August 26, 2014

Stop.

Last night at the Emmys Sofia Vergara was literally put on a pedestal. And while I think the intention of the bit was well-meaning, it certainly didn't go far enough to address the pervasive objectification of women in media.
Internalizing our own objectification is something we are taught at a very young age. Calling it out is important to ending the objectification of all women. Even if it was done as a joke, it should not be ignored. The more others (men and women) are aware of the insidious nature of the way that women are treated as objects (ubiquitous throughout pop culture) the less it will happen.
However, the tongue-in-cheek intentions at the beginning of a speech about diversity in television should not have ended with the man announcing that despite the gains of women (and presumably minorities, although no mention was made outside of the palliative "diversity") their number one goal remains "something compelling to watch."

ha.ha. Get it? We completely objectified this lovely woman to make a point about how important women are and they shouldn't be objectified except if it makes you watch TV. Then it's okay. No really.

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