Feminist video blogger Laci Green makes instructional videos
to educate women and men on issues of gender and sexuality. Take a look at her video explaining the
objectification of women, citing two observations that stand out to you. Then skim a few of the hateful comments about
her video. What do these responses say
about challenging the male gaze?
Throughout Laci Green’s video, she touches on many things we have discussed in class regarding the objectification of women. She clearly stated the definition for sexual objectification, then provided examples to help her viewers understand how it applies in our society today. One example she included involved school dress code, specifically for young girls, created to “not distract the boys”. One dress code rule deemed wearing a tank top and showing shoulders at school inappropriate. I remember being in K-12 always worrying if my shorts were long enough, or if my sleeveless shirt’s straps weren’t wide enough. In junior high my male science teacher told me that my shorts were too short (I was 12 years old, and they weren’t too short) and enforced the school rule that if a student violated the dress code, they would have to change into their P.E. uniform. I, along with a handful of other girls in my class whose shorts were deemed too short, were forced to change into our ugly, down past our knees, bright purple P.E. shorts, and it was humiliating. It was almost as if they made this rule on purpose, to embarrass girls who were “distracting the boys”. Another example that stuck out to me in Laci Green’s video was her point that in TV shows (especially sit-coms), you see men of all body types dating women of one body type, furthering the point that men, for the most part, are accepted for what they look like, while women are expected to look like and mold into a “perfect”, model-type look. This is ridiculous, since there are so many women of many different shapes and sizes who are all beautiful, yet that is not reflected on TV. After watching the video, I scrolled through the comments to see what people were saying about Ms. Green’s video. One of my favorite comments was from a user named sakud1 saying, “what is it like being in a relationship with someone like this?, if you have a penis?. are you always the blame if things don’t go her way?. always screaming ‘patriarchy’?.” Just because she along with millions of other women are sick of being constantly objectified, does not mean she wouldn’t be someone who isn’t worthy of a relationship. Also, the grammar in this comment is impeccable. Another comment that just made me downright angry was a comment from Fraser Luyben stating “Women are sexual objects just like my dick”. Another disrespectful comment among thousands on this video, which is so disappointing. This intelligent, well-informed and well-spoken woman puts her thoughts on the internet and is scrutinized for it. I took comfort in reading that some people stuck up for her against these hateful comments, emphasizing that women are subjects, not objects, and they should not be de-personalized or just a thing to have sex with. But after reading the hateful comments, I further recognized how much further our society needs to come.
ReplyDeleteMadelynne S.
In Laci Green’s instructional video explaining the objectification of women she discusses the way in which women are viewed by the public as nothing but objects. One observation on the video is that she did not blame men for the objectifying women. Often times, when people are trying to educate other of issues of gender they unknowingly tend to blame men for everything that is wrong with gender inequality and that is not a productive way of educating people about these issues. Lacy Green simply states the facts and keeps things brief while doing it. One thing that was interesting was that she stated that there is a difference between sexually objectifying someone and being sexually attracted to someone. It is important to distinguish these two differences because people often use this as a rebuttal to what feminists are really trying to educate others on. Another observation about the video was that there was no mention of the commodification of women. When women are objectified it eventually leads to the belief that they are commodities and that their bodies are nothing but objects that are used to sell other objects. It is possible that because the blogger was trying to be brief with her facts, she didn't mention the commodification of women.
ReplyDeleteWhen browsing through the comments I noticed that there was a lot of focus on her cleavage. I had to go back and look at the video because I did not remember her cleavage being so exposed. I went back to look and of course there was hardly any cleavage showing. There was such a focus on her cleavage that I expected to see a lot of it once I went back to check the video. There was a comment that said, “Wears extremely low cut tops, shows lots of boobs, puts on the internet, whines about the expected pervy comments.” In class we learned about the male gaze and about the power that men have in looking at women as though they are objects or possessions. The negative and sexists comments reinforce the power of the male gaze and the general belief that women are sexual objects. The extreme focus on her cleavage even though she was hardly showing any is further proof of the male gaze and the way that it is embedded in our society.
Janira C.
Laci Green’s Youtube video regarding the objectification of women is good in that it: a) deconstructs the issue in a simple manner that is comprehensible for anybody watching as a sort of quick intro crash course into feminism, while offering visual evidence (such as the various product advertisements unnecessarily sexualizing women) to further support her claim, and b) instead of ending her video after stating the major flaws regarding contemporary ads and messages aimed at women, followed up with possible solutions and recourse to rectify the issue at hand, such as actively being aware of what’s being marketed to us as consumers and speaking up and out regarding marketing which objectify and or hurt the advancement of women being treated as subjects over objects. I personally feel like Green did a fantastic job in explaining why the objectification of women is not simply a women’s issue, but also detrimentally impacts men and further fuels the toxic, patriarchal society we live under. It is a shame the irony of her comment’s section of the video (although, truth be told, Youtube video comments are usually gross), where there are men who try to make this issue about themselves (eg “well not ALL men like I wouldn’t”), or even people who likely have not watched the video and make lewd and inappropriate comments (either sexual or violent in nature) at Green, thus missing the entire point of Green’s social commentary. While online commentary isn’t reflective of society as a whole, the sheer amount of misogynistic and unprofessional attacks toward Laci Green suggests we still have a ways to go in terms of making progress to de-objectify women and shift away from the male gaze. At the same time, some (albeit rare) of the top/recent comments actively call out the bashing of Green’s video/character, showing that there are people willing to make strides to being critical of social messages sent their way.
ReplyDeleteIsis H
Laci Green explains how objectifying women can be dangerous. In the video, she discusses how women are seen as objects and not as people. Women are objectified in television and make it look normal, women are seen as sexual body parts and as for men are they are seen as whole people.
ReplyDeleteWomen are portrayed as sex objects in magazines all for men to take pleasure in, advertisements are riddled with women’s body parts trying to sell men things. In those, advertisements woman are never portrayed as a whole person, they are just parts, objects to be looked at. It is true that women are not taken seriously due to the objectifying women face in the media. Women face criticisms in everyday situations and this makes it difficult for women to progress. In the video, Green discusses how women will self objectify due to the scrutiny they face. Women are in danger of developing an eating disorders and suffer from depression. The more women are objectified, the more women are in danger of developing a mental illness. Another, important point that stuck out was how sexual violence is not taken seriously, due to the way women are portrayed in the media. The media portray men as having all the power over women, this is seemed as normal. The normalizing of sexually objectified imagery exposes people to be tolerant to sexual harassment and rape myths as stated by Green. This is extremely dangerous because it leads to a culture where it is okay to treat women as objects and allow it to be normal. The more we let media control the material that is out, the more men and women are not treated as equal.
