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Banned keywords reappearing in different guise
A few years ago, "male-female-relationship" was rightfully banned as a keyword. Now, "man-woman-relationship" has appeared. (I just submitted deletions.) "man-woman-relationship" should also be banned, as should the stand-alone "man" and "woman" keywords. They are too general, and could be applied to millions of titles!
Similarly, there is also a problem with the keywords implying "objectification." It's as if someone(s) has (have) been influenced by their gender studies classes in college, and are applying these keywords in a misguided attempt for political correctness. "objectification-of-men," "objectilfication-of-women,: "male-objectification," "female-objectificstion," "women-as-object" (but, interestingly, no " men-as-object"), etc. should all be deleted and banned.
One could easily and logically argue that ALL titles utilize objectification. How can anyone suggest that Rudolph Valentino, Clark, Gable, Jean Harlow, Tyrone Power, Lana Turner, Erroll Flynn, Ava Gardner, Rita Hayworth, Marilyn Monroe, Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, etc., etc., etc. were NOT objectified? Any title with "bare-chested-male" and/or "bare-breasts" implies objectification. Any title with "nudity" implies objectification. Any title in the Romance genre implies objectification. And, most certainly, ALL Adult titles utilize objectification. The "objectification" keywords, I suspect, could be applied to a least 97% of all titles on IMDb. Get rid of them.
Similarly, there is also a problem with the keywords implying "objectification." It's as if someone(s) has (have) been influenced by their gender studies classes in college, and are applying these keywords in a misguided attempt for political correctness. "objectification-of-men," "objectilfication-of-women,: "male-objectification," "female-objectificstion," "women-as-object" (but, interestingly, no " men-as-object"), etc. should all be deleted and banned.
One could easily and logically argue that ALL titles utilize objectification. How can anyone suggest that Rudolph Valentino, Clark, Gable, Jean Harlow, Tyrone Power, Lana Turner, Erroll Flynn, Ava Gardner, Rita Hayworth, Marilyn Monroe, Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, etc., etc., etc. were NOT objectified? Any title with "bare-chested-male" and/or "bare-breasts" implies objectification. Any title with "nudity" implies objectification. Any title in the Romance genre implies objectification. And, most certainly, ALL Adult titles utilize objectification. The "objectification" keywords, I suspect, could be applied to a least 97% of all titles on IMDb. Get rid of them.
steve_crook
Champion
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1.3K Messages
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43.8K Points
6 years ago
That's one of the joys (or curses) of the English language. There are always many different ways to say everything.
Whatever you think of to describe something like "male-female-relationship", as soon as you've described one alias for it, someone will think of a different one.
Steve
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jeorj_euler
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6 years ago
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Michelle
Employee
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17.2K Messages
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310K Points
6 years ago
Thanks for your report and comments, I have filed a ticket for our editorial team who will review the Keyword listing shortly. As soon as I have an update on the actions taken I will let you know here. Cheers!
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jeorj_euler
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phil_boroff
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6 years ago
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Will
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6 years ago
I agree that man-woman-relationship is the same as male-female-relationship, however I'm not sure why we ever banned that as a keyword as I'm sure users would find that search term useful. If it plays a part in the plot of the title I'm not sure why this wouldn't be considered as ineligible and we should remove this block and re-enable those keywords. I don't see any point in our guide which would make the keyword male-female-relationship ineligible.
The same goes for objectification keywords, for example if you were writing a dissertation on objectification in film then having a list of titles on IMDb that you can reference would be incredibly helpful. There is a big difference between Romance as a genre and the objectification of a male or female within a film.
There are of course some keywords that should be banned, however, as a general rule if it is a term that somebody can use to find a sub-set of titles on IMDb then it should be considered of worth as a keyword. Please note that the main purpose of keywords is to allow visitors to easily search and discover titles.
Regards,
Will
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keyword_expert
2.7K Messages
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47K Points
3 years ago
@bradley_kent wrote this:
I adamantly disagree with the premise posed by Mr. Kent in this quoted excerpt. Plenty of films focus on the objectification of women as a plot device. There was never any reason to ban keywords like "objectification-of-women."
(I am actually surprised that Mr. Kent ever objected to these keywords in the first place on the basis that they were apparently too politically correct for him. With that said, this was three years ago; his thinking may have changed since then.)
However, I have an entirely different reason for commenting on this post. In my opinion, "male-objectification" and "female-objectification" are two of the dumbest widely used keywords on IMDb. But the problem has nothing to do with politics.
Rather, the problem with "male-objectification" and "female-objectification" is that they are hopelessly vague. When I see the keyword "male-objectification," I cannot tell whether a male character is doing the objectification, or is being objectified. In other words, is "male-objectification" a synonym for "male-chauvinism" or for "objectification-of-men?" I honestly cannot tell.
Over the years, I have added "objectification-of-women" to a few titles when that was clearly part of the plot. Each time, some unknown contributor has changed my keyword contribution to the colossally stupid and inferior keyword "female-objectification." After having this happen a few times, I simply gave up adding these types of keywords to IMDb.
A contributor might argue that the keyword "female-objectification" is understood by that contributor. But I can assure you that this understanding is not universal.
There is a similar problem with keywords like "male-rape" (you can't tell on the face of the keyword whether a male has been raped or has committed the rape), "child-murder" (you can't tell whether a child has been murdered or committed a murder), "child-rape" (same thing). Facially vague keywords like this should be replaced with clear and specific keywords like "rape-of-a-man," "man-rapes-a-man," "male-rapist," "male-rape-victim," "murder-of-a-child," "rape-of-a-child," "child-rapist," "child-rapes-a-child," etc.
And the same goes for "male-objectification" and "female-objectification." These keywords should be abandoned in favor of "objectification-of-men," "objectification-of-women," "objectification-of-boys," etc. Or even just the broad but accurate "objectification" could be used when in doubt.
I suspect my proposal will never happen, because the keywords "male-objectification" and "female-objectification" are quite popular on IMDb today (in particular the keyword "male-objectification":
But at a minimum, whomever keeps changing "objectification-of-women" to "female-objectification" should really stop. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the keyword "objectification-of-women," and it is a far superior keyword to the facially vague "female-objectification"
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bradley_kent
1.3K Messages
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23.1K Points
3 years ago
I did vehemently object to the "male-female-relationship" keyword and to the "male-objectification" and "female-objectification" keywords, but I was apparently overruled. (At one time, the "male-female-relationship" was deleted, but it has reappeared.)
To me, EVERY title that has men AND women in it could qualify for a "male-female-relationship" keyword. Apparently, others feel that it just applies only to a romantic relationship.
I have also stated before that ANY title that has a male and/or female in it could qualify for a "male-objectification" and/or "female-objectification" keyword.
My contention all along was that these three keywords should be deleted since they are so general and, therefore, meaningless and useless. (There may be some exceptions on the "objectification" keywords, especially on exploitation titles.). And, this has nothing to do with political correctness.
By the way, personally, I NEVER submit these keywords.
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