By CALLIE WATSON
Staff Writer
Throughout history, women have struggled against the bonds of objectification. One might think that in the 21st century, society has been able to grow beyond objectification. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Everywhere you turn, women are being turned into sexual objects for the pleasure of others. Companies such as Playboy, openly promote pornography. Male rappers demean women as sexual objects in their songs and music videos. Chain restaurants use beautiful models in revealing clothes to sell their greasy food. Victoria’s Secret puts on lingerie fashion shows to appease the male eye. The 2021 Grammys featured a vulgar performance of “WAP” complete with suggestive dancing. What do all of these things have in common? They all extremely objectify women and belittle them to pleasure objects.
Playboy is a company that circulates “mild pornography” for the pleasure of men. Playboy merchandise has become trendy and is now distributed by many major retailers. Many female celebrities have appeared on the cover of Playboy magazine dressed in little to no lingerie. Playboy openly distributes pornography and the media doesn’t say a word. Women get reduced to sexual objects to please the male gaze and to make Playboy a profit. This mindset of Playboy communicates the idea that women are not as valuable fully clothed as they are without clothing. Playboy has been objectifying women since 1953, and it’s only become more normalized and accepted since then.
Male rappers have gotten increasingly more vulgar and vile with their songs in the past 20 years. They casually talk about one-night stands like it’s as natural as breathing. Lyrics rich with drug references, explicit words, sexual experiences, and alcohol abuse are what fill the majority of rappers’ songs. The rappers sing about hookup culture and tend to focus on women’s bodies, and what they’re not wearing. Women are reduced to objects of pleasure for these rappers. This can insinuate unhealthy thoughts about women and their purpose in the listener’s head. Many teens casually listen and sing along to this verbal pornography. As if lyrics laced with vile words weren’t enough, some rappers feel the need to create music videos to visualize exactly what their songs are talking about. These music videos get millions of views on platforms like Youtube. It’s not just male rappers that objectify women, female rappers do it too and sometimes objectify men as well. Female rappers, such as the famed Cardi B, talk about their physical intimacies very openly in their songs. Country music can be entwined with lyrics about women in tight clothing. These types of songs in the music industry can send the wrong message to young listeners about sexual relations and reckless sex. Young girls can buy into the lie that their only appeal is external, rather than internal.
In the early 2000s, Carl’s Jr. debuted their objectifying commercials to sell their greasy fast food. The commercials showed women in little to no clothes eating burgers. The chain was relying on sex appeal to sell fast food. Women are not objects to be ogled at, but clearly, Carl’s Jr. didn’t get that memo. Their advertisements caused quite a controversy in the media to this day.
Many called it empowering. Others called it pornographic. Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B’s 2021 performance of “WAP” at the Grammys became very controversial. “WAP” has been called a “female empowerment anthem” but a look at the lyrics says otherwise. Everything in the song is hypersexualized and incredibly disgusting. The song implies that a woman’s only worth is her sex appeal and her feminity is sex-based. Firmly standing against men sexualizing and objectifying our bodies, women are doing it to themselves. “WAP” reduces women to nothing but an object for sex. This message is so damaging for young girls.
Gen Z girls are growing up in a culture where they face hypersexualization from a young age. They face objectification in popular culture. The media conveys non-stop messages about how women are objects for sex and pleasure. Not many stand up to this idea. Objectification now masquerades as female empowerment and a representation of female sexuality.