THE SEXUALIZATION ISSUE

The information presented in this section is mostly extracted from

the Report of the American Psychological Association about the
Sexualization of girls in America.
This is an answer to those people who say that
‘Westernized Display of Women’ is 'Liberating’ and
‘Civilized’ and labeling Modest / Non-Western Clothing as
‘Sign of Subjugation’.
NOTE: The Referenced Reports are highlighted in BOLD, along with the Researchers
Name, Year of Publish and Page. no quoted at end.

__________________________________________________________________________________

IMPACT of Sexualization of Females on Women & Why it has

become something Acceptable?

1. Effect on Mental Health (Body shame, Eating Disorder, Low self esteem etc.):

Studies were done to check how sexualization of females impact girls and the report
submitted their findings as “Studies also show that self-objectification is associated with
negative mental health outcomes in adolescent girls. For example, Tolman et al. (2006)
found that in early adolescence,girls who had a more objectified relationship with their
bodies were more likely to experience depression and had lower self-esteem.

Similarly, Harrison and Fredrickson (2003) reported that among Black and White
adolescent girls, self-objectification was a significant predictor of depression, body
shame, and disordered eating, even when controlling for race, grade in school, and body
mass index. In one demonstration of these trends, Hawkins, Richards, Granley, and
Stein (2004) exposed undergraduate women to 40 full-page photographs from
Cosmopolitan, Vogue, and Glamour. For students in the experimental group, these ads
contained female models; for those in the control group, only no-model ads were used.
Findings indicated that young women exposed to the idealized models indicated more
eating disorder symptoms than women in the control group, as well as more negative
mood states and lower self-esteem.” [page.24]
Morever it also states, “Even with plastic surgery, it is impossible for an adult woman to
maintain the look of a 17-year-old adolescent. This inability to meet the culturally
imposed standard of beauty may lead to body shame, lowered self-esteem, and a reduced
sense of well-being. There is evidence that exposure to thin-ideal images in the media
and subsequent thin-ideal internalization have negative effects on adult women. For
example, across two studies, Dittmar and colleagues (Dittmar & Howard, 2004;
Halliwell & Dittmar,2004) found that adult women (e.g., 20–60 years of age) exposed
to ads featuring thin models expressed more body-focused anxiety than those exposed to
average-sized or no models, and this was especially true for those who strongly
internalized the thin ideal.” [page. 29]

2. Effect on Physical Health (Increased Smoking):

Centralized female models in the media made ordinary girls to start smoking with a hope
that this would give them the idealized shape. Report states, “Studies have established
an important link between body dissatisfaction and the onset of cigarette smoking
among adolescent girls (e.g., Stice & Shaw, 2003). One theorized reason for this
relationship is girls’ belief that smoking will enable them to control their weight and thus
meet standards of physical appearance considered desirable (Camp, Klesges, & Relyea,
1993). Newer research has shown that this relationship may be mediated by self-
objectification, a feature of sexualization. In one study, college-aged women who had a
more sexually objectified standard for their physical appearance (emphasizing sexual
attractiveness, for example, over health and competence) were more likely to be smokers
(Harrell, 2002). These studies begin to suggest that sexualization experiences may lead
to dangerous addictive health behaviors.” [p. 25].

3. Effect on Sexuality (Reduced Sex drive and narrow views regarding Body
Functions):

Sexualization may harbor narrow views among women regarding some of their body
functions such as menustration etc. Studies also show that supporting women’s sexual
objectification may affect how women view their own reproductive body functions. L.
M.Ward, Merriwether, and Caruthers (2006) found that undergraduate women who
frequently watch music videos or read women’s magazines, who attribute greater
realism to media content, or who identify strongly with popular TV characters were also
more accepting of sexually objectifying notions of women and of other traditional
gender ideologies. At the same time, accepting these views of women and their bodies
was associated with expressing more negative attitudes toward breastfeeding and toward
the “functional” aspects of one’s own body (e.g., menstruation, body sweat).
Sexualizaton of women may reduce a woman’s sex drive; Report states “Empirical
evidence supports these concerns. Findings indicate that women with high body
dissatisfaction engage in less sexual activity and are especially apprehensive about
sexual situations in which their bodies can be seen.” [p.25,26]

