Jezebel: sex objects

Sure, we all love Gossip Girl but most of...

Maria — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 09:45:00 EDT

Sure, we all love Gossip Girl but most of us are (semi-)reasonable adults who can separate the show's risque antics from reality. But what about the children? Carol Platt Liebau, author of Prude, says that the show "glamorizes and normalizes" a sexy lifestyle which can result in emotional and psychological distress in young girls. She also thinks that "depicting high school girls as little more than gossipy sex objects is simply a tired cliche that does all females a disservice." But Carol, they aren't just gossipy sex objects! They are ASB presidents who out their ex-BFF as a recovering drug addict, they steal Valentino couture, they kill people. OMG, the drama! No wonder 14-year-olds love this show. [Reuters]

My Scene Barbies, Mattel's skanky answer...

Jessica — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 09:45:00 EDT

My Scene Barbies, Mattel's skanky answer to the highly successful Bratz dolls, are being given away as part of McDonald's Happy Meals, and the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood is not happy about it. "It's bad enough that McDonald's continues to use toys to sell kids on junk food," said CCFC's head honcho, child psychologist Dr. Susan Linn. "But to lure young girls to its restaurants by promoting the worst sexualized stereotypes is reprehensible." McDonald's spokesbitch Heidi Barker retorted with this pat answer: "Barbie has been a familiar and fun toy enjoyed by millions of families for decades. That's why it continues to be a popular Happy Meal Toy." [MediaPost]

Reluctant Esquire Writer Admits That New "Sexiest Woman Alive" Is A Series Of Pretty Parts

Anna — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 11:00:00 EDT

"And I have to point out — despite my sensibility that wants not to offend women — that there is a lot of flesh. There are a lot of parts — tanned arms, even the tips of her fingers, when she jabs the air to make a point. I have to look. To set her up as a series of parts, and present her as a whole," laments writer Tom Chiarella as he grapples with tackling the subject of Esquire's (just-announced!) "Sexiest Woman Alive 2007", actress Charlize Theron. He even says as much to Charlize herself!

But I'll just tell you that I hate describing women's bodies. What am I going to say? Stunning? Red-hot? Great eyes? Fucking wow?

(Mr. Chiarella says that when he told Charlize that, she threw her head back, exposing her long neck to the world "with a kind of joy.")

Well: It turns out Tom didn't have such a hard time writing about Charlize after all! In fact, he employed a clever device to ameliorate his discomfort at objectifying the Oscar-winning actress: Writing the profile as if penning a screenplay, and giving us a descriptive, detailed, almost paint-by-numbers picture of Charlize's sexiest merits. (And it isn't her views on Roe vs. Wade!) Let's start from her top and work our way down, shall we?

Her eyes hold the gaze of the camera directly, disarmingly. When she was younger, she looked like she knew she was hot. Now she looks like a person who knows exactly what's going on — everything sorted and rich in the possibility of desire, everything painful and cheap, cruel and unspoken in the world around her — and it does not scare her.

Moving on!

Close on Charlize's mouth, her lips bent in her particular smile, sexy and knowing, a little bit leering, just sweet enough that you feel wont to assume some connection, some secret between you. This is the big trick of sexiness. The big lie. But it's no trick at all for her. She bites down on the pack of cigarettes and unspools the cellophane with her teeth, a luscious and familiar dissection.

And:

Charlize grabs the chair next to the Writer and puts her legs up. They are as long as the afternoon.

Keep going...

She rises and presses both hands against her belly, either because she needs to pee or she is trying to center herself. But the gesture is startling and subtle. One forgets how tall she is. The hands seem to signal the end of things — the conversation, the banter, the lunch. Certainly the movie. The camera holds on this. It's an easy shot, a beautiful woman with her hands laid across the flesh of her flat belly.

Getting closer...

CLOSE ON the WRITER's face, clearheaded, appreciative, he nods a little, witness this time to something grand. As she walks away, she must know the WRITER is watching her, and she must know that her figure, swaying almost architecturally on her towering heels, takes the sex with her. At the corner of the hedge, CHARLIZE turns and meets the WRITER's eyes. He is caught staring, but neither of them is surprised or embarrassed by his gaze. He likes regarding her, and she doesn't mind being looked at. They have told each other this much.

Right, we get it now: She pretty much asked for it.

Charlize Theron Is The Sexiest Woman Alive 2007 [Esquire]

Feeling Sexually-Objectified? It Could Be Your Own Damn Fault

Dodai — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 13:30:00 EDT

In The Guardian today, writer Decca Aitkenhead argues that these days, if women feel like victims of sexism, it might be because they've set themselves up for it. In the UK, there's this "lad mag" called Nuts. You know the kind: sexy girls, football, rude jokes, cartoons. The Nuts website features a section called "Assess My Breasts," (NSFW) which invites men to study pictures of naked mammaries and rank them on a scale from 1 to 10. Sure, toplessness is more common in the UK. But asking men to judge your tits? Really? Because the thousands of pictures available are uploaded voluntarily. For free. By ordinary women. Writes Aitkenhead:

And so manicures, and Brazilian bikini waxes and pole-dancing classes were all reintroduced under the guise of harmless girly "fun". Barely 10 years later, we look in the mirror and mistake ourselves for sex workers.

It is no wonder a lot of men now genuinely believe that women want to be treated as sex objects. Who could blame them when so many of us have internalized an exhibitionistic ideal of our own objectification?

Perhaps you're thinking, yes, but I believe in individual freedom! I'm smarter than that, I know the difference between being a fierce, sexy woman in charge who chooses to be sexy and take cardio striptease. But what about women younger than you? What about girls? What are they learning from this? Aitkenhead reports that a 14-year-old had her topless photo published in FHM, and that at "a London school where a teacher I know works, a pupil recently videoed a younger girl giving him a blowjob in the school toilets, then uploaded her performance straight on to YouTube." What fate do you suppose awaits girls who idolize "glamour model" Jordan? Or girls who wax their legs at age 9? Doesn't it make the "I left my brain in my locker" t-shirt seem so much worse?

No Wonder Men Treat Us As Sex Objects If We Act Like This [Guardian]