Models, Actresses, Female Artists, and many more are sexualized daily in the media, often leading to “uninteresting” headlines. The news focuses on the appearances of women, with most articles just pertaining to their physical description and nothing more.

On September 20^th, DailyMail released an article regarding model, Emily Ratajkowski taking her baby for a walk. The headline read:

 

“Emily Ratajkowski flashes her bra and toned tummy in sheer zebra print crop top while taking baby Sylvester for a stroll around town”

 

From the headline alone, reporters grab the reader’s attention by mentioning Emily’s undergarments and physique before they mention why she is in the news. Furthermore, there is a focus on what Emily was wearing, including the fact that it is a see-through top, even though the information is irrelevant to the story. Thus, making this article a prime example of how writers sexualize successful women.

The article goes on to highlight her style statements, “bold” mismatched patterns, black bra, and long brunette locks. When, throughout the piece, 2 lines actually talk about her son, Sylvester. After these two lines, the writer moves on, away from Ratajkowski’s son, simply disregarding the opportunity to dote on Emily’s motherly duties, parenting style, or even the newborn himself.

Arguably, a mother taking her child for a walk certainly isn’t ground-breaking news, but even so, if you are going to portray it as such, why is the article mostly about what “EmRata” was wearing? Why did it fail to report about the event at hand(walking one’s child)? Why did the media choose, instead, to focus on sheer tops and bras?And  Why are we, as a society, commenting on what women can wear to take their child on a stroll?

We can direct all these questions back to the consumers, with this piece as evidence, asking why we sexualize women? Newspapers and magazines depend upon audiences to be intrigued by headlines and engage with their articles. So why are we engaging with these headlines?

 

Ask yourself, what can you do to stop the emergence of articles that hyper focus on women’s physique? What do you care about more: Bras or Babies?