The Difference Between Sexual Liberation and Sexual
Objectification
AGENCY.
This three-syllable word can help
us understand the difference between sexual liberation and objectification, but
it’s not that easy. This is a pretty nuanced matter so it requires some solid
and backed-up-by-examples kind of explaining.
So let’s start with definitions.
I like the Urban Dictionary version, which defines ‘sexual liberation’ as the
ability to enjoy sexual activities without guilt or shame. I’ll go one step
further and describe it as the idea that sex should be enjoyed on one’s own
terms and knowing that your own desires are worth just as much as the opposite
person’s. This term is generally applied to women, because the Sexual
Liberation Movement focused on telling women that their sexual desires must be
fulfilled, and that they shouldn’t be made to feel ashamed about pre-marital
sex. The whole point of the movement is to make people realise that female
orgasms do exist and should be a mandatory part of heterosexual… well, sex.
But let’s not forget the other
members of the gender spectrum. The two-worded term applies to everyone with
sexual desires (or lack thereof) reminding them that the only moral rule in sex
is that it be consensual. Thus, sexual liberation serves to remind people that
sex is empowering because it gives you the choice to partake or not.
Onto sexual objectification then.
It’s basically the idea that people can be viewed and used solely as
instruments of sexual pleasure. It strips someone of their
personhood, and presents them as a commodity to be used for sexual fulfilment.
Going back to the theme of consent, I’d like to point out that it’s never one’s
choice to be sexually objectified and that sexual objectification takes away
the person’s power over themselves because they are viewed as a commodity. It’s
rather tragic that whilst the Sexual Liberation Movement served to remind women
of their sexual desires, sexual objectification ensured that women will
simultaneously be reduced to their simply sexual desires. Or, to put it more
accurately, women will be reduced to instruments for MEN’S sexual fulfilment.
And if a woman is unable to fulfil a man’s sexual desires, well then, she’s not
really a woman.
Of course, this mentality isn’t
universal. It’s obviously not an absolute situation in society. It’s not even
necessarily the biggest of global issues. But it’s just enough of an issue
that sexual liberation and sexual objectification are discordantly portrayed in
all of our films. It’s just enough of
an issue that leaking nudes can be used a tool to obtain fame and feel shame. And it’s just enough of an issue that people are
still questioning the difference between objectification and liberation.
There were two situations in my
life which I present as the times where, first, I questioned and, in the second
instance, understood the difference
between liberation and objectification.
When comet scientist Dr Matt
Taylor appeared on TV wearing a T-shirt with scantily dressed cartoon women, I
had for the first time, albeit unknowingly, questioned the difference. I did
not have a personal opinion on it, because I had not seen the shirt or his
speech and had never even heard of him. I read heated debates on Tumblr,
feminists arguing about sexism and everyone else defending the man’s freedom of
choice and his scientific achievement.
Here’s the thing; you are allowed
to look at the situation with both perspectives, but the fact remains that the
shirt was indeed sexist. It presented the fictional female as sexy because she
had conventionally attractive features and was dressed to accentuate it. She
was presented through the ‘male gaze’ since the character was not portrayed as
having any other personality trait apart from being attractive. It doesn’t
matter that the designer of the shirt was female, because it doesn’t negate the
fact that the shirt presented a female in a sexual manner, with no question of
consent as it is a fictional character. The man’s scientific achievement does
not excuse the fact that being on live television meant that his shirt was
bound to receive criticism as it was at a public event. I’m not trying to
persecute Dr Matt Taylor, he gracefully apologised for the act and I believe
that it was not intentional to cause offence.
The second time I witnessed
sexual objectification, I understood it quite thoroughly. On BBC Parliament a petition,
against a dress-code that made high heels mandatory for women, was being
presented. Most notably, the three young women on the first witness panel were
each asked the question “Why do you think an employer would want you to wear
high-heels?”. The British Airways hostess promptly replied with a concise “My employer
would want me to wear high heels for the same reason as I would, but I find it inappropriate
that they have the right to force me to wear it.”
Cases like these make it
abundantly clear that sexual objectification and liberation can be so easily
confused. A person wearing clothing of their choice is sexual liberation because
they have the power to wear that piece of clothing on their own terms. It turns
into objectification when the person wearing the piece of clothing doesn’t have
the power to choose what they wear or isn’t allowed to feel comfortable with
what they wear because they are bound to be judged negatively.
It’s one thing to disagree with
neon hot pants because they’re an atrocious shade of fluorescent. But it’s
unacceptable to disagree with neon hot pants because they’re hot pants and they
seem “sexual”.
Even as I write this article, I
find myself second guessing my statements. Am I reading into every little
detail, the resonances of which are arguably insignificant? But the truth is,
only by questioning ourselves can reach a true conclusion, and erase all the
ingrained misconceptions fed to us by our surroundings.
To put power of someone’s
personhood in someone else’s mind or hands only opens them up to a world where they can
lose their sense of self. But, I guess this is the subconscious effort made by all
of society, to distance one from the self. The Sexual Liberation vs. Sexual Objectification debate is one of the many ways in which this distancing manifests itself