Men appear Women appear

In a passage from Ways of Seeing by John Berger, he states that "men act and women appear". Although women are over-sexualized in media, the same can be said for men. Therefore a more accurate critique of modern american culture would be "men and women both appear".

While women are more noticeably reduced to sex objects in pop culture, but both sides are portrayed that way. Women in film are shown to always have attractive body, and a sexual nature to them, whether in films like James Bond or Transformers. Many argue that because of this women are being demeaned and not properly represented, but this is true for men also. Actors like Channing Tatum and Ryan Reynolds have built their careers around their looks before their acting chops could catch up with their stardom. Admittedly women are more blatantly shown in this light, due to the male target audience, but with a closer look both genders are shown in similar over-sexualized ways. The main reason it is less obvious for men is that the male characters are given more depth behind their characters, which is the real problem with gender in film.

The over-sexualized nature of both genders is also revealed in music. Both women and men artist surround themselves with attractive people, to appeal to their audiences. In many modern rap videos there are women and men both in revealing clothes and suggestively dancing. Like in Rhianna's Work and LMFAO's Party Rock Anthem.Sadly, similarly to film there is a much larger male target audience leaving women more susceptible to the stereotyping.

Women are trapped in a state where they are seen mostly as sex objects in media, but it isn't because of over-sexualization. It is because women aren't given a chance to develop themselves beyond their appearances. Therefore the over-sexualization isn't the problem. The problem is media's reliance on sex as the way to define women. That is where the real change needs to come from.