The Commodification of Women
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Welcome to the culture of treating women as a inhuman creatures, and as prizes while demonizing consent
From a young age, boys are taught that sex is a prize, women are possessions and permission is left behind. Somehow, we have managed to make the intangible tangible, a young girls virginity, often called a social construct, is the prize that many men (of all ages) are told to chase. Of my female presenting readers, who here hasn’t been catcalled, leered at by a 50 year old man for a second too long, or been the sexual butt of the joke? This normalizing of creepy actions keep on perpetuating similar actions within the next generations of boys. Why must we still tolerate this pervasive behaviour? Why must we accept that we are treated as commodities just to fuck?
The dehumanization of women and femininity in the modern media has been ever so prevalent during our lifetime. Mean girl’s Regina George, cladded in all pink is the enemy. She is the strident bitch that corrupts our poor Lindsay Lohan. Its not until she becomes a more masculine version of herself that she becomes a redeemable human being. These raging depictions of the nightmare IT girl perpetuate sexism not only within the male population but also within young girls minds. Creating the not-like-other girls, Bella Swan/Katniss Everdeen-esque mindset that dominates the youth of girls. With the aim to separate themselves from these stereotypes associated with more feminine presenting young women will be seen as lesser. Treating women as things that can be categorized, things that can be separated and creates a divide between the female mindset. This often mischaracterization of women also lead men to see women as shallow creatures, only concerned with the material and to see us as ‘women’ but not ‘human’.
The fourth wave of feminism preaches awareness of this outdated view and mindset and how we can separate ourselves from this narrative, but have we really? We still present the majority of main characters in young adult fiction aimed at young girls as a person who is just different, usually white, skinny, pure and just not like other girls. This is evidently seen throughout fanfiction, which is more often than not a product created from young teen girls. Speaking from personal experience, trying to train the internalized misogyny out of my own head is a constant struggle, the exhilaration of male validation and hating the colour pink are just some of the values that have been ingrained into my head since primary school.
I argue that fourth wave feminism has made those of us aware of these phenomenon, however is almost completely restricted to the social media space. The lack of law reform and overall cultural mindset change is evident through these kinds of movies/t.v. shows, we still teach our young girls to not wear this and that but fail to teach our young boys not rape. We need to take a more pro-active approach to breaking the cycle of subconsciously dehumanizing women through breaking our own biases and appealing to change laws.
To understand the true depth of my argument I present the promising young man, he has a full life and career ahead of him, these public sexual assault/rape/predatory behaviour allegations will destroy his career. Did I mean Machine Gun Kelly, Chris Brown, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Sylvester Stallone, Jamie Foxx, Morgan Freeman, Ryan Seecreast, James Franco, David Copperfield, Micheal Douglas, Seal, Richard Branson, George H.W. Bush, Steven Seagal, Ben Affleck… e.t.c. … wow… all those guys’ careers are basically over right? (sarcasm) We have demonized the idea of false allegations and the thought of them ruining a young man’s life seems to be one of the biggest threats to our society, yet the men who I have listed here have had majorly successful careers, yet we still choose suppress women's in these situations. These events often either go unnoticed in the media or are forgotten in a couple months.
“We must destroy the patriarchy… it affects us all” is a common example I see of how we prioritize men. The patriarchy has historically affected women for all of human history, but in order to change it we need to prove that it also has consequences on men. Likewise, this reminds me of Scott Morrison (Australian Prime Minsters) abhorrent comments in reference to Grace Tame’s sexual abuse and assault “[His wife] and [Mr Morrison] spoke last night and she said to me, you have to think about this as a father. What would you want to happen if it were our girls?’’ How about we don’t have to think about this as a father, or as a brother, or need to be related to a woman to feel any morsel of sympathy for her.
Do you notice how we call women ‘girls’ all the time, but we never refer to men as ‘boys’. This is just another subliminal standard in society aimed at infantilizing women and highlighting their ‘immaturity’ compared to men, often reflecting the lack of women in positions of power. Seeing women simultaneously demeaned whilst being desired for being young is yet another paradox that puts women in the blame. Your either not acting mature enough, or you are too old to be desired.
I am angry, I think as a society we have matured past treating women to these standards, and perpetuating it in the younger generations is only going to delay progress further. So to begin with we should reflect internally, reflect on your own views, what you do in everyday life, and what you can change. Read books that you believe will widen your mindset, don’t speak over a woman presenting her idea at a conference, don’t call her a girl… because she is a woman. If you want to make a difference in the political world and adapt the laws to suit this view, then write a letter to your local representative, petition online, you are not helpless in this world. This mammoth of an issue that has existed throughout almost all of human history is a very intimidating topic to try to take down, but know that you are not alone. Women all over the world are tired of not being treated like humans.
References:
Neil DeGrasse Tyson Accused of Raping a Former Student
Matt Lauer Responds to New Rape Allegations in Ronan Farrow’s Book