4. Effect on Attitudes and Beliefs (Acceptance of sexual double standards and teen
dating violence):

It seems that sexualized display of women may give vent to acceptance of sexual double
standards and dating violence. Report states, “Girls and young women who more
frequently consume or engage with mainstream media content also offer stronger
endorsement of sexual stereotypes that paint women as sexual objects (L. M.Ward,
2002; L. M.Ward & Rivadeneyra, 1999; Zurbriggen & Morgan, 2006). For example,
findings indicate that among undergraduate women, more frequent viewing of reality
dating television programs was correlated with greater acceptance of a sexual double
standard and the belief that dating is a game and that men and women are adversaries
(Zurbriggen & Morgan, 2006).” And of course, “Similarly, among Black high school
girls, stronger identification with one’s favorite TV character and with more objectifying
music artists was associated with greater support of stereotypes about women as sex
objects (Gordon, 2004).

Experimental work exploring connections between media use and girls’ acceptance of
sexual objectification yields similar results. For example, L. M.Ward (2002) reported
that young women exposed to images from prime-time TV that depicted women as
sexual objects offered stronger support of this notion than did women in control groups.

Similarly, Johnson, Adams, Ashburn, and Reed (1995) reported that Black adolescent
girls exposed to sexualized rap videos expressed greater acceptance of teen dating
violence than those not exposed. It appears that exposure to mainstream (i.e., sexually
objectifying) media encourages girls to objectify women and to see other women as less
than human.” Report continues, “The sexualization and objectification of women in the
media appear to teach girls that as women, all they have to offer is their body and face
and that they should expend all their effort on physical appearance. [p. 26,27]

5. Effect on Girl’s Educational Success and Achievement:

“Girls may be learning to prioritize certain rewards (male attention) over other rewards
(academic accomplishment), thus limiting their future educational and occupational
opportunities. If they perceive occupations relating to science, technology, engineering,
and math (STEM) as less consistent with a sexy self-image, they may be induced to
want to be a model, fashion designer, or pop star in order to embody the sexualized look
that they know is valued for women rather than choose to be a chemist, computer
programmer, or engineer. If girls perceive what research shows—that women who
choose male-identified professions are least preferred (in college samples) as romantic
partners (Yoder & Schleicher, 1996) —then they will perceive some social costs to
choosing careers that are not consistent with a “sexy” image. On the other hand, if girls
continue along a non feminine career path, presenting a sexy image will also be costly
and may result in being perceived as less competent Glick et al., 2005).” [p.32]

Why it has become something Acceptable and Rewarding if it is that Bad?:

Report puts it as,"Girls may treat and experience themselves as sexual objects
(Fredrickson & Roberts,1997; McKinley & Hyde, 1996). If girls learn that sexualized
behavior and appearance are approved of and rewarded by society and by the people
(e.g., peers) whose opinions matter most to them, they are likely to internalize these
standards, thus engaging in self-sexualization.” Of course the role of media can’t be
neglected,"Girls develop their identities as teenagers and as women, and they learn the
socially acceptable ways to engage in intimate relationships by modeling what they see
older girls and young women doing (Bussey & Bandura, 1984, 1992; Lips, 1989) and
by imitating the ways in which women are represented in the media (Huston & Wright,
1998)”

Finally the cultivation theory, “Most of these studies have been conducted under the
premise of cultivation theory (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli,1994), which
argues that exposure to consistent themes over time leads viewers to adopt a particular
perspective of the world, one that coincides with the images they have been viewing.”
IMPACT of Sexualization of Woman on Society:

Let us look very briefly how Sexualization of girls affects society as a whole.

1. Women are treated as Sexual Objects:

Exposure to sexualize images of females may induced a behavior in males i.e. to treat
woman as sexual objects. Reports says, “Exposure to sexualized content has been shown
to affect how women actually behave and how men treat and respond to real women in
subsequent interactions. These studies have generally found that after men are exposed
to sexualized content, their behavior toward women is more sexualized, and they treat
women like sexual objects. For example, undergraduate men exposed to 16 sexist and
objectifying commercials later asked more sexist questions of a female confederate
posing as a job applicant, recalled more about her appearance and less about her
personal background, and rated her as friendlier, more suitable to hire, but less
competent than did controls (L. Rudman & Borgida, 1995).

