Sexual Liberation vs. Self Objectification

Despite an insistence from mainstream media that young adult women and teenage girl feminists do not exist, they do and I am lucky to take part in discussions among them. Something i have noticed here on Feministing, is the stance against slut shaming and the double standard of slut and stud, I haven’t had a chance to read Jessica Valenti’s book about this and other double standards, but I’m hoping to purchase it soon. This site which I love, always stands up for a woman’s sexual freedom. However not all feminists are of this way of thinking, with some being sex negative. Then there are self identifying feminists fighting against self objectification in women.This is not to say the fight against it is against liberation, even if it seems my title means to imply that, in fact i think these two causes can clearly work together and benefit each other. My title means to refer to my belief that some individual feminists struggle with a fine line and i have seen it for myself.

It’s clear to me that self objectification in women exists. In a culture that sends the message that women are sex objects, obviously that message can be internalized; psychologists have said it contributes to issues such as eating disorders, low self esteem, and depression. I haven’t read Female Chauvinist Pigs by Ariel Levy, except for the few pages given by Amazon.com as a sneak peek. I read partially of her experience with a Girls Gone Wild crew. I have to say, Girls Gone Wild really bothers me, why call adult women girls? And of course that recent lawsuit, apologies because I can’t link to an article about it, my computer is having trouble. yet, a lot of women who participate in Girls Gone Wild say it’s about feminism and liberation. Could it be for some women who maybe haven’t thought about its title or heard about that lawsuit? I would say for them individually, it may not feel objectifying for them. But at the same time there must be women who do this in an objectifying way of thinking, serving others’ sexuality and not their own. There are too many women suffering from self objectification while not being consciously aware of the message they are internalizing.

Yet I feel some feminists are too quick on labeling sexual behavior in women as self objectification, and it’s clashing against sexual freedom in my opinion. A statement i have heard from several self identifying feminists is: “women who think it’s feminism to act just like a guy sexually having casual one night stands every night make me sick. they objectify themselves and it’s disgusting.” Part of this statement confuses me, what does it mean to act just like a guy sexually? Are they saying all men have casual one night stands all the time, or that they have the freedom to do that with less of a taboo than women? Surely they realize not all men act the same sexually or otherwise, I hope so anyway. And how exactly is this self objectification? They are acting “like a guy” and isn’t that something feminism says is okay, to act outside of gender roles? Self objectification is viewing yourself as an object in this case of sexual pleasure and acting in that way accordingly. Having sex for your own pleasure, because you want to, isn’t the same as having sex or acting in some sexual way solely to please others because you feel that you should. There’s just no way every single woman having casual sex is objectifying herself. Is it because certain feminists may have internalized this slut -stud standard and haven’t realized it? If a woman can’t act like a guy sexually in an individual’s opinion, that sounds like sexism to me, even if they are feminists.

I don’t believe this has to be a fine line for feminists. Self objectification can be fixed through sexual liberation. With sexual freedom, you have the agency of your body and sexuality; you make your decisions because your sexuality belongs to you and no one else, which means you don’t have to take off your clothes for someone else while you don’t want to, and you can have sex when you want to, without having to feel like you’re a slut and your partner ( if he is male) is a stud.