Advertising images often treat women as sexualized objects to be looked at and evaluated. We live in a media saturated world which means, what we view significantly influences our ideas of emotions, thoughts, and behaviours. Overtime, as we constantly view these images, we become socialized to treat ourselves as objects to be looked at and evaluated, a process called self-objectification.
Why is self objectification problematic? When we self-objectify it can lead to lower self-esteem, fewer mental resources, lower-life satisfaction, increased eating disorders etc.
Research studies also show that consistently viewing such portrayals of women create social “scripts” that influence our attitudes and beliefs about what we can and cannot, or should and should not, aspire to be in life.
It matters how women in mainstream media are depicted.
We highly encourage you to take 2 minutes to watch Madonna Badger's powerful video about the prevalent sexism and objectification of women in advertisements.
We are #WomenNotObjects.