Similarly, McKenzie-Mohr and Zanna (1990) found that after exposure to a 15-minute
pornography tape, stereotypically masculine men were perceived by a female
experimenter to be more sexually motivated, they positioned themselves closer to her,
and they recalled more information about her physical appearance than did men in other
conditions.” [p.31]

2. Woman are considered as low on intellectual level:

Report says, " Jansma, Linz, Mulac, and Imrich (1997) reported a pattern in which
gender-typed men appeared to rate a female partner lower on intellectual competence
after viewing a sexually explicit film and higher after viewing a nonsexual film. Non-
gender-typed men appeared to respond in the reverse. Overall, it is argued that exposure
to sexualized depictions of women may lead to global thoughts that “women are
seductive and frivolous sex objects” (Lavine, Sweeney, & Wagner, 1999) and “foster
an overall climate that does not value girls’ and women’s voices or contributions to
society” (Merskin, 2004). [p.31]

3. Sexualization of Girls contributes to Sexual harassment:

It is written, “Several studies suggest that the sexualization of girls contributes to sexual
harassment and coercion. In a survey of university faculty, staff, and students, O’Hare
and O’Donohue (1998) found that respondents who reported that their male coworkers
held sexist attitudes reported more experiences of gender harassment, sexual harassment,
and sexual coercion. Quinn’s (2002) qualitative study of adult men’s accounts of “girl-
watching” in the workplace highlighted the role that objectification and (low) empathy
with the targeted women played in this type of sexual harassment.

Angelone, Hirschman, Suniga,Armey, and Armelie (2005) found that college men
who were exposed to a sexist confederate (one who made objectifying comments about
a female actress and denigrating comments about women on campus) told more sexual
jokes to a female confederate than did men exposed to a nonsexist confederate. Taken
together, these studies suggest that boys exposed to sexualized portrayals of girls may be
more likely to commit sexual harassment.” [p.34]

4. Friendliness in women is perceived as sexual interest and contribution to

trafficking of girls:

Immense sexualization may leads to perceive friendliness as sexual interest, “One

particularly pernicious effect of the constant exposure to sexualized images of girls is
that individuals and society may be “trained” to perceive and label sexualized girls as
“Seductive.” Studies have shown that adult men often misperceive friendliness in adult
women as sexual interest (Abbey, 1982, 1987). Images of young girls who are made to
look like adult women may evoke similar responses.” It may also contribute to the
trafficking of girls, “The sexualization of girls may also contribute to the trafficking and
prostitution of girls by helping to create a market for sex with children through the
cultivation of new desires and experiences. If the idealized female sexual partner is a 15-
or 16-year-old girl, male consumers may demand pornography featuring such girls and
the opportunity to pay for sex with them.

A 2005 report noted a disturbing new trend in the recruitment of children into
pornography: Pedophiles and “johns” look in online chat rooms for teens with Web
cameras linked to their computers and then seduce them into performing sex acts for
money in front of the camera (Eichenwald, 2005). [p.35]
IMPACT of Sexualization on Men and Boys:
Sexualization of girls may also effect boys and men, their behaviors would change and
perception about women would be distorted.

1. Males find difficulty to fully enjoy Intimacy:

The report puts, “Exposure to narrow ideals of female sexual attractiveness may make it
difficult for some men to find an “acceptable” partner or to fully enjoy intimacy with a
female partner (Schooler & Ward, 2006). Several experimental studies have shown that
exposure to pornography (which often sexually objectifies women; Jensen & Dines,
2004) leads men to rate their female partners as less attractive (Weaver, Masland, &
Zillmann, 1984), to indicate less satisfaction with their intimate partners’ attractiveness,
sexual performance, and level of affection (Zillmann & Bryant,1988), and to express
greater desire for sex without emotional involvement (Zillmann & Bryant, 1988).”
[p.28]

2. Males find difficulty to relate them on any level except Sexual:

Objectifying girls/women and sex itself is integral to masculinity beliefs (Connell,

1987; Kimmel, 1996; Tolman, 2002), but these beliefs may jeopardize men’s ability to
form and maintain intimate relationships with women (G. Brooks, 1995; Kindlon &
Thompson, 1999; Pollack, 1998).
Burn and Ward (2005) found that undergraduate men’s satisfaction with their romantic
relationship was negatively correlated with most masculinity beliefs, including ones that
are relevant to the objectification of women (i.e., dominance [“I should be in charge”],
power over women [“In general, I control the women in my life”], and playboy [“If I
could, I would frequently change sexual partners”]). Empathy may be important in
understanding the relationship between objectification and relationship satisfaction.
When one person objectifies another, it is difficult, perhaps even impossible, to treat that
person with empathy (Herman, 1992), an important predictor of satisfaction and
stability in intimate relationships (Davis & Oathout, 1987; Long & Andrews, 1990). If
girls and women are seen exclusively as sexual beings rather than as complicated people
with many interests, talents, and identities, boys and men may have difficulty relating to
them on any level other than the sexual. This could dramatically limit the opportunities
boys and men have to interact intellectually with girls and women, to compete with and
against them in sports or games, to create art or make music with them, to work together
for higher causes (e.g., volunteer work or activism), or to enjoy their company as
friends.” [p.28]
What goes in Man’s Mind while watching a Semi-Nude Woman?
Princeton psychologist Susan Fiske presented findings at the American Association
for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Chicago, where she and her
colleagues compared, "...Heterosexual Men’s Perceptions of scantily clothed Women,
scantily clothed Men, and fully clothed men and women".

