Are Men And Blame For The Objectification Of Women?

If you turn on the television or flip through a fashion magazine, it is very likely you will presented with many displays of hypersexualization of girls and women in advertising images and in media. There are many components to sexualization. It occurs, according to the American Psychological Association, when “a person’s value comes only from his or her sexual appeal or behavior, to the exclusion of other characteristics.” This person is held to a standard that equates physical attractiveness with being sexy. “Sexualization” happens when a person is sexually objectified- that is, made into a thing for others’ sexual use, rather than being seen as a person with their own independent actions and abilities to make decisions. Oftentimes, sexuality is inappropriately imposed upon a person without their knowing it or consent. Sometimes, researchers use the word “hypersexualization” to describe roughly the same idea. In the article, “Media’s Growing Sexualization of Women”, hypersexualization is defined as, “The act of making something extremely sexual and erotic.”

In the article, “Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Meaning of Gender,” the author, Aaron Devor, is trying to convince his audience that gender shapes how we behave and relate to one another. He does this by using an educational approach, describing gender stereotypes, and making cultural references. These rhetorical devices serve his larger goal of getting readers to reflect on how their childhoods formed their genders. “Maleness and femaleness seem “natural,” not the product of socialization.” (Devor 527) Throughout his article, he makes us wonder whether or not gender is recognized through socializing.

Throughout the history of society, women and men both have faced the constricting roles forced upon them, from a young age; each gender is given specific social and cultural roles to play out throughout their lives. Little girls are given dolls and kitchen toys, little boys are given dinosaurs and power tool toys, if one was to step out of this specified role, social conflict would ensue. Contrast to popular belief, sex is a biological construct, and gender is a social construct specifying the roles men and women are to follow to be accepted into society as “normal”. The effects of gender roles have had on women have proved harmful over the decades. Although the woman’s involvement in society has improved throughout the decades,

What is even stranger is that women fully enforce this sexual double standard. Over 99% of woman agree that women enjoy sex as much as men do, yet when asked to describe a woman who has had many sexual partners, over 59% percent of women used words that fell under the negatively connotative ‘Promiscuous’ category, using words like “slut,” “cheap,” “loose,” “whore,” “easy,” and “dirty.” Twelve percent of women even used words that would suggest that sexually liberal woman are psychologically damaged, using words like “insecure,” “lonely,” “desperate,” “needy,” and ‘unfulfilled.” Only 8% of women tagged a sexually liberal woman in the more positive category of “sexually focused,” the respondents feeling that “these women were uncommitted and focused on sex rather than the relationship” (Milhausen and Herold). In addition, “Women were more likely to discourage a female friend from dating a highly experienced male that a male friend from dating a highly experienced female” (Milhausen and Herold). This fact furthers the case for women’s involvement in maintaining the double standard. In a one study researchers found that “Women will endorse a sexual double standard in which women are judged more

The textbook Sociological Footprints points out, “it is through the ways in which we present ourselves in our daily encounters with others that gender is created and recreated.” Agents of socialization start within

In today’s society, there are many guidelines of how one should act and be. Gender socialization is the process where people take on notions of gender roles, gender ideas and gender behaviours. At an early age, boys and girls are told how to behave and act according to societal norms of gender behaviours and roles. The comparison of Jane Smiley’s article “You Can Never Have too Many” and John McMurty’s , “Kill ‘Em! Crush ‘Em! Eat ‘Em Raw!” provides an insight about how gender socialization is conditioned through toys and sports at an early age. Also teaching and reinforcing stereotypical gender roles through traits, appearances and occupation. (this is an incomplete sentence and it doesn’t flow

From this point in the discussion we turned to Nicole’s chosen academic publication on sexual double standards and sexting. The article asserts that boys accumulate positive ratings by possessing and exchanging images of girls’ body parts. Such images operate as a form of currency and value for guys, but for girls the images they hold of boys do not hold similar status. Girls develop a negative sexual reputation in which they are seen to be dirty and promiscuous if they sext whereas guys are praised for essentially perpetuating masculine

These high standards are the cause of gender inequality. In the article, “Becoming Members of Society: Learning The Social Meanings Of Gender”

