The Sexualization of Women

The sexualization of women is not a newly developed concept. Our society has faced these idealizations of how and when and in what way a woman should be seen or portrayed and these standards are not just an idea, they are real and I have witnessed and been victim to it myself. The issue can be seen by the fact that my little sister, only 13 years old, comes into my room asking me if she looks fat because she is not as skinny or tall as the women she sees in the on the billboards. These women define for many young girls the image they wish to have, yet the women’s bodies are photo shopped and painted into something unrealistic and unachievable.

The issue is that in sixth grade I was not allowed to walk along Rochester road alone with my friends since one time we had been walking home from Dairy Queen and were honked at by four passing cars, I counted. One group of high school or college boys even had the courage to stick their heads out the window and holler at us. Keep in mind that it is less than a ten minute walk to my house.

The problem with our society can be seen by the fact that my mother, at the age of 16, was sitting on the school bus on the way home from a basketball game next to the team’s captain and he tried to slip his hand up her skirt. Did he think he was allowed to do this without her permission since they were in the dark? Or was it because he had just won the game?  No matter the situation. No one ever seems to notice the pink elephant in the room; that “Yes” should never be assumed.

Once upon a time it was the women’s role to do the house work, raise the children, and stay at home in her husband’s nice and cozy home. Today the role of women has evolved to where their role in society is not viewed as it used to be, but they are still objectified to certain standards. Women’s vulnerabilities such as body image are used against them by the impossibility of a “thirty-nine-inch bust and a twenty-three-inch waist”. We are defined by unattainable means and they are embedded in us from a young age. The worst part of it all is that it is OK with society. Jesus did not die on the cross so that everyone could be ruled by their appearance: height, waist size, the color of skin, eye color, clothing choices.