Monday, December 19, 2016

Anyone else as pissed as me about the title of the picture?

Sooo I headed into an art exhibition here in Cartagena that a guy (who I met through the Couchsurfing Hangout App, obviously, hah!) and I were walking by one day. It was an interesting exhibition. There was a room titled Paradise and another titled Hell and there were beautiful pictures in both (as well as some I could've gone without seeing in the latter).

In the Paradise room, though, there was a picture that really pissed me off and I thought I could share it here so you can all be pissed off with me. You're welcome.

the "Paradise" room





Don't get me wrong -- the picture itself is beautiful. This woman is gorgeous and she has beautiful eyes (though I couldn't help but noticing that she has two eyelashes crossing in a weird way on one eye and I really want to fix it for her -- but okay, that's not the point).

What pissed me off was the title of the picture. If you zoom in, you'll notice that it's Tentación (Temptation). If anyone can think of a more sexist title for this picture, I'd be curious to hear it. I don't think it'd be any more obvious if they straight-up called the picture "Sex Object for Men."

Another friend I entered the same museum with later told me (playing Devil's Advocate more than anything else, I hope) that maybe I just didn't understand the title and that it meant something else. Okay, I'm open to it. I'd be interested to hear such an explanation but I haven't yet.

To me, whoever took and titled this picture thinks of this woman as a sex object. They think of her in Biblical terms, where it's the woman's "fault" if someone is attracted to her and "therefore" violates her privacy in some way; it's her fault if she's raped because she "tempted" the man with her beauty. They think of her as existing for sex -- as some kind of treat that they're not "supposed" to touch but that if they do, it will be incredibly gratifying. The title objectifies this beautiful woman who has feelings, who obviously has a complete personality, who is surely intelligent, who is allowed to be beautiful, who is allowed to look and dress however she wants, who has her own desires and makes her own decisions. The way she looks and the way she dresses has absolutely nothing to do with men. She is not a fucking temptation. She is a person.

Hope you're all as pissed off as I am about this title. I'm sick of this sexist shit and I wish I could say it was only here in Latin America but we all know that's not true.

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