And what they found is the 21 male subjects had the best memory for photos of sexy
bikini-clad women. Then they had the men look at the photos while their brains were
scanned and what she found was that, "...This memory correlated with activation in part
of the brain that is a pre-motor, having intentions to act on something, so it was as if
they immediately thought about how they might act on these bodies."

Fiske explained that the areas, the premotor cortex and posterior middle temporal gyrus,
typically light up when one anticipates using tools, like a screwdriver. "I’m not saying
that they literally think these photographs of women are photographs of tools per se, or
photographs of non-humans, but what the brain imaging data allow us to do is to look
at it as scientific metaphor. That is, they are reacting to these photographs as people
react to objects."

Fiske also tested the men for levels of sexism and found a surprising effect those who
scored high on this test, "...the hostile sexists were likely to deactivate the part of the
brain that thinks about other people's intentions. The lack of activation of this social
cognition area is really odd, because it hardly ever happens. It’s a very reliable effect,
that the medial prefrontal cortex comes online when people think about other people,
see pictures of them, imagine other people." Normally when you examine social
cognition, people’s aim is to figure out what the other person is thinking and intending.
And we see in these data really no evidence of that. So the deactivation of medial
prefrontal cortex to these pictures is really kind of shocking. " she concludes, "...these
findings are all consistent with the idea that they are responding to these photographs as
if they are responding to objects and not to people with independent agency."

Source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/women-as-sex-objects-09-
02-17/
What if we allow Males and Females to Fornicate freely?:
Some people are of the view that we should allow men and women to fornicate freely,
this would reduce the danger of sexual harassment and we also have contraceptive
devices thus there is no harm in allowing it. There is no denying the fact that men are
polygamous in nature [1], and their reproductive success depends on how many ovaries
they have fertilized but things don’t end here. If we allow males to fornicate freely, it
would reduce the desire of long term relationship in a male. If we believe for the sake of
argument that men do form permanent bonds it even then men would form extra-marital
relationship which may result in divorce, day to day quarrel in a family, loss of trust
between husband and wife etc.

The reason why females can’t afford another female in the life of their partners is
because men gradually lower the materialistic support towards their actual partners
which is a sign of love and commitment for a woman; it may also actuate a woman to
indulge in short-term relationship for herself (as short-term relationship pattern in
women is related to materialism) [2], which may result in violence from their husbands.

[1] Evolution first four billion years by Michael ruse and Joseph Travis, page558.
[2]Evolutionary Psychology:An Introduction by Lance Workman and Will Reader,page
104.

Act of Aggression:

Jennisfer S. Denisiuk states, “Male aggression can be viewed as sexual jealousy and
possessiveness, which arise from paternal uncertainty. (Archer, 1996). When a male is
not sure if his child is indeed his, he will become jealous, which will bring out
aggressiveness in him as he tries to find out the child's paternity. Male aggression often
results into rape and violence. Archer (2000) discussed how sexual and physical
aggression are more common in men than women. Men tend to be aggressive outside of
the relationship, whereas women tend to be aggressive inside the relationship. When it
comes to physical aggression, women are more likely to scratch their mate. Some will
kick, slap, or shove their mate in anger (Archer, 2000). It is usually supposed that the
man is the one who will act physically aggressively, but it has been shown that women
are not always fearful to show physical aggression toward a man”.

Source: http://www.personalityresearch.org/papers/denisiuk.html
Psychological Effect of watching too many Beautiful Girls as in
Magazines and Ads:
It carries a pernicious effect, males rate their own partners as less attractive and thus
reduce their commitment.
The media images we are bombarded with daily, however, have a potentially pernicious
consequence. In one study, after groups of men looked at photographs of either highly
attractive women or women of average attractiveness, they were asked to evaluate their
commitment to their current romantic partners (Kenrick, Neuberg, Zierk, & Krones,
1994). The men who had viewed pictures of attractive women thereafter judged their
actual partners to be less attractive than did the men who had viewed pictures of women
who were average in attractiveness.

