Opinion: It’s High Time That We Stop Objectifying Women

From flatcars to Xerox machines, bikes to baby food, sex is the common marketing tool with the covert sexual invitation- purchase me!

Sex today has been clubbed with the thought of pleasure. Our society is more inclined on the sensual. 'Think about feeling good', 'Do as you desire', 'Let yourself go in the flow', 'It's your life!', 'I will do what I like', it's a free country and I can do anything I like'. The individual centric, pleasure seeking philosophy in which 'self' is given the number one position in all areas of life.

Therefore, we are led into the search for physical excitement as the answer to our aching emptiness. Sex is delightful but it can't be a philosophy driving our lives. Why is it that the highest compliment is to be sexy? How come so many people devote hours imagining about sex? Why is the reality so altered from sexual expectation? Where do all these sexual feelings come from? How can such obvious attitudes be avoided?

So many questions! Now more than before sex is at the uppermost of the agenda and people require to be speaking openly and justly with the demands that are upraised.

We talk or hear about predominantly of a friend of ours who had experimented early with casual sex. He'd narrate stories of what happened with all kinds of partners –and of course was mostly admired for his sexual capabilities. He had moved from 'falling in love' to 'having sex' and soared from one bed to the subsequent like some sex-overwrought butterfly.

The sexual notions validated in films and TV shows provide an inaccurate and fraudulent view which has become established as normal acceptable behavior. It is exceedingly destructive to only view sexual relationship as the height of romantic love.

Raymond Chandler notion about alcohol holds true of sex: 'Alcohol is like love: the first kiss is magic, the second is intimate, the third is routine. After that, you just take the girl's clothes off'.

One of the properties of the sexual revolution has been the use of women in particular as objects for sexual manipulation.

Terrible proof of the casual and superficial attitudes to sex which treats women as objects with which to satisfy desire, as a collection of body parts, as some kind of mechanical device to please your sexual urges.

Sexual objectification involves viewing and treating another person's body as an object valued based on its sexual appeal, usually to the neglect of other aspects of the person, such as their thoughts, feelings, and desires.

If we look at the world of advertising, a new type of woman has been created for consumption of desires of the society because this woman (created by the advertising world) has no wrinkles, blemishes, or scars, and her skin is totally perfect. Her eyes are splendidly bright and her bounteous breasts and buttocks are defying the 'law of gravity'. Her teeth are white beyond imagination, flawlessly straight, and appear unreal. The problem is that it is very hard to find this woman in the real world as they do not really exist. She is the outcome of many hours spent in the make-up chair and days of photo renovating.

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Then we have Jadavpur University professor, Kanak Sarkar who compared a virgin woman to a "sealed bottle" on a Facebook post. In his post, Sarkar said, "Are you willing to buy a broken seal while purchasing a bottle of cold drink or a packet of biscuits? A girl is born sealed from birth until it is opened. A virgin girl means many things accompanied with values, culture, and sexual hygiene. To most boys, virgin wife is like angel."

Though he has been taken off duties but he later said it was intended for "fun" among a group of friends on social media and "not for public consumption".

Modern men are programmed to view women as sexual objects which has led in part to the way men view women as objects at work. The extent of this reappeared in the year 2017-2018 with the birth of the #MeToo and TimesUp movements birthed by sexual harassment claims made against Hollywood's Harvey Weinstein when American actress Ashley Judd passed her story to key news agencies. We have to move away from typical images of perfection by accepting "Photoshop-free," women and celebrate the real-diverse women around us.

Gender inequality, sexual objectification, and sexist attitudes should become a remnant of the past. The worth of an individual, to any extent or aspect, should not be determined by their physical being.

By Anurag Paul

Writer | Photographer | Conversationalist | ex- Press Trust of India (PTI) & NewsGram | Connect on Facebook- Anurag Paul, Instagram- anuragpaulm or Email- anuragpaulm@outlook.com