{"id":48947,"date":"2012-07-06T10:50:07","date_gmt":"2012-07-06T15:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=48947"},"modified":"2012-07-11T14:23:07","modified_gmt":"2012-07-11T19:23:07","slug":"sexual-objectification-part-2-the-harm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2012\/07\/06\/sexual-objectification-part-2-the-harm\/","title":{"rendered":"Sexual Objectification (Part 2): The Harm"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the\u00a0second part\u00a0in a series\u00a0about how girls and women can navigate a culture that treats them like sex objects (see also, part One<\/a><\/em>).\u00a0<\/em>Cross-posted at Ms.<\/a> and\u00a0Caroline Heldman’s Blog<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The \u201csex wars<\/a>\u201d \u00a0of the 1980s pitted radical feminists, who claimed that female sexual objectification is dehumanizing, against feminists concerned about legal and social efforts to control and repress female sexuality.\u00a0 Over a decade of research now shows that radical feminists were right\u00a0to be highly concerned.<\/p>\n

Getting back to the \u201csex wars\u201d and how radical feminists were right, women who grow up in a culture with widespread sexual objectification tend to view themselves as objects of desire for others. This\u00a0internalized sexual objectification has been linked to problems with mental health (e.g.,\u00a0clinical depression<\/a>,\u00a0\u201chabitual body monitoring\u201d<\/a>),\u00a0eating disorders<\/a>,\u00a0body shame<\/a>,\u00a0self-worth and life satisfaction<\/a>,\u00a0cognitive functioning<\/a>,\u00a0motor functioning<\/a>,\u00a0sexual dysfunction<\/a>,\u00a0access to leadership<\/a>, and\u00a0political efficacy<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0Women\u00a0of\u00a0all\u00a0ethnicities<\/a>\u00a0internalize objectification, as do\u00a0men to a\u00a0lesser\u00a0extent<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Beyond the internal effects, sexually objectified women are\u00a0dehumanized<\/a>\u00a0by others and seen as less\u00a0competent<\/a>\u00a0and worthy of empathy by both men and women.\u00a0 Furthermore, exposure to images of sexually objectified women causes male viewers to be more tolerant of sexual harassment and\u00a0rape myths<\/a>.\u00a0 Add to this the countless hours that most girls\/women spend primping and competing with one another to garner heterosexual male attention, and the erasure of middle-aged and elderly women who have little value in a society that places women’s primary value on their sexualized bodies.<\/p>\n

Theorists<\/a>\u00a0have also contributed to understanding the harm of objectification culture by\u00a0pointing out the\u00a0difference between\u00a0sexy\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0sexual<\/em>.\u00a0 If one thinks of the subject\/object dichotomy that dominates thinking in Western culture, subjects act and objects are acted upon.\u00a0 Subjects are\u00a0sexual<\/em>, while objects are\u00a0sexy<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Pop culture sells women and girls a hurtful lie: that their\u00a0value lies\u00a0in how sexy they appear to others, and they learn at a very young age that their sexuality is for others.\u00a0 At the same time, being\u00a0sexual<\/em>, is stigmatized in women but encouraged in men.\u00a0We learn that men want and women want-to-be-wanted. The yard stick for women\u2019s value (sexiness) automatically puts them in a subordinate societal position, regardless of how well they measure up.\u00a0 Perfectly sexy women are\u00a0perfectly subordinate.<\/p>\n

The documentary\u00a0Miss Representation<\/a><\/em>\u00a0has\u00a0received considerable mainstream\u00a0attention<\/a>,\u00a0one indicator that many are\u00a0now\u00a0recognizing the\u00a0damaging effects of\u00a0female sexual objectification.<\/p>\n

[youtube=http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6gkIiV6konY]<\/p>\n

To sum up, widespread sexual objectification in U.S. popular culture creates a\u00a0toxic environment for girls and women.\u00a0 The\u00a0following posts in this series provide ideas for navigating new objectification culture in personally and politically meaningful ways.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the\u00a0second part\u00a0in a series\u00a0about how girls and women can navigate a culture that treats them like sex objects (see also, part One).\u00a0Cross-posted at Ms. and\u00a0Caroline Heldman’s Blog. The \u201csex wars\u201d \u00a0of the 1980s pitted radical feminists, who claimed that female sexual objectification is dehumanizing, against feminists concerned about legal and social efforts to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1848,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[279,329,55,2091,2093,2094,2098,252,2104,129,23703,85,120],"class_list":["post-48947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-objectification","tag-emotion","tag-gender","tag-gender-healthmedicine","tag-gender-objectification","tag-gender-politics","tag-gender-prejudicediscrimination","tag-healthmedicine","tag-knowledgeintelligence","tag-media","tag-marketing","tag-politics","tag-sex"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1848"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48947"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49566,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48947\/revisions\/49566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}