This is the fourth part in a series about how girls and women can navigate a culture that treats them like sex objects. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) Daily Rituals to Start This post details some daily rituals that girls and women can engage in to interrupt damaging beauty culture scripts. 1) Start enjoying your body as a physical… Continue reading Sexual Objectification, Part 4: Daily Rituals to Start
Category: Media/Media Criticism
Sexual Objectification, Part 3: Daily Rituals to Stop
This is the third part in a series about how girls and women can navigate a culture that treats them like sex objects. (Part 1, Part 2). This post outlines four damaging daily rituals of objectification culture we can immediately stop engaging in to improve our health. 1) Stop seeking male attention. Most women were taught that… Continue reading Sexual Objectification, Part 3: Daily Rituals to Stop
Sexual Objectification, Part 2: The Harm
This is the second part in a series about how girls and women can navigate a culture that treats them like sex objects. (Part 1). After nearly three decades, the feminist “sex wars” are back. This fiery debate from the 1980s pitted radical feminists who claimed that female sexual objectification is dehumanizing against feminists concerned about legal and… Continue reading Sexual Objectification, Part 2: The Harm
Magic Mike: Old Sexism in a New Package
Magic Mike is “wildly overperforming” because women and gay men are going to see it in droves. Thank you Hollywood executives for finally noticing that there’s plenty of money to be made off of heterosexual female and gay male sexuality. Magic Mike purports to be a movie that caters to het women, and while it does provide a highly unusual… Continue reading Magic Mike: Old Sexism in a New Package
Sexual Objectification, Part 1: What is it?
This is the first part in a series about how girls and women can navigate a culture that treats them like sex objects. Around since the 1970s and associated with curmudgeonly second-wave feminists, the phrase “sexual objectification” can inspire eye-rolling. The phenomenon, however, is more rampant than ever in popular culture, and we now know that it causes… Continue reading Sexual Objectification, Part 1: What is it?
“The Hunger Games,” Hollywood, and Fighting Fuck Toys
“The Hunger Games” is Hollywood’s wake-up call that female action hero movies can be successful if the protagonist is portrayed as a complex subject instead of a hyper-sexualized fighting fuck toy (FFT). In its first weekend, “The Hunger Games” grossed $155 million, making it the third highest opener of all time (behind the last Harry Potter film and “The… Continue reading “The Hunger Games,” Hollywood, and Fighting Fuck Toys
Rush Limbaugh’s 20 Year War on Women
After Rush Limbaugh called Georgetown law school student Sandra Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute” for believing that insurance should cover the cost of birth control, pundits on the right and left quickly pointed out that liberal media figures have also used sexist slurs. I have perhaps written more than anyone about the use of sexist… Continue reading Rush Limbaugh’s 20 Year War on Women
2012 Election Sexism Watch #9: Bachmann Pours Away Presidential Bid
How did we miss this one? Representative Michele Bachmann performed the comically gendered role of pouring water for all of the (male) Republican candidates and the (male) host at the start of the Republican Family Forum debate in Iowa this past November. My538atyCVY Some of the candidates seemed uncomfortable at this puzzling behavior, and the… Continue reading 2012 Election Sexism Watch #9: Bachmann Pours Away Presidential Bid
Pennsylvania Public Service Announcement Blames Rape Victims
Rape reporting, prosecution, and conviction rates across the country are appallingly low, but it’s easier to get away with sexual assault in some places compared to others. Pennsylvania is one of those places. In Pennsylvania, expert testimony isn’t allowed in the courtroom. Instead, jurors frequently rely on abundant, harmful rape myths. We shouldn’t be that surprised, then, that earlier this week the Pennsylvania… Continue reading Pennsylvania Public Service Announcement Blames Rape Victims
2012 Election Sexism Watch #8: Bachmann Enters Stage to “Lyin’ Ass Bitch”
Earlier this week, Michele Bachmann entered the set of Late Night With Jimmy Fallon accompanied by the musical musings of The Roots covering the Fishbone song, “Lyin’ Ass Bitch.” Glenn Beck responded by calling Fallon a “despicable human being.” The Women’s Media Center noted that this gender slur was both “sexist and unfunny.” Fallon has since apologized.