Letter to the Editor: Stop Objectification in the Workplace

As young women grow up, we hear time and time again that we are pretty and to smile. As we get older, it seems the comments get cruder and more uncomfortable and sexually suggestive. What makes it worse, is I work in retail when it happens at work. The difficulty with this is you lose business by telling off someone’s husband, such as when they casually ask if you need help removing your top. Every year it seems that I hear about someone making crude or sexual comments to employees of different establishments and this sexual objectification needs to stop, especially in the workplace.

It is time to stop looking at women and deciding you should tell them if you find them sexy and, in all reality, we don’t go outside in hopes that every man will crane their neck and hoot at us and tell us we turn them on.

The effect of sexual objectification is more than just making someone uncomfortable it is also making someone feel unsafe, and it is not okay to make someone feel unsafe at work. I hope that with this letter more women will speak up and tell men to stop.

Samantha Olson

Green Bay, Wis.