http://article.wn.com/view/2011/04/13/S ... _teachers/

Brisbane schoolboys rated the attractiveness of their teachers in Facebook, and were punished. The question is what were they being punished for? Having the temerity to judge the attractiveness of their teachers, or perhaps their female schoolmates? Or was it because they socialised it? Or was it because in addition to doing the first two, they engraved into near permanent history?

Males and females judge each other all the time, and often share these informally with their peers. Usually they get away with this, however technology means the evidence is frozen and available to all. If we take issue with the fact that boys judged their teachers looks, then we have an issue with just about every person that looks at another and has an opinion on how sexually appealing they percieve them to be. If it is because they shared their thoughts with others, once again, many or most people air their views in chosen company. It must be because they were foolhardy enough to publish what everyone does as a matter of course throughout everyday - judging their fellow humans, in this case specifically the opposite sex.

What is the solution? Change the basic ature of our judgemental selves, or just make sure we all keep in just below the radar of public and permanent record, or perhaps we should ban these systems on the basis they to cramp our natural style?

Well, perhaps then everyone on facebook should be rated on their physical attractiveness. We could all have ratings, perhaps, on our profiles so we all know just where we stand re. our physical attractiveness to the opposite sex? And everyone else can know our 'score' too. It could be something we fill in on forms etc like we do our age. And it must be great fun being able to observe groups of people who know us in whatever capacity, discussing and debating how attractive we are.
I can picture hunter-gatherers doing the same around the fire in the evenings - yes, certainly it is in our nature not only to do this but also to be fine watching and hearing others debating our 'score'.

So who exactly was bothered by the ratings? Brisbane Catholic boys' college? Perhaps it is against the values of the school. I do not see a problem here. Children should be be punished/prised by their parents in the first place I would guess so it is a question for parents in the first place. The solution would be not to go to Brisbane Catholic boys' college.

really, are we all supposed to be a piece of sexmeat?. If people want to rate them selves there are sites doing just that. People are bloody fine without having their physical attractiveness being rated.If they want that they will go compete in miss and mr world title. We are human beings and there will be those who dont wish to be judged by how they look.
If people use my picture without my explicit permission, then I have every right to sue them.Right to privacy is important,especially on the net.

I wonder if they were punished if they rated their teachers based on sense of humor or intellect or perhaps teaching abilities. Are we all supposed to be a piece of intellect?

BTW anyone has the link to the website in question so we know what we talk about?

tuco wrote:I wonder if they were punished if they rated their teachers based on sense of humor or intellect or perhaps teaching abilities. Are we all supposed to be a piece of intellect?

BTW anyone has the link to the website in question so we know what we talk about?

Why dont people rate on the basis of color, who is how fair?, there is nothing rationally wrong about that either? or guessestimating peoples genitals?.Nothing rationally wrong about that either, Or rating babies or children on their cuteness or sexiness?.

I dunno how fair it is, as that would be a value judgment I hesitate to make. So no, from where I sit there is nothing rationally, or otherwise, wrong with it neither.

thanks, rationality- what a wonderfully self confirming worldview it provides.

tuco wrote:So who exactly was bothered by the ratings? Brisbane Catholic boys' college? Perhaps it is against the values of the school. I do not see a problem here. Children should be be punished/prised by their parents in the first place I would guess so it is a question for parents in the first place. The solution would be not to go to Brisbane Catholic boys' college.

Get your pics up then.

Where do you want it?

edit: Perhaps you think I am kidding or making it up or whatever, but I posted on this board my picture, address, and mobile number. Anything else you want, feel free to ask.

tuco wrote:I wonder if they were punished if they rated their teachers based on sense of humor or intellect or perhaps teaching abilities. Are we all supposed to be a piece of intellect?

BTW anyone has the link to the website in question so we know what we talk about?

As the women are teachers that would have been much more appropriate. But then, who really cares about intellect when there are tits and bums to evaluate?
I expect these women would be quite happy to have their intellect and teaching skills evaluated - no doubt that is what they have been through in their training and employment. But they did not offer themselves to be publicly evaluated as sex objects or they would have entered beauty contests.

As these boys were short of females to objectify in this way, would it have been as acceptable to them to have done the same with their mothers and sisters? Or for others to have done so with the boys' mothers and sisters?

Anyone with any sense knows that this is anti-social behaviour.

I just happened to have been reading a blog on'Psychology Today' Sexy Women are Seen as Objects, Studies Find
Male Brain Sees Sexy Women as Non-Human

Other research has found that merely focusing on a woman's appearance (fully dressed) is enough for people (men and women) to dehumanize a woman. Specifically, we found that people assign female targets less "human nature traits" when focus is on their appearance. These traits are perceived by humans to separate people from machines, automata and objects.Another study found that these women are seen as less moral (sincere, trusting) and less emotionally warm (likable, warm).

