Feminism and the Sexual Objectification of Women

The West’s over-sexualized culture is feminism’s byproduct

By Caroline May - The Daily Caller   1:02 PM 08/14/2010

Hugh Hefner roiled feminist sensibilities in a recent New York Daily News article this month in which he declared, “women are sex objects.”

The Women’s Media Center, a feminist organization, was outraged. “Hugh Hefner’s comment to the NY Daily News directly contradicts the politics of equality and freedom he claims to champion,” the Center wrote in a statement to the press. “It reveals that he doesn’t know the difference between ‘subject’ and ‘object,’ and doesn’t understand the dangers of objectifying human beings.”

Megan McGurk sarcastically lamented all the time she wasted in school at The Anti-Room, a feminist blog. “Hugh Hefner spared women the dignity of full person hood by declaring them sex objects for male gratification and the reproductive function,” McGurk wrote. “So all the years I spent in graduate school were for nothing.”

The feminist website, Feministing scoffed, “tell us what you really think Hugh.”

Despite the frustrations these women have, some attribute such oversexualized objectification of women to the feminist movement itself.

Founder of Collective Shout — a group which targets companies that use overly sexual images of girls –Melinda Tankard Reist struck a chord last week when she told a New Zealand audience that the over-sexualized nature of western society has set women back 50 years.

“Raunch culture has taken us back. It’s an absolute tragedy,” she said. “[Women's] liberation has now come to be seen as the ability to wrap your legs around a pole, or flash your breasts in public, or send a sexual image of yourself to your boyfriend … Girls think that empowerment lies in their ability to be hot and sexy.”

Amy Siskind, co-founder of The New Agenda, an advocacy group for women, told The Daily Caller that while she wasn’t ready to attribute Hefner’s attitude to feminism, she did believe over-sexualized imagery to be a byproduct of third wave feminism gone awry.“The first wave of feminism got women the right to vote,” Siskind said. “The second wave, with women like Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan, gave women permission to make choices and enjoy sex. But the third wave — kind of the 1990s and on…was the idea that there is empowerment in being defined by our sexuality.”

While Siskind credits the third wave with the shift, even second wave feminist Betty Friedan, co-founder of the National Organization for Women and author of “The Feminist Mystique,” walked that fine line between liberation and objectification. In 1992, Friedan gave an interview to Playboy contributing editor, David Sheff, in which she told him that she did not have a problem with celebrating the female form in forums like Playboy, so long as it did not result in objectification.

“Playboy’s centerfold is fine,” Friedan told Sheff. “It’s holding onto your own anachronism and it is not pornographic, though many of my sisters would disagree. It’s harmless. I was amused to see that a recent graduate of Smith, my colleague, posed for a pictorial and defended herself by saying that she could celebrate her sexuality if she wanted to…At the same time, I don’t approve of anything that reduces women to sex objects, and I really disapprove of anything that degrades women or depicts them as the object of violence.According to Siskind, Friedan’s primary objection is what is now the norm. “Unfortunately the chicken has come home to roost as we’ve seen a surge in teen dating violence and things like sexting because the whole notion is ‘yeah, we own our sexuality now and wear it on our sleeves.’ Which might be fine for some women,” Siskind said, “but for many others its not. So our girls now think that is how they define themselves, not how smart or accomplished they are.”

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List told TheDC that feminists hurt themselves by seeking empowerment through sex. “Women decided the best way to get themselves out of oppression in the modern era was to emulate men,” Dannenfelser said. “They were trying to get power, but when women decided that disconnecting sex from relationships — which is what they saw men doing — was liberation that is where the floodgates opened. And that is how our undoing as a gender has come about.”

Reist told National Radio’s “The Panel with Chris Trotter and Linley Boniface” that sexual imagery now hangs like an albatross around the neck of true liberation. “The real authentic message of women’s freedom has been buried within the proliferation and globalization of sexual imagery,” she said. “Girls are growing up in a shadow cast by pornography, they are getting a message that it is the bearing of the female body which makes them a real woman.”

“The women’s movement taught so many women and young girls that sex is what brings liberation and empowerment,” Dannenfelser said. “Now they don’t understand why they are so unhappy.”

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/08/14/the-wests-over-sexualized-culture-is-feminisms-byproduct/print/#ixzz0wbgLX1eQ

Comments

[Lu]

Just to point out, as a reminder, the FDA is an arm of the executive branch of government, under the Secretary of Health and Human Services.I don't think I need to point out who she is, because we Catholics have been talking about her since her nomination. I'm just saying....

[Creative Recreation]

You got a really useful blog I have been here reading for about half an hour. I am a newbie and your post is valuable for me. these practices are unfair; but they say that most of their rules are only to apply to people who overdra.

[James]

I think Dennis Prager has it right. We've been telling girls that they're the same as boys, so they're acting out in the only way they can differentiate themselves from boys: biologically/sexually.

We're seeing the flip side of the existential vacuum caused by a great many secular feminists: when you don't have a positive vision for womanhood then you'll end up getting the lowest common denominator.

We see the beauty of the Catholic Church again when we see that womanhood isn't some accidental lack of male body parts, but part of of their eternal identity, destiny, and calling. How terrible it must be to rebel against your own nature.

