The difference between this image and the image of Miley is how they’re presented. I’m still uncomfortable with both, but Miley looks to be in a sexual pose and completely nude while Jayden is simply lifting his shirt for a minute to reveal his muscles. There would be more of a problem if Jayden wasn’t pulling his shirt up himself. This makes me bring up the Bieber-Kim photoshoot where it was suggested he get into water with a white shirt (this is an assumption, though).

I think another point to make would be that Jayden is proud of his work in The Karate Kid. He went through very intense training for it and I’m sure he’s proud of his new-found muscles. This is different from Miley showing off her backside for no real reason or Bieber in his see-through shirt. There were different circumstances, but that doesn’t make it any less “sexual”.

The reason I think that it’s worse to do this to girls is because of history. Women have always been considered frail and should be proper. Remember, it was once a large offense for a woman to show off her ankles. Look at how things are now, so much has changed since then. It’s unfortunate, but it really is gender role.

I don’t like how they do this with anyone, but I know that I have a bigger problem with people who are more feminine being treated like this. I associate feminine with “weaker”. That’s not to say that someone who is feminine cannot be strong. I think it’s more of a “if they look weak, they’re probably weak” type though process for me. I’m going to assume that the guy with muscles is stronger than the thin guy.

On the physiological side of things their are solid arguments that male an female react differently to visual sexual stimuli (www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/internet/…/hamann-et-al-efr–1-3.pdf)

On the social side of things I also think that the perception that naked boys body are not sexualized reflect the patriarchal hetero-centric order of society. Men/boys bodies are not considered sexual because they are not of the “natural” object of desire of heterosexual males.

It how different is the perception of homosexual men and women to a set of girls and boys body images to that of straight men and women.

When I see the photo of Jaden it is normal and I don’t feel he is being sexualized and that it is being ignored by the media. I don’t wonder why no one is offended at his sexual objectification. Instead I wonder why we cannot also look at a female child’s torso and see it in a non-sexual manner as well.

I think we ALL have our biases. And one, IMO, is the inability to imagine a person looking at or admiring another’s body in a nonsexual manner.(I’ve already stated mine-I tend to see bodies nonsexually) I completely agree with those who do not feel that children should be sexually exploited. However, by insisting that any display of flesh is “sexualizing” someone, it is possible that the person insisting is the one doing the sexualizing by being unable to imagine any other motive or reason for the failure to remain covered,other than sexual objectification. It is like the missionaries who insisted upon covering women in Polynesia, becuase they could not imagine that other people were not looking at their breasts and desiring them, because they were unable to look at their breasts without feeling sexual desire.Or people who can’t imagine that nudist communities aren’t dens of lust and sex.

The boy is young and already very fit and very strong and a skilled athlete. His musculature and development is exceptional, and from a purely athletic point of view worthy of admiration.What is a shame IMO is not that he is being sexualized, but that a female athlete of that caliber would not be able to show her torso wit non-sexual connotations.

We see what we expect to see. Rather than insisting upon covering people’s bodies to prevent people from seeing them sexually, I’d love to see people learn to see women’s bodies as neutrally as they see men’s, and be able to admire a fit muscular female form without seeing her only as a sexual object.I’d love for women have the same freedom as men and not have to hide their forms to avoid being seen sexually