News Flash: I'm Not an Object
Have
you seen the commercial with the skinny blonde trying to advertise something?
The one where she is wearing a bikini that looks too small for wear. It’s the
commercial where we only know what’s being advertised because at the end they
show you the object with the company logo thrown on the bottom of the screen. It’s
a problem that we realize what’s being sold at the end of this thirty second
commercial.
We
have a problem. A huge problem. All over the world we are stereotyping the
image of beauty. In America, in particular, our standard of beauty is a tall
leggy blonde with blue eyes. We have a “Eurocentric model of beauty”. A woman must be curvaceous but not fat. A woman mustn’t
be too pale nor too dark. A woman must have groomed hair, trimmed nails, and the
perfect posture. The ideal woman knows when to say “please” and “thank you”.
She is always seen but never heard from. Women see themselves as sexual objects
because that’s what society tells them they are, in turn men are seeing women
as nothing more than objects that should be used for their own desires taking
away all other aspects of her identity.
You’re
driving down the highway and you see a billboard with a pretty blonde lady
twirling her hair in a seemingly flirtatious manner. You’re driving so the only
words you’re able to read are “Fast, Cheap” in big bold letters. That billboard was advertising fast
internet service, but the words that grabbed your attention didn’t tell you
what was being advertised. You could’ve concluded that the lady on the
billboard was the product being sold with the little information you had
gathered. Advertisements like these are sending messages to society that women
are objects to be used, placing pressure on these women to look and act a
certain way. Shadia Duske makes the argument that society “bombard[s] [us] with
hypersexualized images of female[s]”. These images affect how women see
themselves and how we treat these women.
According to Duske there is a social learning theory, which
says “audiences are more likely to be persuaded to buy a product if the
advertising narrative is easily recognizable and frequently repeated.” These
advertisements aren’t shown just once but they are on a constant loop, repeatedly
showing that sex sells. When the hypersexualized ads are seen as the new norm “what
does that say about the health of our society?” (Duske).
Catharine Paddock explains that sexualizing
someone is “when a person's value comes only from her/his sexual
appeal or behavior, to the exclusion of other characteristics, and when a
person is sexually objectified”. It’s when
a person is seen as nothing more than a sexual object, disregarding their human
qualities and feelings. Women are sexualized in the various forms of media. In
magazines women are shown models that represent impossible standards of beauty.
With their photoshopped pictures and the gallons of makeup thrown across their
face these models have a look of utter perfection. These advertisements send
the message that a woman must look like these false representations of beauty (Duske). To live up to these standards women on
social media platforms start to represent themselves in ways that will get them
more likes and more followers. So, posting that picture taken in your bathroom
of you wearing a tube top and panties will surely get you more followers.
Thousands
of women everywhere “struggle with their body image” and with society
constantly putting hypersexualized images of women in their view these problems
of self-image worsen (Duske). It’s not
enough to wear makeup and dress how society tells us to, we must look like
celebrities, even though it’s not in our genes to have pouty lips or big
breasts. It can be seen all throughout the media; society tells us to get
plastic surgery regardless of the risks of infection, pain, scarring, nerve
damage, toxic shock, and death in some cases (Wheatley). “These
struggles show up as depression, anxiety, eating disorders, body dysmorphic disorders,
obsessive-compulsive disorders, reproductive concerns, parenting issues or
relationship crises” (Duske). Women are seeing themselves as objects that
should look and act like the images of “beauty” they are surrounded by. When
women can’t achieve these idealistic forms of how society tells them they need
to be perceived their mental and physical health is at risk (Paddock).
It’s
not only a problem that women are just objectifying themselves, men are also
seeing women as objects. We tell young men that they must provide for their
future family and that they are the head of the house. We put these ideas in
their heads of them being in charge and therefore they need to dominate women,
since they are the man. Porn industries specifically target men. These
companies help to enforce the idea that men must dominate women, through the
sexual violence in their products. The idea that women like to be treated as
objects is one selling point of pornography. In the words of Shadia Duske we
are “encouraging the normalization of female
objectification”. It’s normal for an advertisement to look like they are
selling sex when they are just selling perfume. This ideology is leading to men
to believe that it’s okay to treat women like objects.
These sexualized images are easy to find in practically
all forms of media “leading to increased exposure and pressure on young girls.
Attitudes of family members and friends can also increase the pressure…” (Paddock).
Parents aren’t recognizing the role
they play in objectifying their young girls and how they too are grooming them act
like objects. Phrases like “act like a lady” or “a girl shouldn’t do that” and “a
women’s place is in the kitchen” encourage the submission of females to the pressures
around her. I was waiting for my bus one day and I remember a little girl who
was most likely no older than eight. I remember the pink bows at the top of her
two pigtails. She was slouching slightly in her chair. A lady, who I assumed to
be her mother, turned to her whispering harshly “You’re a young lady, sit like
one”. This little girl –one of many– is forced to represent the actions society
tells her are appropriate for her “undermining her confidence and making her
feel dissatisfied with her body” (Paddock).
Aggressions like catcalls or slapping a woman
on her derriere are some of the other ways that women are objectified. Men
belittle women and justify their crude actions by saying “she was asking for
it”. When men treat women as inferior creatures or as things it’s okay because
“she is only a woman”. We’re dehumanizing the full identity of a women, making
it okay to see her only as an object.
Duske
mentions the “rise of the breastaurant, chain
establishments featuring young, attractive servers in revealing uniform” and
this shows that not only are hypersexualized images of women are being shown in
the media but women are being used as walking advertisements. She is on display
with clothes that are revealing, encouraging the obscene remarks and
flirtatious attitudes from the male costumers. These hypersexualized images of
women allow men not to see a woman as a person he should respect but as someone
to be gawked at and used.
Marilyn Frye writes the metaphor “the bird is surrounded by a network of
systematically related barriers” that are “as confining as the solid walls of a
dungeon”. I take this to be a symbol of how women are birds trapped in a cage
that is designed to keep her oppressed. Society creates this perfect trap that
allows women to be seen as hypersexualized objects without us realizing how
they become stripped of their identity. We need to take a step back and look at
this cage as a whole because this prison isn’t one that should be kept in
place. Women shouldn’t be trapped and confined to the pressures society deems
fit to create, only to be noticed when her health is in jeopardy. A woman is a
person not a hypersexualized object.
-Tatiana F.
Works
Cited
Duske, Shadia. “Toxic Culture 101: Understanding the Sexualization of
Women.” Ms.
Magazine Blog, 4
Jan. 2016, msmagazine.com/blog/2016/01/04/toxic-culture-
101-understanding-the-sexualization-of-women/.
“Media Examples.” Objectification & Hypersexualization of
Women in Advertising,
sexuallyobjectifiedwomen.weebly.com/media
examples.html.
Nauert, Rick. “Media's Growing Sexualization of Women.” Psych Central
News, 6 Oct. 2015,
psychcentral.com/news/2011/08/11/medias-growing-sexualization-of-
women/28539.html.
Paddock, Catharine. “Sexualization Of Girls In The Media Is Harmful.” Medical
News Today,
MediLexicon
International, 21 Feb. 2007,
www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/63514.php.
Wheatley, Michael. “Plastic Surgery (Cosmetic Surgery): Facts on
Procedure Types.”
MedicineNet,
www.medicinenet.com/plastic_surgery_cosmetic_surgery/article.htm.
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