objectification of women

My gaze also communicates that I have the weight of capitalist patriarchy behind me. Behind my stare exists an advertising industry that objectifies women’s bodies for incredible profit. Behind my stare is a political system that seeks to regulate women’s bodies outside of their control. Behind my stare is a pornography and media machine that communicates in nearly every single message that women are endlessly inadequate, weak objects and that men are dominant, in control, and powerful.

And this has real-world effects!

At age 13, 53% of American girls are “unhappy with their bodies.” This grows to 78% by the time girls reach 17. Five to 10 million adolescent girls and women struggle with eating disorders and borderline eating conditions, and 90 percent of those who have eating disorders are women between the ages of 12 and 25. (Source)

Now, am I causing the women around me to hate their bodies simply because I am looking? Absolutely not!

But when nearly every single man stares or hollers at a woman while she walks past ultra-thin models in billboards whose bodies are dissected and distorted to sell a product, it has a compounding effect.

But in talking about this, we should also recognize that this hurts men too.

Is it the same thing when men are objectified in a Calvin Klein ad or when a someone stares at my body at the pool? No, simply because there is not the weight of an all-encompassing system of gender oppression behind that objectification.

http://www.rolereboot.org/sex-and-relationships/details/2013-04-the-difference-between-the-appreciation-of-beauty-an#.UYM7Ymg1pro.twitter

Appreciating Beauty or Objectifying Women?

In the days since this experience, I have thought a lot about it.  Why did I, someone committed to the antithesis of this reality, participate in the way I did?  Why did I not question the situation or the language used by the men there?  Another thing that really has stuck with me is that the women in this space had bodies that were probably the closest to the unhealthy standard of beauty that our society has constructed that I have seen in a long time, and it left me wondering, a standard to which I am sadly attracted.  Is this healthy for them?

I can’t say for sure and I can’t judge because undoubtedly there are infinite numbers of body types and I am not a woman, but I imagine that it could be unhealthy in a few ways.  To achieve this body type, I imagine many women would need to pursue one of two unhealthy courses.  First, they could eat very little while toning their bodies through exercise, thus depriving their body of nutrients and calories that are needed for everyday functions.  Second, they could eat relatively normally but work out so regularly that it could become an unhealthy obsession, working out every day to the point that it is no longer healthy emotionally or psychologically (even if their bodies are rather healthy).

http://changefromwithin.org/2010/08/04/appreciating-beauty-or-objectifying-women/

All About Male Privileges - a List

http://aboutmaleprivilege.tumblr.com/post/26721844679/heterosexual-male-privilege-is-talking-about-how