Miss Butterface

Okay, here's the e-mail argument I'm currently engaged in with several friends...

Is it offensive or mysogynist to call a woman a "butterface?" (You all know the term butterface, right? Everything about the woman is beautiful, but-her-face...Butterface. Okay, now everyone's up to speed...)

See, I say it's not offensive. You're just making an observation about whether or not you find a woman attractive. I realize that women don't really perceive attractiveness in this way - if they are attracted to a man, they generally find all of his features attractive, whereas men can look at women in a more segmented, fetishized way - but the principle is simple, to my mind.

Now, saying something like, "I'd have sex with her, if you put a bag over her head" is far more crude and insulting. It implies that you'd like to confront, and even sexually punish, a woman for her appearance, which kind of does strike me as improper.

The counter-argument, proposed by my frequent conversational nemesis Yancy, is that any demeaning comment leveled at an attractive woman by an unattractive man (such as myself) is degrading and in poor taste, and reflects my own insecurities rather than any real commentary on the attractiveness or unattractiveness of a woman. (We are discussing, by the way, Sandra Oh, supporting actress from Sideways and wife of director Alexander Payne).

Here's Yancy's case in a nutshell:

You know, women ARE different. They do objectify - but I don't think awoman would go "Oh, that dude is ugly but his ass is great" - if they don't like the guy's face/personality, they're not gonna go piece-meal shopping onthe rest of his body.

I basically agree with this, but don't think it means I'm not allowed to think Sandra Oh has a butterface. I mean, look at that photo on the IMDB page I linked! Leggo my uggo!