One blog I follow is Sociological Images, which is written by several sociologists. I’ve just tripped upon this series, which aims to help us females navigate this society that sexually objectifies us so much. It’s well worth a read:

Sexual Objectification Series:

1. What Is It?
2. The Harm
3. Daily Rituals To Stop
   1. Stop seeking male attention.
   2. Stop consuming damaging media.
   3. Stop playing the tapes.
   4. Stop competing with other women.
4. Daily Rituals To Start
   1. Start enjoying your body as a physical instrument.
   2. Do at least one “embarrassing” action a day.
   3. Focus on personal development that isn’t related to beauty culture.
   4. Actively forgive yourself.

I can certainly vouch for how much better I feel since stopping consuming harmful media (3b) some years back; I doubt I’m the only one who can benefit from that! I think I’m blessed to not have ever suffered from the tapes (3c), at least not as all-pervasive as that author makes it sound. Yikes, I wonder how victims of that get anything done ever! Same with the next point (competing with other women for men’s attention).

If you read nothing else of the above links, I urge you – men and women both – to read part four. It’s one small subset of “how to be yourself” – which is always worth doing!