Sexual Objectification Essay
Has anyone smelt the perfume, “Oh Lola” by Marc Jacobs? The scent has described as, Flirtatious, charming, and sparkling. It bursts open with a bright and whimsical effervescence and leaves you flirting with your senses. Maybe this is what the advertisers were thinking too when they really went to town to show just how flirtatious a perfume bottle could really be. ‘The print advertisement for “Oh, Lola!” presents a young Dakota Fanning an oversized perfume bottle placed between her legs. Immediately her pose and product placement screams hmm, I think I will leave this one to your own imagination. When I looked closer though, I noticed that there are aspects of the ad that suggest Fanning is young and naïve and don’t coincide with the sexual
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nature of what I was first presented with. The advertisement sparked discussion about whether it was ‘too sexy’ for Fanning. Personally, I would have been shocked at the intense sexual suggestion with any model, however it is particularly inappropriate as Fanning is made to look so young and so innocent. This is a powerful example of the escalating sexualisation of young women as a result of the media.
In lay terms, the act or process of sexualising is making an individual, group or object appear sexual by nature.
Sexual objectification is a key component of sexualisation, one that is predominantly used in the media. Sexual objectification is when a person, a human being is viewed as a thing, an object, an object of sexual desire and pleasure. The sexualisation of youth carries its own definition. In 2010 the UK psychologist Linda Papadopoulos noted in her Review of the Sexualisation of Young People that, “Sexualisation is the imposition of adult sexuality on to children and young people before they are capable of dealing with it mentally, emotionally and physically,” It is important to understand that sexualisation of youth occurs not only in the media. Though young people are not constantly being presented as sexy, the media has a great impact and influence on a society and teenage girls are being exposed to these sexualised ideas through mediums such as clothing, cosmetics, music lyrics and videos technology based entertainment and even the Olympics. I don’t know about you but I find it a bit strange that sparkles and make up has any relevance to showing your skill as a gymnastic athlete or are very revealing leotards are at all appropriate. What message is this sending to your daughters, to nieces, your granddaughters? Fundamentally is showing them to be
sexualised. Sexualisation in the media has substantially increased. The University of Buffalo conducted a study exploring the sexualisation of images by analysing the covers of popular Rolling Stone magazine from 1967 to 2009. The authors discovered that in the 2000s 83% of women on the cover were sexualised, an 89% increase since 1960s. The study reflects the general increase of sexualisation in the media. As I mentioned before, the media has great influence and the sexualisation in the media and of young women in other areas are increasing side by side. Coming back to my Olympic example, when I was younger I had a gymnastics book from the 80s.featuring the well-known Nadia Comaneci who started competing when she was only 14 at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. As a budding gymnast myself, I loved that book, I would spend hours admiring the gymnasts. Even now I can clearly imagine Comaneci: she was strong, she was elegant and she flexible and she was not plastered in make up, in fact her face was bare, completely natural it almost looked like she was a serious athletic competitor. Now in 2012, young gymnasts are looking fake, packing on ridiculous amounts of make up and drenching their in glittery hair spray. This all comes back to the media’s increase and obsession with sexualising.
As a young woman myself, reading all this comprehensive research and trying to understand sexualisation has opened my eyes. Being born into a heavily sexualized culture I deemed my 10-year-old sister recreating the sexually suggesting photo shoots on America’s Next Top Model appropriate. I always believed music lyrics were becoming increasingly sexist and evocative, such as Blow my Whistle Baby. However I never recognised the power those subliminal messages have on adolescent minds. Maybe sexualisation is a contributing factor as why I don’t feel confident standing here without make up or why I am very worried about my school skirt feeling tight. The American Psychological Association’s Task Force on the Sexualisation of Girls noted in 2010 that, “Sexualisation has been linked with three of the most prevalent mental health issue of girls and women; eating disorders, low self-esteem and depression or depressed mood”. Attempting to accept how influenced I am is proving to be very difficult. I think that my generation, my peers believe that they are immune to the media and the social norms it creates. We all deem ourselves a product of our own individuality. But what we don’t realise is that a portion of our individuality is created for us and is presented to us through various mediums. Whether we like it or not, every single one of us is influence by sexualisation in the media in some way, shape or form. So you’re a 15 year old girl, or maybe it’s your 15 year old daughter, and you’re about to go out. You’ve just gotten ready and you’re feeling fantastic. I ask of you, to ask yourself: who has influenced me? Who has influenced me in the sense that, why am I wearing this make, these stilettoes and incredibly revealing dress? Why do I feel the need to remove all body hair from the head down? Who is telling me to do all this? I can now say that as a young women, the person influencing you and telling you to do all this is almost definitely not you.
