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Lacey Hall
English 2010-026
Professor Ron Christiansen
30 July 2014
Sexual Objectification Kills Womens Confidence
As a twenty-two year old female I have had many moments of self-doubt and self-
objectification in my lifetime. Always hoping to be attractive to those around me. Now, I would
argue that most people are aware that sex sells, however most do not realize the negative
ramifications on a womans psyche which can cause self-hate. So what is sexual objectification?
Sexual objectification is essentially viewing something or someone as nothing more than a sex
object. The majority of the time it is in reference to women and is most frequently directly
correlated to physical appearances. The women of the world are dealing with objectification
daily: with advertisement and media, unrealistic images of women, plastic surgery, eating
disorders, youths exposure and clothing options, sexual functionality and interactions within
relationships, sexual assault, etc. The impact is negative both emotionally and physically.
Media is the biggest contributing
factor to sexual objectification. Americans
today tend to believe that sexuality in
advertisement is both common and expected;
and in all honesty it is. However, it is so rarely
realized that these so-called common placed
displays of over sexualized bodies and
submissive females is subconsciously
infecting each and every one of us. For men, it
allows them to have a predetermined idea of
what is beautiful and unfortunately is rarely realistic or attainable. As for women it can be
internalized into self-objectification and issues related to self-worth. Ultimately, what is at stake
here is women continuing to have low self-esteems and self-hate due to physical features rather
than intelligence or talent. Of course, many people in general will potentially disagree with this
claim, thinking "I don't feel that way," or "it doesn't effect me." However research shows that
women often compare themselves to these perfectly airbrushed figures of femininity and in turn
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caste judgment upon themselves in response to
these images. The reason being is that our
exposure to media and advertising has
significantly increased over the years and will
continue to do so. The perfect female has
been constructed from ads of scantily dressed
supermodels which have been so photo
shopped that youd never be able to recognize
the individual if they were walking down the street. People in general come in all shapes and
sizes. Even if everyone were in perfect health, not everyone would have all of these qualities. I
myself notice the scantily clad women plastered through advertisement and think to myself
hmm, if I looked like her, life would be easier it is depressing that these thoughts cross a
womans mind when seeing other women in the media.
Beyond these unrealistic expectations of visual appeal, women are often compared to
common objects in the media. Only further creating the feelings of women being less of a mind
and a personality and more of an object for your viewing pleasure. Stephanie Nicholl Berberick
(Author of The Objectification of Women in Mass Media: Female Self-Image in Misogynist
Culture) describes advertisement and medias sexual objectification of women in a way that truly
puts it into perspective. She states, The representation of women in the media has always been
exploitative . . . reducing women to being nothing more than objects to be won, prizes to be
shown off, and playthings to be abused (2). By acknowledging this she creates a realistic visual
aid to her reader, pointing out the roles in which women are often portrayed in, in todays media.
I invite you to watch an hour of television and write down every sexually objectifying
occurrence in that time frame. The results may shock you.
Sexually objectified images of women have been proven through several studies to
directly correlate with self-objectification. This then creates negative feelings among women
when viewing ones self. I agree with all of the above-mentioned negative effects of
advertisement and creating unrealistic expectations of ones self. I personally have struggled
with these very things and have been lucky enough to mostly overcome it. For example, I am
considered healthy in accordance to all of my blood work. My thyroid, cholesterol, standing
heart rate, blood pressure, etc. are all exactly where they are supposed to be. I work out regularly
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and eat quite healthy, however I am a size 12. In the medias eyes this is considered fat.
Despite my best efforts, seeing pictures of tall, thin, and beautiful women from time to time
makes me extremely depressed. Those are the days I work out too hard or dont eat enough. My
own personal experience is proof that these negative emotional side effects are true. It plagues
the lives of millions of women on a day-to-day basis.
