Sexualization Of Women Research Paper

Women.

Now tell me, when reading this title what popped up in your mind? Was it the empowerment or the discrimination of woman? Love and lust? Or am I simply just stating a gender to you? When considering what the title of a woman really is, many base it upon what you have in your pants. Women obviously have different genitalia and body parts than men, yet share some common features such as lips, nipples, hair, etc. yet are judged to be different. Whatever is to be considered ‘naturally’ female, such as the softness of her skin, the perkiness of her breasts or butt, and the mold of her body/curves, is being reclassified as something to be different or even to be ugly, and now a days ‘ugliness’ is being reclassified to be treated as a disease.

So, what we as woman have been taught is that it’s perfectly fine that our breasts are to be bought and blindly admired, but we cannot simply show off or openly admire our own breasts. A females nipple is to be sexualized, thus society feels as if it needs to be protected. This focus on the innocence or trying to preserve a females dignity/virginity as a way to protect girls ends up making it even more sexualized, people are turning this protection into fetishes. With this teaching we learn that it’s okay to treat our own bodies as objects separate from ourselves, that all our body is considered to be either a vessel to bare children or just a fine meal for men to appetize themselves with. In The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood demonstrates this same objectification of women, to be made to see ourselves only as they see us. We are subjected to become solely an object to men, “it has nothing to do with passion or love or romance or any of those other notations we used to titillate ourselves with. It has nothing to do with sexual desire… Arousal and orgasm are no longer thought necessary” (Atwood 94). Bonnie Jo Campbell also demonstrates this same form of objectification towards women's bodies in her written works, Sleepover, as well. The two girls in the written text let two boys into the room to kiss and explore each other, yet the boys are in it more for pleasure and lust rather than the way the girls see it, trusting a man enough to let him experience their bodies in a certain way. “‘We were wishing your head could be on Pammy’s body’ Ed said. ‘You two together would make the perfect girl” (Campbell). The author later on mentions that afterwards the girls are watching frankenstein, which in a way demonstrates how the boys are