Objectifying Women? Ellen DeGeneres Slammed for Breast-Ogling Tweet to Katy Perry

Article here. Excerpt:

'It was a case of checking your Twitter time stamp, but in the midst of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, daytime talk show host Ellen DeGeneres wished singer and bigtime Hillary Clinton supporter Katy Perry a happy birthday by tweeting out a photo of Ellen gawking at Perry’s ample chest, writing “It’s time to bring out the big balloons!"

Well that’s awkward, given all the scandal and accusations of rape, sexual harassment, objectification of women Weinstein is accused of, in addition to all those Hollywood elites who KNEW about Weinstein yet remained silent on the matter. Oh, and yeah - they call themselves feminists, too.

Apparently, Ellen thinks it’s okay to objectify women because she herself, is a woman…but she’s a lesbian, so that doesn’t count – or does it? Wouldn’t her little Katy Perry birthday stunt be considered as objectifying another woman based on her looks? Isn’t this same thing Ellen and many other liberals laud against the very men who commit these same indecent acts? On Twitter, former CNN host Piers Morgan shot back: "If a man made this joke, Ellen would lead the cries of ‘SEXIST PIG!’"
...
Amanda suggested it was "lesbian privilege." So where are all the Hollywood feminists that slapped a #MeToo on their Twitter and Facebook pages and (rightly so) called for the heads of Weinstein and every other man guilty of committing any sort of harassment against women?

Nowhere. These same women would rather bark that former president George H. W. Bush, who is 93 years old, suffered several strokes and has been confined to a wheelchair for the past five years, is “harassing” women because his arm happens to fall on the lower waist of people with whom he takes pictures with and tries to lighten the situation by telling a corny joke.'

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I see the author's point and I am in no way saying let's go with a double standard and give Ellen a "lesbian pass" to make crude jokes about women's anatomies, esp. since same are not accepted from men. Fair's fair. But to the best of my knowledge, no one has accused Ellen D. of sexual harassment to the degree that Harvey W., et al., have been accused.

To re-visit a point I made earlier in another post, there are 2 issues here. One is transactional sex, quid pro quo sex, not much different from simply bribing someone for their patronage. Women have been doing this for millennia with men who have access to opportunities and resources and while it is not ideal, it is how the whole primate family rolls. At the same time, forcibly-coerced sex has also been observed among primates, ie, rape. It's also seen among non-primates as well, even among insects. So forced sex (rape) seems to be a process in nature found at least among some number of species, but lest you think in saying so I am putting an approval stamp on that M.O., hold your horses. Animals do what they do out of instinct and are not held morally culpable for their actions because they lack enough self-awareness to be able to control themselves. Humans OTOH *do* have such a capacity and we instinctively know that forced/coerced sex is simply wrong of us to do. That is why rape is illegal, as it should be. Quid pro quo sex however, is not coerced sex; it is economized sex. That is a different matter. It may not be a seemly transaction but it is just that. Both parties are fine with what is going on. He gets something, she gets something. Not too much different from paying $x for something at a store, except in that you and the store clerk are 1) both clothed, presumably, and 2) are not trading body fluids. For some reason, due to these two difference, people tend to flip out. Dunno why.

The second issue is actual sexual harassment. This is when you do or say something to someone that any sane, reasonable person would know is not generally welcome behavior and it is of a sexual nature. Unsolicited comments about sexualized anatomy fit that definition and that is what Ellen D. was doing -- presumably the subject of her comments was not down with the commentary (though who knows, they may have such a rel'p that she feels it's OK), and if so, then maybe everyone needs to piss off and leave them be. But Ellen D. is a public figure and was behaving the way she was publicly, so there is to be expected some criticism for her behavior.

I point out that near as I can tell, Ellen D. did not touch the subject of her comments nor overtly proposition her in a degrading way. That would be a lot more offensive. So while I champion equal standards for both sexes, applying those standards, I see that Ellen D's behavior was far less egregious than the behavior of Harvey W., et al., who have been reported as being all hands on people of both sexes without reason to assume that would be OK, and in HW's case, he has a long history of behaving very badly toward others in general.

Whether a school-yard type bully, a sexual bully, or both, such people of either sex shouldn't be tolerated for it. Sure they need help -- but they KNOW what they are doing is wrong. And as adults, they are morally and legally culpable for their own bad decisions.

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however, it has been pointed out that feminists (and the political left in general) don't seem to notice the obvious double standards constantly at play. men do this and men do that, but so do women in most cases, like here.

we are 1st and foremost human animals. nobody wants to make excuses for rapists or sexual abusers here, except feminists. imagine the stink raised if a conservative male had made the same tweet as ellen did. its all just more fuzzy law. one guy/gal at work can get away w/ saying something suggestive in the privacy of the elevator whereas the next guy can't. who makes these rules? its surely not 'the wisdom of the crowd', is it? don't think so. one guy tells his friends of his sexual encounter on the copy machine and the next guy loses his job or gets a complaint in his permanent file because he said something that was taken as 'inappropriate or offensive'. is that fair? western women live in a bizarre world of privilege. they can wear just about any attire to work, from hiked up skirts to sandals. men can't, even those who might want to. and you won't hear feminists admit to all the 'free rides' women get in society, like MUCH less severe criminal judgements than men for the same crimes. instead they trot out the oft debunked 70% less salary for the same work. if that were true companies would never hire a man if they were getting the same work for 30% less. men don't stick together like that. indeed. some men will even slam other men w/ lies or false accusations in a minute to get ahead, as will some women. there is no secret 'understanding' among men to only hire guys, to the contrary. I've seen men and women only try to hire good looking men or women. being sexually suggestive as an applicant during a job interview is nothing new, and again as always, it cuts both ways, but only one side gets slammed.

has anyone ever mentioned how men must constantly make it clear, when writing about this or any other subject concerning women, how they are not in any way condoning such bad behavior? failure to constantly make it clear that the writer/speaker is not condoning such behavior will certainly and immediately lead to accusations of sympathy for the accused, or even accusations of perhaps similar wrongdoing on the part of the male writer/speaker.

like I said, a very interesting topic, and not one easily discussed in a honest or impartial way.

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I see two consenting adults. Ellen and Katy are good friends, I am sure Ellen knows what she can get away with. I's not like she is going up to a complete stranger and doing this or doing this to someone who is interviewing with her for a job.

I see this as a non-issue and it's about adult humor, and nothing to do with sexual assault or inappropriate treatment.

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I'm sure Ellen D. has said far more suggestive things to her and that she was fine with it. As I said in my post, it all depends on the nature of the rel'p. If it's germane to them, it's all good. Mountain from a molehill.

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