Perhaps more important, the men who had viewed attractive women there-after rated
themselves as less committed to, less satisfied with, less serious about, and less close to
their actual partners. Parallel results were obtained in another study in which men
viewed physically attractive nude centerfolds: They rated themselves as less attracted to
their partners (Kenrick, Gutierres, & Goldberg, 1989).

The reasons for these changes are found in the unrealistic nature of the images and in the
psychological mechanisms of men. The few attractive women selected for
advertisements are chosen from a cast of thousands. In many cases thousands of pictures
are then taken of each chosen woman. Playboy. for example, is reputed to shoot roughly
6.000 pictures for each monthly magazine. From these thousands of pictures, a few are
selected for publication. So what men see are the most attractive women in the most
attractive pose in the most attractive airbrushed photograph. Contrast these photographs
with what men would have witnessed 100.000 years ago. living in a band of a few dozen
individuals. It is doubt-r fill that in that environment men would have seen even a dozen
women considered attractive by today's measure. The presence of a relative abundance
of attractive women, however, might reasonably induce a man to consider switching
mates, and hence he would decrease his commitment to his existing mate.
Impacts of Pornography on Males:
Pornography has pernicious effects on males, internet pornography is an attraction to
males due to a biological phenomena called the Coolidge Effect. Although,
pornography is banned in most of the countries of the world (just namesake) while in
some countries such as Denmark not only legalize pornography but has also allowed a
channel named Kanal Kobenhavn to play pornography at night but the same country
bans veil.

Why pornography is bad? A psychologist can give a better answer. Internet has excess
researches and materials about this topic.

We recommend you to visit this site for comprehensive information about this topic:
https://fightthenewdrug.org/overview/

And we learned above that sexualization of girls increases pornography and thus
violence against women and you can see from the above data that chronic exposure to
mild pornographic videos creates a desire to move to more extreme and violent material.
Western Representation of a Female from Little Girls to Adult
Women - Sexualized or Liberated?
The data that is included here is according to APA’s report on the sexualization of girls
whose link is shared above.

1: On Television:

Its very hard to believe that women are not only sexualized in the western media but
they are also called with ‘words’ that are directed towards their sexuality and body parts.
Report says, “Sexual comments and remarks are pervasive on television *(L. M.Ward,
2003), and research has shown that they disproportionately sexually objectify women.
For example, in her analysis of prime-time programs popular among children and
adolescents, L. M.Ward (1995) found that 11.5% of the verbal sexual messages coded
involved sexually objectifying comments, nearly all of which were about women.

Similarly, Lampman et al. (2002), studying sexual remarks made on prime-time

comedies, found that 23% of the sexual behaviors coded were leering, ogling, staring,
and catcalling at female characters.Additionally, 16.5% of the sexual remarks detected
were about body parts or nudity. A majority of these comments (85%) came from men.”
[p.5].

2: On Music Videos (As decorative objects):

“Content analyses indicate that 44%–81% of music videos contain sexual imagery
(Gow, 1990; Greeson & Williams, 1986; Pardun & McKee, 1995; Sherman &
Dominick, 1986). Sexually objectifying images of women constitute a large portion of
this sexual content. In music videos, women more frequently than men are presented in
provocative and revealing clothing (e.g.,Andsager & Roe, 1999; Seidman, 1992), are
objectified (Sommers-Flanagan, Sommers-Flanagan, & Davis, 1993), and typically
serve as decorative objects that dance and pose and do not play any instruments
(e.g.,Arnett, 2002; Gow, 1996). They are often displayed in ways that emphasize their
bodies, body parts, facial features, and sexual readiness. R. C.Vincent, Davis, and
Boruskowski (1987) found that 57% of the videos featured a woman portrayed
exclusively as a decorative sexual object.” [p.5]
3: On Music Lyrics:

It is evident that the lyrics of some recent popular songs sexualize women or refer to
them in highly degrading ways, or both.
As part of a recent study of the effects of listening to popular music on sexual behavior
(Martino et al., 2006), researchers coded the content of 164 songs from 16 artists
popular with teens. Overall, 15% of songs contained sexually degrading lyrics. Most of
these lyrics were concentrated within the work of rap and R&B artists; as many as 70%
of individual artists’ songs included degrading sexual content.”