The male gaze is seen as a normal thing, and women are objects to be looked at for pleasure. The movies and television shows are usually created by men and the male gaze is prevalent , what we get to see is what only men see. Most argue that men are objectified as much as women are. The comments on the video gathered many comments justifying both genders objectification, the reality is that women are the ones’s that get it the most. Woman’s body parts are torn apart and objectified, this leads to a dangerous cycle of abuse. Both men and women are objectified in different ways, we live in a world where it has become normal to look at people as body parts, some kind of objects and not as a whole person. There is still a lot to do, many people commenting on how Green is showing too much boobs and objectifying her for wearing a regular cut t-shirt, men and women need to work at appreciating each other as a whole. There is still a lot people have to work on there, women should be treated as people, one has to star acknowledging that there is a problem and we must find solutions and move forward.
Marisela A.
Laci Green’s informative video touches on several key points regarding the sexual objectification of women. Laci’s video helps in bringing awareness to men and women who may not be educated in objectification. One of her observations that stood out to me is scientists’ finding that men and women see women as a mix of body parts, while men are perceived as whole people. This observation is most likely the result of a heavily patriarchal society, as discussed in class. Most people are conditioned to view men so differently from women, especially in today’s American society.
ReplyDeleteAnother observation Laci makes in her video is the fact that 96 percent of sexually objectifying imagery is of women’s bodies. Again, this is expected from a patriarchal society. The observation discussed here addresses a couple defensive comments written below the video. One comment states, “Women may not like being perceived as just a pair of tits and ass but likewise men do not like being perceived as a wallet, a house, a car and a college degree.” Another comment, arguably complementing the last, says, “It hurts how one-sided this ‘feminist equality’ video is.” Basically, these two viewers are complaining that men are just as objectified as women; their comments point out that the video’s message is biased and ignores the issue of male objectification. However, if these viewers focus on just how much sexually objectifying imagery consists of women’s bodies, maybe their viewpoints would shift. Men certainly are objectified like women, but the amount of female objectification is drastically higher (96 percent vs 4 percent). Laci created this video to shed light on the imbalance, not to shun male objectification. Responses such as the two previously mentioned here exhibit the typical resistance that occurs when challenging the male gaze. Only increased awareness and education may cease such defensiveness and excessive female objectification.
- Beatriz L.
What usually is discussed in semester long courses like our own History 365, Laci Green tackled in a quick six minutes and thirty-seven second video that broke down the issue of female objectification and presented it in a clear and simple way to educate all audiences watching. Although the evolution of social media presented a platform that gave feminist ideology a louder voice and a larger audience, the sexual objectification of women in popular culture remains predominantly overlooked as an inherent attribute of society and thus the epidemic continues to spread into the culture of contemporary generations. Because female objectification still dominates popular culture and thus social cognition, videos like Green’s are even more important in a time where much of the developed world receives their information online. This video alone has over 2.5 million views, meaning that whether every person agreed with Green’s message or not, 2.5 million people are now at least subconsciously thinking about the problematic way women are depicted in our culture. I consider myself well versed on the male gaze and the objectification of women, both personally and academically, but Green’s video stood out to me as she touched on certain areas that discussions on this topic often fail to shed light on. For example, Green touches on the fact that transwomen’s bodies are constant arenas of objectification as society reduces these women down to their sex organs to validate their femininity; unfortunately, this demographic of women is often overlooked when discussing the male gaze. What stood out to me the most, however, is that Green made it a point to differentiate natural sexual attraction and manufactured sexual objectification that predominantly utilizes women as the object. This distinction is seemingly obvious to those informed on the issue, but simply defining that difference might piece the puzzle of systemic sexism together for those unaware or uninformed on the issue. After looking at the comments on Green’s video, I unfortunately cannot say that I am surprised. Challenging a frame of mind historically ingrained into our culture (such as the male gaze), just as does challenging any aspect of the dominant hegemony, presents a massive resistance from those that fear change and those that lack the empathy to fully understand an issue that does not affect them personally. When faced with such ignorant pushback, the only thing to do is make the message louder and stronger; considering Laci Green continues to post videos about controversial topics despite the filth that fills up each video’s comment section, I’m assuming she would agree.
ReplyDelete--Kodie A.
While watching Laci Green’s video that touches a lot of important points when it come to the topic of women being seen as sex objects in society. She starts her video with the difference between a subject and an object, where subject is an act an object is what is being acted upon. Women are always being acted upon when it comes to any media in society. Which connect to what was talked about by Laura Mulvey “Visual Pleasure” narrative when it comes to the different shot types you have shot A the object shot of a man looking at something and as the audience we see that. Then there is shot B subjective point of view of what the man is looking at (a woman) which he then objectifies. The first point that stood out to me was when she said that “men are seen as whole people and women are just seen for there sexual body parts”. I agree with her when she say this because on some basic advertisement the woman's face might not even be shown, her body is what they are trying to specify. In these advertisements you will find a woman with little to no clothes on she, society do not show a woman's full body covered up as advertisement. A basic sweater of any kind has to be falling off the woman’s shoulder or she is lifting it up for it to be worth a post inside a magazine, which is ridiculous . As a woman I feel like we have to watch what we wear and how we wear it, make sure its not to short or too tight. We have to take those things in consideration while shopping I know I do all the time. If our shorts are too short we are being called a particular name or looked at a certain way. You might as well say we are being judged based on how we are dressed. By all the advertisement of women being put on display you have women thinking they have to look and dress a certain way to be accepted in society. If we do not fit the description society has set for us we are looked at as being out of place. Laci said “ if we lived in a normal world the subject status would be mostly seen in terms of personality, skills, intellect humor, kindness, and other personal traits ; objects status would be seen in terms of sexual desire” you see the problem we are not in a normal world.
ReplyDeleteThe second thing that stood out to me was when she states that “ the average woman monitors her body every 30sec". When I heard this statement I had to think to myself, how many time through the day I fix my shirt or just anything on my body for that matter to make sure it looks correct. Which made me tie this to having healthy narcissism. Narcissism meaning the pleasure in ones self, healthy narcissism helps us build relationship and self-confidence. When it comes to self confidence, which is something we lack as women. Lacking self confidence could be why we might monitor our body the way we do making sure it looks presentable to others, all that should matter is it looking great to us. We need to build self confidence, and self love being comfortable in our own body and skin, know that you are the best you. A comment that made me angry was by Fraser Luyben “ women are sexual objects just like my dick” this was just disrespectful on so many levels and uncalled for. This clearly shows that he does not have any knowledge about this topic and down right just do not care about how women are seen in society. We can clearly say he plays a part into how society is objectifying us women. He did not care about the information that was given he is simply stuck in one mind state and one mind state only. Another comment that I disagree with is written by Goose of Valor states “ I’m going to be speaking at a bunch of schools” Oh dear lord no…” This comment is stating you do not want her to educate the ones that want to be educated and can not because they might not have the proper resources. Don't be rude and stop her from sharing facts so us women can stop being looked at as objects to men. So the men can stop looking over us, and we can become an active subject instead of passive all the time.
