Sexualized Society: Women Who Enjoy Being Sexualized Tend to Have Lower Relationship Satisfaction
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.
Yeah, it's truly sad...I remember being a tween, and then a teen, a young adult, and only caring about what I was on the outside. In my teenage years, I literally had the walls of my bedroom plastered in magazine pages. All photos of highly sexualized women, my idols. I wanted their hair, make up and bodies. I tried my best to look and act just like them...did I have satisfying relationships? Hell no! I didn't even date someone for more than 3 months until I was in my mid 20's.
It wasn't until I had my first son that I started to wake up. But even then, it took a lot more to fully get to where I am now, no make up, focus on who I am inside, stop caring about superficial things. I would say the biggest change happened when I quit drinking 10 years ago and focussed solely on my kid and creating music. As soon as the booze was out of the picture I woke up to all the corruption in the world, and I started researching like crazy, any and every topic. I saw, I really saw the bamboozle. How we are kept in these low 'vibrations' so to speak. So we never fully realize our true potential here on Earth...the greatness that we are, and the good things we can do to make this place Heaven.
@lyndsaybowes I love your comment and I agree with you! I was gonna say pretty much the same thing and there is so many girls who grow up feeling that way! It is sad but at least we woke up and can spread this message!
Great post @krnel and keep spreading truth!! :)
I'm so happy that you woke up too! Hugs, @awarenessraiser!! Thank you for helping create a new way!
Thanks for sharing your awakening into seeing things as they are :)
You're welcome, and thank you for sparking up this much needed discussion.
I was looking at the cosmo covers and zeroed in on "Flatten Your Belly" and then the "Stop Stressing About What You Eat". Then I realized I'm too food-oriented. Sorry, going back to the topic.
I think it also has something to do with the culture. Not saying it doesn't happen. The sex-sells trend is gaining steam even in the more conservative countries. But it's consumer fueled, too. Like in my country, sure there are also (some) magazines that are like those pictured above but I can't recall watching a tv ad or poster that made eating subs/burgers look as if they're blowing someone. And ads (printed or otherwise) eating ice cream usually involved families and couples more than two barely dressed girls licking it like it's someone's private part. It's a marketing strategy. If there's no market for it, they won't sell their product (idea?) that way. There are attempts here but if adults caught you trying to emulate those new (shady/immoral?) trends, well it's not going to be pretty. So I'm guessing educating people also has a bearing. If a community isn't very tolerant of a certain trend, it's not bound to catch on. If it does manage to penetrate, the market isn't going to be big.
When I went to uni, it's very rare to see someone with make-up or wearing the barely there clothes stars sell to people. Not because everyone is confident or drop dead gorgeous but because their mindset is elsewhere. Like actually getting a degree. Because if their parents find out they're too busy eating up those types of trends, they'll probably get disowned. And so, those types above didn't sell much. Sadly, it's probably a changing thing now. Slow changes and mostly in only a number of places but yeah, happening anyway because people are letting happen.
Yeah, everything comes back to us, the people in a community. We have ourselves as a whole to point the finger at at least in part ;)
While I agree that our society has become objectified, I also think think that the survey questions themselves could have had a large impact on the results.
could have been framed as "I want MY man to look at me" and you would have seen at least a slightly different survey outcome.
I think that people become more and more materialistic & tend towards objectification as their feeling of self worth diminishes.
Our society pounds people 24/7/365 with the idea that what they do, what they have, what they are isn't good enough. You need more, better, bigger and look here's Kim Kardashian to tell you why.
Debauchery, depravity & immorality are all indicators of a culture in decline.
Well said :)
There was a documentary from 2012 called the Four Horsemen that briefly discussed Sir John Glubb's The Fate of Empires. He said that empires last about 250 years (roughly 10 generations) and follow a surprisingly similar pattern. Evolving from the early pioneers to the final conspicuous consumers who become a burden on the State.
I believe we're in the final, Age of Decadence, that's described starting at about 8:02 in the video.
I found it on Youtube.
This video is a great find. I'm gonna watch it with The Wife when we have a chance.
I worked in a bookstore for eight years. The images we were stocking in our newsstand were bewildering and horrifying - especially stuff in the kids' and "young adult" sections.
Yeah, there are a few things I don't agree with in the film.
One of the people who speak in the film, John Perkins has some "sketchyness" to his character. He says things about Milton Friedman's economic philosophy that go exactly opposite of what I understand Friedman to have advocated.
And I've been watching a lot of Milton Friedman videos over the last couple of days.
So watch it with a critical eye.
Thanks for the heads-up!
No problem, there are some really good points made though.
Great post! This should be an article in these magazines like cosmopolitan! A little sexualization now and then should be okay, but not everywhere! What's the point in a sexualized burger commercial... Lol... Keep up the good work!
Yeah, it's all over the place, and sometimes it's really overkill. Thanks for the feedback.
This kind of "food for thought" is sorely missing - at least in the culture that I live in. I know there is a boatload of information and research available on this topic, but the effectiveness of "sex sells" cannot be denied.
Yup, it works, subconsciously, subliminally, we easily are attracted to it.
Peoples attitude towards sex and sexual manipulation can vary,depending on what country your in.
In some countries sex sells,advertisers know this and take full advantage of it
Is it really market MANIPULATION or is market simply supplying what we demand, in other words, we continue to stay conditioned and market is forced to give us what we demand?
For instance the word Gay was a taboo and a gay person can still be persecuted in some countries even in this 21st century - in these markets you will not find magazines or other mediums selling stuff but those who came out of SOCIAL EXPECTATIONS have forced market to start giving them what they need in western countries.
I am not saying we are not manipulated and conditioned but in part our own complacency and hipocrisy plays a big role.
What do you think?!
Yes, we do it to ourselves. I we want it to change we have to change it. Purchasing power speaks.
Precisely!
You've raised one of my favorite topics, but I could not disagree more with your conclusion. I posted on this subject months ago and explained why beauty standards are not externally imposed but rather evolutionarily determined: https://steemit.com/feminism/@sean-king/thoughts-on-impossible-beauty-standards-and-their-origin.
And I explain here how the idea that we "objectify" women when we value them sexually is preposterous and ultimatley undermines female power: https://steemit.com/steem/@sean-king/thoughts-on-women-oppression-and-porn
Here's a relevant excerpt from that last link:
Let me repeat one of my main points for emphasis: Women (on average) are born with what males (on average) want and will work, strive and even fight for. By conning women into believing that they are somehow being "objectified" when they seek to exploit this power (by marketing, selling and/or exploiting their sexuality), we do far more to demean and repress women than simply pandering to male preferences (which most women are bilogically inclined to do anyway) ever could.
To fight against this we need to educate our kids from a early age. One thing we have to keep in mind is that people want to be accepted for what or what they are. So they have to see adults in their everyday lives doing just that.
You are definitely right. We cannot see any positive relationship between sexualization and a man's respect to his woman. Genuine relationships don't go that way. Sexualization in the field of advertising lowers man's esteem towards women.