A Certain Online 'Academy' and What it Reveals About the Objectification of Women's Bodies

By now, you've probably heard about some of the darkest corners of the internet — the ones where men converge to trade tips and boast about...well, I'm just going to say it. Sexually assaulting women. Even their own wives. Yes, really. I mean...there are just no words.

While Giséle Pelicot became the face of marital sexual abuse when she went public to reveal that her own husband had been instigating widespread abuse against herm it turns out, this is far form the only case of this kind. To really learn about what's going on — and how men are banding together to quite literally share tips on how to abuse women's bodies, even the bodies of the women closest to them — read CNN's investigation.

I'll warn you, though: It's going to make you feel absolutely sick to your stomach.

Listen, if you've been around, you know we like to keep it fun over here on BODYTALK. This is, without question, the darkest, heaviest thing you'll read here, at least to date. 

It's a tonal shift for sure, but it would also be doing this space a disservice if I didn't address this. Because how can I talk about women's bodies, the reality of what it means to live in one, without referencing this? This story is, of course, about the victims first and foremost. But also...it's about all of us. It affects all of us. Because it gives us yet another data point to better understand how the world views women's bodies, and what the dangers of that truly are. As I always say: Information is power, and there's no such thing as too much of it. 

This story is about so many things: Violence, misogyny, patriarchy, evil, supremacy, power, control..and how all these things converge to create this deep, dark objectification of women's bodies.

When we think of the term "objectification", we think of reducing women's value to their looks, and all the dangerous stuff that comes with that (like punishing beauty standards, body insecurity, and constant sexualization). 

In reality? It goes even deeper than that. It goes to a place where we think of women's bodies as public property — things to be claimed and conquered. Because yes, that’s what is happening here.  This story isn’t about sex or desire at all. It's about taking power over a woman's bodies away from her and claiming it for yourself. It's about how deep the hate and violence towards our bodies truly is....deep enough that even the person you're supposed to trust most in this world isn't a safe space to view your body as your body, rather than a thing they can just control, pillage, and abuse.

This objectification of women's bodies is at the root of so much of what we face as women. It's a factor in the normalization of women's pain. It's the force that leads the world to view our physical beings as vessels, rather than homes for us to live. It’s at the root of the medical community's frequent dismissal of women’s symptoms and lack of research around women’s health. It's why women are so completely, wholly unsafe navigating the world in these bodies, which are always seen as things we don't deserve to have agency or control over.