Bikinis and Brains
Throughout Elizabeth Landau’s article entitled, “Men See Bikini-clad Women as Objects,” she describes a study held at Princeton University that displays the effect a woman in an itsy bitsy bikini can have on the male brain. This article not only proves how younger men see women, but how men’s brains have been “hard-wired” to seek fertile, young females since the beginning of time. This proven response just allows men and women to both be aware of the effect of provocative clothing, and when these thoughts are appropriate. It also enables readers to connect this real world situation with psychology.
The definition of psychology is, the mental characteristics or attitude of a person or group. Landua’s article directly refers to evolutionary psychology, explaining that men have reacted the same way to women for thousands of years. As time has progressed, the portion of the male brain that controls actions and tools is the section of the brain that “lights up” when shown a young, attractive female. This hasn’t changed with time. Along with this type of psychology, this view of men can be related to gender roles. Where the male is stereotypically being aroused and thinking about sex, while the female is “innocently” wearing her bikini. Even the experiment used to prove this hypothesis, which included a control group and an experimental group, correlates with the field of psychology.
Agreeing with this article would seem like the obvious decision, because of my female gender. Though, that doesn’t mean that the negative attitude portrayed upon men is correct. While a young women in a bikini may only trigger first person verbs in a young man’s brain, including “I push, I handle, I grab.” These men have no control over it. As Landau states, “the way that men may depersonalize sexual images of women is not entirely something they control.” Though men aren’t the only ones who do this, similar to this research a study “found that people tend to...