Female Objectification : Challenging Perpetrators and Enablers.

Female objectification and sexualization is an argument common amongst feminists; and a major ingredient for most gender-based disputes I have seen online.

I have been opportuned to argue with various people on this topic and now I'm writing about it, putting all of my opinions on this into one long essay.

Female objectification is the act of treating women as objects or commodities, rather than as individuals with autonomy.

By definition, this can involve reducing women to just their physical appearance, sexualizing them, using them for male gratification, or propagating stereotypes and norms that restrict women to one dimensional roles.

It is one of the many issues that feminism seeks to curb as many restrictions placed on women in the past could be traced back to this problem.

While the better parts of the effects of objectification have been curbed in present times, we can't deny that the problem still exists.

Whenever it is talked about, we do not hesitate to chastise the men guilty of it, as we should.

However, after thinking deeply about it, I have come to realize that the problem of objectification is two sided.

We have the men who display behaviors that are products of the mindset that women are objects.

We also have, amongst women, the enablers of these behaviors.

I realized too, that these enablers are almost never talked about, even though they play a huge part in the problem of objectification.

The enablers I am talking about are the women who see themselves as objects and market themselves this way.

Women who believe in the notion that a woman's value is tied to the price tag she attaches to her body. Like a commodity, if she wants to be seen as valuable, she has to be expensive. She has to put a high price tag on her body.

They also believe that when they do this, only high value men will be able to afford them.

I have, unwillingly, come across a major propagator of this ideology, Saida Boj, and it amazes me when I see feminists agree with her.

I have watched a few of her videos and I have seen how she glorifies objectification and teaches girls how to be "high-value women" by putting a price tag on their bodies for the highest bidder.

Now, the major flaw with this belief is that, no matter the price they place on their bodies, they are still cheap to the person that can afford them. All that anyone has to do to get them is flash a few wads of cash; jiggle some gold. They are still easy and accessible to anyone who has the money. To me, nothing about this screams "high value".

I am convinced, based on the reactions that people like Saida Boj get, that not very many people know just how problematic this way of thinking is. They also do not realize that this kind of belief is one of the major reasons that objectification still exists. This kind of thinking could even be the reason that objectification began in the first place.

The men who see women as commodities and the women who reduce themselves to the level of commodities are two sides of the same coin and yet, only one side is often addressed.

When a man comes out to say: "With money, you can have your way with any woman."

What do you think gives them the audacity to say this?

• The existence of women like the ones I have previously described. Women who follow men for money. Women who have reduced themselves to the level of commodities; objects to be bought with money.

We cannot truly say we are fighting against objectification until we address this issue. Attacking only the men who are guilty of this while ignoring the women who enable this behavior is counterproductive, because for every man you chastise, there is a woman to undo your efforts by proving them right.

It is amusing to see people who claim to be feminists, find excuses for the women who enable objectification.

They will say things like:

"It's not your business what a woman decides to do with her body"

This is both funny and very telling of where their interests lie. I am convinced that the people who say things like this, aren't actually concerned about objectification, in general, as a problem. Their only problem with objectification is when men do it.

They are hypocrites, simply put. These hypocrites are another reason why objectification is still thriving in our present society; the unwillingness to address and to admit the fact that there are two sides to objectification.

It is safe to say that the objectification problem may never be completely curbed. While the factors I mentioned earlier are indicators of this, the problem of objectification is deeply rooted in humans; their nature and interactions with each other and certain societal values. It may be curbed to a certain degree, but it will continue to persist in some form.