(cont'd from previous post)

Pop quiz: why are things like pin-ups and scantily-clad, anatomically-correct figures considered to be offensive by many? Answer: because they reinforce heteronormative gender images that lead to an objectivication of women. (Literally, in this case.)

Now, this in and of itself isn't strictly a problem. (Though I fully expect that the folks from the Third Wavers' Club on campus would dispute that point.) As long as I keep my enjoyment of such things strictly to myself and strive to minimize within my professional and academic lives the associative effects of such an intense male aesthetic gaze, then we don't necessarily have a problem. My interests and my life are separate, and infringe upon nobody and nothing at all. The fact that I'm basically a hermetic loser who has minimal contact with women in his day-to-day life works somewhat in my favor, here.

Again, for whatever reason, I can theoretically accept that a girl might conceivably be willing to tolerate such things within the scope of an otherwise healthy relationship. (That said, I doubt it would actually happen, but continuing on...) However, I cannot, even for a moment, accept that any self-aware member of the female gender would, as you say, love my collection.

Take, for example, a pin-up of Louise from Zero no Tsukaima. She's at the beach, wearing a black string bikiki with red trim and white ribbons where the strings meet the modesty patches. She rests her hands on her hips as she meets the viewer's gaze and scowls, presumably telling the viewer off in her lovably tsundere fashion. I like this pin-up. No, check that, I love it. It's far and away my favorite. If I could get married to it, I would, though I concede the sex would probably be somewhat anticlimactic. Perhaps literally, if paper cuts are involved.

The appeal of this poster to the heteronormative male gaze is self-evident: it's a cute girl in a skimpy bikini. She even appears distressed by the fact that she's being watched, which is, as they say, totally hot. However, the aforementioned male gaze that dominates this picture -- along with Louise's reaction to that gaze -- places in severe doubt the notion that any self-aware girl would even tolerate this poster, much less "love" it.

I could cite further examples, but you're all asleep by now, so I won't bother. That, or you're busy composing other threads about how the music of My Chemical Romance perfectly captures the feeling of being dumped, which no one else has ever experienced. Or about how incest is the greatest thing devised by man since Count Chocula.

My point, however, is simple: a girl might tolerate my figures, pillows, and posters, despite their targeted focus towards a heteronormative male gaze. However, that same focus would categorically prevent a girl from "loving" them, and would, in fact, cast serious doubt on the likelihood of my earier theoretical concession towards the possibility of tolerance.

Thus, for a guy in my position, there it little chance that a girl would tolerate my collection and even less that she would endorse it. My original assertion from >>23 stands. Q.E.D.