...sneakers, it is difficult for society and especially the youth to not to be influenced by the overpowering message to objectify women (Coleman). Television shows portraying woman in explicit dogmatic behaviors like “Flavor of Love” or “The Bachelor” make it difficult for the everyday women to process exactly why the media allows such depictions of women to be viewed and accepted around the world. According to author Breanna Coleman, “Television programs show slender, unrealistically curvaceous, and vulnerable young women, who are dependent on male figures for strength and survival, not their own sense of empowerment.” This media stereotyping of women as objects and helpless beings creates an impracticable example for the million of young teenagers watching these programs. Young women watch these programs assuming that using sexuality to compete for attention of one man is ultimately ideal and having a certain type of body or look can only get a woman a man. This representation of women is...
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...Over the course of the years, physical appearance has become one of society’s biggest influencer on societal ideas. Beauty can sell products and ideas. It is a cultural determiner what is pretty or what is not. However for most girls, insecurity comes with growing up. Some grow to love themselves and accept buts others, unfortunately, gain low self esteem. In today’s ideas, sexy sells. To some extents, over sexualizing advertisements is a marketing strategy for young girls thinking it is the perfect persuasion into buying their own products. What are the harms and effects of hyper sexualization? One effect of hyper-sexuality of young girls and/or women is that it distorts our “regular” image of what the everyday adolescent is suppose to look...
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...CHALLENGE THE MEDIA Table of Contents: Introduction Testimonials Websites Activity Article: Media and Girls Books and Reports Take Action 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 End the Sexualization of Girls and Young Women in Mainstream Media Children are exposed to a barrage of sexual and violent images through mainstream and other media. As children gain more access to media through technology such as phones and computers, the time per day that children are exposed to images is increasing. The average high school student spends as much as 8-10 hours a day with some type of media, according to recent findings from the Geena Davis Institute. Studies estimate that counting all ads, logos, labels, and announcements a child is exposed to 16,000 images in one day. (Youth Media Reporter 2009). Media and Violence Against Women Often, media such as TV, commercials, movies, music lyrics, and even Halloween costumes, sexually exploits girls and young women; and it perpetuates unhealthy and unrealistic stereotypical portrayals of both young men and women. Sexually violent material can contribute to a social climate in which violence against women is more accepted. According to several studies by the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls (2007), men and women exposed to sexually objectifying and violent images of women from mainstream media were more accepting of rape myths, sexual harassment, sex role stereotypes, and interpersonal violence. Such structures of violence allow violence against...
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...Advertising and the various persuasive pattern it hopes to achieve in selling particular brands of feminism, produces casualties in the world that are beyond what the media shows. It also reflects, exacerbates and exploits various deep-seated personal and social anxieties on feminism, masculinity and the continued ambivalence on the shifting gender roles. This undermines the way girls’ and women see themselves and at the sometime normalizes the violence they face in the hands of men. Women and girls are often depicted as being in competition with each other for men. This creates a challenge to them especially in forming solid friendships and bonds. In addition, mainstream media has also increasingly traded in the sexualization of young girls and teenagers. When teenagers emulate the celebrities and models, they are emulating an object that has been designed expressly by marketers to be consumed as an...
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...Madison Davis English Mrs. Petersen April 14, 2015 With the dawning of television, celebrity boundaries began to blur. In much the same way as if you were to remove partitions in a room where two distinctive social situations were taking place, television presented different groups of people with new perspectives of other groups that they otherwise would have never been introduced to. As television became widespread, groups began to mingle together due to the easily accessible and widespread programming, and the population combined. Although fame could be thrilling, losing all of your privacy, due to paparazzi, not only threatens your safety and sanity but creates unneeded drama and predominantly false accusations. The more refined television became, the more the world seemed to resemble direct interactions and para-social relationships formed (Meyrowitz, 1985). Television users rapidly began to feel as though they personally knew television personalities and cared about them in the same manner they cared about their close friends or family. Horton and Wohl stated that television never shows an ending that exhibits the actors coming out of their character, which often leads viewers into believing that what they view is truly the actors’ identities (Horton & Wohl, 1963). This perception created opportunities for photojournalists to capitalize on actor public engagement. Carl O'Connell stated. The origin of the name Paparazzo is argued, but its onomatopoeic resemblance...
