Body talk

By: Grace Kennedy

I think that sometimes we fall into a rut when taking feminist stances against the media and popular culture. We look at an image or video that objectifies women and decry it for doing so, but we often leave issues on the table about why the objectification of women is so harmful.

Jennifer Lopez and Iggy Azalea just released a new music video called “Booty,” featuring prominent bumping and grinding, while barely clothed, amidst (what has become the norm for music videos) provocative and sexual dancing throughout. There is nothing new about this video.

The song seems to be trying to promote women with “booties” and some may make the argument that this enhances women’s self-confidence by publicizing acceptance of body types outside western society’s obsession with “skinny.” However, it is dangerous to think this way and give the video any legitimacy because it causes us to overlook the harm in objectifying women.

When someone is objectified, it means they are quite literally being looked at as if they were an object. It does not matter what type of object, whether you sing about being voluptuous, being skinny, or being athletic. The point is that you reduce women to their bodies. There is no doubt that western culture should drop its obsession with skinny body types. However, the mere preoccupation with talking about body shapes takes up such a great deal of our time, at the stake of all the immaterial values, strength and innovation that women offer.

Talking about our bodies, no matter in what form, is hurting women. No matter in what context you discuss it, it is detracting and distracting from issues in society that we need to be giving our time, efforts, and passions to. Society has struggled without women’s intelligence and empathy for too long and we should strive to drop body talk altogether.