The XX Factor: What women really think.

Bad Men Do What Good Men Dream

Reading "Bikinis Make Men See Women as Objects, Scans Confirm," I had to laugh. Princeton psychology professor Susan Fiske used an MRI to scan the brains of men as they were shown a variety of images: clothed and unclothed women and men. Upon eyeballing the images featuring scantily clad women, the portion of the male brain dedicated to "tool use" lit up like a Christmas tree. Meanwhile, the portion of the brain devoted to recognizing the subject as human didn't react at all in some subjects. Fiske notes: "The only other time we have seen this is when people look at pictures of the homeless or of drug addicts. ... "

Men objectify women! Color me shocked. Apparently, Fiske was "shocked" at the results. It sounds like she didn't enter into the study entirely objectively either. When the idea for the study was suggested to Fiske by Stanford psychology professor Jennifer Eberhardt, who predicted the "tool use" effect: “I said, ‘Oh, Jennifer, that’s disgusting. I can’t believe you’re predicting that.' ” I am fascinated to know what bubble it is these people live in. Or maybe they just never leave the lab.

Of course, feminist bloggers are having a field day with the results, although they can't quite seem to decide if it's male biology that's the culprit here or that infernal patriarchal society they're always talking about overthrowing. Feministing: "I think this argument proves that despite some pre-historic desire for men to get horny over scantily clad women and for women to want rich husbands that provide security and ability to nest (this is what evolutionary psychologists would argue), most of this desire comes from cultural conditioning." Thank you for clearing that up for me. (See Tracy Clark-Flory for a more rational response.)

What's being overlooked here is twofold. One: Fiske et al. studied a whopping 21 men. Who were all college students. To leap to grand generalizations based on such a limited pool seems foolish, at best. Two: Why do the results of this limited study have to lead to the conclusion that men are somehow "bad"? Can't they just be, well, men?

And everyone seems to be happy to overlook the fact that when asked if women view scantily clad men the same way, Fiske responded that women tend to privilege the bank balance and age of a man over his looks. How's that for objectification?