So, this week I wanted to take a little different approach to my Wildcard Wednesday. It's on what one can title a "social issue" but I'm not here to necessarily get all political and such. Let's get right to it - it's on objectification versus empowerment. Now, these issues can be relevant to both male and females, but let's be real - the issue is more common and problematic among women. I'm far from a feminist or anything like that, however, I am a huge activist of equal rights among every human being. I understand that the line that separates the two is very subjective from person to person, however, in my eyes, there's a pretty clear distinction.

Objectification, or the act of objectifying an individual is the act of treating an individual as simply an object, and nothing more than that.

Empowerment can be defined as giving authority or power to something or someone.

Now, where I think the line crosses is how the individual feels about what they're doing. If the individual feels that they are gaining some form of authority, power, or strength from it they are empowering themselves with the act. If they are doing something and allowing an authoritative figure to gain control over the individual and virtually using them, they are being objectified. This type of stuff pops up in my head because I am entering (in some form), if not in it already, the fashion industry. Essentially, models are viewed as mannequins, simply displaying the clothing. However, I don't necessarily think the models are being minimized to mere objects if the model themselves gain some type of pleasure doing it - that is, either having a love and desire for fashion, getting paid, or simply just loving modeling.


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In all honesty, sex sells. There's no way you can stray away from that fact, but what I admire is that instead of placing some stigma on showing sexuality in order to boost sales, some people can take that ability and take advantage of it by using it as an opportunity to empower themselves. Maybe this is my young, liberal mind speaking, but we live in a generation where we've become desensitized from sexual expression in modern entertainment.

I want to bring up a few artists that come to my mind when I write about this. There's a huge list of artists, actors, etc., that do stuff to help this issue, so I don't want to diminish their efforts, however these people come to mind. 
First, and foremost it's Beyonce, of course. Beyonce is one of the biggest supporters in the public eye for the feminist movement. Her latest album has sexually explicit lyrics, however, for a lack of better words.. she's owning it. She's not lowering herself to becoming just a little woman who gets sexually overpowered by another person, she instead uses her beauty and sexuality and strengthens herself and almost uses it as a power.


I, of course, have to mention Lady Gaga. She's not necessarily as open about this as Beyonce is, however, she does certainly has showcased her feelings towards this issue. At the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards she infamously wore a dress made entirely of meat. This made a statement that she's not "just a piece of meat", and she showed up literally as "meat" so people can see how ridiculous society may view women, or in her case, herself. Time and time again, she's mentioned that she doesn't care to show up in the public eye as just "a pretty girl" because she's so much more than that. She then takes the initiative to almost purposely dress "unattractively" to make a statement about how she does NOT want to be objectified as just a pretty famous girl.
Now, before I mention what I'm about to mention next, please read the entirety of the paragraph. I can see readers being turned off to what I'm about to mention and myself losing credibility, however I feel it's relevant. More recently, Nicki Minaj released a song titled Anaconda which has a music video which pretty much showcases her large butt everywhere... and also I saw a trailer for a music video by Jennifer Lopez and Iggy Azalea literally entitled Booty. Now, most people may say this is just making women look bad, they're objectifying themselves down to just simply "a hot piece of ***", or whatever. I really think they're just owning what they have, and if anything, they're getting the whole "ideal stick figure woman" out of the public eye. I can agree that they're definitely being sexual, but they're being sexual in a way that strengthens them as opposed to diminishing their worth. Most people don't have a problem with males talking about how they're amazing in bed (Robin Thicke..) etc. This doesn't mean I believe everyone should walk around exposing themselves, but instead, being comfortable enough in their own skin that they can instead of diminish their worth, empower themselves.
This post was kind of just a lot of stuff that was going on in my head thrown all into one text post. I don't know if anyone agrees with me, but this is certainly my mindset towards this issue. Feel free to let me know your opinion about this issue - I'm curious!