“I think every woman does want to be objectified. There’s a little part of you at all times that hopes to be somewhat objectified, and I think it’s healthy … [Photo shoots are] empowering. I’m not some young girl with the photographer going, ‘Will you take your clothes off?’ I’m like [mimes stripping], ‘How does this look?’ They’re like, ‘Today we’re not going to put anything other than bras and heels on you,’ and I’m like, ‘These heels are not high enough.’ I’m a woman, I know how to handle myself. I know what I feel comfortable doing and I know my sexuality.”
– Here’s Cameron Diaz in the UK’s Sunday Times making some … interesting … statements. I don’t disagree that some women do want to be objectified, some of the time, in certain settings. I’m okay being objectified by my lover in the bedroom, for example, when everyone knows what’s what. But I certainly don’t want to be objectified by catcallers on the street, or rapists, or sexist bosses, or other people in the position to harm me. And there’s probably a lot of women who don’t have “ideal” bodies — they’re obese, they’re disabled, whatever — who would just prefer to be treated respectfully by everyone for the first time instead of being “objectified.”
Maybe Diaz has been cosseted in the bubble of Hollywood for so long that she’s unaware that for the “regular” woman, sexuality is more than something a woman wields in a photoshoot and it’s not always empowering our lives for the better. It’s a little ignorant for Diaz to speak on behalf on all women … although I’m certainly happy for her that she feels this way. [Sunday Times UK via Dlisted]
