...‘Equal Opportunity Objectification? The Sexualization of Men and Women on the Cover of Rolling Stone’ (2011) examines and analyzes the changes on how the male and the female are sexually represented. This review will critically look at the arguments of the authors and the research discipline. Also, it will examine the previous literature related to the research topic. Further, the paper will examine the methodology used by the authors to analyses the study. Finally, it will discuss its findings and the contribution of the research to the study field. The study by Hatton and Trautner is an interdisciplinary study about sexuality and gender as well as the media. The above disciplines deals with the representation of sexuality and gender in the media. Also, it looks at how other issues regarding gender and sexuality affect individuals’ and the society. By examination of Braithwaite et al. (2015), it is evident that pornography influences friends and the society. Also, Hall, West and Hill (2012) shows implication of song lyrics on sexuality educators. The authors of the article have several...
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...Nauert, R. (2011). Media’s Growing Sexualization of Women. Psych Central. Retrieved from http://psychcentral.com/news/2011/08/11/medias-growing-sexualization-of-women/28539.html In this article, Rick Nauert, a senior news editor for Psych Central, explains the observations he and his colleagues had made while analyzing Rolling Stone Magazine’s covers and contents from the 1960’s to relatively recent. They created their own “Scale of Sexualization” where they different covers were awarded points for the different elements deemed sexually charged. Their findings were that although men were increasingly being sexualized throughout the cover timeline, overall, women were experiencing more, 10x more to be exact. Nauert concluded that the problems created by the over sexualization allow for more opportunities of violence towards women because women have been given the status of sexual object and submissive. Sexual harassment in the workplace and in the community has also elevated. It also gives unrealistic expectations for females and therefore women and men are open for disappointment. Rolling Stone was chosen as it is a founded publication that analyzes music, politics, film and top news stories. Clymer, C. (2013). ‘Woman’ Should Not Be Another Word For Sex. Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/charles-clymer/woman-should-not-be-another-word-for-sex_b_3307013.html Clymer, a blogger for the Huffington Post and army veteran, wrote this article about...
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...Merveille I. Kazimoto June 28, 2015 English Writing 112: College Writing Prof. Fadia Hasan Gender and Video Games The contemporary society has grown to be more liberal, offering women more freedom than ever before. One of the 21st century’s instrumental defining medium—video games—is experiencing sharp growing pains. Whether video games are a technology product or a cultural experience, one thing that both video games developers and enthusiasts vividly agree upon is that the way we talk and write about video games has gradually changed over the last few decades. Female representation (or should I say: underrepresentation) in video games has, for a long period of time, been a heavily debated and controversial issue, with the most trending argument being that the portrayal of female video game characters, as well as the treatment of female gamers, is frequently sexist. One of the prominent literatures that keenly scrutinizes the culture of video games and its effect on the social construct is Maja Mikula’s essay “Gender and Videogames: The Political Valency of Lara Croft”. In her essay, Mikula accuses video games of poor portrayals of gender and being extraneously violent. She writes, “Her body is excessively feminine-her breasts are massive and very pert, her waist is tiny, her hips are rounded and she wears extremely tight clothing (9)… she is clearly shaped by the desire to embody male sexual fantasies… (15)”, questioning whether “Lara Croft is a (genuine) feminist...
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...Women in the music industry have become more hyper sexualized than ever before. This is a much more complex idea than I had ever thought. There has always been a huge gray area and divide between sex-positivity and catering to the male gaze. I understand the struggle of female artists, but it is hard to defend some of the new artists. Slut-shaming is another extreme of the conversation because it can become so easy to look at these women as objects instead of real people. They become so much more of a cultural product selling fantasy that you forget that there is a person behind it all. Female artists now have been turned into brands forced to become just an image that can be sold to the public. They are no longer individuals with creative...
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...even in this present day women are seen to be weak and “helpless” meanwhile men are brave almost “heroic”, they are also seen to be more emotionally and physically stronger than women. There is a couple ways that this is portrayed in the book. For example the three women that were extremely beautiful but mainly used in the story for the sexual desire that they caused leading them to be seen as “evil”. The women in the story that were pure and chaste were seen as “strong, heroic, and steadfast in relationships”. Another example is how when the group of people go after dracula none of the girls are allowed to do anything strenuous in fear of causing them too much stress. This theme of women being less than men is very common in the gothic literature style, which is why it doesn't surprise many people when reading it. Chapter three is where...
