When Women Are Seen as Objects
October 18, 2022
December 18, 2019, was a day many men had marked on their calendars. It was the day Billie Eilish was finally 18 years old. Billie Eilish is a famous singer who won several music awards. She gained popularity due to her fashion choices of wearing baggy clothes to not show her body. Billie Elish’s birthday was such a big event to men that there were even several websites with a countdown. Men all around the world were waiting for the moment that Billie was finally legal because a woman’s 18th birthday is when they can finally legally sexualize a woman.
What Objectification means
Women are often viewed as sexual objects rather than as actual people. Too often women are viewed through their bodies; if a woman has a nice body, then that is all people will view her as.
The effects it has on Teenagers
During the teenage years, many females are at their most awkward age. There are so many changes currently happening in their life, and they don’t know what to do. During their teens, females are just trying to fit into society and when society is telling them the most important part of them is their sexual appeal, then they’ll try to fit into that role. What happens then is too many female minors trying to look like fully-grown adult women, making them completely miss their childhood.
How it Translates into Adulthood
When a girl has been sexualized her entire life, it’ll harm the relationships she’s able to have during her adulthood. Most sexualized females aren’t able to fully develop close relationships with men. Unable to fully trust men and their intentions leads to toxic and unhealthy relationships.
The Age it Starts
“Does this diaper make my butt look big?” This is an example of a phrase sexualizing a little girl in her clothes. From the moment girls are born they’re taught to worry about how they look. All over the media, you can find examples of young girls being overly sexualized. Take child movie star Shirley Temple for example. When she was just three years old, she was in the movie “Baby Burlesks” where she was acting like an overly sexual child and going around kissing boys. A toddler shouldn’t be sexualized.
Societal objectification to self-objectification
If all you’re told during your life is that you’re only valued for your body, then eventually you’ll start believing that. Self-objectification is when you start sexualizing your own body for other people. This happens because you believe that’s what people expect from you. When a girl is more exposed to that kind of thinking, the more likely it is she’ll end up having negative views of herself.
Why this is a problem
The reason sexualization is so bad is because it leads to several mental health problems. When the only important part about you is your body, then you’ll overly fixate on it and its flaws. You’ll try to change every imperfection about you based on what you believe society wants from you. Eating disorders are overly common in women because of this.
Girls need to start fighting against this, go to protests, post on social media, talk to other girls!