4: On Movies:

It shouldn’t be a surprise to any person that women are aggressively sexualize in movies
but the shocking part is the display of women are suppressed in nons-exualized roles.
“Another notable trend is the near absence of female characters in the top-grossing
motion pictures (Bazzini, McIntosh, Smith, Cook, & Harris, 1997) and in G-rated
movies (Kelly & Smith, 2006).

Kelly and Smith evaluated the 101 top-grossing G-rated films from 1990 to 2004. Of
the over 4,000 characters in these films, 75% overall were male, 83% of characters in
crowds were male, 83% of narrators were male, and 72% of speaking characters were
male. In addition, there was little change from 1990 to 2004. This gross under-
representation of women or girls in films with family-friendly content reflects a missed
opportunity to present a broad spectrum of girls and women in roles that are non-
sexualized.”

5: On Magazine:

In Magazine, women are encouraged to look and sexy and seductive; the focus is only
the gaze of a male. As report states, “Much of the research analyzing the sexual content
of magazines focuses heavily on teen girls’ and women’s magazines (e.g., Carpenter,
1998; Durham, 1998; Garner, Sterk, & Adams, 1998; McMahon, 1990).One of the
dominant themes about sexuality reported across these studies and across magazines is
that presenting oneself as sexually desirable and thereby gaining the attention of men is
and should be the focal goal for women.
Girls and young women are repeatedly encouraged to look and dress in specific ways to
look sexy for men, a phenomenon labeled “costuming for seduction” (M. Duffy &
Gotcher, 1996), and to use certain products in order to be more attractive to and desired
by males.” [p.7]
6: On Advertisements (as appendages and decorative objects):

“Magazine advertisements also sexualize women. First, studies indicate that women are
frequently featured as sexual objects in such ads (e.g., Baker, 2005; Lindner, 2004; W.
J. Rudman & Verdi, 1993). In one analysis of women appearing in advertisements in
Time and Vogue from 1955 to 2002, Lindner (2004) reported that an average of 40% of
ads featured women as decorative objects.

When women are featured as “decorations” in ads (e.g., shown standing seductively next
to a car to enhance the image of the car), their major purpose is to be looked at. They are
treated as appendages to the product rather than as active consumers or users of the
product.”

7: On Sports Media:

Unlike male athletes, female athletes are famous for their voluptuous bodies and
sexualized images which is taken by various sports magazine. Why a body of a female is
paid more attention then her performance? Report says, "Several targeted studies of
specific media genres, sports or sporting events have documented the frequency with
which female athletes are sexualized. Fink and Kensicki (2002) explored the coverage
of female athletes in Sports Illustrated (SI) and Sports Illustrated for Women (SIW) from
1997 to 1999.

They found that only 10% of the photographs in SI during this 3-year period were of
female athletes. Five percent of these photographs were “pornographic/sexually
suggestive,” defined as women dressed provocatively or photographed in such a way as
to focus solely on sexual attributes (e.g., photograph framed on an athlete’s breasts).
Only .2% of the photographs of men fell into this category. Sixty-six percent of the
photographs of men showed them actively engaged in a sport versus 34% of the
photographs of women. Representations of women in SIW were only slightly better;
56% of photographs of women in SIW depicted them actively engaged in sports, and 2%
were pornographic. [p.8]

Shugart’s (2003) study on print and television coverage of the 1999 U.S. women’s
soccer team lends further support for a pattern of sexualizing female athletes. Shugart
argued that media coverage of the team was sexualized in three ways:

A: Subtle sexualization occurred through passive objectification - For example,

photographs that favored an athlete’s face rather than her athletic performance.
B: Less subtle sexualization was shown in commentators’ remarks - For example, when
Brandi Chastain removed her jersey after scoring the winning goal of the World Cup.
Although this specific behavior was identical to that of male soccer players in the same
circumstances, in Chastain’s case, sportscasters called it a “striptease” and deemed her
“the owner of the most talked-about breasts in the country” (pp. 12-13) . In several
media sources, the team was referred to as “booters with hooters” (p. 13).