In result of women being exposed to sexual-objectification, they are turning to plastic
surgery. Which is an extremely dangerous solution to feel better about a physical insecurity. It
has allowed plastic surgery to become significantly more prominent. Berberick helped put this
into perspective with statistics, From 2000-2009, as reported by the American Society of Plastic
Surgeons (ASPS) (2009), there was a: 36% increase in breast augmentation surgery, an 84% in
abdominoplasty (tummy tuck), 4,184% increase in lower body lifts . . . (4). That is an insane
number increase for lower body lifts, and they are not the only numbers that jumped
significantly; as seen above breast augmentation, tummy tucks, and other lifts have all increased
over the years. Due to the mentality of beauty defining you, women are striving to be more
physically attractive (in accordance to the medias standards). Unfortunately substantial amounts
of women are taking extremely risky measures to obtain such beauty. Despite plastic surgery
being associated with extreme scarring, infection, rejection, and not to mention being extremely
costly and often times result in body modification addictions; women are still emptying their
pockets to receive quick fixes. If there werent these glorified images of beauty surrounding us
every minute of every day, we wouldnt consider invasive bodily harm to look different. Even I
have looked into plastic surgery estimates as a quick solution, but I cant afford it. It is sad that
even I have considered these dangers to simply obtain a more socially acceptable figure and
Im not the only one.
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Even further than bodily modification with a medical professional, women are going to
such lengths to risk their own lives without medical intervention. Eating disorders are on the rise
due to the exposure to the ideals of skinny is pretty. Regardless of your own personal feelings on
the subject, eating disorders may create skinniness. However, they also cause malnutrition,
organ compilations, loss of hair, rotting teeth, and sometimes even result in death. Eating
disorders are trending and can be directly tied to sexual objectification. Thanks to advertisement,
we have created the idea that ones own body is not good enough
and that drastic and dangerous measures are the appropriate solution
for many. At the age of 14, I suffered from Bulimia. I was standing
at 54 and weighing in at 79 lbs. Thankfully I have come a long
way from this infatuation of thinness, however it still infects my
thoughts from time-to-time. Those days I maybe eat too much in one
sitting, I often consider purging. Thinking, One time wont hurt. I
typically come to my senses shortly after this thought and remember
the addiction and weight obsession associated with Bulimia. Once
that is remembered I am able to quickly shove the thought to purge
aside. Although I may have been able to distance myself from such
health risks, not all women are as lucky.
Not only grown women experience this self-objectification, it is thought to start as young
as preschool. Granted it is much less drastic at this age; obviously plastic surgery and eating
disorders dont contaminate the youth the way that it does to the teenage and adult women
population. However, young girls are given ideas that being attractive is directly correlated with
self-worth. Images of Barbie and how pretty she is are plastered in every toy store in America.
As well as sexually suggestive clothing being created for preteen stores, many of todays
tween apparel stores are offering items that expose quite a bit of skin. Murnen and Smolak
discuss this obscenity in their piece, Social Considerations Related to Adolescent Girls Sexual
Empowerment: A Response to Lamb and Peterson, by stating, In a recent analysis we found that
30% of clothing items available for pre-teen girls on the websites of 15 national stores had
sexualizing characteristics . . . such that the clothing emphasized or revealed a sexualized body
part (727). Thirty percent is a very large number in my eyes.. This can create added pressure for
young girls to be sexualized because they want to fit in with the latest trends. Unfortunately girls
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being exposed to such things during the most impressionable years of ones life essentially
creates an unbreakable thought process associating worth
with attractiveness. I am able to recognize how
attractiveness can influence a persons direct correlation to
worth. I was familiar with these feelings at a young age
myself. Constantly caring if people thought I was pretty or
if I was the same size in jeans as the other girls my age.
This alone detracted from my studies and the little joys of
being a kid. I know the girls I grew up with all felt
similarly, and put so much weight into what other people
thought of them instead of enjoying the growing up
experience.
Emphasizing that not only do sexually objectifying images create all of these questions of
self-worth among women in all age groups, but it increases depression and self-spectating during
sexual interactions. This is the act of being concerned more about the way one looks during
sexual relations then what is actually happening. Women are constantly having thoughts of Can
he see my cellulite? or Do I have a fat roll? all-in-all creating less relationship satisfaction for
both parties involved. Due to these thoughts many women experience sexual dysfunction, or lack
of ability to feel any pleasure. It often creates a mental block in which prevents the participant
from reaching climax. For many couples sexuality is a huge contributing factor for a happy and
healthy relationship. When something like self-spectating enters the room, it is no longer a
positive influence within a relationship. Thus creating stress in not only womens day-to-day
lives, but also negatively impacting their partners. I can see why this would be so detrimental to
a relationship. I have dated someone who suffered from extreme insecurities and can relate that
to the difficulty of dating someone whom has more invested into his or her negative thoughts
then into the relationship itself. Thus leaving the other party feeling as though there is distance
between them and their partner.
