This TED Talk features public health researcher Sophia Jawad Wessel, recorded live at TEDx Omaha, 2016.

We're going to share a lot of secrets today, you and I.

And in doing so, I hope that we can lift some of the shame many of us feel about sex.

How many here have ever been cat-called by a stranger?

Lots of women.

For me, the time I remember best is when that stranger was a student of mine.

He came up to me after class that night, and his words confirmed what I already knew.

I'm so sorry, Professor. If I had known it was you, I would never have said those things.

I wasn't a person to him until I was his professor. This concept called objectification

is the foundation of sexism, and we see it reinforced through every aspect of our lives.

We see it in the government that refuses to punish men for raping women.

We see it in advertisements. How many of you have seen an advertisement that uses a woman's breast to sell an entirely unrelated product? Or movie after movie after movie that portrays women as only love interests. These examples

might seem inconsequential and harmless, but they're insidious, slowly building into a culture

that refuses to see women as people.

We see this in the school that sends home a 10-year-old girl

because her clothes were a distraction to boys trying to learn.

Or the government that refuses to punish men for raping women over and over.

Or the woman who is killed because she asked a man to stop grinding on her on the dance floor.

Media plays a large role in perpetuating the objectification of women.

Let's consider the classic romantic comedy.

We're typically introduced to two kinds of women in these movies.

Two kinds of desirable women anyway.

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