C: “Vigilant heterosexuality” was evident in commentary that placed the femininity of

female athletes and their family lives in the foreground to suggest that they were not
lesbians (regardless of their real-life sexual orientation). This form of sexualization
marginalizes the athleticism of female athletes: “Female strength has been redefined as
male pleasure” (p. 27). This assessment is echoed by Hill Collins (2004), who argued in
an analysis of depictions of several African American athletes that their appearances in
passive “sexy” poses in various media counteracted their aggression and passion on the
court or field.” [p.9]

8: On Video Games:

Games made for specialized systems and those made for personal computers contain
highly sexualized content and few strong female protagonists (Dietz, 1998). In a recent
study, Haninger and Thompson (2004) sampled 80 “Teen”-rated video games from a
population of 396 games in release in 2001.

They observed sexual themes in 27% of games. Games were significantly more likely to
depict female characters partially nude or engaged in sexual behaviors than to depict
male characters in this way. When the authors expanded their definition of “sexual
theme” to include “pronounced cleavage, large breasts, or provocative clothing,” the
percentage of female characters so depicted rose to 46%.”
As far as Harassment of Females are concerned by Males:
Let’s us see what APA’s report has to say regarding this:
It states: "Several studies suggest that the sexualization of girls contributes to sexual
harassment and coercion. In a survey of university faculty, staff, and students, O’Hare
and O’Donohue (1998) found that respondents who reported that their male coworkers
held sexist attitudes reported more experiences of gender harassment, sexual harassment,
and sexual coercion. Quinn’s (2002) qualitative study of adult men’s accounts of “girl-
watching” in the workplace highlighted the role that objectification and (low) empathy
with the targeted women played in this type of sexual harassment.

Angelone, Hirschman, Suniga,Armey, and Armelie (2005) found that college men
who were exposed to a sexist confederate (one who made objectifying comments about
a female actress and denigrating comments about women on campus) told more sexual
jokes to a female confederate than did men exposed to a nonsexist confederate. Taken
together, these studies suggest that boys exposed to sexualization portrayals of girls may
be more likely to commit sexual harassment."_

Females do get harassing remarks while wearing a provocative clothing.

For example, [quoting from a research]:

1. In Ammon v. Baron Automotive Group, the plaintiff was told by one of her harassers
that “‘I’d love to lick those pants off you,’” that she had “‘nice legs,’” and that she
“‘should wear a dress more often.”’ [p.137]

2. In Brassfield v. Jack McLendon Furniture, the plaintiff’s manager told her that he
would like to see her in a wet t-shirt, asked her if she was wearing underwear, and said
that he liked her “dress because when she bent over he could see her ‘tits.’” [p.138]

3. In Nievaard v. City of Ann Arbor, comments were made daily about the plaintiff’s
clothes and appearance.
She was told she was “sexy,” that if she “pulled down her shirt a little more the workers
could have a ‘view all day,’” and that her shirts were “‘too tight.’” [p.138]

4. In Sage Realty, the plaintiff worked as a building lobby attendant. Her employer
required her to wear a uniform on the job. One uniform consisted of an octagonal piece
of cloth that resembled an American flag that was worn like a poncho. On the five-foot-
eight plaintiff, the uniform revealed “her thighs and portions of her buttocks.” Even
after attempts at alterations, the uniform was still revealing. The plaintiff wore the
uniform for two days and “received a number of sexual propositions and endured lewd
comments and gestures. Humiliated by what occurred, [the plaintiff] was unable to
perform her duties properly.” Eventually, the plaintiff was fired because she refused to
wear the uniform. [p.139]

The writer simply dispose of these claims by giving the reason that courts doesn’t
endorse the provocative dress as a major player in the cases; what about all these
females who got insulting remarks while wearing such clothes? Weren’t they showing
themselves confident as writer argues that male coincides provocative clothing with
confidence in a female [p.145] and these females weren’t likely to be assaulted or
victimized?

I am not trying to argue ‘victims wants to get harassed by dressing provocatively’ but
rather ‘it does play a minor role if not major and its involvement can’t be neglected in
sexual harassment’ and ‘remarks may be more severe if the victim is dressed
provocatively’ recall ‘research of psychologist Susan’ written above ; also the writer
argues that the sexual harassment results also from the ‘dominating attitude towards a
passive female by a male’ which she said for power not for pleasure;
This notion doesn't hold water as we’ll going to see this in a minute.

