Women With Sexualized Images in Marketing?
This is an opinion piece, thinking out loud about what I observe.
I have been noticing recently how women present themselves, for business, in ways that seem very sexual to me. I wonder if I am just old or becoming a prude in my old age.
Yesterday I watched a FB live video that a friend did for her new body care business. Her cleavage was front and center of the screen, and her dress had an open lacy slit down each sleeve. I really felt like I was supposed to be on a late-night date with her. I know this is not how she sees herself nor does she need to do this to sell body care to women, or men. She has great integrity. But this is how she presented herself. And I found it unsettling.
I see head shots of female life/business/whatever coaches with bare shoulders and boobage, and again I know they are not selling themselves for sex in any way. My conclusion is that our society has so brainwashed women into believing that we must present ourselves as a sexual feast for the male libido that we take it as normal to present ourselves this way.
I know the feminist arguments about how we should be able to show as much of our bodies as we want, any way we want, and yes, that would be wonderful. But in a sexualized, rape-friendly culture I think it becomes dangerous, not a freedom.
I think there are two forces at play here. One is that Western society, and patriarchal society across the globe, has given the female body layers of meaning far beyond that of just being a body. It is freighted with meaning and symbolism, exactly what depends on the culture or society in which it is seen. There are also layers of sexuality and availability that have been overlaid on the female body, so much so that they are as integral to our perceptions and beliefs about female bodies as if they were an arm or a leg, or skin.
As much as we women want to be able to show our bodies in any way, shape, or form that pleases us, or is comfortable or useful to us–wearing as much or as little clothing as we like–it is different when we are female/presenting as female rather than male. In our society seeing a bare male chest is not perceived as sexual. Seeing a bare female chest is. That is the framework in which we function, like it or not.
So when a woman shows a part of her body, or shows her body in certain fabrics or garments that have been given sexual context in our society–see-through lace, high-up-the-thigh-slits, deep cleavage or side boob–it comes across as sexual in some way. Sometimes I am sure it is meant to be, but often I think it is just meant to be attractive, fashionable, pretty. There is no sexual message of any kind intended. And yet, I think it can come across that way, through no fault of the wearer, but because of our society and its ingrained beliefs and perceptions.
The second force at play here is that our society has commodified the human body, and the female body in particular. We women have been taught to use our bodies and our sexuality to get what we want, and certainly the (male-dominated) advertising industry has had no qualms or scruples about using the female body and sex, or even the merest hint of it, to sell, sell, sell anything and everything.
In other words, the female body or sex is simply the currency for getting something. It becomes an object to be used to acquire whatever is needed/desired, not a self that is inviolate and immune to monetary or commodity transactions. It has become so deeply ingrained in our female psyche that we may not even be aware of it.
And so to dress in a manner that otherwise might be perceived as sexualized then becomes simply a part of our daily business habits, simply how we go about doing business as women in a patriarchal culture.