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Is this because the majority of the viewers and spectators of TE are heterosexual male, checking out and commenting mainly on threads started by females; or is it because, as suggested on Seinfeld, the female body is a thing of beauty, a work of art, while the male body is simply utilitarian?
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The former. I don't mean to oversimplify, but I think that's really what it is.
I don't know the demographics, but I think it's been discussed before. I think that most of the TFP consists of heterosexual men. And most heterosexual men (as in society) don't like to look at other men naked. They like to look at women naked. Looking at men makes them uncomfortable. Maybe it's just not their thing. Maybe they mentally can't handle it. Who knows? But that's the bottom line as to why female threads get more responses than male threads. There are simply more men looking for tits on this website.
Look at the front forum page of TFP. As of right now, I see that the non-porn forum
getting the most views is Weaponry, with 23 viewing. Then look at the TB.
173 viewing. That's quite a jump. 3 are viewing The Full Monty. Personally, this says to me that more people are simply interested in seeing naked women than they are naked men.
I'm relatively comfortable looking at either men or women. I usually don't comment in Tilted Exhibition. I always feel a bit lecherous. And I almost never have commented in a male thread in TE. Why? Because society tells me if I tell a guy "hey, you look great," then damn, that must mean I'm gay. I hate that I haven't gotten past that, because honestly, I like to think of myself as a bit more enlightened.
But I'm sure there are guys who DO check out the men threads, and don't respond for the same reason. Either way, I don't differentiate between men and women in terms of the artistic integrity of the naked body. Both are unbelievably beautiful and artistic.
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What it all boils down to, is what we think beauty is. Or what we experience beauty to be. Is there anything that we, as a society, outside of TE, can do to try and change the common perception of beauty? And furthermore, should we even try and change it, if we have no other justification for doing so than to even the scales?
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I don't know. I don't mean to be pessimistic, but all you have to do is look at the way our society treats homosexuals to see the prevailing opinion on beauty. Or look at Paris Hilton. Or any other super-skinny model. How would you go about changing society? Thankfully, there are avenues (like TE) for us each to express our own personal opinions on beauty, where the opinion (I believe) is "come join us if you feel this way- if you don't, that's fine, just don't tell us how to think." I feel this is kind of the way TFP is in general, but it also works for a board like Off The Wayside. Everybody has a different perception of beauty, and a place like the TFP is a place to express that.
The reason people post in TE isn't cut and dry. The people that post there have many different reasons to post there. Go back and read Lurkette's amazing article in Tilted Magazine (found
here) for an example on how one person's reason is very different from another's. But I think everybody's reasons are beautiful, if for no other reason because they're sharing with people who are somehow riding a line between strangers and family. They're taking a risk on some level or another when they click that "post" button, and gracing us with a very special side of themselves. I think that may be the one thing that unifies Tilted Exhibition.