Wednesday, June 13, 2018

The Cultural Backdrop of the #MeToo Movement


It is never right for people to take advantage of young people who are clueless about sexual impulses of those around them or who are in some way dependent on them for care, coaching, teaching, mentoring. And it is terrible for people -- I guess usually men but not necessarily or .always men -- to use their status or power to prey on people to satisfy their sexual impulses. But I also am bothered by the ease with which some accusers have accused and upended people's careers or reputations without any kind of "due process" - and the consequences can be a lot more devastating for those accused than if they had been charged and convicted of a crime. There should be an avenue to let higher-ups know if anyone in your work environment is acting inappropriately, but sometimes there is no "higher up" and that's the problem.

However, there is a level of this very pervasive problem that I have really heard no discussion of and it bothers me. And it is a level that has to have an impact on everything related to the status and place of women in our culture. We have done a lot to break down barriers that impede women to achieving all they can achieve intellectually and just generally in their lives. But while there has been progress in a lot of ways, there is a backdrop that never seems to get any attention, and that is the culture of objectification or commodification that is prevalent in American culture when it comes to women - I am tempted to call it a "female commodification industry" - similar in some ways to the "military industrialization complex" President Eisenhower warned us about in the 50s.

I have been conscious of this for a long time now, and I have been too reluctant to speak out about it because it isn't something people want to hear. I don't think it is possible to achieve equal respect and treatment for women without resistance to this highly profitable and influential industry. I can find a few sites that complain about it, but it took time for me to find an article that provided some research information about the negative impact of this culture. But I found one - on the website "Frontiers in Psychology"[https://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5344900/] - an article by Bhuvanesh Awasthi called "From Attire to Assault: Clothing, Objectification, and De-humanization --  A Possible Prelude to Sexual Violence?"

In the article, he writes that "new findings demonstrate cognitive processing of sexualized female bodies as object-like, a crucial aspect of dehumanized percept devoid of agency and personhood. Sexual violence is a consequence of a dehumanized perception of female bodies that aggressors acquire through their exposure and interpretation of objectified body images" (1).

Clothing and other methods of body decorative attire - make-up, jewelry and perfumes - all these things convey to those around us who and what we see as identity factors - almost everyone with any kind of special role in the social fabric communicate that functional identity through clothing - "doctors, nurses, soldiers, police and military men, postmen . . . advocates and judges, priests. . . the pope, politicians, comedians, actors (and other entertainers) are all identified . . . by their attire" (2).

He points out that according "to objectification theory (Frederickson and Roberts, 1997), female bodies are scrutinized and evaluated to a greater degree than male bodies, leading to sexual objectification of women" (4). Psychologists have found that when "women sexualize their appearance, they are at a far greater risk than men" (4).

I'm not trying to excuse men who molest, harass or take advantage of young girls or women of any age really, but the backdrop of cultural commodification of women plays a role in de-sensitizing men to the full humanity of their victims. And it is hard for me to see how women will ever be seen fully as equals until there is a very significant change in female beauty culture. I don't want us to over-react and suggest the kind of body covers that Muslim countries have. But if we want to be seen as truly worthy of respect, we need to de-commodify our bodies.

Here are some figures regarding the economics of the female commodification industry. Forbes magazine says that  the beauty industry - skin care, hair, cosmetics, etc - is a $445 billion dollar industry. And that doesn't include the fashion industry, the Hollywood movie industry, the music industry. Just turn on the Grammy's or the Oscars or American Idol and you will be deluged with female stars that are wearing provocative and revealing clothing.

I don't want women to hide their beauty. But I would love to see some push back against the commodification industry that makes a fortune by creatively turning women and girls into "objects".


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