>> As far as I can tell, your argument is "because people like it, it is okay." This is obviously wrong, so please explain your argument in more detail.
I would be much more interested in your arguments for concluding it is 'obviously wrong' to choose the kind of imagery that the majority of people apparently enjoys looking at. I'm really trying to follow your reasoning here, but aside from possible personal ethics and morality I can't really think of a good reason to draw this conclusion. Isn't the whole idea of a 'common culture' between a group of people to act and express themselves in ways the majority enjoys and/or deems acceptable?
You could always argue the merits of American/western culture in general, and I would agree there are many things I dislike about that, but the way women are treated isn't one of them.
> your arguments for concluding it is 'obviously wrong' to choose the kind of imagery
That's the wrong^H^H^H^H^Hincorrect antecedent. Sorry, my fault for using pronouns. I was saying that "because people like it, it is okay" is a flawed argument. It doesn't help that I meant "wrong" as in "unsound/incorrect" but the word has a second meaning of "unjust/immoral".
I get your point and I think I mostly agree with it, but from a utilitarian point of view, it's actually not that much of a stretch from 'because people like it' to 'it is okay' ;-)
This fundamental problem of any form of normative ethics is that they are all subjective. If you accept the notion that everyone is entitled to his or her own personal views on ethics and morality, this inevitably means the majority opinion is what ends up as being the accepted morality.
Of course we could argue about whether normative ethics in general, or utilitarian ethics in particular are 'wrong', 'incorrect' or 'unjust', but that even though that could lead to a very interesting discussion, it wouldn't probably get us anywhere. Over two thousand years of thinking before us haven't reached any kind of consensus on this topic ;-)
I would be much more interested in your arguments for concluding it is 'obviously wrong' to choose the kind of imagery that the majority of people apparently enjoys looking at. I'm really trying to follow your reasoning here, but aside from possible personal ethics and morality I can't really think of a good reason to draw this conclusion. Isn't the whole idea of a 'common culture' between a group of people to act and express themselves in ways the majority enjoys and/or deems acceptable?
You could always argue the merits of American/western culture in general, and I would agree there are many things I dislike about that, but the way women are treated isn't one of them.