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To add to this, men are not just impacted by their personal relationships with women, but
are also shown from a young age that women are objects. Granted, not all men view women as
playthings or objects. However with this mentality that is so prominent in our culture it
plants a seed that can result in sexual assault and stalking. The mine for the taking mentality
that has potentially been conceived from sexual objectification, although this is a very
controversial issue and Im not stating fact, simply commenting that it is a possible contributing
factor to these crimes. In reference to Berbericks
piece, she obtained some horrifying statistics that show
the frequency of such crimes, reporting The National
Crime Victimization Survey, 2008, finds one women per
hour being raped or sexually assaulted in the U.S.. The
same survey also reports that 1,006,970 women are stalked
annually in America, these numbers are frightening to
hear (12). No woman deserves such an atrocity, and yet it is
a common occurrence in our society. Youll hear common
phrases like she wouldnt dress that way if she didnt want it, come out of a mans mouth and
not really realize the severity of the comment due to how common these statements are. I
personally believe sexual objectification has very likely assisted in the ability for a male to force
himself on a noncompliant female. Again this is hearsay, however after looking at the
numbers, it is hard to believe that all of those crimes were the result of an excuse such as alcohol
or a mental illness. It is possibly easier to see as something that was potentially ingrained as a
mentality through years of the media assisted belief of sexual objectification.
With all of these contributing factors it is very obvious to me that sexual objectification is
impacting the women of the world both psychologically and physically. Between the day-to-day
exposure of sexually objectifying content and the statistically proven negative impacts, it is
obvious that there are unfavorable results from sexual objectification. It is being taught to the
youth of America daily and is controlling the thoughts of many women. However we are in a new
age where women are empowered. Women are beautiful and strong creatures that deserve to feel
that way no matter their shape or size. So next time you are looking at a sexually appealing image
of a woman plastered onto a billboard, realize how you may be internalizing that image.

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Written Works Cited
Aubrey, Jennifer Stevens, et al. "A Picture Is Worth Twenty Words (About The Self): Testing
The Priming Influence Of Visual Sexual Objectification On Women's Self-
Objectification." Communication Research Reports 26.4 (2009): 271-284.
Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 29 July 2014.
Berberick, Stephanie Nicholl. The Objectification of Women in Mass Media: Female Self-
Image in Misogynist Culture. The New York Sociologist, Vol. 5, 2010. Ed. Laura J.
McClusky, et al. New York: NP, 2011. 1-13. Web. 29 July 2014.
Breines, Juliana. Do Women Want To Be Objectified? Psychology Today. Ed. Kaja
Perina, et. al. New York: NP, 11-28 (2012). Web. 29 July 2014.
Murnen, Sarah and Linda Smolak. "Social Considerations Related To Adolescent Girls' Sexual
Empowerment: A Response To Lamb And Peterson." Sex Roles 66.11/12 (2012): 725-
735. Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 29 July 2014.
Steer, Amy, Marika Tiggemann. "The Role Of Self-Objectification In Women's Sexual
Functioning." Journal Of Social & Clinical Psychology 27.3 (2008): 205-225. Academic
Search Premier. Web. 29 July 2014.
Vandenbosch, Laura, and Steven Eggermont. "Understanding Sexual Objectification: A
Comprehensive Approach Toward Media Exposure And Girls' Internalization Of Beauty
Ideals, Self-Objectification, And Body Surveillance." Journal Of Communication 62.5
(2012): 869-887. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 29 July 2014.

Photography Works Cited
Bondareff, Diane. A Very Thin Model On The Runway. 2006. New York. Web. 5 August 2014.
Iooss, Walter. Barbie/Sports Illustrated. 2014. Swimsuit, n.p. Web. 5 August 2014.
Klein, Steven. Dolce&Gabbana. 2007. Europe, n.p. Web. 5 August 2014.
Quiet, Michael. Cheat On Your Girlfriend Not On Your Workout. 2012. Reebok, n.p. Web. 5
August 2014.
Tiwari, Vibhash. Live Your Fantasy/ Red Tape Footwear. 2009. India, Makani Creatives Studio.
Web. 5 August 2014.
VF.com. http://livluna.com/plastic-surgery-body-image-identity/. Web. 5 August 2014.

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