Females who are over-sexualized often seek attention and acceptance. Raunch is less about female

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.”

Gender is a sociological idea, in which it is not based on biology. While there is some biological differences between the sexes, the “meaning” of being male or female is based on social norms. Like race, these “biological” differences provided a system of enabling inequality between the sexes. History offers many examples of the gender norms over time. Women, for centuries, are few as the homemakers and often viewed as intelligent. Despite living in the twentieth century with greater equality, one does not need to go far to see how society and media influence our perception of gender. Advertisements in various media persuade its audience to buying their products. However, the means of attracting and persuading the audience can have underlying messages. Even in entertainment for young girls these underlying messages are prevalent. One example is the popular film, The Little Mermaid, in which the main protagonist is a young female. The protagonist gave up her identity to satisfy her lover. Even traditional gender roles are at work; the film showed young girls that to be happy and successful one had to find a husband and must relinquished one’s identity (Wood 1994). The generalized perception of male and female are polar opposites. Males are viewed as masculine, strong, authoritative, powerful, and devoid of emotions. Females are viewed as beauty, fragile, nurturing, emotional and sole purpose is to please men. These ideas can lead to sexism, which can have negative effects on

In the American culture today, women are becoming more sexualized at a younger age due to the influences of the corporate media. Corporate media and society form the perfect idealistic body that women should have and is constantly being promoted making younger girls start to compare themselves to them at a young age. Certain shows and movies, such as Disney, influence young children and teenagers through their characters as to how a woman is supposed to be accepted. The way the corporate media and society make this body image they want women to have starts in a very early stage in a woman's life without them knowing. There are these childhood movies, such as Disney, Barbie and Ken dolls, programs such as Netflix, teen

Ariel Levy, a staff writer at the New Yorker, and author of the article “Female Chauvinist Pig” has brought up a very interesting topic about Raunch Culture. Now, what particularly is raunch culture? Raunch culture, in my own words, I can say is defined as a culture which allows a woman to participate in male-dominant cultures of raunch that deals a lot with sex in a way that is meant to be funny. Women who participate in this culture have to reject some of the things women are known to do, which they consider “girly-girl”. Although some things that they wear or do are considered “girly-girl”, women still have to embrace, acknowledge and accept certain male stereotypes in order to participate in raunch culture.

The effects of the portrayal of the princesses can be positive or negative. Young girls have become more imaginative by watching Disney films. According to Stephanie Hanes (n.p.), “’For 75 years, millions of little girls and their parents around the world have adored and embraced the diverse characters and rich stories featuring our Disney princesses.... [L]ittle girls experience the fantasy and imagination provided by these stories as a normal part of their childhood development’.” Also, children are encouraged to believe and hope. In most Disney movies, the characters convey the message that we can believe in true love (10 DISNEY MOMENTS THAT PROVE LOVE IS ALIVE AND WELL

If a trend is not popular, the media will not expose it. Raunch culture was a popular trend, and women of all ages followed it. If one was to see a fifty year old lady wearing revealing jeans it would be considered uncouth. Likewise, the media implied that dressing raunchy was acceptable. Levy describes, "I'd walk down the street and see teens and young women- and the occasional wild fifty year old wearing jeans cut so low they exposed what came to be known as butt cleavage" (143). Although raunch culture was a solid trend, Levy disagrees with the media and feels that women should uphold a certain standard. In the essay, she claims "I'd graduated from Wesleyan University, a place where you could pretty much get expelled for saying "girl" instead of women" (144). Levy emphasizes the importance of a woman and that women should carry themselves with high standards. According to Levy, the raunch trend was exploiting women’s sexuality. On the contrary, some women may have questioned raunch culture the way Levy did. However, the media would simply state that it is feminism and it was acceptable to be raunchy. In Levy’s essay it claims, "This new raunch culture didn't mark the death of feminism, they told me it was evidence that the feminist project had already been achieved. We've earned the right to look at playboy; we were empowered enough to get Brazilian bikini waxes" (144). The media was able to manipulate the

The issue of sexuality in advertising has been raised in the last ten years (Brooke, 2010; Bradley, 2007; Phillips, 2005; Kent, 2005 & Levy, 2005), hence the concept of raunch culture raises the question of whether women are being empowered or victimised. This essay will discuss whether raunch culture represents a wave of new feminism, focusing on whether women’s sexuality is being celebrated in a healthy and empowering manner or preyed upon by marketing’s misogynistic and exploitating image of the good life laid out in various media forms, from billboards to sex videos to television advertisements and movies. It will also identify the role and responsibilities of marketers in relation to the stakeholders involved. Subsequently, followed

