No More Using Women as Window Dressing

Several items have come to my attention recently that make me cringe. Sexual objectification of women involves "reducing a woman's worth or role in society to that of an instrument for the sexual pleasure that she can produce in the mind of another." This is "taking place in the sexually oriented depictions of women in advertising and media..." The danger of sexual objectification of women is that it "can give women negative self-images because of the belief that their intelligence and competence are currently not being, nor will ever be, acknowledged by society."

First item:

http://www.salon.com/2014/10/31/happy_halloween_actual_phds_respond_to_amazons_womens_sexy_phd_costume_and_it_is_a_treat

Second item:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Grant 



To me, it is not funny or thought-provoking to have a woman's cleavage as the focal point of an advertisement or lesson.  I spend my mornings carefully selecting modest clothing that neither shows nor draws attention to my femine assets.

http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2014/oct/26/-sp-female-academics-dont-power-dress-forget-heels-and-no-flowing-hair-allowed

People in general are "taught that power, respect, and wealth can be derived from one's outward appearance." It's not untrue. In a recent discussion in Jonathan Wolff's column, he points out that "A woman needs a different dress for each event, for fear of being spotted in the same thing twice." Perhaps this is a commonly held belief among people, particularly in Southern California where image is sometimes more important than substance. 

We claim to do science in a meritocracy, but Wolff claims that a female academic colleague of his takes "as long to decide what to wear to project her 'I don’t care' look, as it does others who dress to impress." Francesca Stavrakopoulou says in a follow-up piece that "Dressing in order to be taken seriously indicates that the spectre of older, more explicit forms of sexism still hovers over us: a woman who adopts a more feminine style is too preoccupied with pretty things to be a serious academic, because a woman can’t be both attractive and intelligent – if indeed she can be intelligent at all."

So that brings me to the Delicious Women's PhD Darling Sexy Costume and outrageous Rachel Grant as Professor Myang Li, on Brianiac asking the question: Which fruit floats?  My friend Candy Bless said "this 'sexy fill-in-the-blank' halloween costume thing has gotten out of hand." I've been as guilty as any twentysometing girl at embodying stereotypes of female sexuality as halloween costumes (self-objectification), but in my 30s I am totally over it. And I guess making a PhD sexy isn't a bad thing, but the comments about the costume by actual female PhDs were hilarous.

But when one of my students showed Rachel Grant as Professor Myang Li in a lesson about density in a Teaching Assistant Development Workshop, I went insane. Not only is Rachel Grant NOT a professor (she is an actress), but the lesson had no value in terms of explaining density.  Strangely enough, none of the other students in the class (men or women) were offended by it.  Instead they thought it was funny. I've written before about using women as window dressing, which is unacceptable and should no longer be a way of advertising products.

One bright spot in my week was the HuffPo article where images of Disney Princesses were depicted with realistic waistlines. This has the potential to reduce body anxiety in young girls who already have a hard enough time as they start to develop adult female body characteristics. "The sexual objectification and self-objectification of women is believed to influence social gender roles and inequalities between the sexes," which is interesting since EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK is becoming a campaign issue in this election cycle.

Another positive moment happened while watching America's Next Top Model season 21 (The Girl Who Says It’s Over, air date: October 11, 2014). Matthew, an aspiring model, dresses his co-contestant as a "slut." Totally offensive. “The word slut is something that should be taken out of your vocabulary,” demands Kelly Cutrone. Mirjana, an aspiring model asked to supervise a creative project involving 2 other models, didn’t want to take charge because she was afraid to look like a bitch. Tyra gave Mirjana a Beyonce-inspired lecture about how women who take charge are often called bitches. “I’m not bossy, I’m a boss,” Tyra forced Mirjana to repeat over and over. Totally empowering.

Third item:

make animated gifs like this at MakeAGif