There is a lot of pressure for women to conform to idealized appearances. TV shows and movies often present a certain physique for both men and women in leading roles. There are not only sexualized appearances for us to imitate, but also sexualized behavior.
Magazines are especially popular for women and girls growing up, and they often have sex or sexualized topics as the main focus. But they aren't the only places you find sexualized content where it doesn't really seem relevant.
Hmmm... could it be they are trying to sell sex for us to buy products related to it, and for us to buy into that way of thinking, which will affect our behavior? I wonder why so many people are seemingly sex-obsessed or number to all this sexualized stimulation in our environment...
Most magazines and photo shoots for movies have touch ups done. Models and actors get airbrushed to remove "imperfections" and make everything shiny and silky smooth. They can even alter the shape of body parts, like making someone thinner or removing some unwanted "love handles" or whatnot. Does the person actually look like the photo in real life, or is everything faked to some degree to become the new "normal"?
If anyone is not familiar with any magazines for women, a popular one that even teenagers read, is Cosmopolitan. Magazines like these not only have the influencing effect of sexualized images for others to copy, but most of the words and phrases on the cover directly focus on objectification and sexualization. It's pretty much about woman's bodies and sexual appeal, and often about getting the "perfect" man.
Here are a few examples:
Many magazines have this emphasis on getting readers/viewers to embrace objectification of their bodies through sexualization. Those readers, and everyone else as well, should ask if all of this actually empowers woman, or undermines them instead. How much does this play into the reinforcement that some men just want a hole to put their dick in? Many women present themselves in sexualized ways, as objects of sex, and this gets popularized for everyone to see. How many teenagers get influenced by this and make bad decisions in trying to emulate sexual appearance and behavior? I don't know how many, but it happens.
If you can't recognize how sex, sexuality, beauty, and body image is being sold to women, then I think you may need to do more research than I am willing to present here. But there is research about objectification and sexualization of women. A paper published earlier this year called "Sexualized, objectified, but not satisfied" asked woman some questions that correlated sexualization and objectification with satisfaction in a romantic relationship specifically.
The research involved heterosexual 114 women in relationships who answered surveys online measured three distinct aspects of the relationship:
- Enjoyment of sexualization
- Perceived partner-objectification
- Relationship satisfaction
Enjoyment of sexualization had a 1 to 8 scale of disgree/agree regarding statements like “I want men to look at me.”
Perceived partner-objectification had a scale for statements like “My partner rarely thinks about how I look” or "My partner often worries about whether the clothes I am wearing make me look good".
Relationship satisfaction had the same for statements like “How well does your partner meet your needs”.
The results showed that as the women had increased enjoyment of sexualizing towards them, they also had an increased perception in partner-objectification. And this correlated into an association with decreased relationship satisfaction. Even if a woman likes sexualized attention like comments or looks, it may undermine the relationship through reinforcing objectification as a sexual object because that sexualized attention is wanted.
Although one may enjoy being sexualized, we're still thinking about how that reflects the partner's attitude towards us as an object of sex. I think this can play out unconsciously -- as well as a consciously -- to affects our overall relationship satisfaction level. If we think somewhere, even subconsciously, that our partner is interested in us more for the sexual functions of our body than the more substantive aspects of who we are, then we're going to be less satisfied in the relationship whether we're aware of why that is or not. That's what having more relationship satisfaction is; that there is more meaning and depth of appreciation, desire or need from one's parter.
I'm no expert, just saying how I see it. What are the better ways to express sexual desire that don't reinforce the pervasive sexualization and objectification within society? I don't know. Just bringing some food for thought about how things are in this crazy world...
Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.