When a Body Becomes Currency: The Shocking Truth of Women’s Commodification 

When a Body Becomes Currency: Exposing the Brutal Reality of Women’s Commodification

 

Pradakshina Sarmah

The Commodification of the female body has for long bear a central concern in feminist discourse, particularly within industries that profit from the display and consumption of women’s physical appearance. The fashion industry, in particular, has played a significant role in shaping cultural narratives that reduce women’s worth to their aesthetic appeal, reinforcing patriarchal norms that objectify and exploit the female body. This phenomenon isn’t only a reflection of gender inequality but also a mechanism through which patriarchal structures sustain their dominance.

The objectification and commodification of the female body remain pervasive in the modern fashion industry, reinforcing harmful gender norms and limiting women’s authority. Television advertisements often commodify the female body, reducing women to objects that can be bought and sold, perpetuating unrealistic beauty standards and creating a culture where women feel alienated from their own bodies. Despite increasing feminist activism and advocacy for body positivity, mainstream fashion continues to prioritize aesthetics over substance, often sidelining women who do not conform to conventional beauty ideals. The consequences of this commodification extend beyond individual experience, influencing societal attitudes, women’s roles, self-worth and economic opportunities.

For decades, female bodies have been exposed to various political, economic,andhistorical processes through which bodies are turned into commodity to be utilized for various purposes depending on the demand of time; to produce labour, child slaves for sexual desire, show a nation’s economic growth and modernity at national and global level, symbolize idealized feminine beauty, assimilate colonization values and culture into colonized countries etc.

If we look at distant history and contemporary times, it raises the question if Woman has ever owned her body or Who owns her body most?

Objectification of Women in the Fashion Industry

The objectification of women in the fashion industry is far-reaching. Over the last 25 years, big clothing and cosmetic brands have started targeting young girls and women. The fashion Industry hypersexualizes girls and women’s clothing. Wearing tights, extremely short, or revealing dresses are characterized by boldness. Advertisements show them wearing highly provocative dresses, make-up and often in age-inappropriate hypersexualized postures and body language. Models, supermodels, beauty queens, reinforce the idea that girls and women must have unrealistic beauty and figures. Fashion brands not only target women customers but also price girls’ and women’s products much higher than boys’ and men’s products. Gender based pricing is often referred to as the “Pink Tax”

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Studies show that women are disproportionately commodified in advertising and fashion, with data revealing that female bodies are used far more often than men to sell products, reinforcing stereotypes and unrealistic beauty standards. In India, over 70% of advertisements portray women in stereotypical roles, while global research highlights that women are twice as likely as men to be shown in sexually objectified ways.

The Fashion Industry perpetuates widespread objectification of women, extending its influence far beyond the runway.

Objectification of Women by Media

Women and their bodies have always been commodities and sources of pleasure and exploitation for patriarchal cultures. From the twentieth century, in television, films and commercials, and music videos, sexualization and objectification of women became an increasingly growing trend. Mainstream media has always used a false and unreal image of women’s physical appearance, body image, behavioral standards and beauty.

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Today across television, billboards, glossy pages of magazines, and social media we can see hypersexualized and unrealistically perfect female forms. Advertisements, music videos and films dehumanize girls and women and portray them as commodities. Women’s bodies are used to sell everything from car tyres to entertainment.

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Many studies have shown that media has negative effects on the mental health of young women and girls. Women perceive that their physical beauty is a measure of the amount of love and the power they should receive through the media platform,putting tremendous pressure on them to conform to conventional beauty standards. According to Psychologists, women internalize people’s objectification of their bodies, resulting in them constantly criticizing their own bodies, Girls’ and women compulsively monitor their own body’s outward appearance. They become overly concerned about how others may perceive their physical appearance.

Resources for Media Literacy and Media Activisms

Killing Us Softly is a documentary firs released in 1979 and since revised and updated four times, focuses on images of women in advertising, in particular on gender stereotypes, the effects of advertising on women’s self-image, and the objectification of women’s bodies.

     Studies suggested “the need for media literacy and media activism to help change the current normative body discontent of women in the Western World.”

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We have seen a growing number of actresses, models, and feminists’ activists have started speaking against media and the internet for objectifying women.

     Every Girl Campaign is calling on entertainment and media industry leaders to create an environment where young girls feel valued and are defined by health media images of themselves. Sign their petition to call on leaders in the media to produce media images that respect, empower, and promote the true value of every girl.

Women In Academia, Institutional Workplaces & The Society – Harassment & Ways To Curb It

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“Go Girls” program is a program that brings junior and senior high school girls together giving the girls inspiration and resources for lasting self-esteem.

Women in many western cultures participate in their own objectification(self-objectification) often without realizing it. This is the result of an increasing acceptance of the pornification of mainstream media in a culture that largely embraces materialism and objectification. Thus, many women actively provide consent to objectification and overt attempts gain male attention by purposefully and consciously advertising and promoting their own object status. Girls and Women who think they must wear revealing dresses to look beautiful and attractive are victims of patriarchy. But, when women need to use their bodies to draw and capture the attention of the world, it is counterproductive to empowerment.

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          According to UNICEF, “The objectification and sexualization of girls in the media is linked to violence against women and girls worldwide.”

        The media normalizes the act of dominance and aggression against women by constantly showcasing them as objects of pleasure. Boys and men tend to internalize that message, and it influences their subconscious biases of how they view women.  They tend to legitimize violence, harassment, and anti-women views and behaviors.

‘She’ In Her Dignified ‘Red’

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        Andrea Dworkin writes in her book Women Hating, the process of turning women into sex objects is the first step towards justifying violence against them. Dworkin explains that if the media views women as a series of parts rather than a whole person, then inflicting violence upon them becomes easier to justify. Sandra Lee Bartky,also describes sexual objectification as a form of dehumanization in her book Feminity and Domination. She explains that turning women into sexual objects and disciplines them into a state of submission. It teaches them to monitor their appearance and behaviors in order to suit harmful cultural norms.Sexual objectification is thus a way of denigrating women as a class.

 Objectification of Women in different professions

There are many professions such as certain forms of dancing, beauty pageants, modeling, and cheerleading where women’s objectification is encouraged and promoted. Inaddition, many women work in environments where the main purpose is to offer explicit targets for men to objectify them.Example-exotic dancing and cocktail waitressing.

Case Studies of Commodification of Women in Branding

1.Fast Fashion Brands (Global)

• Issue: Exploitation of women workers and sexualized advertising.
• Facts: Around 80% of garment workers are women, with 93% not earning enough to cover basic needs. These brands profit from cheap labor while simultaneously objectifying women in glossy campaigns.
• Impact: Reinforces inequality both in production (labor exploitation) andconsumption (sexualized marketing)

 Indian Brands Facing Backlash

• FabIndia: Criticized for its Diwali campaign “Jashn-e-Riwaaz,” which many felt commodified cultural identity and women’s roles.
• Dabur: Faced backlash for a Karwa Chauth ad featuring a same-sex couple,which critics argued commodified women’s traditional roles while sparking controversy.
• Tanishq: Jewelry ads have been accused of reinforcing stereotypes around women’s roles in family and marriage.
• Impact: These cases highlight how commodification can intersect with cultural sensitivities, often reducing women to symbols of tradition or controversy.

       The Commodification of women reduces individuality to market value, and until the fashion, media industries,and different occupations where there is commodification embrace representation beyond appearance, true gender equality will remain out of reach.

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