[Atlanta Catholic]

James,

You are not improving Roman Catholic Blog by holding Dennis Prager up as a paragon of wisdom, especially regarding the topic of women and feminsim. Are you aware of the fact that Dennis Prager thinks that first trimester abortion is acceptable?

How are you showing anyone the beauty of the Catholic Church when you claim that "I think Dennis Prager has it right?" Dennis Prager has it fundamentally wrong on a grave issue. Wouldn't you say that when a woman chooses to abort her own unborn baby that she is going against her own nature? Yet James, you feel that you are improving this Catholic blog by confusing others into thinking that it is OK for Dennis to be held up as an example of leading others to full truth.

Dennis Prager needs to publicly repent for publicy stating that first trimester abortion is more acceptable. James if you want to criticize others you must first do your own homework regarding partial truths.

Watered down Catholicism improves nothing and either does Dennis Prager's partial truths.

[Ian]

Saying that Dennis Prager is right about one thing doesn't mean that you approve of everything he says. Settle down.

[Lisa]

This last generation has realized that their power lies in the fact that they ARE women but they have no way of being a woman in this culture without exposing themselves like some desperate creep in the trench coat hoping to be recognized and paid attention to. It's sad.

[steveD]

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[James M Essig]

I am a middle aged Catholic Man who has definitively decided to remain single, but this does not absolve me from the need to advocate for the growth of the human race and to not take a prudish attitude toward human sexuality and the process of conception.

Since I have received the fullness of the faith, even though many times I have not been faithful, I am absolutely obligated to publicly state my opinion that artificial contraception usage and sterilization operations are contrary to Catholic Teachings and are therefore wrong behaviors, even in the event that moral culpability for such illicit forms of birth control is reduced or alleviated such as perhaps a result of undue fear of pregnancy, and he like considerations. Nonetheless, we must not ligthly excuse willful ignorance in this regard.

As a 48 year old large conservative Catholic man who is solely and fully heterosexual, I as well as my likewise conservative middle aged peers and colleagues would be scandalous were we to display prudishness and lack of openness and honesty regarding our sexuality. The same applies to Catholic clergymen and consecrated religious.

We must in good faith never give the impression by word, action, or demeanor that the Sacramental Priesthood, or the religious life is somehow inherently superior to the married life or more properly to the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony. When single lay persons like myself, Ckergyman, and religious do show prudishness, we can cause sensitive and intelligent young adults to become more inhibited with regard to any marital vocation they may have. This sexual repression often ends up resulting in cohabitation and uncommitted serial sexual relationships because of fear of committment or an undue desire to view oneself as liberated or independent. Excessive degrees of such macho attitudes are against the modern catholic position as expressed within the new Catechism of the Catholic Church which states that GOD willed the interdependence of all of his creatures and that includes we humans.

In my dealings with young adults and youth, I have noticed that those who are very intelligent and who are stellar students tend to have a pensive, ambivalent, and perhaps repressive attitude regarding their sexuality. Some such persons have displayed such attitudes well into their college years and most of these folks went on into cohabitive, and/or serial uncommitted sexual relationships. In all cases, in terms of these persons I have known, they either dropped the practice of organized religion all-together or they left the Church pews for some form of non-denominational fundamentalist church, or they stayed within the Catholic Church but openly stated in my presence that it is not up to the state to decide whether or not abortion should be a legal practice. Almost all of these persons have taken up the practice of artificial birth control or sterilization operations.

The truth is, the possible creation of untold billions of human spiritual, immortal, free will endowed, and rational human souls is at stake here. Yes there are those who will say that GOD only creates what he wills to create and will create nothing more as an excuse to abort the process of conception through artificial contraception. However, GOD has entered a convenent with mankind that for each conceived embryo, He does and will continue to create a spiritual, immortal, free, and rational human soul. No conception and the particular human soul does not get the chance to even exist. In a sense, this is worse then abortion which although totally horrible in itself, still implies the existence of a human person body and soul, which the Church commends into the hands of the loving Mercy of GOD.

It is likely that all this disobedience to the Catholic faith would have been avoided if a more balanced and honest approach to human sexuality was taught by their parents, relatives, and educators.

The point is, being pro-life also means being honest about our own interdependence and sexuality so as to not scandalize youth and young adults.

For those women seeking to be pure, they have the perfect model of purity that they can especially look up to in addition to the universal Savior of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and that is the Blessed Virgin Mary who is by prayerful definition "Full Of Grace", more so than any other creature and perhaps more so than all other creatures combined including single laypersons like myself, clergymen, consecrated religious, Bishops, Cardinals, Popes, and Canonized Saints alike.

The Catholic Church defined as an article of the Catholic Faith in the 1800s that Mary is Truely the Mother Of God.

GOD BLESS!

[Rosie Davis]

Poor us, is what it boils down to. Humanity seems to be stuck between a rock and a hard place. All mortal life is yearning for is a bit of love and respect, a chance to contribute in a positive way to the world around us, some good conversation, and warm encounters from family and friends.
WHY is it so hard ???
WHO did this to us ???
NOT FAIR ! NOT FAIR !
We try so hard and life is so short.....
" BANG FOR YOUR BUCK" has something to do with it ,for sure. Some little bleeder is in it up to his/her neck you can bet on it.
We are victims of it all, ever drawing the line in the sand only to have it kicked in our faces.
We need to pray for a miracle, God is good for it, some great big Shabang to set us free, or at least a little respite from the onslaught..