Wherever you look, something is always going to stand out to you for some reason. For example, at every cash register in a grocery store there is a display of magazines set up for you to take a look at as you wait in line to check out. The covers of these magazines are what catch your eye in the first place. It is its job to persuade you to purchase them, and they do this by advertising an attractive model or celebrity right on the center of the cover along with an article title along the sides in big, bolded, and colorful letters. The titles of these articles, especially if it is a gossip magazine, typically revolve around them claiming they can make you sexier, or can improve your look in only a few simple ways. The magazine covers and articles are not where this type of imagery stops though; what about the advertisements on every other page? The advertisements for makeup, food, a new Apple product, a new cologne, and so forth? Think about what they use to make their product appealing to you. Most of the time, they use everything they have to make the models for their product as appealing as possible. With what is suggested from these ads, it seems that the only thing that could persuade a person to by something is sex. Sex is not typically shown directly in a magazine ad, but the implications are not exactly subtle either. Body language plays the biggest role, but the wardrobe, makeup, settings, props, and so much more imply that it is sexy to have a certain material or that it makes you sexy. We want to believe that the only people who pay attention to these types of images are adults, but that is not the case. Both young girls and young boys are constantly exposed to these sexual influences and portrayals whether it is on a magazine cover, on social media, or if it is from the influence of peers at school who claim that something is cool, and sometimes even by their parents (Kunkel).

The issue with wanting a product to be attractive is that it is resulting in huge negative effects on the consumers whether it is by encouragement that could put them in a bad situation, since none of the images we observe show anything about the risks or responsibilities that come along with it; horrible health effects both psychologically and physically, and an extreme decrease in social activities for any person at any age. Multiple studies have been conducted to show proof of the different destructive health and social effects of constant exposure to sexualized images and portrayals, and what many of these studies come to realize is that everyone can be effected by this issue, not just the targeted audience or consumer. Women are the most effected gender due to growing up being treated as if they are sexual objects (Bailey). A study conducted by K. Alysse Bailey observed the correlation between sexual-objectification and self-objectification in physically active young girls and women. Even though these women were physically fit, Bailey hypothesized that due to all of the sexualizing images that the young girls and women are exposed to, it causes them to objectify themselves by fixing something about their appearance. This was tested by a few of the participants to be offered food, were exposed to a mirror, or neither after being shown multiple images sexualizing women. Observations of the participants were that a high percent of them avoided the food offered, they fixed their appearance in some kind of way such as fixing their hair or how their tops were situated, or they emphasized the use of self-care which means to depict specific aspects of the image seen. Based on the results, it was concluded that the sexual images only caused the women to reevaluate how they looked because they believe that the way that the models in the images appeared is the same way that they are expected to appear.

Even a person that you would believe to be more confident and to have a higher self-esteem can be negatively affected from this excessive, constant exposure. It has been proven by different Body Image Assessments and appearance questionnaires that self-objectification is in correlation with causing depression, lowered well-being and self-esteem, restrained eating as well as serious eating disorders, and physical performance in events such as sports (Bailey). Women lower their social interaction when with men because they attempt to associate their behaviors with what they believe is expected of them as "sexual objects" due to the situation of being constantly objectified (Saguy). Although the main victim of sexual-objectification is women, men can fall victim to it as well. A study that was led by Tamar Saguy showed that during a social interaction with a woman, the men tend to draw attention away from their faces. They do this by avoiding moments such as eye contact because of the attention it could bring upon themselves. 

Sexualized images are not something that has just magically come to light in the past decade or so, it is an issue that has been around as early as the 1940s. The covers of Rolling Stone were analyzed in a study to show just how much sexualizing someone has grown over the past several decades, as well as to show how the images do not only effect the same gender that the model of the cover is. Rolling Stone is a very popular, well-established magazine that covers a very wide range of topics, and is not explicitly a magazine about sex (Nauert). After analyzing over a thousand different Rolling Stone covers dating back to the 1960s, it was concluded that women are depicted as ready for sex rather than being sexy, and this proves that the media does narrow the representations of women. There was also a 55% increase in sexualized images of men and a 89% increase in the sexualized images of women (Nauert), meaning the issue has intensified into almost double the size it was fifty years ago. In the past three decades, the number of sexualized images has tripled (De Melker).

Many could argue that this is not as big of an issue as my research has is suggesting that it is. Even though there are many sexualized images that a person could be exposed to, there is still a large number of good role models out there, and there is. The media does report about role models that are positive, powerful, and can have a good influence on the ones that look up to them (Hesham). It is true that all of the negative psychological and physical effects are not guaranteed, nor are they universal because different cultures have different views on sexuality, and it could be claimed that rather than portraying female sexuality, the media is portraying feminism (Hesham). Although all of these opposing stances can be true, they are mostly just a matter of opinion. It was challenging to find any physical or statistical proof to support any of these opposing arguments. This difficulty can show that the stance of wanting to stop the issue of sexualizing people in the mass media as much as it is possible is the most popular stance, and that it is easier to get proof of why it is such a horrible issue in most cases.

