It would be obvious to admit that we exist in a sexist society. Recently, American singer Billie Eilish made the outlandish decision to… take a walk wearing clothes. I say outlandish because the media made it appear as if she was doing something illegal. She has been famed for wearing baggy attire to avoid being sexualized, and the one day she doesn’t wear baggy clothes there are thousands of articles and tweets objectifying her. One Google search led me to an article only focusing on Eilish’s clothing trends.
It astounded me that the media would erupt in flames simply because Eilish changed her clothing; alas, women are sexualized in everything they do. While digging around, I searched “celebrity wears tighter clothes now” to see what would come up. To my disbelief, there were 101,000,000 results. Thousands of articles dedicated to simply showing how celebrities, specifically women, wore tight clothes, did this, did that, blah, blah, blah. One article even had detailed descriptions of women who wore clothes that didn’t fit them.
The article states, “You see, it’s just a messy catfight of a world that these hot celebs live in. We may not agree with the reasons why they don’t fit in their clothes. In fact, we don’t even condone the reasons. However, this is just how it is now, and boy do we love to look. Here’s 15 celebs who don’t fit in their clothes.”
As I’ve said before, it is exhausting being a woman. According to Laura Mulvey, feminist film theorist, these issues are due to an ideology called the “male gaze.” In this gaze, women are objectified by men and only used for their desire. Through the male gaze, a woman’s thoughts, feelings and sexual drives are not valued as women exist only for male pleasure.
This male gaze was theorized by Mulvey to describe women and their depiction in films, but it continues to apply to women’s daily lives. I even asked a couple of my female friends questions regarding if they have ever felt oversexualized by men.
Their answer was “yes,” and their answers came in different ways. One friend told me that she feels she can’t wear what she wants because she fears men will berate and harass her. Another friend told me a story about how she was wearing a tennis skirt, and she couldn’t count on her fingers how many men looked at her and slowed down their cars. I, myself, have been catcalled, flirted with (uncomfortably), had to lie to get a man to leave me alone and then some. These experiences are universal for most women, and it doesn’t have to be this way.
From a young age, women are taught to be fearful of men. My own father warned me of the things that could happen to me, so he, himself, knows what other men are capable of. Throughout my education, and many young women I know, it’s always “Young women, don’t do this if you don’t want this to happen.” As women, we are given the burden of staying alive and having to deal with men’s gross mannerisms of catcalling, harassment and more. While NC State gives resources to help victims of such actions, and requires each student to learn about interpersonal violence prevention, we must start teaching others how to hold people accountable for their actions.
The media must stop writing objectifying articles that perpetuate this male gaze. Women should be able to exist without having to fear the simple act of walking down the street with a tank top and pants on. It starts with men: Stop catcalling and only viewing women as objects of your own desire. If the patriarchy permeates our media, our industries and culture, then take the responsibility of finally raising the bar instead of leaving the hard work to women. And how can I be clearer than this: If she isn’t interested, she isn’t interested.
As long as we continue giving these misogynistic outlets and attitudes undeserved attention, we are doing an extreme disservice to women in our communities. The conversation must end with us as consumers, period.
