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Samara Matthews
John Kubler
English 115
28 October 2014
A Step in the Right Direction: Hyper-sexualized society and freedom/exploration
In todays world it is not uncommon for us to see hyper-sexualized images. Whether it be
in our everyday life or in the media. Most people see this and think it is automatically a bad
concept. Parents get mad that their kids are seeing these images and that it is objectifying.
However, what todays world fails to see is that through this some people can feel empowered.
Empowerment and objectification are two very subjective words and while some people find
dressing half naked degrading others find it empowering to show off their body with confidence.
Although to some our hyper-sexualized society seems to be a turn in the wrong direction it is not
wrong for everyone because, being in this hyper-sexualization opens up the floor for people to
have more room for exploration of ones sexual self and new ways to feel empowered.
The movie Crazy, Stupid, Love portrays many scenes in which empowerment is
displayed through ways in which some people may not agree with because they are sexy. The
main couple I would like to focus on is the two people, Jacob and Hannah. In the film Jacob feels
as though he is a very empowered person. In a way, the way he gains power is by objectification
of his body. He makes himself look good through his body and his appearance with clothes in
order to feel good about himself and feel confident. Now when most people see this in the film
they think nothing of it. Now, instead think of Jacob being a woman instead. If he were a girl
trying to look good , showing her body off to get the attention of men, it would have been
frowned upon. However in both cases the goal in both is to obtain empowerment and have self

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confidence. Which is a good thing regardless if it is hyper-sexualized or not. It should not matter
what others think because empowerment and how you obtain it is unique to every person. Next
we focus on Cal who in the beginning of the film has no empowerment what so ever and has
completely no self-esteem. Jacob changes this for him and shows him that through looking good
you can also feel good. Jacob teaches Cal how to achieve empowerment through looking good
and showing their good qualities which in this movie are their looks which displays how our
hyper-sexualized society works when it comes to what we look for in partners. Cal ends up with
great confidence through this form of empowerment Jacob shows him. This is just two of the
many examples that show that through our hyper-sexualized society people can find great
comfort in finding a way to be empowered and being able to explore this sexual way of thinking.
Through my own personal research of people in todays society, I have found that most
people today find that our hyper-sexualized society is empowering. When interviewing couples
they were asked many questions including, how they felt about performers in the media such as
Miley Cyrus and Nicki Minaj and also how they felt about they way girls of today dress, for
example short shorts and short dresses. Nicki and Miley are both very reveling in their
performances and are many times going too far for some people. However, almost all of the
couples I spoke to believed that Miley and Nikki have every right to perform like they do and
that they do not take it too far because if this is what makes them confident then more power to
them(Aguilar 1). The same goes with the short shorts, short dresses, and skirts. They all
believed that the articles of clothing were okay for women to wear as long as it made them happy
and empowered because it shows that they are just confident in their bodies which is what todays
hyper-sexualized society does. Our society is based very much on looks and and us being

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confident with our bodies and while some people are for this others may not be but they should
not bring down the empowerment for others.
In Persepolis a novel written by Marjane Satrapi, Marji, the main character struggles to
find herself in two very different cultures and ends up finding herself more in a more sexualized
and free thinking society. Being in a free society Marji decides to change her look, she cuts all of
her hair and becomes punk. Sounds like someone in our culture today, yup, that is right, Miley
Cyrus. Marji eventually, abandoned [her] punk look. [she] no longer wanted to be
marginal.(Satrapi 199). In both cases, Marji and Miley, they are allowed by their culture to
explore every aspect of themselves and who they could be. Although, Marji ends up disbanding
the punk look it is great that she had the option to find that out, otherwise she would have
continued life wondering if she could have been someone else. This is like many girls today even
girls like me, I went through various stages, I was the tomboy, the awkward girl who did not
talk, and then even the social well liked cheerleader. All girls need this hyper-sexualized society,
not so they can be sexy, just so they can have the option to safely explore themselves and not feel
trapped as Marji does when she returns to her home country. Marjis home country is no where
near hyper-sexualized, it is the exact opposite! She looks distraught and saddened as she again
[puts] on [her] veil . . . And so much for [her] individual and social liberties(245). She once
again returns to this zone of no confidence, feeling trapped and as if she has no freedom. Without
the freedom of a hyper-sexualized society she goes back to the person she has to be rather than
the real person she is trying to find, which is not healthy for anyone. This just furthers the
importance that a hyper-sexualized society may just be a step in the right direction.
In Wendy McElroys A Feminist Overview of Pornography,Ending in a Defense
Thereof she shows all sides to how are sexualized society is seen while supporting that it is a

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womans choice to explore and do whatever she wants with her own body. Her and I both agree
that many may not agree with peoples choices when they are expressed sexually. But is it really
your place to judge. A fair person would think, as a woman I am appalled by Playboy...but as a
[person] I understand the need for free expression(McElroy 1). You can disagree with our
sexualized society all you want but the fact is that we as people are free to feel empowered in
any way we want and as McElroy implies, we do not have to agree with peoples choices
however, it is their choice to make. People in our society believe that if you are in the porn
industry that you must not have self respect, but this is unfair judgment. Society should not be
able to decide a persons traits, that is up to them, whether they feel empowered or confident or
even respected. We should not have the power to shame or dictate what [someone] [does] with
[their] body. Why is something that [someone] find[s] so empowering and liberating something
that would shatter anyones positive views of [someone](Anonymous 1). Empowerment, self
confidence, all these traits are individually different for each person and should not be judged on
how one explores that even if it is through todays sexualized society.
Feelings are subjective to each person and you would not judge someone if a scary movie
did not scare them. Yet, we judge people based on how they gain self esteem and empowerment.
It just does not make sense and is not fair to those that take place in the sexualization of todays
society. As humans we are meant to explore and being in a hyper-sexualized society just gives us
that much more to explore safely. This is a step in the right direction it is not harming anyone, it
only seems to make people judge others in areas they just are not meant to judge.
Work Cited
Aguilar, Matthew. Personal Interview. 13 October 2014.

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Anonymous. "Yes, I Am a Cam Girl and I Have Self-Respect." Thoughts on Liberty. N.p.,
n.d.
Web. 28 Oct. 2014.
Crazy, Stupid, Love. Dir. John Requa and Glem Fecarra. Perf. Ryan Gosling and Emma
Stone. Warner Bros., 2011. Online.
McElroy, Wendy. "A Feminist Overview of Pornography." A Feminist Overview of Pornography.
N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.
Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis. New York, NY: Pantheon, 2003. Print.