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...Us Softly”, advertising is a “powerful educational source” and the media sells not only products, but also the ideal of what one “should” consider standard to be, do, and look like. These societal standards of feminine beauty are nearly impossible to reach though, and as the media glorification of women with unhealthy body types, unnaturally flawless faces, and perfect hair remains, so do the consequences of the desire for these things. Corporate Profit Corporations profit massively from American media consumerism. Advertising in media is one of the most instrumental constructs of our society. We see advertising in our faces everywhere from bus stops, cars, billboards, magazines, websites, and television. According to Kilbourne the average US citizen sees over 3500 ads per day and advertisement is a $250 billion per year industry, just in the States.ibid We also digest these advertisements subconsciously, as most people claim that they don’t affect them personally. American advertisers appeal to women’s insecurities and have sculpted a system where the thinner (and consequently considered more attractive women) sell the most products, because the consumer hopes to emulate the women selling it . This image that they’re chasing...
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...interacting with economic arrangements, social norms, and institutions than a sum of people who hold those identities separately from one another. Crenshaw cited women’s shelters turning away women of color who did not speak English as an example of different experiences within an institution. Crenshaw shows that these structures are not only experienced differently by intersectional people, but that it also disadvantages these people while advantaging others. This happens because the structures themselves were built with a specific user base in mind, in which those with intersectional identities were not thought of. This thought process is known as essentialism, which states that there is a characteristic that...
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...positive aspects to music as it uplifts society during times of hardship it also serves as a means of reinforcing gender norms as well as upholding capitalist ideals. Since its inception, hip hop has remained one of the most popular genres with today’s youth, but it is clear that women play a different role in the genre than men. Through a study of several hip hop and rap songs it becomes apparent that hip hop glamorizes brand names, “fast money”, and women. When women are objectified they are no longer encouraged to amass wealth, instead they are encouraged to simply be with men who have money. By reviewing popular song lyrics of famous hip hop such as Iggy Azalea’s, “I’m so Fancy” and Kanye’s “Mercy”, it is clear that there is a common theme of the obsession of wealth and beautiful women. Hip hop often dehumanizes women as they are perceived as plentiful and a luxury “item”. The modern woman, and women of the working class have no representation in hip hop. Women are further oppressed through hip hop as the average life style of those who cannot afford to spend lavishly are often left out and depicted as envious. Understanding how hip hop and capitalism is related is important to understanding why modern women are oppressed through this genre of music. Consumerism plays a huge part in how lyrics are written in hip hop music culture as hip hop is commonly used by the media to exploit a “recession free” lifestyle. In Steve Yate’s article, “The Sound of Capitalism”. in Project Magazine...
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...Major advancements in technology have seamlessly connected people across the globe. Video games for instance, have existed since the 1940s. However, game developers have subsequently introduced Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Games or MMORPG, where players interact in real time and across borders for collective game activities. It has become whole new platform that facilities geographically separated gamers to interact and form close bonds. Subsequently, it results in new problems evident worldwide. Most adolescents like to spend at least part of their free time playing video games. But for some, what starts out as innocent recreation can become an addiction. Soon, friends, family, school, and even personal hygiene are neglected as nearly every spare moment is spent playing the game. But what makes a game addictive? Are there certain characteristics that make some games more addictive than others? As with any addiction, video game or "gaming" addiction is usually a multi-faceted issue. For starters, video games are designed to be addictive. Not "addictive" in the clinical sense of the word, but game designers are always looking for ways to make their games more interesting and increase the amount of time people will spend playing them. They want you, once you log in or pick up that controller, to never want to stop playing. Consequently, games are designed to be just difficult enough to be truly challenging, while allowing players to achieve small accomplishments that...
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...Major advancements in technology have seamlessly connected people across the globe. Video games for instance, have existed since the 1940s. However, game developers have subsequently introduced Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Games or MMORPG, where players interact in real time and across borders for collective game activities. It has become whole new platform that facilities geographically separated gamers to interact and form close bonds. Subsequently, it results in new problems evident worldwide. Most adolescents like to spend at least part of their free time playing video games. But for some, what starts out as innocent recreation can become an addiction. Soon, friends, family, school, and even personal hygiene are neglected as nearly every spare moment is spent playing the game. But what makes a game addictive? Are there certain characteristics that make some games more addictive than others? As with any addiction, video game or "gaming" addiction is usually a multi-faceted issue. For starters, video games are designed to be addictive. Not "addictive" in the clinical sense of the word, but game designers are always looking for ways to make their games more interesting and increase the amount of time people will spend playing them. They want you, once you log in or pick up that controller, to never want to stop playing. Consequently, games are designed to be just difficult enough to be truly challenging, while allowing players to achieve small accomplishments that...