The first decade of this millennium witnessed a dramatic awakening concerning the role of gender which had its marked impact on gender roles. As Wharton states, “the study of gender emerged as one of the most important trends in the discipline of sociology in the twentieth century” (1). This emergence prompted many theories regarding gender issues, which in turn, “propelled the sociological study of gender from the margins to become one of the central features of the discipline” (Wharton 2). Though every group is uniquely structured in a societal set up based on categories, the colossal development of research on gender issues clearly shows that all social interactions, and the institutions of human progress, are biased in the case of

In many movies, TV programs, and music video clips which refer to both genders show that women who have several sexual partners are labeled as “sluts” or “whores” while men who sleep around get praised for being a “player” and can be socially accepted. For example, in the 2010 movie, Essay A, Olive is confronted with consequences of rumors of her sexuality being made public. Women like Shirley and Olive are criticized more than men by the media for engaging in the same

The dominant group—men, white people, upper and middle class people, and heterosexuals—are considered the “norm” and all assumptions are created off of this “norm.” The media today creates the “norm” by showing boys and men as being tough and manly, and girls and women as passive, yet also sexy and sophisticated. Also, in school we are taught that girls should not take woodworking class, and instead should take cooking or health classes. By learning these rules and roles of our gender at school and in society, we are reinforced by what we have learned at home. The article about the cycle of socialization justifies that the media, our cultural practices, and the assumptions on which our society is built “all contribute to the reinforcement of the biased messages and stereotypes we receive.” The messages from the media, culture, and our own homes have embedded in our minds what is accepted in society and how to act. In the cycle of socialization, the institutional and cultural level of socialization is enforced constantly; therefore, the people who go against societies “norms” are immediately oppressed. The results of the cycle of socialization are disturbing, for the majority of society plays their roles and simply does nothing to change the “norm.”

The way society is taught to be socialized is salient and goes unnoticed, therefore it is valid to claim that gender is socially constructed through our everyday practices, whether we are aware of the construction or not. With socialization beginning the instant a child is born, the process is continuous through out adolescence and varies dramatically across the two genders. With guidance from institutions and arenas such as education, sports, music and the mass media gender seems to be coerced, as it comes with a scripted set of behaviors and attitudes. This essay argues that gender is socially constructed on an everyday basis. To further explain this thesis the essay will draw on early childhood socialization of masculinity and femininity,

As a female, I am extremely aware of the culture that has been developed around women throughout the world. I believe that as a female I should not have to experience the objectification by men that so profoundly conveys the false belief of the inferiority of women. I believe that I should not be discriminated against or evaluated because of my gender or physical appearance. This generalisation however does not only apply to women. Many men are also subjected to a culture in which they are evaluated by; one of which stresses the importance of a good body image and a sense of masculinity which emphasises strength, control and superiority over weak individuals such as women and children as ‘manly’. These are century old traditions and have stimulated

In demonstrating our first point of what ideologies about women look like and devices used, both in media and in society. In order to fully make thisfrom Leslie Weisman. Carter’s article focuses on the media’s portrayal as women specifically, “stereotypes of women and men (that) perpetuate the sexual inequality of women” (370). Specifically these stereotypes include that women are submissive and passive and are particularly harmful when combined with ideas that women are most valued for their sexuality, looks and domesticity. The reading from Weisman furthers explains how these ideas are linked to violence by showing how it occurs most often when women are not following these ideologies, such as a woman being outside the domicile, or just because the nature of these stereotypes depicts women as easily victimized (69).

In contemporary culture, women are essentially told to base their looks, attitudes, and actions in a single manner through the media which essentially reinforces male-centered sexuality. Feminist notions of a truly liberated female sexuality allow women to embrace their sexual value and express their identity how they wish without the presence of sexual scripts (Shaw & Lee 314). Adolescent girls should be given the freedom to explore their sexual value and their identity freely without culture telling them who, when, and where a female should be sexually expressing herself to. When women use erotic material to pleasure themselves, it is seen as sexual perversion when it is actually a way to attain liberation or way of expressing their sexuality (Shaw & Lee 351). Individuals who dress and expose their bodies might be given the title of a prostitute or whore.