New York-based writer and artist Marcia Belsky of the Headless Women project has one aim: expose advertising tropes in Hollywood and popular culture and how they dehumanise women. Specifically, how they keep cutting off women's heads, reducing them to body parts.
"The overwhelming presence of these headless women in the images we see both perpetuate and is symptomatic of the overall idea that women exist primarily for the sexual pleasure and purpose of men," she said.
From blown-up fragments of women's breasts, bottoms and pouting lips on film posters, to male actors lustily gazing at their female co-star's cleavage (sans head), the project has gone viral, with readers chiming in with their own contributions.
The project, started on Ms Belsky's website and Twitter pages, compiles dozens of contemporary ads across film, TV and pop culture.
On her blog, Ms Belsky wrote the project aimed to spotlight how culturally, viewers are made numb to ad sells objectifying women.
Women of colour faced double discrimination, being left off movie posters all together; and when they did make it on they too faced similar objectifying treatment.
Ms Belsky says the fragmenting of women’s bodies worked to erase the individual identities of women.
"These images we are bombarded with on a daily basis tell us persistently that women’s thoughts, feelings and personal agency either don’t exist or are of no interest," she writes.
"We are made numb in pop culture to female bodies remaining background to male-centered action."
Ms Belsky ends with a rallying call to action.
"DAMNIT, HOLLYWOOD!!! WE WANT HEADS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Couldn't have said it better ourselves.
Is Australia Sexist? premieres on SBS Australia, 4 December, 8.40pm, and will be available to stream at SBS On Demand.
