The Sexualization of Women in Society
What does it mean to be a woman living in the 21st century? With the advent of social media, and its massive authority and influence, women’s physical appearances are more than ever posited as entirely indicative of who they are. This becomes a constant reduction of their agency, where their beauty becomes transactional. Whether we realize it or not, social media channels awareness of how we are to be perceived, and the reality of how we perceive women are sexualized. But is this sexualization a loss of power, or a gain?
You might have heard of the term “male gaze,” which has resurfaced in many TikTok discussions. This phrase speaks to women's awareness of their bodies being increasingly oversexualized. It was coined by filmmaker and theorist Laura Mulvey in her paper Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. The “male gaze” deals with the dominant perspective in film, where men are positioned as leads of the movie while women are supporting subjects. This leaves the audience to assume the perspective of male leads, whose agency dictates the plot of the film, absently leaving a woman’s role to be filtered by the male perspective.
An example of this would be Margot Robbie’s character, Naomi, in The Wolf of Wall Street film. The narrative surrounds the main character, Jordan Belfort, in his life as a stockbroker. The film's female characters are solely supporting roles, lacking any direction or agency that is not associated with the movie's main character. The male gaze derives from patriarchal ideals that associate masculinity with activity, and femininity with passivity. Of course, the “male gaze” began by discussing perspective in cinema, but it translates into all aspects of present-day society for women.
Through social media, we’ve bred a new culture that translates life onto a platform that is ever susceptible to our manipulation. Social media gives us the freedom to express ourselves but at the same time gives others equal freedom to continue scrutinizing and sexualizing women. When you post a picture of yourself, whether it be a selfie or a picture of your outfit, people’s first impression centers on appearance. Our appearance is immediately placed under scrutiny, and it's how we’ve become prey to such intense objectification in daily life. It resorts to a patriarchal mindset, in which we are to be objects viewed through a closed lens.
On social media, the male gaze fosters an unbridled sexualization of women. As mentioned before, social media pushes appearance to the forefront of judgment. This being so, being guided by the standards and expectations of social media culture can stand as a form of indoctrination toward vanity. Vanity holds a huge significance in women’s lives because society tends to view a women’s appearance as the center of their identity. Often taken as representative of who we are to those we encounter, a woman’s appearance can push to the side who they may actually be and what they can do. For example, many women on social media have built platforms built around the male gaze, one of them being Cindy Kimberly. She was first recognized on Instagram for her beauty, where she amassed a huge following that opened doors for her to become a successful model. Despite being a talented artist and creative, most of Cindy Kimberly’s recognition and praise is for her modeling and Instagram presentation.
Instagram: @wolfiecindy
Although consumption of media that centers on women’s vanity and appearance has enabled great opportunities for many, such as modeling, it persists as a problem when these are upheld as the only distinguishable factors of a woman's presence. For many women, perpetuating the male gaze promotes unhealthy and distorted views of themselves. Society views women through a lens that positions their appearance as overriding all other aspects of them, and women have internalized this. It has forced women to constantly view their image sexually, but are we closer to transcending the male gaze through our awareness of it?
The importance that social media places on self-presentation and vanity can lead to a direct hyper-awareness of how we act and behave. Sadly, the extreme value placed on a woman’s appearance is nothing new, but the realization of this governing societal perception is not something that’s stopped women from being who they are. Instead, women are rejecting the notion that their appearance should take precedence over all other aspects of their identity.
They seek to redefine femininity by reclaiming their sexuality and self-image not as a product of the male gaze, but as a projection of their agency. The embracement of femininity is a reversal of power, where the domination of perception is truly being held. Women may have internalized society’s perception that strives to over-sexualize themselves, but they do not concede with the passivity they assume of women. We should not let this sexualization consume our relationship with our appearance, instead, we must transform our own relationship with our self-image to transcend the power of the male gaze.
Abigail Nimuan — February 20th, 2022
