There once was a you and an I

I think I may have had a brainwave. After watching a news show about the marketing of products towards 'tweens' and a lengthy discussion with a coworker I have come up with the following:

The sexualization of society ends in the comodification of humanity.

Yes? No? Let me explain.

As I sat and watched a group of 9 and 10 year old girls talk about why they just had to dress in crop tops and mini-skirts I was thoroughly sickened. I watched as a 9 year old girl talked about how sexy she was and how what she was wearing allowed her to be so. "The top is nice because its tight and shows off my bellybutton and the skirt is good because it shows off a lot of my legs." To be honest I'd be a little worried if a 16 year old girl was worried about these things (and the majority of them are so I am worried) but this girl was only 9!

Her friends were the same. They all looked towards their rolemodels (believe me I use the term loosely) such as Christina Aguleira and Ashley Simpson. The reporter showed the girls a 'Candies' add (a shoe and accessories company for the uninitiated) which showed Ashley Simpson dressed in underwear and a shirt, sitting seductively amongst a buch of pink, a teddy bear behind her and red shoes on her feet (which by the way were located at the bottom left of the add). The girls all talked about how confident she was, how sexy she was because of it and how much they liked her shoes. The proper response, sorta like Pavlov's dog.

Then the reporter took the same add and showed a group of 10 year old boys. "She's hot. Nice legs. Nice tits." Not quite the same response, but in the end the proper one (again like Pavlov's dog). Why is this the proper one? Well in the increasing sexualization of our society you can't have one half trying to dress like tramps and not have the other half notice. Its everywhere. They showed a 10 year old boy playing a Tony Hawk game while his parents watched. Imagine how surprised the mother was when the boy went to a strip club (virtual to be sure). Every woman in the game was little more than an accessory for the men in the game.

This is not new or merely limited to video games. Take a look at Much Music (Canada's MTV). The reporter for this show taped 4 hours of their programming from 4:30 to 8:30pm. Prime 'tween' viewing hours. While MM claimed that they did not air material unsuitable for family viewing till after 9pm these 4 hours were filled with nothing but tits and ass. Of course they declined to comment on air.

In the end you watch these video's or video games, look at magazines and stop and think. How exactly are women being portrayed? Then ask yourself what is your inate reaction? If your honest you'll find that women are increasingly being portrayed as little more than objects which serve as accessories for the men around them. If your honest your inate reaction is that you want a girl like that. Do you see what is wrong with this picture?

Mass media has overtaken our culture (which has been hijacked by corporations) and puts out 24 hour sex. Its on the tv, in the movies, in your magazine, at the bus stop, in the music, on the internet. 24 hours a day from every imaginable direction we are bombarded with the constant idea that women are objects that serve no other purpose than to accessorize a man. In the end men don't see a person before them but rather an ass or breasts or legs. We've gotten past objectification and now see them simply as objects. This in the end objectifies the males as if we cannot be with a person because we are with mere objects we in turn become objects. The corporations have succeeded.

While in centuries past the economy and market place were there to serve society and the state a reversal took place during the industrial revolution which sees the state and society serve the market place. The free market, which many would advocate is the be all and end all of human achievement, has its natural end in the buying and selling of commodities. What a coincidence that through sexualizing each other (at the behest of the corporations) we have not only made objects of each other but of ourselves. The natural outcome of all this is that corporations will be able to buy and sell us, objects, commodities. Just another thing to grind through the grist mill in the name of ever greater profits. It is clear that they have already forsaken any and all ethical and moral obligation that they may have towards society. It is also clear that we have given them our very selves all in the supposed name of prosperity.

Its okay Microsoft, its okay IBM, its okay WalMart, its okay Nike, you can have my identity, my sense of self, my soul just so long as you give me crappy running shows at inflated prices, just so long as you give me malfunctioning software on outdated equipment. Its okay corporations of the world destroy the ME and in the end I'll pay you for the priviledge.


"Corporations have neither bodies to be punished, nor souls to be condemned, they therefore do as they like." ---- Lord Thurlow

"An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility." -- "Corporation" as defined by Ambrose Bierce