Females Objectified
Essay - Unpublished

 When I first announced to my female friends that I was writing an article about females being routinely objectified, they all, without exception, expressed the sentiment that this really needed to be discussed since they were so tired of of being considered just objects by the male population around them. “Men are such pigs, I can see it in their eyes, they make us do it,” one further expressed. When I mentioned it to my male friends, they mostly just stated “huh?”

I don't think either of these groups perceived the subject of my discussion, otherwise their opinions about this writing before its display of content may have been just the opposite. Perhaps the females would have said: “Oh, no,” and the males might have commented: “huh?”

What do we do when we objectify something? We adorn and externalize “it” in some way, make it more pleasing to the eyes of strangers and ourselves, our homes, our gardens, our cat or dog, our cars, all in an effort to raise the perception of ourselves to a new, more admirable level. We all want to be liked, or loved, and looking adorned or pampered helps – except for the sociopaths among us.

So, what do women across America do every morning? Before facing the world outside our homes, they spray their hair, they paint their eyes and surrounding wrinkles, they blush and color their faces to hide the paleness of the night, their lips become objects of unlawful thoughts, their ears are poked with sticks to enlarge the cavity that will hold silver, gold, or other monstrous hanging apparitions.

Their bodies will be creamed and blushed after having been enlarged or diminished in places, botoxed or liposucked and then, of course, they will have to cover the whole thing with clothing kept to a minimum but enough to highlight the underlying works of art. They spent hours at such activities and keep the American economy booming with billions of dollars in the products required to sheath themselves in such armor. That's billions with a “B”. Without such doings, unemployment would wreck the economy. But I had another thought. If just on one day, women would forgo their objectification of themselves and instead dump the products usually used, the EPA would declare the place where they dumped it a toxic wasteland.

“Now,” you might rightfully ask, “what do you have against the beautiful results coming about with all these adornments?” The answer may surprise you, having read the above: “Nothing.” My problem arises when I listen to the dishonest and deceptive allegations by women that men are responsible for it since they make them do it. Without it, they claim, they have no chance with men, to be acknowledged or found to be desirable. To that, I would only state: “When is the last time you know of when a man has ignored a naked woman? Aren't you also saying, in other negative attributions, that this is all it takes?”

I saw a naked woman once running up the street from the Greyhound bus station in downtown Los Angeles through the city, carrying a brown paper bags with her clothes, wearing a string of pearls and a pair of sensible shoes. Good for her. The only males not paying attention were the cops on the street corners, directing traffic. They did not want to deal with her and waved her right through the intersections. Too bad, I did not have my camera with me.

But, that's really not the point. I just heartily object to blaming all those bad males for lusting after women and, thereby, objectifying women. “The men make us do it,” argument just does not hold water. The only place where I would agree and blame the men is that faraway place where men throw sheets over their women and make them walk ten feet behind them. In such cases, I would agree, the men made them do it.

So keep doing what you're doing, no objections from this end. Just keep in mind as to who is objectifying whom and it will, by chance, get women and men closer together, in mind, body, and spirit and in . . . whatever. The men are not the enemy. Prevarication is.