--Roshandra S.
Laci Green’s YouTube video defines sexual objectification, and how it hurts men and women over time. Sexual objectification leads to self-objectification, where one judges themselves on how sexually desirable they are to others. Self-objectification is a contributor to eating disorders and depression among young women. Two subjects that stood out to me in this video were: women being viewed as a mixture of body parts and how sexual objectification affects the perception of sexual violence. Laci states that scientists have found that men and women see women’s body’s as a mix of sexual body parts, and men are viewed as “whole” people. This correlates with the video “Killing Us Softly” that we viewed in class that showed most models seen in advertisements are a mixture of multiple different women. She also shows examples of how women’s body parts are used to sell products in advertisements. I thought this was interesting because we had discussed the exact same thing in class. Another topic I found interesting was when Laci stated that sexual objectification leads to sexual violence not being taken seriously. The myth that men are sexually aggressive and should want sex leads to dangerous presumptions such as men cannot be raped. This was interesting to me because usually when talking about sexual objectification the victims are mostly women.
ReplyDeleteGoing through the comments on Laci’s video I noticed a lot of what I presume are male commenters being very defensive. They think she is over exaggerating and men experience the same amount of sexual objectification as women. These types of responses prove how prevalent the male gaze is. These commenters are used to seeing the world through the male gaze, so when it is pointed out and criticized they chose to not believe it and think Laci is choosing to be a victim. Commenters often pointed out that men are also shown half naked in the media as sexual objects. This is true, but the commenters fail to realize the different effects of sexual objectification between men and women.
-Lauren W.
Lacy speaks fairly and educates the viewers about the problems women face with sexual objectification. She also continued to acknowledge that while men also face these problems, it is not to the same degree as women. This is something that is very important to acknowledge. One of the most common reasons that people are against feminism is that people often believe feminists to be man-hating people. There is this inaccurate notion that feminism is about breaking men down rather than raising women up. I see so many people say they hate feminism because they don't do their research or associate it with extremists who do go as far as hating men.
ReplyDeleteSomething that stood out to me in the comments was that there were a lot of men who took offense to this video because men are "objectified" too. Most of them take one example of men being objectified as a means to deny the extent to which women get sexually objectified on a higher scale. One of them chose Twilight as one of those examples. Another comment simply said "More men in jail in women" as if it somehow shut down the very valid argument Lacy is making. They completely disregarded the fact that Lacy did acknowledge that men face these issues as well, just not on the same scale as women. Most of them seemed to have used this as an excuse to justify their objectifying as well rather than acknowledging the problem. Almost none of them actually acknowledged the problem that Lacy was addressing, and simply tried to justify their objectification instead. Most of the hateful comments simply cherry-pick out of the video things that they feel offended by and completely invalidated or unacknowledged any of the points Lacy was trying to make. Not only did they do that, they continued to perpetuate the very thing that Lacy was addressing: sexual objectification. They continued to devalue her by focusing on her "cleavage" (which is minimal and unavoidable with her breast size), or on her use of makeup. Most of these comments tried to deny the objectification of women while simultaneously servings as perfect examples of this problem.
- Shira T.
In Laci Green’s YouTube video titled “Sex Object BS,” she defines sexual objectification, and describes the harm that sexually objectifying women has on the society as a whole. One of the points in the video that stood out for me was the portion on school dress code. Green talks about the dress code pretty quickly, but presents articles that featured young students “fighting for the rights to bare their arms,” or even wear tank tops. Personally, I find the dress codes obscene, and primarily directed at woman. The dress code makes young girls feel objectified and bad about their bodies. It is wrong that the school system is constantly telling young girls that their bodies are “immodest,” “inappropriate,” and that girls need to “cover up,” for the sake of everyone being able to “focus” on school. Dress code is extremely problematic because it sends the message to young girls, that their bodies are objects, and if they don’t cover up no one will be able to “focus.” It also embarrassing and punishes girls for having a body that they can’t control. Often when someone got dress coded at my school they were forced to wear a huge, ugly, baggy T-shirt that said “Loner,” on it and every knew they got dress coded. It was a way of shaming girls for not “covering up,” and it was extremely unfair.
ReplyDeleteIn all of my years in high school, I’ve only seen other girls get dress coded, which happened almost every day, but I’d only seen one boy ever get dress coded. The reason the boy got dress coded was because his shirt had a woman with cleavage on it, which is essentially saying that woman’s bodies are inappropriate, and a “distraction” for the others at school. It is not fair that most of the dress code always applies to woman, and this is something that needs to be changed.
The other point of the video that I found interesting was when Laci said, “the cultural narrative shows men as full people,” but does not do the same for women. I found this to be true, and when I was growing up it seemed like girls were told that their worth comes from being beautiful, and nothing else. While boys could be smart, or athletic, or good looking, and have many different qualities to them that made them “worthy,” or “special.” At my school, girls were put down for being “too athletic” or “too smart,” and were often put on a pedestal if they were beautiful. The message that this sends to women is that being beautiful should be the number one priority, and you will be liked and popular if you are pretty.
The last thing I noticed, were that most of the comments against the video are from men. They are coming to the video to purposefully “troll,” and disagree with Green, by calling her names, or a hypocrite. One of the comments that stood out to me was: “>wears extremely low cut tops>shows lots of boobs>whines about the expected pervy comments.” This person is basically doing exactly what the video says not to do. He is objectifying Laci, and only focusing on her boobs, when she had so many other important things to say.
To quickly conclude, society is constantly finding new ways to push woman down, and make them feel terrible about themselves, and this needs to change!
Anisa S.
It seems as though I have not been on the vlog sphere for quite some time, because never would I have ever thought I would be supporting Laci Green on something. Though now after watching this video I can proudly say that Laci brings up a lot of great examples in her video of objectification. The first point that caught my attention was the sexualization of breast cancer campaigns. I remember when every boy had an “I heart boobies” wristband which told men from as young as elementary school that women we’re only important for their breasts. Campaign ads saying “save second base” move the focus point as far as possible from the threat of women’s lives and points it directly at the sexual pleasure that boobs give men. Having a mother who is a breast cancer survivor I have always had an uneasy feeling about the sole focus on the issue of losing one’s boobs rather than the potentiality of death. The second point I’d like to discuss and easily the most damaging effect of objectifying women is the responsive self-objectification. This mindset that is certainly in all women, whether it’s apparent or not, and is a direct link to endless inequalities in society. By women self-objectifying themselves, which is easy to do given the society we live in, they have a disproportionate rate of developing depression or eating disorders, can lead to lower cognitive and motor functioning, and discourages them from pursuing jobs in STEM career fields. Further the normalizing of the objectification of women feeds directly into rape culture, perpetuating the thought that women are solely for men’s pleasure. When I was scrolling through the MRA comments it became apparent to me that the hypersexualization and objectification of women is so immensely normalized that some people can’t even realize it when it’s spelled out for them. Comments saying how this sexualization is an assumption and the evidence given is a stretch and that saying women are under the control of men is an insult to women because it alludes to them being stupid enough to fall for it.
