Throughout the 20th century, our society has established the influence of sex in marketing, advertising and business in general. A multitude of magazines, not just SI or Playboy, utilize the selling power of sex and sex appeal.

However, we feel the issue at hand here is not whether SI is pornographic, but that it blatantly objectifies the female body for the purpose of “business,” as Mario Smith, a senior in marketing and management, pointed out in his letter.

This week is National Eating Disorders Week. One of the reasons people abuse their bodies through anorexia or bulimia is because they have body image issues.

It can be argued that their lack of self-esteem about their physical form is a result of the images “business” gives to society. If sex sells, if sex is a large-breasted woman with disproportionately small waist and hips, if sex is maintaining an unhealthy, low body weight, then the industry selling sex needs to be evaluated and, perhaps, changed.

The objectification of the human form (male or female) is a social construct that harms people’s views about themselves and about others. It creates ideals when the ideal is airbrushed, saline-enhanced and/or the product of an eating disorder.

Please, take the opportunity National Eating Disorders Week provides. Educate yourself about the effects of objectifying the human form. Only though education can this social construct be evaluated and changed.

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Kelly Petersen

Senior

English

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Alissa Stoehr

Senior

Liberal studies

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Nicole L. Longnecker

Senior

English and women’s studies

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Jenny Schultz

Senior

Biology

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JoAnn Rogers

Senior

Sociology

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Robyn Miessler

Senior

Women’s studies and religious studies

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Angela Beaman

Senior

Women’s studies

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Najeeb A. Farsal

Senior

Sociology

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Corey Roosevelt

Senior

Biology and women’s studies