It’s not uncommon to hear comments like “She’s a 4” or “She’s a 10 but crazy” in discussions, group chats and especially on social media. Even worse, guys will make jokes about their “Dekra report,” comparing women to cars as though we’re machines that require maintenance and inspection before being “driven.” Although it sounds humorous, the language is actually filled with misogyny.
This kind of thinking doesn’t just happen. It is based on centuries of social indoctrination that trained males to see women not as human beings with feelings, intelligence, and autonomy, but as objects to be owned, admired, or used. The message is apparent when women are reduced to ratings or performance metrics that our value is determined by what we can do, not by who we are.
The fact that it has become so commonplace is much more terrifying. Degradation is covered up as “just jokes,” and objectification is concealed beneath “banter.” However, those jokes influence culture by teaching girls how to determine their value based on how men view them and teaching boys to separate empathy from desire. Women are constantly in a cycle of attempting to demonstrate that they are “worthy” of respect, which ought to have been given to them without conditions in the first place. We talk about equality, but in a culture that doesn’t want to humanize you, it’s difficult to be equal.
In actuality, women are not objects. We are not trophies, cars, or body parts. We are complete beings with complexities, stories, and thoughts. And misogyny will continue to lurk in casual discussions, laughed at how usual it has become, until that truth is accepted.