ReplyDeleteMadeline R.
In Laci Green’s YouTube video, she uses her YouTube platform to educate viewers about feminism, and gender and sexuality. This video focuses on how women remain objectified particularly in the media. Green refers to this video as one of her longest videos; however, she manages to get a lot of information in six minutes about the objectification of women. Two points that stood out to me in her video was that she shows pictures of men in media being of different body types and women being of one body type. She also says both men and women see women’s bodies as sexual body parts while we see men as whole people. This stood out to me be because as a woman, I know how we constantly are treated as objects. I never quite noticed the contrary of that, on how we see men. Green goes into detail on the fact that women’s bodies in media are the selling point to selling products and continues to show pictures of both men and women depicted in different ways. My favorite part was when she showed both a man and woman in the same pose and how the man is awkward whereas the female looks less awkward or “normal” to the eye. Some of her comments mostly made by men were that men too suffer from objectification. In addition, this happens to men in the media as well. However, this may be true the overwhelming amount of women being objectified more than men have caused society to see all this as a norm and therein lies the problem. Men do not suffer as much as women do of how they are portrayed in the media in fact 96% of imagery is objectifying women. In no way is green or I saying this is okay. Green is just educating her audience on the inequality and saying there shouldn’t be any forms of objectification of human beings both men and women.
ReplyDeleteJennyfer A.
Laci Green’s video explains the influence sexual objectification has on our society. Such influences involves the normalization of sexually objectifying women through means of media such as advertisements. Green stated sexual objectification is “men of all body types date women of one body type”. This statement implies the figurative skinny mold women must aim to achieve to be “successful” in media. An example that revolves around this idea would be America’s Next Top Model, which berates the contestants every week on their body weight. However, if we were to play devil’s advocate to her statement, we can say that men may not have to fit a body type but rather an acceptable social class. Green states that society “doesn’t require men to look a certain way to be taken seriously”, which is far from correct. Media promotes the idea that women needs to be sexually appealing to be desirable. At the same time, media also delivers the message to men that they need to be able to offer financial security in order to be desirable.
ReplyDeleteGreen also stated how “sexual objectification contributes to a culture where sexual violence isn’t taken seriously”. Her message implies that society reinforces the idea that gender dictates your sexual characteristics. The idea being that men are prone to be more sexually aggressive while females are sexually submissive. By linking sexual violence to a biological perspective, it makes justifying sexual violence caused by males to be acceptable. The act of objectifying someone devalues their worth as a human being. This act is seen as society sexual objectify women to physical traits, therefore making them inferior and conquerable.
Green’s video on challenging the male gaze is met with expected negativity. Since our society has adopted sexual objectification such as the “male gaze” as normal, it is human tendency to reject anything we define as normal. Green’s video is instructional on sexual objectification but could have focused more on both sides by expanding on males being objectified.
Tommy L.
I took the opportunity to listen to what Laci Green had to say in her video about women objectification and how absurd its normalization had become. At first I wasn’t listening to her because I felt as though she was loud and obnoxious and telling me things that I already know. When I went back and looked at it after listening to my fellow classmates’ viewpoints, I was surprised to notice that I also did some of the things in that video she was describing. It was a shock to me how normalized it all had been that we don’t even notice as we are doing it. Objectifying women and only looking at them as means to an end is very wrong and it is a serious issue we must address. The first thing that stood out to me from her video is how we use breast cancer campaign slogans and commercials to objectify women on a daily basis. I don’t know if its because the overarching message is bigger or for some other reason, but the majority of people exposed to these media contents don’t see anything wrong or in a way numb to it. The second thing that I noticed is her saying that women in movies and T.V shows, men of many different body types date women of one body type which puts the idea in the minds of little girls that the norm is to be skinny and fit and if you don’t look the part, you are considered unworthy or unattractive. From skimming the video, I noticed that the majority of hate comments are left by men and I think it is highly inappropriate. We must do a better job of getting all women on board for the fight towards equality because if all women are on the same page, I believe these men would stop commenting negatively. In fact, I think that quite the contrary might happen where they will join the fight if not for their wives, daughters, and sisters, at least for their mom, since we all have one of those. Most of what was said in the video has also been addressed in the book Reality Bites Back, since even in there, we see instances such as Tyra Banks’ show where the sole purpose of the show is to objectify women and have them compete on the basis of their beauty.
ReplyDeleteShewakena K.
One point that stands out in Laci Green’s video is when she states “96% of sexually objectifying imagery is of women’s bodies”. Green then goes on to show how this normalizes the objectification of women in our society by comparing a half naked photo of a woman to a man posed in a similar fashion. The photo of the woman seems “normal” in our society, but when we attempt to pose a man in the same way it seems silly and abnormal.
ReplyDeleteLater on, Green states “we don’t require that men look a particular way to be taken seriously”. Often, when a woman does not wear makeup, society sees her as looking tired or sick. In order to be successful as a woman in this society, it seems almost necessary to take time out of your day to put on at least a little bit of makeup and analyze your outfit for how it will be perceived in the world. Men may face some scrutiny when it comes to their appearance, but it does not impact their level of success as directly as it does for women.
The comments on this video show how the male gaze permeates viewers in a way that disables them from accepting her point of view. Many commenters try to rationalize their resistance - their statements often follow the formula of “she’s right, it sucks for women, but it’s bad for men too!”. There is a common belief among many of the criticizers that the expectations society places on men are equally as oppressive. However, the expectations that these commenters list often have to do with wealth, education, job status, and personality. They state that a woman would not want anything to do with a man if he does not have these things, and that women might even have it better because they can use their bodies instead of having to work hard. The influence of the male gaze impacts them in a way that twists female objectification into a good thing that women should appreciate and use to their advantage, rather than something that is oppressive and harmful to society.
Some are on the more vulgar side, such as one user who says “Women are sexual objects just like my dick.” The commenter probably thinks this is a just funny joke, but by casually comparing a woman (a human being) to his dick (a sexual object), he is objectifying women and proving the point of the video by doing so in such a casual manner. Even if this commenter does not really believe this and sees it only as a joke, it displays just how numb society is to these types of messages.
-Sara D.
