A young girl about the age of 8 is glaring on the screen in front of 15 viewers. Her arms and legs reaching out and up. She lying on her back with her panties showing, a more-than-sexual pose that grabs the attention of everyone in the room.
“Her crotch is showing and that is the most important part of a woman’s body,” said Peggy Cantrell, professor of psychology, with a hint of cynicism in her voice.
Cantrell hosted a sequel presentation on “Images of Women in the Media: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Part II” Friday in the Culp Center.
“People get to be who they are in social context,” Cantrell said. “How we look, think, and behave is influenced by community and by the media.”
The lunch and learn was hosted by Phi Kappa Phi. It focused on the compelling objectification of women and children as sexual fantasies and dehumanized objects in the media, according to Cantrell.
“Sexualization of younger girls is on the rise, but it is still not the norm,” Cantrell said. “Forty years ago it didn’t exist. It has been examined that when something is legitimized that use to be taboo, it becomes legitimate.” Ideals such as these lead to sexual and domestic violence against women and children, Cantrell said.
Her lecture focused on trends in media suggesting the perfect idea of beauty and what it looks like. “Beauty ideal must be thin, must be white, must be young, and always glamorous,” Cantrell said.
It is the reoccurring theme in most advertising if the model is not pre or peri-adolescent, she is suppose to appear to be, said Cantrell.
“I chose to focus on the portrayal of older women because I am one,” Cantrell said. “I am 50 years old. The community standard for women over 50 is they still need to be glamorous, young and weigh 110 pounds. This is not my life, but it’s supposed to be.”
While older women are beginning to make their way back into the scene, they are not immune to the sexual objectification and beauty ideas inflicted other women.
“Instead of seeing the whole self internalized, women are seeing the observers’ perspective of one’s physical self,” Cantrell said. “This begins at adolescence. More and more girls see themselves as not measuring up.”
On a final note Cantrell encourage her audience to notice some of the good images the media has presented to the public. One of her examples is the Dove Pro-age commercials that have been taken off the air because they show too much skin.
“They show too much old skin,” Cantrell said. “We need to fix the problem ourselves and educate men. Women need to send letters and e-mails to corporations that depict women as sexual objects, and boycott their products.”
After the lecture there was open discussion among the room. “I have been really impressed with a new show, ‘How to Look Better Naked,'” said Susan Epps, assistant professor in the physical therapy department. “It shows real women. But after listening, I realize that the women are still depicted sexually. These are regular women getting positive feedback from strangers about their body, and I am thinking ‘hey, she looks like me.’ But at the end of the show it shows them being sexualized in their ‘after’ photos.”
The discussion of plus-size models not being plus size at all enters the floor.
“I am always wondering what is a size 0 anyway,” Epps said.
“Does it mean women are disappearing completely?” asked Cantrell rhetorically.
“My freshmen year I came to a Jean (Kilbourne’s) lecture and I was really offended when I learned this information,” Jennifer Snyder, a senior psychology major said.
“I thought, not everyone feels that way. I became interested in it, and now I am doing research on rape myth acceptance and things of that nature. I am always interested in the new things I learn in this field,” said Snyder.

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