Name: 【TEDx】The Sexy Lie: Caroline Heldman at TEDxYouth@SanDiego
Uploaded: 2015-02-23T15:44:54.000Z
Duration: 12 min 50 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Good afternoon! Are we having a transformative afternoon so far?

Well, I am here today to talk about a lie.

In specific, a sexy lie. I know there are lots of lies,

some of them are sexy, some of them are very unsexy.

But I'd like to talk specifically about the lie or the idea that

And I'd like to convince you that it is not empowering.

First by talking about what sexual objectification is

and then moving on to theoretical and data driven analysis of why it's damaging,

and, lastly, provide you a plan of action

so you can both navigate objectification culture

So let's jump right in- what is sexual objectification?

It's the process of representing or treating a person like a sex object

one that serves another's sexual pleasure.

What's so interesting about sexual objectification

is that we used to have a vocabulary for it.

In the 60s and 70s, we were concerned about sexual objectification

In the 80s, 90s and today, we've actually been relatively quiet

And so even though our sexual objectification culture is more amplified

we see more images, and 96% of them are female,

we don't have a vocabulary to talk about it.

And young people have even mostly lost the ability to identify it.

As a friend of mine said, it's like being raised in a red room,

pulled out of that red room and asked to described the color red.

So I built on the work of others, and I put together a sex object test,

and if the answer is "yes" to any of these 7 questions

then you are looking at a sexual objectifying image.

First, does the image show only parts of a sexualized person's body?

In other words, does a part stand in for the whole?

This woman's derrière, for example, in this advertisement.

Does the image show a sexualized person as a stand in for an object?

Does the image show the sexualized person as interchangeable?

That is, as one of many items that can just be swapped out.

Does the image affirm the idea of violating

the bodily integrity of a sexualized person

In other words, is that person being acted upon

Does the image suggest that the sexual availability of the person

is the defining characteristic of that person?

"You know you're not her first, but do you really care?"

And it's being used to sell pre-owned vehicles.

Does the image show a sexualized person as a commodity?

In this advertisement, you see women in a vending machine

and a man is choosing a woman and this is to sell men's shoes.

And, lastly, does the image treat the sexualized person's body as a canvas?

And I'm not talking about inking or tattooing that a person decides

but rather marketers using the body as a specific type of canvas.

New objectification culture has emerged in the past ten years

One is an increase in the number of sexually objectifying ads and television,

movies, video games, music videos, magazines and other mediums.

is that the images have become more extreme, more hypersexualized.

It can really be boiled down to technology.

New technology has increased the sheer number of images

So in the 70s we saw about 500 ads a day.

and children ages 8 to 18 spend an average of 8 hours a day

hooked up to devices where advertisers can reach them.

So what do advertisers do? They cut through the clutter

with increased emphasis on violence, hyperviolence and hypersexualization.

When we're talking about sex objects, we're talking about dichotomies.

In Western thinking, we think of black and white, yes and no.

When we're thinking about sex objects, we're thinking about

So even if you become the perfect object,

you are perfectly subordinate because that position will always be acted on.

So there's not power in being a sex object when you think about it logically.

But beyond that this idea that sex sells- I'd like to challenge that directly

because the fact is, if sex sold, most women are heterosexual

so why wouldn't we see half naked men everywhere in advertising?

I would like to propose something else is being sold here.

To men, they are being sold this idea constantly that they are sexual subjects.

It makes them feel powerful to see images of objectified women everywhere.

this idea that this is how we get our value

and this is the way to become the ideal sex object.

these ideas of subjectivity and objectivity are being sold.

So we see men's magazines with scantily clad women

Subtitles ListPlay Video

【TEDx】The Sexy Lie: Caroline Heldman at TEDxYouth@SanDiego

person

engage

world

imagine