Essay on the Objectification of Women's Bodies

Introduction

The objectification of women's bodies has adverse effects on culture. Objectification of their bodies makes women look at their bodies as if they were outside observers. This has an effect of them believing in the cultural beauty standards. This makes them believe that they could achieve what society considers beauty despite overwhelming disputing evidence. This is detrimental to them and in most cases distress and depression when they feel they cannot reach the beauty standards they have set for themselves (Kacey, 2002). Objectification of womens bodies makes the society attach or detach value to women according to the objects they are used to refer to. This could hamper development of talents women might have.

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Jean Kilbourne's Perspective: The Link Between Objectification and Justification of Violence

Jean Kilbourne states turning a human being into a thing is almost always the first step toward justifying violence against that person. This statement implies that objectification of a human being makes people see them as objects. This notion may make people think they can push the objectified people around. This is because people attach value to the objectified based on the objectives of the objectification. For example the image below shows a womans body part objectified as an apple. People are likely to attach the value of an apple to that part of her body which is more likely to lead to violence

I do agree with Kilbourne's reasoning because the commercial is mean to create value for a certain product, (Like the apple in the above instance) and using a womans body seems to attach the perceived value of the apple to her body.

Redefining Art: Depicting Women Beyond Objects to Inspire and Empower

Depicting a woman's body cannot be a form of art. I believe the art should be in they look themselves or what they can do. Depicting them as another thing actually beat the art logic. This is because what it try to show is not actually what it is. It is also demeaning and art is meant to inspire rather than demean. The art should be in how the woman really looks, like in modeling, or what she can do, like in acting.

Like the picture above, it's still a commercial but this time the woman gets into character and is in an act as a clown. It is easier for people to understand this and not see her as a clown in her normal life. This could now be regarded to as art as opposed to depicting her as an object.

Women vs. Men: The Gender Disparity in Objectification and its Consequences

Women fall victim to objectification more than men. This is because of the attention that is always associated with women's body. A woman's body will draw the attention of most men. It draws the attention of other women too as they seek to set standards of beauty. This attention makes commercials objectify women more hoping to get a bigger audience (Kilbourne, 2002).

Conclusion

Kilbourne explains that the consequences of being objectified are different and more serious for women than for men. This is very true. The world is a different place to the eyes of a woman from those of a man. Women sexuality elicits a lot of reactions than that of men. Therefore, anything about their bodies draws a lot of attention. This makes them subject to discussions and analysis more than men would be. Objectified images of women are subject to scrutiny based on cultural values than those of men. Men's bodies have very little discussions centered on them. It is important to look at images in the context of culture so as to analyze them according to peoples values and principles and keep track of behavioral impacts they might have on the society.

References

Kacey, D. G. (2002). The Objectification and Dismemberment of Women in the Media. Capital University. Retrieved march 20, 2017 from http://www.kon/org/urc/v5/greening.html

Kilbourne, J. (2002). Beauty and the Beast of Advertising. Retrieved march 20, 2017 from http://www.medialit.org/reading-room/article40.html