Building Blocks

In media, women are seen as objects to be valued for their use by others. Women’s bodies or body parts are singled out and separated from them as people, causing them to be viewed primarily as physical objects of male sexual desire. This objectification seen everywhere becomes so engraved in our minds from such a young age, that most people are completely unaware of it happening.

“Building Blocks” is a children’s toy. At first, this toy seems to be ordinary children’s building blocks, but upon closer look, one might realize that each block is a female body part. The body is segmented, just as women’s bodies are everywhere in advertisements and Tv. She has no head, hands, or feet, to demonstrate female’s loss of identity and ownership; the figure cannot stand up on its own. Her breasts, butt and vagina- the parts of a woman’s body most commonly sexualized- cannot quite fit anywhere.

A child plays with construction toys to develop basic learning skills at young age. When playing with “Building Blocks,” children are unknowingly and unwillingly being taught to view a woman as an object for their own enjoyment, just as they are through media.