Sexual Objectification

Relatedly, researchers also know that women are not conforming only to please other individual’s influences but they are also persuaded by other pressures from within society and the media. These pressures are often dehumanizing, sexualizing, and harmful to a women’s body and mind. Women are often encouraged by societal messages that say in order for them to be ‘perfect’, they must also be beautiful, sexual, and stereotypically thin. The sexualization of women in our society plays yet another enormous role in women’s body image dissatisfaction. This idea relates to sexual objectification – when an individual is seen as an object merely for sexual pleasure and as an object for use (Miller, 2). When women are constantly told to sexualize their

The male gaze and sexual objectification are present in the 21st century whether individuals are aware of it or not. They can be seen in advertising, movies, television, and even walking down the streets of your hometown. A mixture of both sexual objectification and the male gaze within a women’s life can be extremely harmful to the way she views her own body, in other words, her body image. Author Gina Miller states that a woman with repeated exposure to sexual objectification and the male gaze will often feel that her “body parts are what defines her as a person rather than her personality” (4). Many researchers then argue that this ultimately leads to a woman obsessing over and scrutinizing her own body image. This can eventually lead to the various harmful consequences of a negative body image, which will be explored further in this

Both the dance director Thomas and co-dancer Lily encourage Nina to sexualize herself to better fit the part of the Black Swan. With Nina’s obsession of becoming this ‘perfect’ dancer, she eventually begins sexualizing herself to reach this ideal. Eventually, even Nina begins to see herself as a mere sexual object rather than a human being. She experiences several often creepy, imaginary fantasies in which she is treated in a manner that makes her a sexual object. These fantasies often create a creepy atmosphere described by the New Weird, which makes its audience uncomfortable but keeps them attentive. Here she begins to believe that in order to please others like Thomas, she must sexualize herself to gain his recognition. Clear signs of the male gaze are also present throughout Black Swan. Throughout the film, we are repeatedly faced with the male gaze from Thomas, as well as, the outside gaze as Nina walks the streets and rides the subways of New York City. For instance, “we observe Nina’s dancing from Thomas’s gaze, where the camera is often shot from his point of view…We hear his criticisms and we witness him groping Nina’s body – what Thomas calls ‘seducing’ but is more akin to sexual assault” (Tsai). Ultimately, Thomas’s encouragement to sexualize Nina is ultimately a way of pleasing him and maybe even the audience with Nina’s looks and body rather than her