The Female Body: Commodified and Vilified

Within the dialogue of sexism and feminism, have you ever heard your male counterpart combat your argument with a variation of the following statement?

“Women aren’t entirely oppressed, they're privileged in some ways. For example, women can get into parties and bars for free! Drinks for free! Or they can rely on their looks to get out of a speeding ticket!” Even just the idea of “women who are beautiful don’t have to work for anything in life because they can rely solely on their looks.” Etc, etc.

All I have to say to that is: who’s fault is that?

Sir, you do realize that’s because men quite literally view women’s bodies as something to be traded for goods and services, right? That guy at the bar is not buying me a drink because he thinks I look parched. You’ve commodified our bodies into something that you THINK you can consume if you give us “special treatment”, and that is by your own hand.

Those are the patriarchal traditions that you are now upholding and subscribing to.

Women’s bodies and the vague idea, or even slight possibility that you might get to have sex with one of them is quite literally the money making commodity for bars. Women are the product.

We see it all the time, it’s the guy who gets pissed when a woman won’t sleep with him after he just paid for a date, or whatever. Like okaaaayyy????? My body isn’t synonymous with a 2 for 1 deal at Chili’s, my guy. It takes more than that. Or maybe it doesn’t! It depends on the person you’re with, but regardless, women don’t owe you shit just because you bought them something or did something “nice” for them.

Also, I hate to burst your bubble but doing something for someone with the expectation of receiving something in return is in fact NOT kindness or selflessness, nor deserving of sex. Sorry </3

NOT TO MENTION that the idea of this so-called “privilege” is entirely contingent on women fitting the modern, patriarchal beauty standard.

And then you get mad and call us entitled or conceited or "gold diggers" when we try to make that shit work to our advantage. Don’t get mad at me because we took what you did and tried to capitalize off it and weaponize our femininity. It wasn’t really our choice to do so in the first place but we have to roll with what we've got.

But as long as you keep sexualizing everything, I’ll continue to try to reap what little benefits come of it: a random dude covering my $3 entry fee for the bar. Gee, thanks!