nature of what I was first presented with. The advertisement sparked discussion about whether it was ‘too sexy’ for Fanning. Personally, I would have been shocked at the intense sexual suggestion with any model, however it is particularly inappropriate as Fanning is made to look so young and so innocent. This is a powerful example of the escalating sexualisation of young women as a result of the media.
In lay terms, the act or process of sexualising is making an individual, group or object appear sexual by nature.
Sexual objectification is a key component of sexualisation, one that is predominantly used in the media. Sexual objectification is when a person, a human being is viewed as a thing, an object, an object of sexual desire and pleasure. The sexualisation of youth carries its own definition. In 2010 the UK psychologist Linda Papadopoulos noted in her Review of the Sexualisation of Young People that, “Sexualisation is the imposition of adult sexuality on to children and young people before they are capable of dealing with it mentally, emotionally and physically,” It is important to understand that sexualisation of youth occurs not only in the media. Though young people are not constantly being presented as sexy, the media has a great impact and influence on a society and teenage girls are being exposed to these sexualised ideas through mediums such as clothing, cosmetics, music lyrics and videos technology based entertainment and even the Olympics. I don’t know about you but I find it a bit strange that sparkles and make up has any relevance to showing your skill as a gymnastic athlete or are very revealing leotards are at all appropriate. What message is this sending to your daughters, to nieces, your granddaughters? Fundamentally is showing them to be
sexualised. Sexualisation in the media has substantially increased. The University of Buffalo conducted a study exploring the sexualisation of images by analysing the covers of popular Rolling Stone magazine from 1967 to 2009. The authors discovered that in the 2000s 83% of women on the cover were sexualised, an 89% increase since 1960s. The study reflects the general increase of sexualisation in the media. As I mentioned before, the media has great influence and the sexualisation in the media and of young women in other areas are increasing side by side. Coming back to my Olympic example, when I was younger I had a gymnastics book from the 80s.featuring the well-known Nadia Comaneci who started competing when she was only 14 at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. As a budding gymnast myself, I loved that book, I would spend hours admiring the gymnasts. Even now I can clearly imagine Comaneci: she was strong, she was elegant and she flexible and she was not plastered in make up, in fact her face was bare, completely natural it almost looked like she was a serious athletic competitor. Now in 2012, young gymnasts are looking fake, packing on ridiculous amounts of make up and drenching their in glittery hair spray. This all comes back to the media’s increase and obsession with sexualising.
As a young woman myself, reading all this comprehensive research and trying to understand sexualisation has opened my eyes. Being born into a heavily sexualized culture I deemed my 10-year-old sister recreating the sexually suggesting photo shoots on America’s Next Top Model appropriate. I always believed music lyrics were becoming increasingly sexist and evocative, such as Blow my Whistle Baby. However I never recognised the power those subliminal messages have on adolescent minds. Maybe sexualisation is a contributing factor as why I don’t feel confident standing here without make up or why I am very worried about my school skirt feeling tight. The American Psychological Association’s Task Force on the Sexualisation of Girls noted in 2010 that, “Sexualisation has been linked with three of the most prevalent mental health issue of girls and women; eating disorders, low self-esteem and depression or depressed mood”. Attempting to accept how influenced I am is proving to be very difficult. I think that my generation, my peers believe that they are immune to the media and the social norms it creates. We all deem ourselves a product of our own individuality. But what we don’t realise is that a portion of our individuality is created for us and is presented to us through various mediums. Whether we like it or not, every single one of us is influence by sexualisation in the media in some way, shape or form. So you’re a 15 year old girl, or maybe it’s your 15 year old daughter, and you’re about to go out. You’ve just gotten ready and you’re feeling fantastic. I ask of you, to ask yourself: who has influenced me? Who has influenced me in the sense that, why am I wearing this make, these stilettoes and incredibly revealing dress? Why do I feel the need to remove all body hair from the head down? Who is telling me to do all this? I can now say that as a young women, the person influencing you and telling you to do all this is almost definitely not you.