Sexualization

I think that in the society we have grown up in, we've become desensitized to the overt hyper-sexualization of advertising and media in general. Men are typically hypersexualized in advertisements geared towards women, such as clothing and perfume. Women, on the other hand, are sexualized in almost every ad from cheeseburgers to air conditioning. I think that these representations can have negative consequences as men and women strive to attain this ideal and, more importantly, as they learn to expect this representation of the opposite sex in real life. Women come to compare themselves to these images and can often base their self esteem off of this ideal while men may perceive these images as realistic and therefore judge women in real life more harshly. This sexualization also contributes to a social climate where women are seen as sexual objects rather than people, which can make them feel trivialized.