#objectfication

[loveivyxxx]

[yusufislost]

algorithm

I get a message from one of my friends on Instagram, probably another brainrot reel. I open it, I laugh, and reflexively swipe down.

Usually more brainrot.

But every so often, the app throws in some bait - a conventionally attractive woman posing or dancing in a skimpy outfit, hundreds of thousands of likes. Swipe. Another, with even curvier features in an even skimpier outfit with some enticing caption about being Asian or lonely or a gamer girl or whatever. Swipe. Nudes. Not even trying to hide it anymore.

I force myself to snap out of it, reset my content preferences for good measure, close the app, and the next day - it happens again.

I didn't sign up for this. It feels predatory. Does the app notice I look at women for more than a second? I can't help my first glance, especially with some of those outrageous costumes. But this just feels off.

It feels like I'm being preyed on, my virile instincts harnessed to keep me on the app for the advertisements wedged in between. In fact, I think that's exactly what's happening. And I know for a fact I'm not the only one.

A few of my friends have also reported this to me, and it's nothing new. Sex sells, every advertiser knows this. By "rewarding" our viewer retention with images of desirable women, our brains keep us on the app longer, hence more exposure to advertisements. We aren't purely rational beings, we have raw instincts that didn't just disappear when we invented smartphones.

To these companies, a woman's body is little more than a marketing tool. And it seems to be working.

There are a whole lot of men with zero self-restraint whose only experience with women are these images. But our society is so developed and civilized, right?

[antioedipalpoetics-blog]

[kitsune-gari]

The current status quo of sexualized, objectified, hysterical and/or powerless female portrayal in media has been the longest-running and possibly most successful propaganda/smear campaign against female persons in all of history.

[starwaurs]

Some of the comments on LaciGreen's new video on the objectification of women in the media.

"The comments on any article about feminism justify feminism."

-Helen Lewis