The Swimsuit Debate continues (sigh)....

...probably exhausting the patience of this blog's readers. Robin Hanson responds to my updated post on the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue:

Easterly doesn’t explain how exactly watching swimsuit models induces disrespect and harassment, and I find it hard to see the imagined causal path.

As I made clear to Robin in an email exchange, I don't think this debate hinges on an empirical claim. Nobody decides whether to use the N-word or not based on randomized controlled trials of whether its use quantitatively predicts assaults on African Americans. We have a moral sense of what is respectful, how to treat our fellow human beings with dignity, how to treat them as equals, in short, what respects their individual rights. Treating women as sex objects transgresses the moral obligation to respect the rights of women.  I believe the Swimsuit Issue does that; others may disagree.

Now it's really WAY past the time that two middle-aged male economists should get back to their own areas of specialized knowledge...

Sports Illustrated releases annual Mainstreaming Gender Objectification issue

UPDATE 2/25: Robin Hanson's blog offers a defense of the Swimsuit Issue. (Strangely it fails to mention this post although it uses the same "Top 10"  link as below. Maybe Professor Hanson regularly surfs feminist blogs.) This is a teaching moment for economists -- does the relentless marketing of a "swimsuit" young female body type as sex object create a negative externality for women in general? (only economists use the words "externality," "sex" and "swimsuit" in the same sentence). I would say yes, Robin apparently says no.  I think the explosion of such marketing has been a negative trend since the 1960s, inducing more women to be treated disrespectfully or harassed, partially offsetting other gains in women's rights. If you believe individual rights are a key to development, then I think this is an important development discussion (in case you were very justifiably wondering?!)

Original post is below:

see lucid discussion Top 10 Ways Sports Illustrated Disrespects Women

a bit more jargon here

comments from my own sources:

"nobody really could have bust measurement that large and a waist size that small";

"so the ideal is a half-starved 20-year-old Eastern European with implants?"