DOMA and Prop 8. Both History.

[FireIceTalon]

"off the market for males to date"

This very statement itself suggests they are some sort of a commodity. I don't think you even realize you objectify them in your everyday language.

Do you realize you've made an assumption that demonstrates your own objectification of women?

It is normal for humans to want to pair bond. These particular women do not wish to date males. In this instance, shame does not indicate they have done something wrong. If you look at the definition of shame on Merriam-Webster online you will see "also : something to be regretted : pity <it's a shame you can't go>". Males regret that these women would have no interest in them. You've assumed that "attractive", and even "hot babe", can only express a measure of physical beauty or even the desire to "hit that". I maintain that, for many, those adjectives describe someone intelligent, fun and witty, someone that challenges them.

e.g. I met this attractive hot bade [brilliant, exciting, witty] today but it's a shame [I regret] she has no interest in exploring a relationship because she dates only women.

LOL. Are you trolling, or are you actually serious? Saying I objectify women is reaching longer than Scottie Pippen's arms. There is absolutely nothing in my post, direct or implied, that objectifies women in any way.

The term "hot babe" in our culture, does NOT usually refer to humor, intelligence, or sophistication - quite the opposite really. That isn't me objectifying women, thats just me stating the cold hard facts. And to deny that the social context of how a term like "hot babe" is used otherwise, you'd have to be living on another planet, or just be completely divorced from reality.

The term "attractive" is much more politically correct, but even this term can have negative connotations since again, in our culture, we have a very stereotypical prototype of what constitutes beauty or being attractive - typically portrayed in magazines like Glamour, People, etc etc. A fat person might be funny, smart, and extremely sophisticated, but won't be considered "attractive" physically by the majority. Beauty does indeed run more than skin deep, but unfortunately the material conditions of the society in which we live don't recognize it. Because that isn't what sells or generates a profit.

You can't just take terms at face value and assign them meanings for what they SHOULD mean or how they should be used, you have to take cultural context and other material realities into account. Otherwise, we can use and define language or any particular word to mean, well, just about anything. Which doesn't work.