Going back to the problem of younger girls and boys being exposed to these images, they are exposed to them in some of the least expected ways. About 83% to 89% of popular television shows strongly imply sexual content in almost every episode (Kunkel). The period of adolescence is the most major throughout someone's lifetime, and there are so many factors that affect the way that the major changes during this period are handled (Massey-Stokes). Even the revealing wardrobes of the famous celebrities that a large amount of today's youth looks up to as a role model have an impact that someone would not usually expect. There was even an interview with young girls ages eleven to fourteen to get their opinions on multiple types of images, including photos, music videos, television clips, and advertisements that were all either negative or positive. The group of girls all agreed that the main target of each image were not being represented in a positive way, and separate interviews revealed how they felt personally about everything that they saw and past experience. A few of the girls talked about getting certain looks by simply walking down the street and how uncomfortable it makes them. The girls believe that designers need to be more aware of what they create for younger teens because a lot of it is becoming inappropriate and gets many different negative judgments (Zurbriggin). During the major changes that occur as an adolescent, being exposed to all of these portrayals can cause many major health issues. The majority of young teenage girls are not satisfied with the way that their bodies look, and more than one third of these reported girls have been shown to take advantage over pills that can control or lower their weights, form an eating disorder, or they participate in excessive exercise. The number of eating disorder cases reported of young adolescent boys has increased from one in twenty to one in twelve. The issue with eating disorders at a younger age is that the effects from them are long-lasting. The younger that a person who forms an eating disorder is, the more it will affect them mentally and physically when they become older (Massey-Stokes). Eating disorders are not the only results that this sexualizing exposure has on a teenager. If an actual disorder is not formed, lowered self-esteem is still more than likely. A lowered self-esteem can hold a person back from doing something that will draw attention to themselves.  31% of students have restrained from raising their hands in class and participating in social events or sports, and a student's self-confidence can reflect on what their grades and grade point averages are. It has also been reported that 17% of people will skip out on job interviews because they do not have the confidence they once had before observing how they look in the mirror after getting ready (Ramsey).

Both men and women can feel as if they have to live up to certain expectations based on what they witness online on a daily basis. All of the hashtags such as #thinspiration or #thighgap start as something innocent, but lead to bigger problems. Social media has created the logic that your popularity is based off of how many friends you have online and how many "likes" or "retweets" a person can get for a post. There are videos online that are of young children, as young as middle school aged, asking the people of the internet if they are pretty or attractive because there are other children at school that bully them for not looking or dressing a certain way (Ramsey). The responding comments are not pleasing, and it is personally saddening to see someone so young so depressed because they are told almost every day that they are not pretty or attractive by a few petty children. There are so many risks that can be caused by all of the pressures that a child faces almost every day of their lives such as self-harming, drinking, doing drugs, or getting some kind of cosmetic surgery in their future if they get picked on for a specific part of their body (Ramsey).

In order for sexualizing images to be stopped entirely, if not then dramatically reduced, from being published then everyone has to come together. This is not an issue that can be fixed by a select amount of people. In Ramsey's TED talk, she states that in order for this to be fixed, "we have to universally come together and help create a word where everyone can grow up free from the voice that controls us and is holding us back from our success because of our looks." Ramsey suggests that we being by teaching in the schools about relationships, bullying, positive appearance, respect, body image pressures, and how to differentiate media culture from what is actually appropriate for the age group. Everyone has to start being better role models for the younger people in their lives. Back in 2011, a French Vogue issue that contained images of ten year olds looking seductively at the camera and was dressed in exotic furs and jewelry, and had their faces caked with makeup; caused criticism to come flooding in. The outrage from all over the world brought on so much attention that the French Senate held an investigation to research if there was a true problem with sexualizing and the affects it had on children, and in the end it was determined that there was in fact an issue (De Melker).

The Body Positive Movement has been very influential in helping bring this all to an end. Their movement was created in order to help bring attention to the unhealthy outcomes that mass media constantly exposes us to on a daily basis. Their overall goal is to end the negative mindset that surrounds us and so that we can feel content with ourselves in order to accomplish everything that is our purpose and our own personal lifetime goals; and to defy the body stereotypes projected by mass media. The movement believes that a positive mindset about ourselves plays the biggest role in how was cope and handle different situations on a daily basis. This new positive mindset has recently started being accomplished, and the reactions are completely supportive. There has been a new series of Barbie dolls in favor of all body types for both the female and male characters that were released at the beginning of 2016, and that alone gained a large amount of respect and positivity from all over the world. In the end, this is not simply an issue that effects adult women specifically, it effects everyone, men included. No one ever feels comfortable being compared to the unrealistic "perfect" body shape of an airbrushed model, or constantly being judged over something about themselves that is uncontrollable such as the shape of their nose or how long their arms are. If you do not feel comfortable with being put in that sort of position then you should do everything in your power to contain it so it does not end up happening to someone else. If everyone could do this then the world would not only be a much happier place to be, but it could promote success and participation in schools and jobs, bring the number of multiple eating disorders down dramatically, help people cope with depression, and provide a healthier environment for the next generation to grow up in. Is that not what we are all striving for? A better place for our future families to live in? 