Laci Green’s video is a good start in educating people to make a change in how our society objectifies women. I feel like her video was spot on and to the point without sounding too harsh and overpowering. One thing that stood out to me was when Laci said we aren’t even aware of how bizarre seeing women as sex objects is. I completely agree with this. I’ve always known that seeing women as sex objects has been a problem, but until recently, I’ve never known just to what extend how true that phrase is. I feel like a lot of people aren’t as aware either because we see it every day so it just becomes normal. It shocks me to realize that on television, men with various body types always dating women with one body type is sexual objectification. It didn’t even occur to me that this is sexual objectification because it's just normal to see on television. Another thing that stood out to me was when she said that because of the criticism on women’s bodies, girls quickly learn to self-objectify. Self-objectifying can lead to many negative things such as body shame, eating disorders, depression, and pursuing fewer careers in STEM fields. I feel that if people knew the dangers of sexual objectification, they would do more to stop it, which is why people need to be educated on this issue.
ReplyDeleteWhile reading the comments section, I found some pretty stupid comments. One by Fraser Luyben who says “Women are sexual objects just like my dick.” Whether he is stating his actual opinion or just being a troll, I don’t understand why he has to insert himself into the comment section. Another comment from Tedurbin202 says “This whole video is just asinine. Pure feminist, propaganda garbage.” From reviewing the comments, it really shows just how ignorant people are. Since most of the hateful comments are from men, it makes me wonder how they would view this matter taking their mothers, daughters, wives, etc. into consideration. With more education and awareness, I hope that one day more men and women can work together to get rid of sexual objectification for both genders.
- Katherine C.
Throughout her entire video, Laci Green managed to briefly, yet adequately, inform us on the self-objectification of women. One observation that stood out to me was when Green mentioned “being bombarded with sexy cleavage in every magazine ever while being told that breastfeeding is obscene”. I remember watching a video of 2 women (part of a social experiment) who were told to sit in various public locations: one of them was breastfeeding while the other was wearing revealing clothing with her cleavage on full display. Many men, and women, walking by verbally assaulted the breastfeeding woman claiming it to be “disgusting” and “so wrong”. When both women were seated together outside on a bench, people, again, attacked the woman breastfeeding with nasty comments, but not saying anything to the other woman. When asked on why they didn’t criticize that woman, they claimed that her cleavage was “hot” and “just fine” for the public to see. Another statement that Green said was that “objectification is the idea where men and women cannot be friends cause men never see a woman as anything but sexual”. When I heard her mention this, I remembered certain things we’ve talked about in class: from the documentary we watched, ‘Miss Representation’, I recalled on it mentioning that more than 50% of 13-year-old girls were unhappy with their bodies. The delusional and unrealistic body images that women, and even men, get exposed to in magazines, advertisements, TV shows, and movies depict one, if not the main, reason for why girls use their bodies and sexuality to define who they are; and thus, become sexually objectified. Not only is this a negative effect on women, but to all society.
ReplyDeleteReading through some of the comments, I found it a little distressing that many people don’t see sexual-objectification as a serious issue; it’s more of a joke to them. They attack things such as Laci Green’s cleavage and basically call her a hypocrite for wearing such revealing clothes, yet speaking against self-objectification; they try to derail the true meaning behind the video and just depict a stronger viewpoint on the aspect of the ‘male gaze’.
-Anam R.
Two observations that stand out to me from Laci Green’s video on objectification of women are her mention of sexy cleavage versus breastfeeding, and her discussion on how women self-objectify. Laci Green talks about how breasts are used to sell everything from burgers to jeans, but when they are used for their natural purpose (feeding babies) they are seen as being inappropriate, and women are often told to leave or go breastfeed their babies somewhere “more private.” This demonstrates how society sexualizes women’s breasts and doesn’t see them as anything more than an object for men’s pleasure, which in turn allows companies to use this object to sell their products.
ReplyDeleteThe second observation that stands out to me is Laci Green’s discussion on self-objectification, and how women internalize societies’ objectification of their bodies. When women are constantly comparing themselves to the unrealistic images they see of women in the media, they begin to feel like they are undesirable because their bodies don’t match the women they are seeing. This feeling of “not being good enough” is what fuels the very profitable cosmetic, fashion, and plastic surgery industries. In many cases, it also causes women to not feel confident in themselves, which can lead to depression and eating disorders.
The most disturbing comment on Laci Green’s video that I read was, “wears extremely low cut tops, shows lots of boobs, puts it on the Internet, and then whines about the expected perverted comments.” Instead of addressing those who make perverted comments, this person blames Laci Green for wearing a low cut top, and basically says, “she was asking for it” and has no space to complain. This is the same rhetoric that is used to victim blame rape survivors, and this comment really demonstrates how objectification of women’s bodies manifests itself in the ways people blame women’s bodies for the actions of others. Challenging the male gaze is important in combating these issues.
-Hyla R.
There are numerous things that stood out to me while watching Laci Green’s video. The first one was when she stated, the different views between men and women. She points out that society usually views men as a whole, human beings with complex personalities, and many traits that make us the individual that we are. Women however, are only seen as objects, that are only used for the sexual pleasure and objectification of men. This mindset poses to be problematic because in many television series, or movies, the main protagonist are usually males. Everything is from a male perspective, we hardly see main protagonist that are female, and therefore we hardly know much about a woman’s story, her perspective. Society forgets that women, like men have complex traits about them that make them human as well. The second thing that stood out to me was when Green stated that in movies or television shows, males of different body types are represented, such as muscular, thin, or maybe even on the heavier side, while their wife, or partner, has only one body type. This is problematic because women feel that because they do not look like the skinny conventionally attractive woman, they are not attractive themselves, which leads to mental illnesses such as body dysmorphia, depression, and much more.
ReplyDeleteThe comments that I have read on her thread were quite disturbing to me. The thread of comments reminds me why we need feminism. It seems that whenever a woman talks about the inequality of the sexes, some men get angry and defensive. The commenters, particularly the men bombarded how “one sided” feminist bullshit the video was. To me, these people are quite ignorant of what feminism is. I see this everywhere when feminism is the topic. Men bombard the timeline with their own struggles, which is completely valid, but get angered when women state theirs too. This is something that needs to be fixed.
Ciarajane D.
