This news article which appeared in the Courier Mail, September 30 about a racing club using young women dressed in bikinis in a novelty race to boost their failing attendances has changed its modus operandi on more than one occasion this week since producing much public comment.
This article reinforces the process of objectification by using the body image as a commodity to sell product in this case attendance. Objectification occurs when women are evaluated by their appearance, through the male gaze, and by the constant and repeated idealised images of women in visual media. Objectifying is a societal western phenomena and it leads women to view their bodies as objects with often negative consequences such as body dissatisfaction, depression and eating disorders (Peterson, Grippo & Tantleff- Dunn, 2008; Gurung & Chrouser, 2007; Harper & Tiggemann, 2007).
This has significant ramifications for a society of young people who are constantly looking at images in magazines, online communities and music videos which are genres that all use highly sexualised and objectified images of the female form.
The fact that the women portrayed in the article are athletes made to run in bikinis objectifies them more because wearing a bikini in a place not normally deemed appropriate alters the viewers perception so the focus is on the body, not the aspect of running or athletics (Gurung & Chrouser, 2007)
Education that encourages critical thinking about media literacy and visual media representations that depict through their frequency a normalizing effect about what constitutes healthy and attainable body image are long overdue and very necessary.
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