A confused idea of "empowering."

I had the sad experience of coming across a quote from a gal whom I usually find adorable. Cameron Diaz was interviewed this past November, and discussed being "objectified," and stated, "I think every woman does want to be objectified".

Read more: http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/cameron-diaz-women-want-to-be-objectified-20122011#ixzz2HKWcCVqM
Follow us: @usweekly on Twitter | usweekly on Facebook

Look at that. It cites it for me. What a delightful tool-- the auto-link, not Cameron Diaz, for clarification.

I was disappointed already. Then my heart broke when I read the following:

The Bad Teacher star doesn't even mind stripping down to her underwear for photo shoots, as she did for a recent Terry Richardson spread in the November issue of Esquire UK.
"It's empowering," she explained. "I'm not some young girl with the photographer going, 'Will you take your clothes off?' I'm like [mimes stripping], 'How does this look?'"


Read more: http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/cameron-diaz-women-want-to-be-objectified-20122011#ixzz2HKWvao2l
Follow us: @usweekly on Twitter | usweekly on Facebook

It's the age old argument. It's interesting, though, because while prostitution is allegedly the oldest profession, female empowerment is a rather novel idea. So what is this notion that the two are related?

Yes. I'm equating to parading in a magazine in your skivvies to prostitution. You can choose to snort and close your browser now, if you like, but there are many individuals who feel the same.

Know why?

Because objectification, this idea that Ms. Diaz says is something "all women want," is defined as becoming an object. No longer am I a person when I am objectified-- I am a thing. A thing does not have rights. It does not have feelings. A prostitute is not viewed as a person-- merely a tool for sexual gratification. And normalized pornography is the same. So while she argues in the beginning that becoming objectified is "healthy," she then argues that doing so is "empowering."

I'm arguing that she is "confused."

Empowerment is also an idea that lends itself to a greater purpose. When it comes to female objectification, the individual volunteering (or sometimes not volunteering, as the sex slave trade that is alive and well in the United States would have us know) to remove their clothing for the sake of "empowerment" fails to consider the effect it has on the rest of her gender group.

Consider the spouse of a ponography addict (by the way, I hate porn.). Do you think she feels empowered when she finds her husband glancing over your image? Do you think women anywhere feel empowered when they see you in all of your phonishopped glory, riddling themselves with feelings of inadequacy and an unquenchable desire to be "enough"?

I'm so sick of this notion that declaring one's strength requires the downfall and destruction of everyone else. It's all very Hunger Games-y, and we all know how that ended.

So I have a proposal for you, Ms. Diaz. Consider the impact you have on others when declaring "empowerment." Really understand what it means to be "objectified," and explore how normalized pornography contributes to the acceptance of rape myths (among other super "empowering" things).