Women Portrayed as Sex Symbols - Essay Example

Chanel Yang English 1A Prof. Michelle Banks 13 April Women Portrayed As Sex Symbols The famous saying, “sex sells,” has never become more prevalent in today’s society. The origin of that phrase dates back to the 1870’s, when a tobacco company had attempted to use sex to increase the sales of their products. Little did they know, their idea has now become a widespread technique to boost profits, even after almost a century and a half. Presently, with images of women portrayed as sex objects in not only advertisements, but also in the media, has created a hyper-sexualized culture amongst young adults. The blatantly risqué images of women shown on advertisements and on the media seem to have a detrimental impact on audiences, especially young girls. Girls, in today’s society, have become more inclined to look and behave like the women displayed in advertisements. However, the images seen on billboards and advertisements are far from the truth. With modern technology, images can be refined with programs such as Adobe Photoshop, where already skinny models are retouched into having a virtually unattainable body. The manipulated image would then be posted on advertisements for crowds of envious females to see. In addition to that, most men also find half naked girls on advertising billboards appealing. This causes girls to become more self-conscious about their body image as they try to aim to look like the fabricated images of the models because “cultural ideology tells woman that they will not be desirable to, or loved by, men unless they are physically perfect.” (Cortese) As a result, the need to look like these models creates a health problem as young girls begin to go on unhealthy diets so that they can fit into tight outfits. Due to this sexual broadcast blitz in the media, girls have generated a new issue concerning their body image and well-being. The message sent through these advertisements is as though women should be sexual objects. Sexual attractiveness towards men becomes a main objective among most women as they try to emulate the suggestive images seen on advertisements. As a result, the mindset of feminine beauty has shifted over time. Instead of dressing conservatively, women these days wear more revealing clothing. Likewise, plump women were once considered good-looking, but currently, a slender physique is what is considered ideal. Playboy is a men’s magazine that features explicit photographs of celebrities and nude models. To this date, many men indulge in their sexual fantasies by browsing through this magazine. However, the most worrisome aspect of this is that an innocent boy might begin to fuel his sexual desires for more than one girl at a very young age due to the accessibility of this magazine. As a result, boys become used to the idea of longing for more than one woman and thus, “invariably demean women, emphasizing their disloyalty, their undependability as sex objects, stupidity, selfishness, dominating tendencies; and superstitiousness.” (Key) The concept of beauty has changed throughout history. It turns out, what defines beauty is not only based on an individual’s outlook, but also the era in which the person has lived in. Before, during the Victorian ages, the idea of beauty was that the curvier the woman, the better. This is because food was considered scarce back then, and the weight of an individual shows whether he or she was able to afford to eat. However, this quickly changed when the wealthy individuals wanted to stand out from the upcoming middle-class citizens. Thus, becoming skinny became and is still a goal that women currently still aspire to. Through modeling campaigns, the fashion industry torments young girls to have “increased shame and anxiety about the body and appearance, partly because societal images of idyllic beauty are virtually impossible to achieve.” (Kilbourne) Hence, fashion companies have currently decided to take on the idea of thinness to a whole new level. According to Jane Kilbourne, “the big success story of our entertainment industry is our ability to export insecurity: We can make any woman anywhere feel perfectly rotten about her shape.” Instead of hiring healthy, thin models who have attainable bodies, they now seek emaciated models who are clearly underweight to promote their enterprise. This builds a new notion of beauty when young teenagers try to pursue this look because of the media’s ability to plague girls with body insecurities. Apart from females becoming affected by the flawless images of models in the media, males have also become influenced by this campaign. Young men have become encouraged to increase their standards while observing females. They compare these graphic images of thin women to the girls around them, creating a benchmark for attractiveness among females. Since there is an abundance of advertisements that provide an erotic suggestion among females, young men also begin to expect a sexual incorporation in a relationship. In turn, females then question why their boyfriends or husbands do not treat them with love and respect. They then try to mend this by strutting in their provocative outfits, creating a vicious cycle between sexual expectations and destroyed relationships. This crude expectation sexually objectifies women and jeopardizes how males view females. The media’s advertisement of alluring visuals has caused a rise in young teenagers participating in sexual intercourse. These images formulate a form of curiosity that should not be manifested until later in life, especially when teenagers do not understand the purpose and repercussions of such activity. Consequently, the teenagers of our generation become desensitized from the idea of love. Instead, they believe that having sex would be essential in keeping the romance alive. According to Key, “sexuality is threatening to the American young because of the restraints on individual freedom that are ultimately demanded by the sexual partner, and because of the intimacy that is eventually required.” For that reason, there are many instances these days whereby a man or a woman cheats on their partner because they feel a lack of sexual activity in their relationship. Some individuals who understand the concept of abstinence might suffer and become hurt because of their partner’s lack of understanding due to the spread of sex in the media. “Since American media, through the use of subliminal embedding, has