Raunch culture, the over-sexualiation of woman, is on the rise as we so vividly see both in the movie “Mean Girls” and Ariel Levy’s, a well-known journalist and author’s, article titled Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture”. The movie “Mean Girls” tells the story of a highschool girl, Cady Heron, who moves to the country and to her first public school. She discovers that the best way to survive is to try to blend in with the norms that society provides. In her case, she befriends a group of girls who only focus on their sexual appearances, and belittling the others around them to feel more powerful and feminine in their own eyes. This theme closely relates to Ariel Levy’s article where she awes at the change of our society with statements such as, “Its stars who kept talking about “strong women” and “empowerment,” who were dressed in alternating soft-porn styles-- as massage parlor geishas, dominatrixes, yodeling Heidis in alpine bustiers”.

Since the invention of television, the media and film industry has contributed to sexually exploit, and oppress woman of color, not only in America but also around the world. There is a great focus on women of color as sexual targets. This is deleterious to society because the media are creating social stereotypes for women of color that can occur in unhealthy social and physical habits. For example, Women of color are sexualized in particular forms perceived as animalistic and sexual with a firm focus on body appearance mainly the posterior. Sexualization has given women an ideal version of who they are supposed to be.

girls believe that this is a way of female empowerment. Some feminists criticize raunch culture

The American patriarchal society has set standards for what it means to be a man or a woman. In an excerpt from Ariel Levy’s book entitled Female Chauvinist Pigs, she argues that some women are attaining success in a male-dominated society by taking on what is perceived as “male” behavior as she highlights the increased participation of women in “raunch culture.” Raunch culture seems to be appealing to some women because they are able to use it for self-advancement by promoting their sexuality through the acceptance of or participation in activities such as stripping and pornography, according to Levy. The issue of women oppression is far more complex than what Levy claims; raunch culture does not bring

The documentary “Miss Representation” deals with the idea that women are taught from a very young age that their looks and appearances are one of the most, if not the most, important aspects of themselves. Not their character nor their achievements, but how they dress and present themselves. The article Hetero Barbie?, By Mary F. Rogers, deals with this idea as well, and can be related back to this documentary. In schools, young girls are sexualized and feminized from a very young age, due to the media that surrounds them. These young girls are practically forced by society to “pay increasing attention to the size and shape of their bodies, the range and contents of their wardrobes, the styling of their hair, and the making up of their faces” (Rogers 128). The fact that these young girls are supposed to focus on their appearances in school, rather than their academics or on the desire to become a better human being, is taught to them by society and the media. The documentary mentioned previously discusses a lot on this topic. The idea of female characters being sexualized is common throughout every source of media, including child-like cartoons. The amount of female characters in rated-G Disney movies that are wearing scantily-clad clothing is profound, and is highly impressionable to the young viewers that may end up watching these films. The majority of these female characters are on a mission of sorts to win over a man’s true love. The commonality here is that if young girls see other females on the big screen being swooned over by men while wearing little clothing, they begin to understand that appearances are more important

The sexualization of young girls and women in society is a prevalent theme in mass media. Presently, the sexualization of females is commonly seen in various consumer items like clothes, dolls, and even in Disney movies, according to “The Sexualization of Girls Is Harmful” article. The author says that sexualization occurs when “a person’s value comes only from his or her sexual appeal or behavior; a person is held to a standard that equates physical attractiveness with being sexy; a person is sexually objectified- made into a thing for others’ sexual use; and sexuality is inappropriately imposed upon a person (AboutKidsHealth).” Furthermore, the author provides statistics on how girls are being sexualized by the products they see and use

Disney Princess inspire young girls but is it in a good way? A debate that’s going on this day is “Is Disney Sexist”. With Feminism becoming strong people are starting to question if certain things are sexist. When you have a company that makes many movies that inspire young girls it is bound to come up. Disney is not sexist because only one Disney princess film did not pass the Bechdel test, princesses are focusing less on their appearances, and Disney princesses are teaching girls.

Sexual content of any nature was considered devils play in the highly Catholic society that was North America, up until early to middle 20th Century (Noble, 2013). There has been a fast swing in the Pendulum of Life as now today’s society has become extremely sexualized. This has lead to negative affects on both males and females in numerous ways. As various aspects of culture have primarily targeted females over the past several generations, this has been used to expand multiple industries. Males have predominantly contributed to this, but just as very well been negatively affected by this as well. Developing from past generations of media tabloids, advertising and twisting the cultural views on sex taboo and symbols, have