Apparently

Women can be assertive and competitive, as long as they are young and sexy (and White)...

La Femme Fatale

Women can be athletic and determined, as long as they are young and sexy (and White)...

Anna Kournikova

Women can be seekers of justice, as long as they are young and sexy (and White)...

Alias

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Women won't be so popular when they are groundbreaking political leaders, but not young and sexy (still White though) {don't worry, Hillary, I still think you're sexy}...

Hillary Clinton

(Seriously, google-image the key words "hillary clinton" and see for yourself what type of pictures come up. Also, notice the related searches: "young hillary clinton", "hillary clinton old", "hillary clinton portrait", and "hillary clinton pantsuit". All focused on her appearance and none focused on her skill.)

I mean, yes, I'm exaggerating a little. Athletic or a$$-kicking men can also be objectified, but I would argue that it still isn't nearly as detrimental or even as common.

This morning, while commuting to work, I happened to listen in on an NPR segment discussing a new police-based TV show in Afghanistan. All was fine and well, until I heard this:

There's Kamran, the hardened veteran, Baktash, the handsome but impulsive rookie, Ludmilla, the beautiful young officer with the tough exterior, and Summayah, whose computer skills can track seemingly anyone, anywhere.

Did you see it? Let me direct you:

There's Kamran, the hardened veteran, Baktash, the handsome but impulsive rookie, Ludmilla, the beautiful young officer with the tough exterior, and Summayah, whose computer skills can track seemingly anyone, anywhere.

Yup, the two men ahead (ha!) of Ludmilla are described for their personality characteristics, while Ludmilla is 1) sexy beautiful, 2) young, and 3) has a tough exterior... which begs the question, what does she have inside? (Sure, there's also Summayah, but she's the last kid on the playground to get picked (computers aren't very popular associations with women?), and my mind didn't even get to her because I was so overwhelmed with fury (or sexy images of Ludmilla, if I were a heterosexual male listener).)

You might notice that Baktash was also described by his looks, but I would say that a handsome man has a much different quality in our minds than a beautiful&young woman. A handsome man can lead a country, head a business, and save the planet. Beautiful&young women usually stand on the sidelines of handsome men like eye candy. Yes, we are an appearance-focused society in general, but we still tend to expect something of substance from handsome men, but beautiful&young women exist for our pleasure only. Respect the calm authority of the handsome man and do as you wish with the beautiful&young sidekick.

Similarly, I'd say that "veteran" and "rookie" are skill-based age adjectives, whereas "young" has more to do with appearance. Describing someone as young tells us nothing about how good they are at their job, and it actually doesn't tell us much at all, but the veteran and the rookie in our minds begin collaborating in some professional apprenticeship.

(And I'm sure the writers/radio host who presented this description didn't mean anything by it. It's way too common to seem abnormal. And I bet many people went right on listening and didn't even notice anything out of the ordinary... because it isn't. It's now part of who we are and how we define ourselves.)

So just google-image "woman" (how many young, sexy, White, blonde, otherwise appearance-based pictures do you see?) vs. "man" (in contrast to some appearance-based, but then also bold, courageous, fighting, musically talented, working... and sometimes dominating the aforementioned sexy women pictures here).

Hopefully it's obvious how these perpetual and not-so-subtle depictions and expectations of women affect our body image, self-esteem, relationships, etc. And then men roll their eyes when their girlfriends spend all this time in front of the mirror or ordering salads when they just want take-out pizza. But we all know the stats: non-emergency cosmetic surgeries (breasts, face, labia) are on the rise, eating disorders are out of control, violence against women is maybe more incriminated but not disappearing. So actually, this might be a very pertinent public health issue.

And in any case, this is something we should all be trying to change, men and women alike. We will all benefit from valuing each other for who we really are, which hopefully relates to something inside of our souls, with no "young" and "sexy" attached to it. But then again, this could be my hardened exterior speaking.