IN JUNE OF this year, an article in the Radio Times used the character of Ross Poldark, played by Aidan Turner, as a platform to question an apparent double standard in the ‘objectification’ of the genders.
Having written that the sight of a ‘shirtless, sea-soaked’ Aidan Turner got her ‘pulse racing’, Mariella Frostrup acknowledged that should similar sentiments be uttered by a male journalist, backlash would be swift.
If a male colleague had penned those preceding lines about any of Turner’s equally appealing female co-stars, his cries of contrition would be drowned out by Twitter’s Troll Chorus.
“I’m lucky to have the freedom to express myself in such a way. As a woman, I can own a comment like that without too much fear of censure,” she wrote.
Having been used as vehicle from which to drive discussion in this instance, Aidan Turner has since been asked his opinion of the piece.
Interestingly, he suggested that while he himself has never felt objectified, he has recognised occasions in which others have felt it for him.
“It seems like there is a double standard, yeah, it does seem that way. But I try not to get involved in that debate,” he said, while speaking to the BBC.
I’ve never felt objectified. I think sometimes other people want to feel that for you, which can be quite a strange thing. But personally I haven’t.
Indeed, the 35-year-old actor is concerned that admiration is being confused with objectification.
You say objectify, but it just sounds like Frostrup was sort of admiring that character of Ross Poldark or physically how he looks or whatever.
Aidan does, however, acknowledge the fact that topless photos of his character made front page headlines recently, simply saying:
These photographs were stills from the show, so in context it makes sense. When you pull them out and stick a photograph on the front page of a national newspaper it becomes something very different.
