The article T posted actually made me think about how there's a fine line between "confident sexy" and "objectified sexy." Maybe the difference lies in who the sexy is for.
A few months back, our Assoc. Creative Director asked me to help out on a video shoot for one of our clients. (We'll call him Brian) He said they needed a blonde female so I agreed to participate and asked him what I should wear. Shortly after, I get the email from him explaining my wardrobe:
"Hey, so I'm thinking your most vanna white-lookin' dress/skirt getup. Sound good?" - Brian
My initial thought: "Are you fucking kidding me?" So I obviously responded with this picture:
Anyway, the next day rolled around and I brought a variety of different "sexy" dresses. T actually ended up solidifying my downfall by bringing a stretchy, slinky, sparkly black dress that they all said I Must wear. Just to paint the picture better, T is taller and thinner than me. I'm legit curvy. This dress would be straight up Vanna White on Wheel of Fortune.
I change into the dress and come out to the set, obviously self-concious considering there's a slew of geeky engineers, colleagues and my boss standing there staring. At first, it wasn't so bad because they just asked me to saunter across the set during one of the scenes. It really wasn't a big deal. I understood they just wanted a random pretty girl for one of the lines in the script. Hell, I was a bit flattered they asked.
Then it got weird.
They asked me to pose on one of the chairs on the set for a few photos. I sware it felt like everyone was staring at me. They're all standing around, gawking, telling me to show more leg, etc. It was humiliating. And to top it all off, my boss Tweeted a picture of me! Without my permission!
The whole thing seriously made me feel objectified and dirty. I mean, this is my place of work. These are the people who are supposed to respect me and my opinions. I recognize that it's parially my fault for letting them get away with it. The problem is that once I signed up for it, I had to be a good sport. If I didn't cooperate with a smile on my face, I would have been the annoying prude who can't take a joke or have fun. Who wants to be that person in the office?
So I guess I'm asking where we draw that line? When do we lose our integrity at the price of being "easy to work with"?
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