when people say that women in the entertainment industry who are sexualised are expressing their own sexuality, i often think of these youtube videos that came out when i was a teenager from the buzzfeed try guys of all people
in the first one, they get styled and photoshopped the way male celebrities do, and in the second they are styled, posed and photoshopped like female celebrities
their comments are surprisingly insightful
"there was nothing human about that, i was just an object"
"in an effort to photoshop you more to female standards, your look has gone from 'i will either murder or fuck you' to 'wont you please come fuck me?'"
when women are styled this way, they aren't expressing their own desire, they're embodying cultural stereotypes that say women don't have their own sexuality, they are objects for men to project their own sexuality onto. and when male sexuality is caught up in ideas of dominance and conquest, performing for the male gaze becomes consistently degrading