sexualized virtually everything that is advertised or presented in media, the sexualization of food is perhaps the ultimate triumph.” (Key) By Googling, “sexual food ads,” one might be surprised of the extent in which food companies would use sex as a marketing strategy. Although a burger might be completely unrelated to sex, fast food companies like Burger King had used this strategy to promote their products. In this advertisement, a side profile of a girl’s face is shown on the left. Her mouth is wide open, approximately the size of the burger and her expression looks shocked and even a little appalled while staring at the burger on the right, as though the size of the burger was a little unexpected to her. Furthermore, the phrase, “it’ll blow your mind away,” printed in large font right under the picture, suggests a sexual innuendo as it compares the girl eating the burger to a blowjob. Lastly, at the bottom, the quote, “fill your desire for something long, juicy and flame-grilled with the new BK Super Seven Incher. Yearn for more after you taste the mind-blowing burger that comes with a single beef patty, topped with American cheese, crispy onions and the A1 Thick & Hearty Steak Sauce.” Many researches have been conducted in order to understand and have in-depth knowledge, to make a woman’s life better in a society where they are judged on their body’s appearance and sexual appearance rather than their inner self. The objectification theory helps us to understand the mere reasons behind this. This theory has contributed a great deal in researches within feminist and counseling psychology. Certain missions have been carried out to figure out the impact of sexual objectification on women and the difficulties they encounter in therapy sessions. Objectification theory posits that women are usually viewed and taken as sexual objects which are to be used by others. Sexual objectification (SO) is when body of a woman is set apart from her as a being and she is regarded particularly as a physical object for satisfying the sexual desires of a male. (Aycock and Bartky) This theory postulates that SO of women gives birth to mental health problems such as eating disorders, sexual dysfunction and depression. It happens through two ways. The first is through experiences of SO while the second is through women’s incorporation of SO experiences. Fredrickson and Roberts professed that, to different degrees, women incorporate this view of outsiders’ and start to self-objectify by serving themselves as objects to be looked upon and analyzed on their appearances. Now, how SO causes mental health problems? SO tends to increase appearance anxiety i.e. fear of how women’s bodies will be evaluated, reduce chance for motivational states, decrease awareness of internal body sensations (e.g. sexual arousal and hunger), increase chances of women for body shame (i.e. comparing oneself with the cultural standards set) and rise in anxiety of physical safety (e.g. fear of getting raped) which further can result in depression, sexual dysfunction and disordered eating. (Fredrickson and Roberts) Researches also tell us that a very narrow image has been portrayed throughout the world of what actual beauty is and unachievable standards are associated with a woman’s worth and sexiness. Proof of SO of women is found everywhere. Even children’s games are not free from it. Games such as Need for Speed and toys such as Barbie use women as sexual objects. While women serve as decorative objects by revealing their body parts through proactive clothing, men end up passing lewd comments, use disapproving words, pass sexual remarks and indulge in behaviors such as harassment, catcalling and leering. This shows that women have lost their respect and they are treated as a property or an object which can be used and then thrown away. (Fitzgibbons and OLeary) A recent study has found that when men are showed sexual images of woman, less activity is stimulated in brain areas which are in charge of mental state attribution (i.e. the areas of brain which become active when such entities are looked upon which we think require thoughts and planned actions). Other studies conclude that when men are shown images of women’s body rather than images of just face, they tend to categorize them as less intelligent, ambitious and competent. (Valdesolo) The trend is forever changing. Now women themselves, serve towards SO experience through many distinct ways. They have left their traditional values and norms willingly to self-objectify themselves. They also tend to objectify other women more than men do. An example of women objectifying other women lies in how they speak to each other. Their attitudes with one another, looking down on other women, competing with each other are all examples of women objectifying other women. Viewing women as sexual objects has become a part of our cultured subconscious. We are not aware of how we are incorporating women in almost everything. Worth of a woman is long lost somewhere. First, because of people who see women as sexual objects and second, because of women who themselves serve their bodies to be treated as sexual objects. In order to eliminate this, we must accept the fact that women are treated like that. Moreover, we should start viewing them as humans even if they willingly show their body parts. Evaluation and criticism on their appearances would only enhance such activities. Sessions should be conducted in order to motivate women that they are who they are and who they are is beautiful. When women realize their worth they would actually stop comparing themselves to others and serve themselves as sexual objects. This cannot be totally eliminated but it can be reduced. REFERENCES -Aycock, Alan, and Sandra Lee Bartky. Feminity And Domination: Studies In The Phenomenology Of Oppression. Anthropologica 34.2 (1992): 255. Web. -Fitzgibbons, Rick, and Dale OLeary. An Evaluation Of The American Psychological Association’S Task Force Report On The Sexualization Of Girls. SSRN Journal n. pag -Szymanski, D. M., L. B. Moffitt, and E. R. Carr. Sexual Objectification Of Women: Advances To Theory And Research 1 7. The Counseling Psychologist 39.1 (2010): 6-38. Web. -Fredrickson, Barbara L., and Tomi-Ann Roberts. OBJECTIFICATION THEORY.. Psychology of Women Quarterly 21.2 (1997): 173-206.  -Valdesolo, Piercarlo. How Our Brains Turn Women Into Objects. Scientificamerican.com. N.p., 2011. Web. 25 Apr. 2015. Read More