In her video “Sex Object BS,” feminist Laci Green defines sexual objectification and examines its implication on society. Green’s piece stands out in two ways: first, she illustrates how pervasive sexual objectification has become by examining recent breast cancer awareness ads (among other forms of media) meant to attract men’s attention to the cause. The ads depict women’s breast with the words “save second base” over them—leaving one with the understanding that women’s health issues play a secondary role to men’s pleasures. Second—an idea directly tied to the last—is Green’s use of sources: magazine ads, commercials, research statistics, and newspaper headlines. Through them, Green ably argues that sexual objectification “…is a huge hindrance to a truly equal healthy sex positive society” (0:32-0:37). For instance, in one of the ads Green presents, a male hand is shown giving a jewelry box to a woman in a skirt sitting with her legs crossed (only the hand and legs are visible); in the next image the women’s legs are open, as is the box which is now revealing a ring. The message being that women are “gold-diggers” who only sleep with men who can provide them a luxurious lifestyle. Additionally, Green’s piece gives one a better understanding of the notion of patriarchal capitalism Benshoff and Griffin mention in “Exploring the Visual Parameters of Women in Film”. Through Green’s use of sources one can see that advertisers promote both a product and an idea of what one can attain with that product. For men, this idea is often understood as sexual prowess.
ReplyDeleteWhile Green’s video is an informative piece which aims to educate people on the dangers of sexual objectification, she has come under attack by both male and female viewers who believe that the male gaze is an appropriate way to view and judge women. For instance, one commenter states “women are sexual objects just like my dick.” While one can dismiss such a comment as “just the work of a 12 year old,” it is one of many statements that arises when a women defies her prescribed gender role.
One criticism the author of this short entry offers on her video is in regards to Green’s statement “…we don’t require that men look a particular way to be taken seriously” (4:21-4:23). This statement is not only unfounded, but it also does not consider the notions of race or class—and there visual cues--that have often been used throughout this country’s history to define hegemonic masculinity.
Efrain S.
Laci Green does an excellent job of discussing feminist ideals; she’s respectful, informative, and non-accusatory in proving her points. I was particularly interested in her discussion of sexual objectification in advertising. She showed a couple of different advertisements for breast cancer awareness, declaring, “Save a life, grope your wife” and “Save second base,” both of which not only make light of a serious and fatal disease, but imply that the woman would be worth less to her husband (or any man—assuming she’s heterosexual) if she were to lose a breast to cancer. The second advertisement that stood out to me was a side-by-side comparison of two ads, one male and one female, selling a flannel shirt. The man’s shirt was buttoned, he was fully dressed, and he stood with confidence. The woman’s shirt was unbuttoned, she wore no pants, and her hair was mussed with her arms pushed against the wall behind her in a blatantly sexual and submissive position. These ads were taken from online shopping sites, showing even women who are simply shopping are exposed to the male gaze (and probably not even aware of it!). When you think about it, women’s clothing ads are strewn with unnecessary nudity, to the point where the model is often only wearing the item of clothing she is trying to sell. Similarly, when Laci showed an image of a man recreating a women’s clothing ad where she’s pantless and on all fours, it was shocking. It looked ridiculous, but we are so conditioned to seeing women in these positions dictated by the male gaze that we don’t see how harmful they are.
ReplyDeleteLaci made the point that in media and the world, women are mostly objects, and occasionally subjects. Quite a few comments accused her discussion being one-sided, saying that women are given hand-outs, and that being sexually objectified is just as bad as being seen as a “wallet” or “a suit”—both of which signify financial stability and success. These men argue that these objectifications were the same, if not worse, which magnifies how normalized the sexual objectification of women’s bodies is. And then there are the commenters, both male and female, who ignore the content of the video completely and post things such as “Women are sexual objects just like my dick,” which compares an entire gender to a single body part, and only serves to prove Laci’s point further. This comment, even if meant to be humorous, trivializes the whole discussion and adds to its necessity. A surprising amount of comments complain about the fact that her breasts are somewhat visible while she talks about sexual objectification, and blame the rude and perverted comments on her. One commenter even went as far as to say, “if you had anything more to offer than sex, we would be talking about it, but you don’t.” It’s incredibly shocking to read through so many uninformed opinions, and see them reinforce the exact objectification Laci was discussing. One comment summed up my feelings exactly: “I think that the comments on this video made by some men sum up why we need feminism and why this video was created.”
Kali H.
In Laci Green’s video “Sex Object BS”, she talks about how women are sexually objectified for pleasure of men. What I have observed from this video is that Laci doesn’t go in depth with how men are also sexually objectified in the society. She briefly mentions that men can be objectified but she doesn’t give any examples or how objectification of men affects the society. I feel that solely focusing on sexual objectification of women would not only aggravate some people to leave comments like “Men are expected to have six packs!” but also it doesn’t highlight sexually objectifying any human being is just purely dehumanizing. Second observations I made is that Laci distinguishes differences between objectification and sexual attraction. I think often times people who objectifies women justifies themselves by saying that they did so because they found a woman sexually attractive. I think there is a very thin line between objectifying someone and finding someone sexually attractive. I believe that knowing what physical preference you seek in others isn’t problematic but if you find someone sexually attractive solely based on their looks then would you be objectifying someone…? Afore mentioned, I feel like objectification and sexual attractiveness is separated in fine line so I end up with a lot of confusion after watching the video.
ReplyDeleteMany comments on this video are outrageous. I saw many comments regards to male objectification, degradation of feminists, and comments about Laci’s body. I personally wished Laci included male objectification in the video. Yes, objectifying women is very problematic and should be addressed and so is male objectification. I feel that talking about male objectification would’ve helped viewers to see topic of objectification in a different light. I think it is really unfortunate to witness misconception of feminists people have. It was even more ridiculous to see people attacking on Laci’s body and that she is wearing revealing clothes because she is “thirsty feminist”. It is very ironic to see people bashing on Laci but in reality they are THE examples of how women are being objectified in the society.
Judy L.
The sexual objectification of women creates a system where men and women are respectively put into roles of subject and objects. The issues that arise from this objectification are magnified through the normalization of this behavior. Laci Green simplifies and explains these issues while providing many examples in her video “SEX OBJECT BS”. Quite a few of the observations she made really stood out to me since I had no clue they were related to objectification. For example, Lacy mentions how men do not require to look a certain way just to be taken seriously. This makes sense since they have an “active role” as subjects in society so their value is not derived from appearance because they are not the ones being looked at. Women have the role of being the objects in society and must meet a standard which they face pressure to conform to just to be taken seriously. Another example, which is constantly seen in media, is men being accurately represented with different body types while they all date women with one body type. This recurring scenario emphasizes the fact that women must adhere to certain molds. The subtlety that these two examples share is really concerning since it makes me wonder what problematic constructs are in hidden in plain sight.
ReplyDeleteAs I went through the comments, it became clear that her videos had a reputation that went beyond the content she posted. Her fans fill the beginning of her comment section with warnings of the barrage of misogynistic comment her videos constantly face. For some reason that is beyond me, many people feel the need to harass her with belittling comments, to insult her, and to challenge her without actual intellectual arguments. Rather than attempting to just think over her message, they resort to this erratic behavior. These men do not realize how their actions are proof of the dangers that come from normalizing certain ideas like the objectification of women. Their comments which are commonly seen as just hate, double as attempts to police her behavior.
