{"id":48950,"date":"2012-07-02T10:45:57","date_gmt":"2012-07-02T15:45:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=48950"},"modified":"2012-12-02T17:36:44","modified_gmt":"2012-12-02T22:36:44","slug":"sexual-objectification-part-1-what-is-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2012\/07\/02\/sexual-objectification-part-1-what-is-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Sexual Objectification (Part 1): What is It?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the\u00a0first part\u00a0in a series\u00a0about how girls and women can navigate a culture that treats them like sex objects. Cross-posted at Ms.<\/a>, \u00a0BroadBlogs<\/a>, and\u00a0Caroline Heldman’s Blog<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Around since the 1970s and associated with curmudgeonly second-wave feminists, the phrase “sexual objectification” can inspire eye-rolling. The phenomenon, however, is more rampant than ever in popular culture. \u00a0Today\u00a0women\u2019s sexual objectification is celebrated as a form of\u00a0female empowerment<\/a>.\u00a0 This has enabled a new\u00a0era of sexual objectification<\/a>,\u00a0characterized by greater\u00a0exposure to advertising<\/a>\u00a0in general, and increased sexual explicitness in\u00a0advertising<\/a>,\u00a0magazines<\/a>,\u00a0television shows<\/a>,\u00a0movies<\/a>,\u00a0video games<\/a>,\u00a0music videos<\/a>,\u00a0television news<\/a>, and\u00a0“reality” television<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What is sexual objectification? \u00a0If objectification is the process of representing or treating a person like an object (a non-thinking thing that can be used however one likes), then sexual objectification is the process of representing or treating a person like a sex object, one that serves another\u2019s sexual pleasure.<\/p>\n

How do we know sexual objectification when we see it? \u00a0Building on the work of\u00a0Nussbaum<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Langton<\/a>, I’ve devised the Sex Object Test (SOT) to measure the presence of sexual objectification in images.\u00a0 I\u00a0proprose that sexual objectification is present if the answer to any of the following seven questions is “yes.”<\/p>\n

1) Does the image show only part(s) of a sexualized person\u2019s body?<\/strong>
\nHeadless women, for example, make it easy to see her as only a body by erasing the individuality communicated through faces, eyes, and eye contact:\"\"<\/a>
\nWe get the same effect when we show women from behind<\/a>, with\u00a0an added layer of sexual violability. American Apparel seems to be a particular fan of this approach:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

2) Does the image present a sexualized person as a stand-in for an object?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The breasts of the woman in this beer ad<\/a>, for example, are conflated with the cans:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Likewise, the woman in this fashion spread in\u00a0Details<\/em><\/a> in which a woman becomes a table upon which\u00a0things are perched. She is reduced to an inanimate object, a useful tool for the assumed heterosexual male viewer:\"\"<\/a>
\nOr sometimes objects themselves are made to look like women, like this series of sinks and urinals shaped like women’s bodies and mouths<\/a>\u00a0and these everyday items, like pencil sharpeners<\/a>.<\/p>\n

3) Does the image show a sexualized person as interchangeable?<\/strong>\u00a0
\n<\/a>Interchangeability is a common advertising theme that reinforces the idea that women, like objects, are fungible. And like objects, \u201cmore is better,\u201d a market sentiment that erases the worth of individual women. The\u00a0image below<\/a>\u00a0advertising Mercedes-Benz presents just part of a woman’s body (breasts) as interchangeable and additive:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This image of a set of Victoria’s Secret models, borrowed from\u00a0a previous SocImages post<\/a>, has a similar effect. Their hair and skin color varies slightly, but they are also presented as all of a kind:\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

4) Does the image affirm the idea of violating the bodily integrity of a sexualized person that can’t consent?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This\u00a0ad, for example, shows an incapacitated woman in a sexualized position<\/a>with a male protagonist\u00a0holding her on a leash. It glamorizes the possibility that he has attacked and subdued her:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

5)\u00a0<\/strong>Does the image suggest that sexual availability is\u00a0the defining characteristic of the person?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

This ad, with the copy “now open,” sends the message that this woman is\u00a0for sex<\/em>. \u00a0If she is open for business, then she presumably can be had by anyone.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

6) Does the image show a sexualized person as a commodity (something that can be bought and sold)?<\/strong><\/p>\n

By definition, objects can be bought and sold, but some images portray women as everyday commodities. \u00a0Conflating women with food<\/a>\u00a0is a common sub-category. \u00a0As an example, Meredith Bean, Ph.D., sent in this photo of a Massive Melons “energy” drink sold in New Zealand:\"\"<\/a>
\nIn the ad below for Red Tape shoes<\/a>, women are literally for sale:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

7) Does the image\u00a0treat a sexualized person’s body as a canvas?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the two images below, women’s bodies are presented as a particular type of object: a canvas that is marked up or drawn upon.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

——————<\/p>\n

The damage caused by widespread female objectification in popular culture is not just theoretical.\u00a0 We now have over ten years of research showing that living in an objectifying\u00a0society is highly toxic\u00a0for girls and women, as\u00a0is described in Part 2 of this series<\/a>.<\/p>\nCaroline Heldman is a professor of politics at Occidental College<\/a>. You can follow her at her blog<\/a> and on Twitter<\/a> and Facebook<\/a>.<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the\u00a0first part\u00a0in a series\u00a0about how girls and women can navigate a culture that treats them like sex objects. Cross-posted at Ms., \u00a0BroadBlogs, and\u00a0Caroline Heldman’s Blog. Around since the 1970s and associated with curmudgeonly second-wave feminists, the phrase “sexual objectification” can inspire eye-rolling. The phenomenon, however, is more rampant than ever in popular culture. […]<\/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":[279,55,2093,2098,129,23703,120],"class_list":["post-48950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-objectification","tag-gender","tag-gender-objectification","tag-gender-prejudicediscrimination","tag-media","tag-marketing","tag-sex"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48950","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=48950"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49020,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48950\/revisions\/49020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}