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...Too Sexy Too Soon? A Case Study of Abercrombie & Fitch Stephanie Roussell / MC 7999 / 11.21.11 Introduction Abercrombie and Fitch, an American retailer with nearly 800 U.S. and international stores, is no stranger to controversy. The company has long profited from shock value and consumer backlash not only in its marketing, but also in its clothing and employment practices. Known for its preppy, casual style of mid-luxury clothing, the retailer is a mainstay in the American shopping mall. But recent controversies about its product style and marketing practices have kept the company continually in the news. The latest controversy is no different. In March 2011, the company posted a new product on its Abercrombie kids website: the “Ashley” bikini, a striped triangle bathing suit, sized for girls ages 8 to 14. It seemed innocent enough until one small word in the clothing description caused a firestorm of media and activist backlash. The website described the bikini as a “push-up,” complete with “extra padding for breast enhancement.” (Mendez, para. 1) Because this description was added to a website that markets to girls as young as 2nd grade, it caused an uproar about the company’s intentions of over-sexualizing young girls. Comments began pouring in decrying the company’s apparent lack of decency or sensitivity. All were asking the same question: “how soon is too sexy?” Did this controversy expose a company intent on objectifying young girls? Or is it another cog in the...
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...In any space throughout the globe, sexuality is one of the tabooest topics, even though humans are sexual beings. It is one of those, “everyone is thinking it, but no one is saying it” topics. In terms of men, especially black men, sexuality is not an emotion or feature that should be portrayed despite the over-sexualization of their bodies by the world. When the topics of male sexuality is brought up, the first thing that comes to a person’s mind is penis size, and the narratives that have been disseminated about penis size, specifically as it relates to race. Between Alex Tizon’s Its Colour ws Its Size: The twisted Myth of the Small Asian Penis, Wesley Morris’s article The Last Taboo: Why Pop Culture Can’t Deal with Black Male Sexuality,...
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...As Benshoff and Griffin put it, “men in Western culture are taught that it is their birthright to do while women remain relatively immobile in order to be the object of the male gaze.” This ideology is commonly seen in most media texts where males are typically seen in lead roles where they are depicted as functional compared to females who are represented as distracted and dependent on men. Whilst this argument is widely seen throughout studies about gender roles in media, it functions as the center of my argument about the depiction of women in the music videos of “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke featuring T.I. and Pharrell Williams and “Uptown Girl” by Billy Joel. Both videos revolve around the acquisition of female attention, which supports...
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...around men, but video games show the least diversity in protagonists and often have regressive views on women and their position in society. Women make up 20% of console video game players and 46% of computer and mobile game players in this 20 billion dollar a year industry, meaning they are contributing a large amount of profits (ESA). Despite their significant purchasing power, they are not represented equally as characters in games, and continue to be used as a plot device or sexual being to attract the male target audience. Neither are they allowed to be a compelling character with a story arc and personal growth as we see with the male protagonist. Female characters, when included, tend to be one dimensional and only valued for typically how they fit into traditional gender roles by being submissive and innocent. This narrow portrayal of women comes from the fact that the developers of video games are predominantly men. Only 11% of game designers are women and only 3% of programmers, even though it is one of the fastest growing and most profitable fields in the economic market today (Sydell). This small portion of women in the video game workforce also earns significantly less than their male counter-parts- typically around $12,000 a year less, making their gender-pay gap worse than the national average (Sydell). This inequality stems from a larger societal problem of women not being...
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...PROSTITUTION IS NOT A CHOICE LEARN A BOUT TH E TRA FFI CKING OF WOMEN AND GIRLS WORLDWIDE, AND FIND OUT WHAT CAN BE DONE TO END THIS WID ESPR EAD PROBLEM … Soroptimist International of the Americas-1709 Spruce Street Philadelphia, PA 19103 - 215 893 9000 - www.soroptimist.org SOROPTIMIST WHITE PAPER Prostitution is Not a Choice I think so much about what has happened to me. Why these men did what they did to me. Old, disgusting men. It was horrible. They knew I did not want to be there, but they paid their money. They used me. I was their property for the night. They destroyed me. (14-year-old girl at Casa Hogar, a shelter in Costa Rica for children rescued from the country’s sex trade1) OVERVIEW Prostitution has been called the world’s oldest “profession.” In reality, it is the world’s oldest “oppression” and continues to be one of the most overlooked human rights abuses of women on the planet today. 2 Prostitution of women is a particularly lethal form of violence against women, and a violation of a woman’s most basic human rights. While society attempts to normalize prostitution on a variety of levels (discussed later in this paper), prostituted women are subjected to violence and abuse at the hands of paying “clients.” For the vast majority of prostituted women, “prostitution is the experience of being hunted, dominated, harassed, assaulted and battered.” 3 It is “sexual terrorism against women at the hands of men and little is being done to stop the carnage...
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