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...Running head: MORE THAN HORMONES Teen Pregnancy: More Than Just Raging Hormones Amberette Kennard Psychology 101 Professor Greg Harmling 05/10/2011 Teen Pregnancy: More Than Just Raging Hormones A young girl gets ready to leave for school. She brushes her teeth, combs her hair and picks out an outfit. She gets dressed and takes one final look in the mirror before heading out. She stares at her midsection, anxiously trying to adjust her shirt. It’s getting harder and harder to hide…soon everyone will know... Despite a one-third decline since the early 1990s, the United States still has the highest rates of teen pregnancy and birth among comparable countries. In 2008, the U.S. teen birth rate was 41.5 births per 1,000 girls age 15-19. By way of comparison, the U.S. teen birth rate is nearly two times higher than the United Kingdom (26.7 per 1,000). (The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, 2010) Teen pregnancy has been the leading topic of many U.S. talk shows, news programs, documentaries, and movies. Its appearance in so many mediums demonstrates that there is a fascination with and strong desire to understand the problem of teen pregnancy in the United States and the constant search for a solution. There have been many studies on the physical causes of teen pregnancy such as rising hormone levels, the adolescent brain’s transition, and more. Although there has been...
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...of Identity vs. Role Confusion, a teenage acquires self-certainty and inquiries about their identity as opposed to self-consciousness. While trying to create their identity, a teenager seeks models to inspire them and develop a set of values. Even social learning theory suggests that media's exposure leads adolescence to change their cognitive learning of certain behaviors and their expectations of social and emotional consequences. Thus the teenage struggle to discover their identity so they can feel like they belong to a society and fit into a peer group. Both girls and boys experience peer pressure to engage in sexual activities before they are ready, but there are double standards for this issue as boys are praised, and girls are patronized. Boys are expected to have sexual relationships early on, and the more relationships they more they are accepted and considered studs in the peer group. Girls are expected to lose their virginity later around 15-18 years, but if they have sexual experience too early or with many partners they are excluded from their peer group as they are considered sluts. Due to these double standards, adolescents are pressured in early sexual activities without realizing consequences such as STDs and pregnancy. Media's influences on Adolescents Media can influence teenagers into thinking that early sexual behavior is normal. These days there are so many subliminal sexual message in every kind of media here such as: advertisements that show women...
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...Debran Rowland, a Carleton graduate, and Author of the book The Boundaries of her Body explains that ages 14 and 15 are peak ages for girls, for being victims of rape, Proving that we as teenagers are in definite danger of being victims. As girls, it is something we must be very aware of and even fear at times. Rape has also become a growing issue at colleges. Bradford Richardson, a graduate of Claremont McKenna College analyzes this growing problem in Text Box: The above graphic, passed along by the Huffington Post's Laura Bassett, was put together by the Enliven Project using data from Department of Justice's National Crime Victimization Survey and FBI reports. It drives home extremely well the fact that false rape accusations are exceedingly rare, despite what media reports might suggest. Almost as rare are cases when rapists actually go to jail more so than strangers.his article The Real Campus Sexual Assault Problem. He explains...
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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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...The media and advertising business has always been successful in making people recall their brands. Advertising not only encourages consumers to buy goods and services they cannot afford, but also appeals to the emotions of the customers. Sex appeal is used to sell products in many ways. The people in the media industry take advantage of the audience’s responsiveness to sexual stimuli to make a profit. The increasing sexualization of content in the media suggests teenagers that these are normal ways to behave. Advertisement and the media have found ways to sell sex, regardless of the target audience. Sex talk is typical in magazines like Cosmopolitan, FHM and Maxim. Sex is the main theme in TV series like Desperate Housewives, Gossip Girl and Sex and the City. Nudity is prevailing in movies like American Pie, Love & Other Drugs and Fifty Shades of Grey. Lyrics with sexual innuendos are rampant in songs like Feels Like The First Time, Milkshake and Physical. The prominence of sexual themes in magazines, television, movies and music influence the desire of teenagers for physical contact (de Castro-Cuyugan, 2014). These types of...
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...HATE CRIMES SHEMEKA COLLINS HATE CRIMES Hate crimes are not a new concept for society, because hate crimes have always been around. While the study of hate crimes and the laws that have been passed because of hate crimes is relatively new, hate crimes have always been around. Hate crimes were committed as far back as the 1800's and even back to The Civil War. Hate crimes are prevalent in society today just like they were in the past; because whether the crimes are aimed towards Muslims, the gay community, or any other minority group; they are fueled by something that every person has come into contact with- prejudice. Prejudice is defined as a preconceived thought or opinion about someone. While prejudice can be positive, in the concept of hate crimes they are negative feelings, thoughts, or opinions that are aimed towards a certain religious, ethnic, race, or even sexual orientation group. The typical definition of hate crime is that a crime has been committed by a majority member against a minority member simply because the victim was a minority. However, as of recent the definition has been expanded to allow for any crime committed by bias towards the victim's social group such as anti-gay or anti-lesbian. Hate crimes are an extreme, potential effect due to prejudice and discrimination towards someone based on ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation....