Vincent I.
As I sat down to watch this video by Laci Green I had a rough idea as to what the content was based on the prompt of this assignment. It made me sad that as I waited for the video to load, an advertisement was shown for [Yellow Tail] Wines in which a woman in a bikini was prominently objectified to sell the product. There was even innuendo that further objectified her, not only based on her physical aesthetic, but also featuring her worth as the physical satisfaction she can provide a man.
ReplyDeleteI share this as an anecdote that perfectly proves the points that Laci is making in her video. Advertisers use the objectification of women to sell products that are not at all related to women’s bodies. How does a glass of sub-standard pinot relate to a woman in a bikini “stroking a roo” on a beach? It doesn’t aside from the fact that it seeks to profit on the continued and overt sexualization of women as objects to provide pleasure.
One example that stood out to me in Green’s video is when she talks about objectifying slogans and phrases being used to raise awareness about breast cancer. It is almost shocking that phrases like “save second base” and “save a life, grope your wife” paint breast cancer as a problem that impacts the sexual enjoyment of men. It is almost as if saving a woman’s life is a happy byproduct of enjoying her breasts as sex objects. Clearly enjoying breasts is a top priority while saving women’s lives is just a serendipitous benefit that may come from ‘boys being boys.’ Obviously, this highlights how far society has skewed the importance of women and how thoroughly and continuously we expose ourselves to female objectification.
Another topic that Laci touched on that made an impact was something that Margaret Cho talked about in her standup. Both women speak about the double standard for women in television. Green states that “T.V. shows feature men of all different body types dating women of one body type.” Cho speaks to this when she shares the concerns that the network expressed about the fullness of her face and appearance in a mini-skirt, and contrasts these concerns about her weight and appearance with the lack of similar consideration shown to the man (Drew Carey) who took over the time slot of her show after it was cancelled. No one critiqued Drew Carey for his body or larger stature, but Cho – as a woman- was fair game. To continue with Green’s line of thought, we see in the Drew Carey show that Drew is a large, awkward looking man who dates a thin, attractive woman. This is hardly isolated. In many shows, we see large actors who date and objectify women who fit in societies view of attractive of normal.
Laci Green summarizes this cultural phenomenon by explaining that men are granted more sexual power in our culture than women, therefore, we see the world from the dominant male perspective. The male perspective seeks to, above all else, maintain a dominant status in society. This is accomplished by normalizing the extreme objectification of woman and promoting the application of strict societal expectations on women. The social problems created by this trend directly feed back into the media that has created the problems and continues a vicious cycle of marginalizing an entire sex.
-Jeremy F.
In her video, Laci Green provides both a clear outline of what sexual objectification is, how it manifests in our society in a harmful way for women, and how to challenge it.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with objectification, and the “male gaze” is that it breaks apart women into a conglomerate of sexual body parts, and forces women to be judged in parts, instead of being regarded as whole people. It also puts men in an active role, and women in a passive role. According to Benshoff and Griffin from “Exploring the Visual Parameters of Women in Film,” the male gaze and fetishization work to keep women passive because “if they are regarded as objects and not fully capable human beings, then women can be kept in a subordinate position.”
Despite Laci Green outlining that this phenomenon occurs because of a patriarchal culture, men in the comments felt personally attacked by her video, and responded in vulgar and rude ways. For example, there is a common theme among the comments that if Laci doesn’t want to be sexually objectified by men, she shouldn’t be showing any cleavage in her videos. This is the common “she was asking for it” excuse that is used when abuse, assault, or objectification of women is pointed out. This shows up all too often in rape cases, where all too much emphasis and importance is placed on what the victim was wearing and if she consumed any alcohol. This goes back to what Laci was talking about in her video, when she pointed out that sexual objectification of women upholds the “men can’t help themselves” mentality when they encounter an attractive woman.
Another common theme in the comments was to jump straight into claiming that all feminists of being man-hating and ugly. I think this happens because when a woman rejects the male gaze, the patriarchal mindset pushes men react by claiming that the woman never deserved the male gaze in the first place. This is an attempt in their logic to try to take back the control in the situation and try to maintain the active man, passive woman dynamic.
Claire C.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteLaci Green’s video discusses the sexual objectification of women, and how deeply embedded this way of thinking is within our society. It is normalized to sexually objectify women, while men usually are seen as active subjects. She brings up some examples that reflect this in our society including women’s magazines flooded with tips on how to please a man with your looks/ body, women being cat called, how the media uses women’s bodies to sell EVERYTHING, how there is only one body type shown for women in most of the media, how it is okay for breast to be shown to sell something with sexuality while it’s not okay to publicly breast feed, school dress codes with strict guidelines specifically for girls in order to not distract the boys, and the list goes on. This leads to the ideology that “boys will be boys,” and that it’s okay to objectify women this way. It teaches young men that it is not their fault, and that’s just the way it is. It also conditions women to “want to be wanted,” and teaches them that their value lies in their beauty. Then she goes on to state that men don’t need to look a certain way to be taken seriously, and I guess this what upset the male viewers in the comments:
ReplyDelete“Sex objects? Like those two underage goofy guys in Twilight that were objectified by women, 6 years old to 60? Ohh, ok gotcha” -Kevin Flynn
“Cough cough but what about male models that have 6 packs cough cough” -Ramus the owl
“Im sorry but sexy women in ads happen just as much as sexy men when have u seen a 250 lbs 5 foot man be in any clothing ad NEVER. It's just advertising and it happens to both genders.” - Daniel Gonzales
She does point out that neither sex is in an ideal situation, and society has unfair expectations for men as well. But typically these expectations aren’t solely based on their appearance. Also, even when the media does sexually objectify men in advertisements or in the entertainment industry, it happens overwhelmingly less than it does with women. It happens so often that it has led to young girls objectifying themselves, and often leads to body dysmorphia and eating disorders. Studies have that the female to male ratio that suffer from eating disorders is 3 to 1. So yes, men are effected as well, but women are 3 times more effected. Society normalizing the sexual objectification of women had led to men occupying the highest ranks in almost every industry in the world, including political office. This needs to change. It’s a way to keep women inferior to men, and if we don’t challenge it then we will never have true equality.
-Andrea West
After watching this Laci Green video, the biggest thing that stands out to me is the sheer volume of different examples of female sexualization and objectification in media and everyday American life. That the objectification of women as sex objects in our culture is a problem is obvious, but being confronted with this list of example after seemingly-endless example really helps to drive the issue home for those of us who have the privilege to ignore it at a whim.