Let us talk about sexual harassment on streets in countries other than muslims, for
example According to Independent (Britain) newspaper (dated:12th Mar,2012),
“One in 10 women has been raped, and more than a third subjected to sexual assault,
according to a major survey, which also highlights just how frightened women are of not
being believed. More than 80 per cent of the 1,600 respondents said they did not report
their assault to the police, while 29 per cent said they told nobody – not even a friend or
family member – of their ordeal.” and according another issue (dated:25th May,2012)
“Research released today by the End Violence Against Women (EVAW)*coalition
shows 41 per cent of women under the age of 34 have been on the receiving end of
sexual harassment in the street. Of the total, 21 per cent classified the abuse as unwanted
sexual attention and 4 per cent said they had been physically touched by someone.” [also
see story of Rosie Wadey]._
According to a research paper “Sex, Power and Dominance: The
Evolutionary Psychology of Sexual Harassment”

There are two types of Harassments:

(A) Quid pro quo harassment:

This harassment involved a benefit of a victim on providing ‘sexual' pleasures’ i.e. either
sleep with me or get fired. As per evolutionary psychology, males both show ‘long term’
and ‘short term’ mating strategies but it’s the latter they are mostly adhere to; women on
the other hand would prefer long term because they have to look after the spring and
nourish it, thus women think twice for a short term relationship [p.147]. The friendliness
in women is often perceived as sexual interest in males, research argues "Because men
tend to interpret friendly behavior as reflecting sexual interest and women tend to
interpret sexually interested behavior as mere friendliness, there is much room for
misunderstanding.

A woman who has no interest in a sexual relationship with a man may first act in a
friendly fashion, which the man may interpret as a sign of sexual interest and respond
with what he believes are mild indications of sexual interest. If the woman takes the
man’s sexual interest to be mere friendliness, she may respond with more friendliness
which the man may view as a positive response to his display of sexual interest, thereby
prompting him to respond with sexual advances” [p.148]

To say that ‘sexual harrasment’ is all about power is somewhat vague, research argues,
“To say that it is only about power makes no more sense than saying that bank robbery
is only about guns and not about money.” It was further argues, “Throughout human
history, men have used power as a way of obtaining sex, whether coercively or through
making themselves more attractive as mates. Men with the most power in history-
despots whose subjects lived at their sufferance-routinely surrounded themselves with
nubile women whose favors they could command at their pleasure (Betzig, 1986)”
[p.151,further read p.157] It was also argued that women tend to welcome ‘sexual
advances’ by higher status male then a lower status male [p.153].

(B) Hostile environment harassment:

It involves claims that workplace is repleted with insulting sexualized remarks and
images), sexualized images does spoil the environment of workplace “Many cases
involve complaints that the work atmosphere is generally ‘sexualized’ filled with
sexually provocative pictures, sexual jokes, sexist comments, and the like. Unlike quid
pro quo cases, there may be no intended ‘target’ of this harassment at all, and the
sexualized atmosphere may have predated the entry of women into that particular
workplace. A plaintiff in such a case is not saying that she was treated differently
because of her sex but rather that the environment is discriminatory because sexualized
environments are inherently more oppressive to women than to men.” Not all sexual
harrasements are derived from ‘sexual motives’; some people just love to surpress
others._

The research argues," Women may be called vulgar sexual names and men may make
crude overtures to women that on their face look like ‘sexual advances’. However, when
a man says something like ‘give me some of that stuff’, his ‘request’ is not a ‘sexual
advance’, in the sense that he engages in the conduct in the hope that the woman will
respond favorably, but instead it is generally a form of sex-based insult. In many cases,
the insult may arise out of hostility toward women, hostility that is sometimes activated
by entry of women into traditionally all-male workplaces.

On the other hand, it may actually be more about dominance-which may have nothing to
do with the sex of the target-or hostility-which may not necessarily be based on sex…
Many people (perhaps especially men) are prone to cruel and aggressive behavior
toward those they dislike or perceive to be vulnerable. Where they see weakness, they
may attack. Their dislike may or may not be based upon sex-based animus, but
regardless of whether it is, their behavior may have sexual overtones, both because of
the sexualized world view that men tend to possess and the fact that attackers will
choose language to which they believe their target is particularly sensitive.

It is important to remember that men’s quest for dominance has not been primarily about
attaining dominance over women, but rather achieving dominance over other men
(Buss, 1996), a fact that may explain Gutek’s (1985, p. 32) finding that in the
workplace ‘women are less often treated disrespectfully than men are’” [p.155].

Conclusion:
Under the light of above data, it is quite clear that the purpose behind the
criticism against modest clothing / veiling is not liberation or equality as it
might seems to be but rather shrouding their crimes of sexualizing women.