From movie stars to politicians, the media is constantly sexualizing women instead of recognizing them for their inner qualities. The American Music Awards took place on Sunday, November 22 and I saw this interesting trend on Facebook: Gigi Hadid: Model Wears White Cape and Beige Top. I laughed to myself because with everything going on in the world recently (i.e terrorist attacks, bombings, shootings) — the media decides to trend an outfit worn by a model. Interested to see why this was trending, I clicked on the link which brought me to an entire article about Hadid’s style and a picture of her in the outfit that was mentioned in the trend. It was nothing special— white pants, beige top, and white cape. A simple outfit, not even showing any skin, was trending and I had no idea why.
This made me think a lot about our media and how women are portrayed in it. Later on that night, The Weeknd was trending with the caption: Singer Wins Multiple Awards at AMAs. Isn’t it odd that when the person of interest is a male, we recognize his accomplishments but when it is a female we comment on her appearance? You don’t have to be a feminist to feel slighted by the media for portraying women in this way. Trust me, I’m all for celebrating and appreciating beautiful women— but let’s talk about their careers, accomplishments, and personality too.
There was a commercial for Carls Jr. a few years back starring Kim Kardashian. Because Keeping Up With The Kardashians is my guilty pleasure, I watched the episode where Kim is filming this commercial. She is seen wearing a silk robe in bed, seductively eating a grilled chicken salad. So, the only way Carls Jr. can make money is through the sexualization of Kim Kardashian eating their food? What bothered me the most was that Kim was super excited about the advertisement. She does multiple takes to get the ultimate “sexy” shot.
Women are so used to being used to sell products, food, or clothing that they don’t even notice how sexist this system is. The commercials male celebrities are featured in are usually comical. Besides David Beckham for Calvin Klein, male celebrities are not typically used as sexual beings to sell products. Even though David looks extremely attractive in his Calvin Klein ads— these ads aren't directed for the pleasure of women, they are directed at men to want to be like Beckham and buy the underwear. Where women are used to attract males, men are used as a psychological way of making other men want to buy the product so they can be like the man in the ad.
Another thing that really makes me angry is the music industry. Women like Nicki Minaj and Ke$ha are constantly sexualized and recognized for their distinct appearance rather than their musical and lyrical talent. Instead of focusing on the quality, heartbreaking lyrics of “The Harold Song” by Ke$ha, the radio decides to play a party song like “Blow”. Her producers decide to make a sexy music video to this song instead of celebrating her more personal songs with a nice video. The same applies to Nicki Minaj. People who only watch her music videos and listen to her songs on the radio would not know that she actually has a beautiful voice and personality. They only see and accept her as a sexual being, like she is represented in her song and video “Anaconda”. So, we recognize Ke$ha and Nicki Minaj as these hyper-sexualized female figures who party and have sex, because sex sells, but we are moved and excited by Justin Bieber’s new, heartwarming song, “Sorry”.
I don’t know what the future holds for feminism, but I really do hope we can do something about this portrayal of women in the media. Stop using women to sell products— if the product is any good you don't need to sexualize it to sell it. Let’s focus on their personalities, not just on their appearances. I’m all for telling a female that she is beautiful, but can we please stop sexualizing any and everything for the male audience?
