Women role in their degradation

Many women, or so-called feminists, will argue that we currently live in a patriarchal society where women are seen not as human beings with emotions or thought but as objects. Women are being objectified as mere sexual commodities, here to serve as men’s sexual fantasies. This is correct in many ways. Women are constantly being objectified in American pop culture; in fact, women are objectified in many cultures outside of America. Have you ever watched a Japanese anime, in which the majority contain a stereotypical big-bobbed female character?

My only critique of this is that it paints a very one-sided picture of men demeaning women, where women are innocent victims of men’s insidious sexualization of them. But aren’t women partially to blame for this? When I walk the streets of New York City in the summer, what do I find? Scores of women walking through the streets seamlessly with tight jean shorts, legs exposed, and buttocks prudently out? I, as a heterosexual young man, have my attention constantly diverted to glance at these delicacies of the flesh.

Here’s the point to be made: hip hop videos are constantly galvanized for their disparaging imagery of women, but instead of criticizing the rappers or the directors, what about the women who fully participate in their so-called degradation? The women who, for a price, will perform all sorts of sexual depravity on screen. This is the pragmatism of these criticisms: they don’t hold women accountable.

I once remember watching a Tupac interview, in which he addresses the criticism to his demeaning lyrics, his response was “women say bitch the loudest, they themselves no there are bitch’s out there” to give my own interpretation of Tupac response, I believe Pac was just stating women themselves know that there are egotistical women who will resort to any means get what they want.

A justifiable response to this post is that women grow up in a society in which they are constantly bombarded with images of how they should behave, talk, and dress. This is the same for men, who are taught to be tough, lack emotions, and are encouraged to conquer as many women as possible, and are celebrated and admired for their promiscuity. In contrast, women are ridiculed (by both men and women) for replicating these same behaviors.

Now there’s a possible scientific explanation for these double standards. The theory holds that men are biologically programmed to have as much sex with as many women as possible, to better their chances of spreading their genes, and thus ensuring that a piece of them exists for the next generation (kind of poetic in a way). Women, on the other hand, are supposed to be more sexually selective with whom they mate. Women (as the theory goes) are to look for men who have the best resources to ensure their offspring’s survival (in our modern times, that means men with the most money) and those who show signs of good physical health, i.e., tall height, muscular build, and a symmetrical face.

Like any group that’s oppressed, for the oppression to be successful, there must be compliance between the oppressor and the oppressed. And, in my opinion, this is the case presented here.