now become famous simply by existing. So we end up with diversions such as this. I don’t think it’s that terrible in and of itself, but… Read more »
Josh Homme, of Queens of the Stone Age, said it best in I’m Designer: “My generation’s for sale, beats a steady job. How much have you got? . . . The thing that’s real for us is fortune and fame. All the rest seems like work.