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...One of the primary concerns of feminism is, and has been for a while, not only gender inequality in social and political terms, but also the way both sexes are viewed by the society. People’s mentality is a source of stereotypes, gender stereotypes in particular. Marge Piercy, a poet and a feminist, considers these stereotypes a serious issue, which is inevitably reflected in her creativity, particularly the four poems under analysis – “Barbie Doll”, “What Are Big Girls Made Of?”, “Rape Poem” and “The Friend”. The poems “Barbie Doll” and “What Are Big Girls Made Of?” concentrate on the topic of sexualization of women and young girls. The issue that worries the author most is the way the society treats females: they are perceived as mere commodities,...
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...powerful marketing process and major tool of communication practices. Nowadays, advertisements are present in all fields of our modern societies. The debate about the positive and the negative effects of advertisements is still relevant today. Despite the fact that the main purpose of publicity should be the informational aspect, advertisers use their influence in a distinct way. Sometimes manipulative, their controversial techniques use psychological appeals in order to increase purchases. Publicity has unfavorable side effects on individuals, especially on young and vulnerable consumers: children. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate that food habits, lifestyles and behaviors are guided by advertising detrimental models. Teenagers represented core targets for advertisers because media has become one of the most substantial socialization agents known today. Adolescents spent 140 billion dollars a year in 2004 in various products, and 12 years old kids 25 billion dollars, but they are also able to act upon a $200 billion dollar budget (Mary Story and Simone French, Food Advertising and Marketing Directed at Children and Adolescents in the US). According to the Professor Sharon Beder, “[y]oung children are increasingly the target of publicity and marketing because of the amount of money they spend themselves, the influence they have on their parents spending […] and because of the money they will spend when they grow up” (101). The powerful advertising industry has...
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...Sisterhood vs. the Male World What is sisterhood? Women have to ask themselves this question. Sisterhood once promised to women a social haven separate from male culture - a domain, which was the result of the ongoing pressures of society’s strict gender codes, served as a common ground for feminist discourse. Through sisterhood, women were empowered and capable of enacting change in their lives and improving the experiences of women in this country. However, over time this unity has broken down. Waves of feminism claimed that the strife of women was a battle for gender equality in the grip of a male-dominated world; but an effect of this targeted attack was inevitably a loss of attention to the treatment of women by their own sisters in feminism. By the 1940s, women had made social, economic and political strides by gaining access to higher education, working in predominantly male sectors, and by voting and lobbying for gender equality legislation. This allowed women to compete in the same spheres as men, resulting in a blurring of the once distinct boundaries between the male and female worlds. This intersection of the sexes had two effects: first, because women were no longer confined to domestic work, they had less incentives to remain in dominantly female circles; second, because women could operate in the male world as individuals, they had to learn to mirror male patterns of dominance or portray the traditional role of women. These combined effects resulted in the...
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...Another reason is alcohol consumption. Alcohol offers men more confidence to commit an assault, and they tend to be more aggressive when doing that assault (Orenstein, 2016). Girls who are intoxicated by alcohol are more likely to become the victims of assaults. Being unable to self-defense, girls have to face many severe consequences. Limited sex knowledge, little support from parents, as well as misconception about themselves cause numerous negative effects on young females. Besides unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases that affect physical and mental health, performing sexually from a young age disconnects them from their sexually development inside perpetually (Orenstein, 2016). Likewise, self-objectification and self-sexualization are harmful for girls’ mental health. Girls who reported to be self-objectifying are likely to less pleasure, unintelligible, and hard to talk to their parents (Orenstein, 2016). Those consequences emphasizes the importance of an effective sex education. The differences in Dutch and American sex education generate different outcomes. On a research, Dutch girls reported less negative consequences like unwanted pregnancy or STDs, and higher satisfaction on sex compared to American girls (Orenstein, 2016). This is because American mothers only mention risks, diseases, danger; while Dutch mother talk about everything: risks, responsibility and pleasure (Orenstein, 2016). They emphasizes on the importance of balancing those things. Orenstein’s...
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