We All Objectify Women

Whenever someone sees an Axe commercial, the cover of a Playboy magazine or a poster for the next big action movie, they are most likely looking at a picture of a woman’s body that has been over-sexualized. A new psychological study has found that when people view these pictures, they see these women literally as objects, not people. Both men and women’s brains react as if they are looking at an object, like a table.

What makes this study even more frustrating is that when people look at sexy pictures of men, they still see them as men. What gives?

Maybe our culture sexualizes women so often that it has actually changed the way our brains work. We see these sexy pictures as objects without feelings or thoughts, which means we can use them for our own consumption without feeling guilty about it. The scary thing is that even women have fallen into this trap.

The next step is to figure out what this study’s findings mean. If we really do view these sexualized images as objects, how does that effect the way we see living, breathing women? Do we treat sexy, half-naked women differently than fully clothed women? I’m sure we could find out some pretty interesting stuff -- and some pretty disturbing stuff as well. But maybe all those advertising agencies could use a wake up call to realize that their ads really do influence people.

Contact the author here: jennY@morningquickie.com