ReplyDeleteShe also mentions that the objectification of women doesn't just hurt women, but hurts men too. Women being portrayed and viewed as sex objects has created a culture in which men are overwhelmingly seen as the aggressor, seeker, or active party in sexual situations, and women are overwhelmingly seen as passive. "...Men are sexually aggressive, and women are sexually submissive; that men should would, and women should want to be wanted." This type of environment is not conducive to healthy sexual relationships for women or for men. Couple that with the extreme prevalence of sexual messages that surround us in this country (particularly in media, but which have infiltrated everyday interactions and cultural understanding), and the societal hyper-focus on the role of sex and sexuality in all relationships (romantic and otherwise), and romantic relationships suffer as well. As a straight male, I wish my initial interactions with women weren't colored by the automatic perception of me as a sexually aggressive, potentially dangerous person, but this is a natural ramification of existing in this culture in which the objectification of women is so pervasive.
As with all Youtube videos, this video has a seemingly-endless train of hateful comments. I wish I could say it's surprising to see so many comments whose writers apparently heard her words, but completely missed their meaning. Those hateful commentors whose gender can be identified are overwhelmingly male. They steadfastly refuse to consider any possibility that they exist in a society in which their view is normal, and the female view is the'other': female explaining a different perspective to them is obviously bullshit; her claims obviously have no basis in reality; she's just a pair of tits. It's borderline impossible to teach someone who doesn't want to learn, or who doesn't want to consider there maybe be a perspective that isn't his. Unfortunately, most of western society promotes images and views from his perspective. Any counterexamples are going to be seen as threatening.
Gregg H
Laci Green succinctly sums up the entire problem of sexual objectification quickly in her video. She makes a lot of points very quickly as she breaks down and unpacks the problems and solutions of sexual objectification, but a couple of her points and observations stood out to me more than others. First, one thing that stood out to me was her citation of a scientific study that stated that self objectification can actually lead to “lower cognitive and motor functioning”. I was aware of most of the general problems with sexual objectification, but I had no idea about how deep some of the resulting psychological problems could actually go. For something like sexual objectification to lead to self objectification, which can in turn lead to such significant problems as these was eye opening to me.
ReplyDeleteAnother observation that surprised me was how starkly different the Ad she showed of a woman was when compared to a nearly identical one with a man instead. Laci Green talked briefly about a perfect world being when everybody is generally the sexual subject, and few people are the object, and how that reality already exists for men, but the opposite exists for women. Seeing those two ads side by side was another eye opener. Just my gut reaction on how I saw and understood each photo was surprising, especially when those two reaction were juxtaposed on top of each other. I saw the ad with the woman in an obviously sexual way, and was actually a little shocked at the first sight of the man in a very not sexual way.
Looking down into the comment section revealed an almost even split between sarcastic and hateful comments, and supportive and positive ones. Seeing these responses isn’t surprising honestly, for a couple reasons. First, it is the youtube comments section after all, and that place is awful. Second, however, is that there is some very specific hate that is directed not only at the video, but at Laci Green herself, which says that these ideas that she’s talking about are hard to understand or take in for a lot of people, and that challenging this male gaze can be a hard thing to do.
- Ben Galisky
For years, Laci Green has used her platform to speak on subjects often found uncomfortable in a classroom or casual setting—answering questions many may be afraid to ask. In this case, Laci talks about the ins and outs of objectification—of women and girls, specifically. Defined, objectification is seeing someone sans his or her personality in order to more readily view them as an object of desire—more simply, a woman being something pretty to look at and nothing more. Her video is littered with examples but two that stand out the most are girls in middle and high school fighting for the "right to bare arms" and how often Green receives graphic comments on the content she posts. As part of American culture, all of us (mostly unknowingly), participate in the consumption of highly sexualized imagery daily. Seeing women as pretty, thin, petite additions to a TV show, magazine, or advertisement is so ingrained into who we are as consumers that we let it passively wash over us in a way that speaks true to how commonplace it is within popular culture. Objectification has been taken to such lengths that it has crept into schools and into our cyber social lives—with musings of "well, that's just the way it is." An epidemic of turning a blind eye to discomfort and disagreement has plagued American culture for so long that it is now considered brave and edgy for a woman to have something to say about her uncalled-for role as a sex object.
ReplyDeleteHateful views expressed in the comments highlight a lack of understanding behind how important awareness of the objectification of women is. There is something to be said about a universal expectation of what is the "perfect body" in American culture. Often overlooked, however, is the handicapping effect that acknowledging the "female perfect body" has on the rest of our culture. One of the comments reads, "'We don't require men to look a certain way to be taken seriously.' Utter bullshit." The difference between the male and female look is the context in which someone is being asked to be taken seriously. To be a male swimsuit model, yes, there is more of an emphasis on being physically fit per American expectation. Outside of that world, though, male appearance does not carry the same importance that female appearance does. In the news, on television, and even in the corporate world it is not any feat to be able to find a perfectly manicured (possibly more qualified) woman sitting next to a larger, less attractive (by typical standards) man of equal or lesser responsibility. In all walks of life, women are expected to be, act, and look a certain way and the disparity between the female and male experience in that regard is damning.
Alyssa W.
Feminist video blogger Laci Green, she talks about how women are objects to everyone in her video. Laci provides concrete information to educate everyone of how many people and especially men view women in our society daily. In this video, she emphasizes mostly on how women are treated as objects. One of the most important things that stood out to me was how women bodies are always used as an object for everything. For example, one of the issues Laci touched on was how women bodies are constantly used to sell different products like cologne, beer, jeans, and jewelry. I didn’t realize it much but now it really did open my eyes and understand how these women are used as objects. Another example is that I have my own business. I recently went to a vape convention and I always saw cute girls with barely any clothes promoting the product. It now comes to my understanding on how women are used as objects to sell everything. Also, many of these companies have hired “Instagram models”, to promote and sell their products and use these women as an object for business purposes. As we discussed in class, it can cause many issues for teenagers following these models or seeing them on reality shows. Some of them can have depression or eating disorders for not fitting in with the society. Another thing that stood out to me is when she talks about sexual violence. Sexual violence is not taken seriously and it shows because men have all the power. It’s very unfortunate because we are all human beings. We should all be treated equally and it’s sad that’s how society sees men over women. The women are treated as objects and men can do whatever to treat them as objects but in reality it’s totally unfair to women. They are human beings just like everyone else. Finally, the comments are horrible and it’s sad how many people do not understand her video. One of the comments said, “98% of the women are just ugly, desperate women who need to realize that women want to be sexual just as much as men.” It clearly shows that this person didn’t understand her point and it’s sad that he is saying these horrendous things about women. As Madelynne mentioned that one of the comments said, “Women are sexual objects just like my dick.” We are all human beings and women are just as important as men.
ReplyDelete-Mohemmad M.