Media Objectification of Women
A Definition and Consequences of Sexualized Female Representations
What does it mean to say that the media objectify women-- and what does this matter? Here's a media studies primer on objectification and what it means.
A Definition of Media Objectification
Media that objectify women portray women as physical objects that can be looked at and acted upon-- and fail to portray women as subjective beings with thoughts, histories, and emotions. In reality, human beings are both objects as subjects, as they are physical collections of molecules as well as individuals. To objectify someone, then, is to reduce someone exclusively to the level of object.
Is Objectification a Problem?
To some degree, objectification is not necessarily a problem. Human beings like to look at others as physical beings, and individuals sometimes choose to present themselves as others primarily as objects through their dress or behavior. Objecitivity becomes an issue when it is frequent, and when people are commonly presented only as objects and not as subjects as well.
Women are frequently objectified in the media. Men are sometimes objectified as well--and this is not a good thing-- but the objectification of women is far more common. When you see an image of a woman who is presented passively, and who demonstrates no other attributes aside from her physical or sexual being, that's objectification. Here are some contemporary examples of women who are commonly (although not always) portrayed as passive objects to be enjoyed exclusively as physical beings:
- The female models in Deal or No Deal, whose function in the show is to look pretty and to remain passive until the moment the host allows them to "open the case"
- Sexualized images of women in music videos
- Pinup posters of sexualized models
- College girls in Girls Gone Wild videos
- Women in pornography
- Waitresses are Hooters
"Real" Women Versus Images
But how can women be objectified, some people argue, if they voluntarily portray themselves in sexualized ways? The women in Deal or No Deal aren't being forced to anything, after all, and neither are waitresses at Hooters.
This is true-- at least in most cases (as there have been plenty of documented cases of women being forced against their will into pornography or Girls Gone Wild videos). However, the issue of objectification isn't just about individual women's decisions. It's about the impact of this kind of representation on society. That is, a woman may choose to model for Playboy-- but once her image is in the magazine, the issue isn't just her choice anymore. It's about how that representation of women affects the world. Put it in another way, a woman might choose to model in Playboy--but all women collectively did not choose to be represented in this manner.
Consequences of Objectification
The consequences of objectification are not easy to measure. There is no way to link dangerous behaviors such as eating disorders or crimes such as rape directly to media objectification-- and it would be irresponsible and inaccurate to do so. However, we live in a world filled with the objectification of women, and this objectification contributes to social problems. These problems include:
- Sexual violence and other violence against women. When women are portrayed as objects without subjectivity, it may be easier for some to justify violence against them. If a woman is just a thing to be looked at, her feelings and concerns might seem less important.
- Eating disorders and negative self image. The enormous pressure that young girls and women feel to live up to an unrealistic image is fueled by images that suggest the importance of being a beautiful object.
- Backlash. As theorists such as Jean Kilbourne [1] and Susan Faludi [2] have argued, the influx of objectified images of women have occurred at the same time that women have gained other kinds of power in society, serving as a backlash to keep women from becoming too powerful
- Pressure on teens and young women to dress and behave more sexually.
In conclusion, imagine a table. A table is a collection of molecules-- truly an object. It does not care if you look at it, compare it negatively to other tables, pick it up, or even damage it. a woman, however, is both an object and a subject. Like a table, she is a collection of molecules that can be looked at or damaged-- but unlike a table, she cares. When society reduces human beings to the status of tables, the humans are bound to get hurt.
Sources
[1] Jean Kilbourne, Can't Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel, Free Press, 2000.
[2] Susan Faludi, Backlash; The Undeclared War Against Women, Three Rivers Press (15th anniversary edition), 2006.
