An “image-based culture” is used to describe a society in which imagery has taken the place of spoken and / or written word as the major form of communication. With the proliferation of television, magazines, and online visual media, the world is exponentially becoming more image-based.

There is one major through line of our image-based culture: the sexualized and youthful female body. In billboards, magazines, movies, video games, and so on, women are depicted regularly as sexual objects. This is done by emphasizing their bodies, depicting them in sexually explicit visuals, framing them as sexually submissive to men, adorning them in revealing clothing (if anything at all), all as a means of catching the eye. When people grow desensitized to the imagery at hand, it cyclically forces producers to use increasingly shocking, or pornographic, visuals in their advertising. With each successive campaign, “edgier” imagery is used so as to stand out.

Though the sexualized female body is often used in the interest of selling a product, the imagery has become normalized to the degree that mainstream media now regularly depicts scenes as explicitly as softcore pornography did two decades ago. It is reasonable to assert that it is literally impossible for many people to go grocery shopping without exposing themselves to this imagery in some form.

The cumulative effect of sexualizing women on this massive a scale is propagandist: by regularly telling a story that depicts women as primed-for-sex, straight, and submissive, the collective understanding of that message is that women – including lesbians – desire submitting to men for sex. This ideology has cascaded outwardly into men and women alike, many of whom have internalized the notion that women exist for male pleasure. Not one image alone causes a pathology of men-as-dominant and women-as-sexually-submissive, but that is exactly how propaganda works: not by a single voice but by a collective one all saying the same thing. When 94% of the violence in pornography is perpetrated against women, the logical outcome is that the men masturbating to these scenes (and thus reinforcing associations between violence and orgasm via the limbic system) will very likely be thinking about violence the next time they are intimate.

Sexual imagery, presumably meant for adults, affects children as well: there is evidence that exposure increases bodily dissatisfaction, the risk of eating disorders, self-objectification, disruption of psychological development, increased likelihood of sexual abuse, and slowing cognitive development. There are documented cases of boys younger than ten forcing girls to perform oral sex on them, increasing rates by which teenagers are raping girls in groups, and the massive success of the “teen” porn sub-genre. Needless to say, the consequences of appealing to the sexual interest of adults in public spaces extends to everyone, including those who literally do not have the capacity to emotionally process sex.

As humans, we rely on storytelling to relate our experiences of living and collectively shape our understanding of the world. We are capable of reflection, of creativity, of remorse, of compassion, and so much more. That the landscape men have created, globally, does not in any way reflect one of our potential as humans is devastating. This is why it is imperative to stop looking at the sexualized images that litter our world. This is why it is imperative to start creating new ones.

sources