And now it's about Men

Well, I love TV shows and I won't lie that I'm a Fan girl. I'm like the 'flip out every time my favourite actor appears on screen' person and more often than not I get told that I objectify the actors. No brownie points for knowing that TV actors are expected to look a certain way, especially if they are playing the heart throb! 

Yes, Benedict Cumberbatch looks hot, so does Matt Bomer, so does Hugh Laurie (no takers, seriously?). Here's the deal with loving these people, I started watching the shows and then liked (loved) them. Daniel Radcliffe was 11 when I saw him on screen, I've loved that kid forever, same with Rupert Grint. Are you telling me that I was objectifying them, because when I first watched Harry Potter, I didn't even know what objectification was. 

I'll tell you what I understand from the word objectification, objectification is when you reduce people to their physical appearance, when you treat them like a thing, like their only job was to cater to your eyes. For hundreds of years now, women have been subject to this, when you'd reduce the value of a women to her physical appearance, when you treat her like an object, a prop. Am I doing it? I ask myself the same question and each time, I get a very confident answer that I'm not.

The idea of beauty depends on a series of experiences, there is no one kind of beautiful, this includes physical beauty. While the a large onus of what people think is hot and not lies on the media portrayal, we as people find certain things desirable. Going back to my objectifying men stream of thoughts, I love watching shows and I fall in love with the men in the show, but because of the character they portray on the TV Show. (Actually, I was more in love with Irene Adler than Sherlock)

I was one of those people who thought Jim Parsons and Johnny Galecki were good looking, I watched TBBT like a maniac, but come season 5, I couldn't watch the show because of how horrible the show was, I cannot like Jim Parsons, how did a guy I was "oogling" at become not so hot? simple, I realised that I don't connect to his character and whatever appeal I had for Jim Parsons came exclusively from his portrayal of Sheldon. I loved Neil Patrick Harris from Doogie Howser, I could not get my eyes off him... But I didn't feel the slightest hint of affection for Barney (An asshole character). 

I'm not going to justify what drives people to like or hate characters, but I know for a fact about how I develop  affection for a character, I like it when they are real. I like when they go through a range of human emotions I can empathize with. My ideas of what's hot have be defined by my interactions with the world. I will never and I have never liked a character only because of his face. Because if I did  I would have a very tough time explaining why I don't like Jim Parsons any more, or why I can't like Matt LeBlanc, or Jon Hamm. 

I like my characters to be smart, non diva like and flawed. That's when I connect with a show. I will proudly say that I'm not a complete douchebag to people. I don't treat people like "eye candy". I look at people in their entirety. 

The basic difference between objectification and adoration is when you look at someone as a multidimensional personality. Angelina Jolie is hot, but I'm sure she is more than just her face, her ass or her lips. Same with Bomer or Laurie or Cumberbatch, they are obviously more than just beautiful faces. They have a back story as Neal, House or Sherlock. Pretty much why people swoon over completely fictional characters, there's no face, but there is definitely a connection.