Facing Sexual Objectification
I am a middle-class raised-Muslim African-born-in-England-in-1970 female. When I was growing up, it was easy to accidentally see images of sexually objectified females on the third page of a popular newspaper. These images held up teenage white females as highly desirable and at the same time totally disrespected them. As a black female, I felt excluded from being desirable while at the same time relieved not to be part of something so disrespectful to females.
In the 1980s a few working-class teenage females became celebrities as topless models. The message was that it was a way for young working-class females to succeed in a society in which male domination and classism limited their opportunities. It also communicated that whatever role women took in society, their attractiveness to men was highly important to their success.
As a female raised with middle-class privileges, I have not been forced into taking part* in the pornography industry. Also, society encourages me to act on my feelings of powerlessness and not stand up against the industry, to see myself as one of the “good ones” who has stayed out of it and is unaffected by it. I look forward to working on pornography in a middle-class women’s group and addressing passivity about changing society when we seem to benefit from it and feel comfortable.
Alima Adams
Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England
Reprinted from the RC e-mail
discussion list for leaders of women
* "Taking part" means participating.