These findings are also consistent with a wide range of work showing that objectified women are perceived as less competent. Interestingly, research even finds that when men view sexualized pictures of women, they subsequently view a female experimenter as doing a worse job. In other words, men "carried over" their views of the sexualized women to another woman, who was not scantily dressed.

And lastly, research shows that men and women view sexualized images (of both men and women) as lacking "mind," which is basically a denial of thoughts and emotions. In this work, people even had less concern for the sexualized people's pain, compared to when they were fully dressed.

The picture truly is bleak when women (and in some cases men) are evaluated solely on their looks and/or sexualized.

Haven't looked at the actual research yet but I think people, or at least women, kind of know this is true - that's what we struggle with.
And yes, there are likely 'evolutionary' reasons for it but that certainly does not mean that it is acceptable anymore than the evolutionary reasons for infanticide or rape or siblicide etc etc makes them acceptable.



Anyway, from the link above:

After Mark Zuckerberg did it at Harvard, he went on to found Facebook and become one of the world's richest men.

When a student at a Brisbane Catholic boys' college did it last week, he got suspended from school.

The deed? Creating a website where students can 'rate' females at the college.

In Zuckerberg's case, it was female students. With that option not available to this geek (no girls at the school), he displayed photos of female staff members.

The stunt, predictably, did not go down well with management at Villanova College.
........
Villanova College principal Dennis Harvey confirmed to the Times certain female teachers had been targeted and rated according to their physical attributes.

"The page invited viewers to rate female members of the college staff, according to criteria that were offensive and of a personal nature," he said in a statement.
............
The school has reportedly removed all inappropriate material from the site.

Well, yes that is the problem: Who determines what is appropriate and whatnot? Rationally. Hopefully not Sam Harris!?

tuco wrote:Well, yes that is the problem: Who determines what is appropriate and whatnot? Rationally. Hopefully not Sam Harris!?

Wisdom is thus not what men first of all seek. They seek, instead, the justification for what they happen to cherish. - Franz Kafka
can you show the source for this quote?. Also the quote comes into this context

sprite wrote:I just happened to have been reading a blog on'Psychology Today' Sexy Women are Seen as Objects, Studies Find
Male Brain Sees Sexy Women as Non-Human

Phwoar! I love a bit of non-humans me. There's a stapler right now giving me the come to bed eyes from across my desk.

HughMcB wrote:

sprite wrote:I just happened to have been reading a blog on'Psychology Today' Sexy Women are Seen as Objects, Studies Find
Male Brain Sees Sexy Women as Non-Human

Phwoar! I love a bit of non-humans me. There's a stapler right now given me the come to bed eyes from across my desk.

go to it and let it bite you

Ahh .. you got me there cavarka9

First, I thought it is from Aphorisms, without context, but apparently not, as I just checked. Well, and not that I remember, I guess I got it from online biography in English, which is not the language I read him in. It sounds like Kafka, or does it not? ;)

well, I got caught by a misattributed quote to george orwell, since then , I am careful.
I havent read kafka, havent read much either. But if the quote is his or similar to his work, then, I am going to read him.

Fair enough, I will take it off, if it'll make you feel better :) .. j/k! Was thinking about going anonymous completely for some time anyway.

tuco wrote:Fair enough, I will take it off, if it'll make you feel better .. j/k! Was thinking about going anonymous completely for some time anyway.

the quote is great, and it is in online english biography, keep the quote

cavarka9 wrote:really, are we all supposed to be a piece of sexmeat?. If people want to rate them selves there are sites doing just that. People are bloody fine without having their physical attractiveness being rated.If they want that they will go compete in miss and mr world title. We are human beings and there will be those who dont wish to be judged by how they look.
If people use my picture without my explicit permission, then I have every right to sue them.Right to privacy is important,especially on the net.

I think you misundestand what happened. The teachers were not rated on the attaractiveness of their Facebook pictures, theyr wer being judged on their real appearance, and opinions were then being reported through FB. I understand your wish that others do not judge, but do not see this as realistic, most people will judge on various traits, to various degrees, and place value on these, from our looks for our generosity, status, etc. The issue appears to be when others judgement of you has negative effects.

Most people dress themselves differently for public view, make sure they do have smudged makeup, soiled clothes, and try present their best face (even if they have to hide flaws etc), and are strongly affected by how people view this. Mostly we al act out a vast co-operative live in which we all moderate or hold our views, at least not the face of others. Kids have not yet been trained to this level of compliance and are more likely to speak their minds. Adults better understand the penalties of being too honest and become more politically correct. Once they get to older age, they often feel they have been forced to live a social lie, and can be quite bitter and return to a blunt version as they feel that they have little left to lose.