We live in a very perverse world. Society is plunging towards hedonism, sexual hedonism in particular. This fast decline has been since the inception of the modern world, some 50 years ago. The modern world, heralded by the invention and proliferation of media devices such as television, radio, phones, and other wireless means of reaching other people in faraway distances. These inventions made it possible to see and hear every possible thought and imagination of another person even when they are far away from us. Intended for faster dissemination of information globally, humanity descended into spreading sexual hedonism.
The media we consume is filed with sexual content, and what is worse? It is almost indispensable to productive daily living. Movies, songs and social media apps are all complicit in this global moral decline. Even media supposedly meant for children are adulterated with sexually suggestive content. Many young minds today are exposed to too much sexual content. An 18-year-old guy today has access to seeing naked women in less than a minute than a 17th-century king ever saw in his lifetime. The real hypersexualization is in the fact that this has now been so normalized, so much so that it is no longer offensive. The infiltration of more sexual orientations has also been normalized, especially by platforms like Netflix.
This continued extreme exposure to sexual or sexually suggestive media rewires the mind from its foundations. All of humanity’s values are now reduced to sexual appeal. Sexual potential becomes a highly demanded commodity and is required from places that were previously pure and noble. Such exposure alters one’s identity, dignity, and self-esteem. What matters in media today is less about what is beneficial and more about what can trigger sexual excitement. The importance of physical appearance is overestimated, and ability to trigger sexual desire in others becomes a valuable commodity, a sure path to financial prosperity.
The undue hype around physical appearance is a direct result of the hypersexualized media that we have today. When a person’s identity, self-esteem, and dignity is tied to their appearance, enhancing their appearance goes beyond just body modification; they feel incomplete without it. Body modifications like the Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL), liposuction, and breast enlargement surgery are so common because ladies so much want to attain the standard of that media-hyped body type. Social media hypersexualization has altered minds today so much that other people are seen as objects of sexual excitement. Everyone now sees everyone else as a means of sexual excitement.
Hypersexualized content gives high dopamine excitement. It is endless, provides variety, and there are literally no limits to how sexual it can get. Endless dopamine gotten from sexual content is a major cause of reduced human connection and unrealistic sexual expectations between opposite sexes. The sexualized media on our screen reinforces the narrative that women are meant to be objects of satisfying sexual desire, and men are sexually aggressive beasts.
This type of content deals a huge blow to the impressionable minds of young adults and teenagers. They are exposed easily to sex, sexuality, and sexualization of the opposite sex from very perverted and distorted sources. Their self-worth is also damaged because of the constant display of “perfect bodies" on social media, in movies, and in music videos.
It has damaged the moral fabric of our society, such that people are judged heavily based on their looks rather than the value they have to offer the substance of who they are. Society highly rewards physical appearance, while value creation through effort barely gets any recognition.
Sexual desire and ability to trigger the same have economic value. Companies and entrepreneurs mass-produce sexual content and make millions from it. The economic value of sexual content has to be stripped off if the world today will ever be delivered from this moral plague.
Hyper-sexualized media has far-reaching consequences. From psychological damage and sexually pervasive behaviour, to body insecurity and wanton sexual indiscipline, the damage to society is massive. Spreading awareness will not be enough. The incentive for hypersexualized media, which is economic returns, has to be cut off entirely. Countries need to rise up and make laws against the hypersexualization of their children and younger population. This is the only way to wage war against this social cancer.