Feminism wants women to have the right to sexual freedom, be able to wear revealing clothes without being slut shamed or victim blamed, and to embrace female sexuality rather than repress it and hide it away.
Feminism states that men constantly objectify women by viewing them as sex objects, depicting them wearing revealing clothes in movies and music videos, and complains that Beyoncé is not a ‘suitable’ feminist role model because she wears too many revealing clothes and showcases her sexuality. (In other words, self-objectifies).
Yeah, I’m confused too.
Objectification, in simple terms, is reducing a human down to an object or something to use for your own pleasure. One may objectify a servant as someone to cook them food and clean their clothes; they don’t view them as a person with feelings, but simply something to serve them for their own pleasure. Sexual objectification is viewing a person as nothing more than a sex object for sexual pleasure; stripping away their humanity and just reducing them down to ‘nice tits’ or ‘sexy abs.’
Sex Object?
What is the real difference between ‘objectifying’ a person and simply being sexually attracted to them? I don’t know. I suppose that we would objectify/admire anyone of the opposite sex that we know nothing of. You see a hot guy/girl in the street and you 'objectify' them. You think damn, he/she is hot. (Because yes, girls have sex drives and check out men too, most of us are just less upfront about it.)
Once you get to know a person, any person, of course you start to see them for who they really are inside. You see whether or not you like or dislike them. In a relationship context, a man may value a woman for her personality, interests, character and the like. Simply viewing her as something for him to have sex with can be said to be objectification, because after getting to know the woman he still only views her as a nice pair of tits and arse with a great mouth for sucking dick. He doesn’t view her as a human with feelings or care about what she wants or likes to do as a person.
Unfortunately there are many men like this. But it must also be stated that many women view men as ‘walking cashpoints;’ simply something to buy them shit. These women (aka gold-diggers) likewise don’t care about men’s feelings at all, they just view men as suppliers of money (which is sexist in itself because it’s claiming that women should have to constantly depend on men for financial security). In that sense aren’t these women objectifying men?
Society has long taught women to be ashamed of or to hide their sexual desires, and that sex should only be for marriage and is all about the woman pleasing the man. So wouldn’t it make sense for modern women to now be highlighting their sexuality?
Isn’t Beyoncé empowering women by showing that she’s proud of her body? Why would she give a shit about doing it for male attention when she’s been with the same man for God knows how many years?
Music and Objectifying Women
But again, this is a complicated area. Many musical pop artists like Beyoncé, Rihanna, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga all wear revealing clothing and showcase their bodies. At the same time, other artists like Adele, Alicia Keys, Lily Allen and Taylor Swift don’t do this. Why is that? Perhaps they just choose not to. They only wear what they want to. Otherwise, every female musical artist from Diana Ross to St Vincent would be dressed like a porn star.
We all know that sex sells. Sexual appeal of women (and men) is used to sell products like perfume and clothes and jeans and cars. Many feminists argue that this is indeed objectifying women, because it is reducing them to nothing more than sex objects being used to allow businesses to capitalize off a product. Music is not porn. Modern music videos are filled with half naked women dancing around men. This includes both the female musical stars, and the background women dancing around the male stars. We all know the outrage that was caused among Robin Thicke’s ‘Blurred Lines’ video for showing nude women standing there in the background.
Films also play into the male-gaze idea – actresses in movies being portrayed constantly as love interest rather than the lead role (though there are many, many films where this is not the case – in fact this is mostly common in rom-coms) and dressed up in sleazy tight clothing only for the male’s attention.
Strip Clubs, Burqas, and Indigenious Women
Strip clubs are criticised by some because they are nothing more than women dancing and stripping for the attention of men and for their money. Some would argue that this is not empowering at all, it is horribly degrading and again reduces a woman down to her body parts. But then did the stripper not choose to do that? Did the porn star not choose to work in porn? Some strippers and porn stars land those jobs because of abuse in childhood or drug problems. But not all drug addicts become strippers and some simply do it to help pay for university. And if they are enjoying it, doing it voluntarily and aren’t getting hurt by it, then is it really that bad?
And what about burkas? Some claim that the burka is a symbol of freedom because it allows Muslim women to not be objectified and to protect their modesty in order to be seen as a whole woman. However, others believe that the burka is a symbol of oppression because it is the men who are making women cover their bodies as it is the men who view women as sexual objects in the first place so men believe that in order to preserve the modesty of women (because apparently that’s very important) women should cover up their bodies so they don’t look like ‘sluts’ and instead look like decent, respectable women that a man can introduce to his mother. After all, it’s the man who the women wearing burkas are being ‘protected’ from in the first place.
It should also be mentioned that in many indigenious tribes, women have their breasts hanging out because it's just a normal part of their culture. Indigenous women don't 'cover up' any more than the men do. What is so wrong with the naked body anyway? Perhaps it's because Western society has sexualised the human body so much that we can't handle seeing naked women (or men) anymore because it's 'too sexual.'
https://www.britannica.com/topic/dress-clothing/The-nature-and-purposes-of-dress
Feminine Attention
As a female myself, I am well aware of the fact that many girls including myself dress up for the attention of men on certain occasions. Even if we’re not intentionally looking for male attention, it will be subconscious. If I’m walking around in a giant coat and jeans and a hoodie and going about my business, I’m not looking for some fucktard on the street to whistle at me. However, if I’m going to a club with friends and looking for some male attention I will dress accordingly. Many women’s clothing is designed to be more revealing and tight fitting than men’s clothing. I remember the trousers back in secondary school – boys generally wore baggier trousers, girls wore tight fitting trousers. This was typically to appear older and 'more appealing' to the opposite sex.
From an evolutionary perspective, human women are designed to look attractive in order to attract a man to pro-create with. For some animals it’s the opposite – in peacocks it’s the men who are hotter with all those fine feathers. Flowers look and smell pretty because they need to attract bees so that the bees can fertilise them. Women look for a strong male who will provide them with security, and men look for an attractive female to have attractive children with. This is known as sexual selection.
Your Point Being?
What I am trying to get at here, is I am not sure what I am trying to get at here.
There isn’t really a point on this post because I’m not really arguing anything, I’m inquiring. I believe that people should wear what they feel comfortable with for themselves not for the sake of pleasing/obeying someone else. I disagree with slut shaming and victim blaming – girls should be allowed to freely sexually express their bodies. Finding people attractive of either or both sexes is completely fine; using a person to exploit them for their body or wallet or whatever else is manipulative and cruel.
Beyoncé and Adele are both talented, hard-working female artists who should be allowed to present their image as they feel suits them. Women since the beginning of time have used their sex appeal towards straight men to their advantage. Likewise, men since the beginning of time have and do take advantage of less experienced women for the sake of sexual pleasure and dominance. (An example of this is R Kelly marrying Aaliyah when she was 15 and he was 24). Generally, women like looking good. We like taking care of our appearances. Sometimes it’s to look attractive to men, but sometimes it’s just to feel good about ourselves. Nowadays many men also care about how they look, hence why they go to the gym so much. Having a v line and a six pack have become the ideal body norm for men.
See also: To be or not to be a feminist?
I don’t really know how to conclude this topic, so I would like to hear your thoughts on it. Objectification, the male gaze, sex selling, and the like.