Objectification or Celebration?

On a late night TV news debate I watched yesterday, the 'objectification' of women was being decried as something that must be stopped. It seems an obvious point that society and the media, by which we silently mean men, should not see women as objects. But it is less obvious why men finding women attractive is 'objectification': do women not do the same? Is the TV advert of an impossibly attractive lawn mower man spraying himself with Pepsi not 'objectification', then? By admiring physical form are we condemning something or someone to being an object or are we celebrating it, or them, as attractive and desirable?

The trouble with girls is that they seem to want to be desired but not objectified, which is understandable, but it is difficult for a man to know the difference, especially when imagery of attractive women is so ubiquitous. The artwork of Tracey Emin's post coital bed recently sold for $2.5m, Facebook and Goodreads are filled with female authors using pictures of themselves to try and sell books, pop and film stars are rarely unattractive, so what are we simple blokes supposed to think?

I certainly liked to celebrate the beauty of my girlfriends (and wives), regularly taking intimate photos of them. Some were unsure at first, though whether that was because they felt objectified or uncertain of their own aesthetics was not clear. I tried to reassure them that I was taking naked pictures of them because they were beautiful, alluring, provocative, desirous and few actually refused. Indeed, most seemed quite happy to be the focus of my attention in such an obvious way.
"Take your shirt off, slowly, raise your skirt, look at the camera, release your inner porn star."
"Why did you say that? Do you secretly want to go out with a porn star," a resplendently naked and shy girlfriend once asked me as I clicked away.
"No, I don't want to go out with a porn star," I said from behind the camera, "but I do want to have sex with one."

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Trouble-Girls...