Smart Isn’t Sexy

It’s impossible to make an intelligent argument when operating within a framework that presupposes an incompatible view.  Unfortunately, I feel like I’m in this position a lot. To give a few examples, it’s impossible to make intelligent arguments on gay marriage when the discussion is framed in terms of “marriage equality;” it’s impossible to make intelligent religious arguments in a liberal society that purges all religious claims in the name of tolerance (despite the fact that “tolerance” leads to so much intolerance); and it’s impossible to make intelligent religious arguments when constrained by the vocabulary of modern science.  Today, however, I want to address the sexualization of women.

Outlining a complete causal history of the sexualization of women would be impossible, but there are a few key points.  First, the feminist emphasis on sexual liberation has contributed immensely to this phenomenon.  Second, the “body-image,” “respect,” and “smart is sexy” movements aren’t helping.  Despite their intentions, they have exacerbated the objectification of women.  To be blunt, not everyone is “sexy.”  And intelligence isn’t either.  To incorporate intelligence into the realm of carnal desire reduces women to their ability to induce that carnal desire.  Framing the conversation in this way precipitates defeat in two ways.  First, it harms the very women it is claiming to help.  If it becomes all about physical attraction, unattractive people will always lose.  Second, it reduces physically attractive people to that ability to be physically attractrive.  The correct response to the objectification of women is not to incorporate new things (reading is sexy, modest is hottest) into the objectification.  The correct response is to question the reduction of women to sexual attractiveness.

This seems simple.  But we’ve made this project much harder for ourselves.  We as a culture are obsessed with sex.  Sex sells, and all that.  Of course, this criticism cuts both ways.  Men have contributed to this culture by objectifying women in the first place.  If this had never happened, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.  But by focusing on sexual liberation, feminism has only tightened its shackles.  We can see this error clearly in the feminist reaction to Islamic fundamentalism, as noted by Sarah Albers of The American Conservative here.  This inability to embrace the whole person—instead fixating on the physical body—stems from contemporary culture’s flawed view of the body.  The body has become simply an instrument for the gratification of desires.  And, without an appeal to Christ, it is hard to avoid this result.  People are still treating their bodies as temples, but they’re not temples of the Holy Spirit.

Further discussion of this issue can be found here and here.