Sexualization

Living in Sabah, a country blessed with friendly people despite their races and differences, one could have gone to old age without acknowledging the existence of this kind of problem.

My friends and I, young women or girls, we love watching sexy women on cinema screen. We love when a women look good while kicking ass, wear pretty dresses and makeup and all. We just love being pretty ourselves. Of course I grew out of this mindset as soon as I know what all those sexiness on Hollywood meant. Sexualization is such a demeaning and shallow thing.

I know sexualization is not really a big problem in my society or in general, our media ('cause our media is more towards misogyny and misunderstanding) but still... I know more and more of our local movie had depicted women in sexual way, but women who are sexually portrayed in our media is more on subconsciously promoting misogynism rather than getting a boost in sale. So, I'm gonna leave it to the next post and just focus this one on my past ignorance towards all the sexualization Hollywood movies offer. Why do I bother with Hollywood at all? Well, probably because they sell a lot of movies to unsuspecting local audience in my country who in majority, really have little to no clue at all.  

Although she still doesn't look
like someone you wanna mess with

Alright, to start things off, my very first impression of my gender is that we, as women, are always helpless little princesses who need constant rescuing from some random prince on white horses (I intended this cliche statement). This was what I got from Disney. Then little by little, I realize men are not the only one who can kick ass on TV; there's Princess Fantaghiro from Cave of the Golden Roses who constantly saves the prince in distress, and Xena the Warrior Princess who beat up 20 men without breaking a sweat. Of course there are Sailormoon, Wedding Peach and other anime girls, but yeah, they did not really leave a lasting memory such as Fantaghiro and Xena (probably because girly stuffs don't resonate well with my personality). Sadly though, when I watched these two show again after for so many years, I realized that although Fantaghiro merely strengthen the idea that beauty is really an important asset, Xena (appearing ugly in a lot of episodes) appeared to have been sexualized more than once despite the I'm-tough-you-can't-touch-me attitude. And if you pit Fantaghiro and Xena you'll know which princess will win the battle. I tried to make amend with it by thinking Xena's sexualization is central to the story, but I just can't get around to it. Sexualization is still sexualization.

Motoko Kusanagi

I really don't like that sexualization is meant for women to be looked as a sex object rather than as a person. Being a girl who get tired at watching men have all the butt-kicking fun, I always find it enjoyable to see women kick around some ass on movies. But most of the time they will do it in skimpy outfits. Dead or Alive live action movie has plenty of cleavage and butt close-up, Elektra and Catwoman movies both have the superheroine wears tight clothing, almost all women heroes need to look sexy while being badass. What's wrong with a little clothing on? Even Motoko Kusanagi of the famed Ghost in the Shell appeared in corset and thong for the earliest season, and she's supposed to be a soldier (I love her costume on the second season, thank God they changed it). All her male peers wear clothes, why did she, who is also their leader, run around saving the city in said costume? Why do all the supposedly grown up, strong women wears very little clothing?

They looked pretty and cool like that!

I admit that's how my mind worked a long time ago. But I realized a women can be badass without being that kind of pretty and cool.

Temperance Brennan from Bones

Rubi Malone from WET

That being said, I think sexualization is wrong through and through. Nevertheless, I'm not going to dislike women in media that portrays feminine traits despite my lack of femininity. On the contrary, I love any personality female characters display on any shows. If they give me any reasons to hate their character it is always because of their attitudes. For instance, I don't like self-pitying characters be it the supposed weak characters or the strong ones. I don't hate Bayonetta for being overtly feminine (her exaggerated display of femininity is what exactly attracted me to her), but I hate that at some point she was made to act in a way that gives the idea of her being a sex object. I don't hate big boobs anime girls too, only the way they animate these anime so the boobs will "bounce" at any given chance.

So, Xena on the above pictures wear some cool Japanese warrior armor, and despite the little clothing she has, the way she posed does not condone herself as being a sex object. And if you're a fan of the show, you'll see that she's a full-blooded character, a person with personality. And I think characters like Xena are more likeable than the ones like Rubi Malone. Playing WET, I felt that Rubi is too much of a killing machine rather than a person. And that makes it hard to connect with her even if she's hardcore and all but I digress. The thing is, sexualization made people care less about the character since all that matter is the character's body. It is almost dehumanizing as well.