Grey Within A Feminist Context

Professor’s Comment: This powerful essay contrasts the views of two feminist, Catherine MacKinnon and Sallie Tisdale, each of which perceives pornography in widely divergent ways. While MacKinnon's 'Not A Moral Issue' explains the adverse impacts of pornography to women and society as a whole, Tisdale's 'Talk Dirty to Me: An Intimate Philosophy of Sex' is receptive to pornography despite these adverse impacts, suggesting in fact that the solution to the problems associated with pornography is a greater role of women in production of that pornography.

Douglas’ humorous and well informed way of writing really inspired me. From examples of magazines, media, television shows, films, retail, and even in music she described and compared to us what is going on among these examples and how real women today are really living their lives. Douglas presents an analysis of how women are presented to the public and how we continue to be treated as inferior to men despite the strides of feminism. After reading this book, I even find myself reading or watching something and pretty much look to see if it is women friendly or not. This is something I really never done before until now. This book definitely got me to think about feminism and the role it plays in my life.

When on the topic of feminist writing, understanding the time period in which the author’s writing takes place persists as vastly important. Historically speaking, western culture follows a model thoroughly dominated by men. That commonality remains

Anne McClintock first talks about how women’s sexuality has always been suppressed in many cultures and societies around the world. There is a huge focus on making sure that men are taken care of sexually and that they are able to go out and show their sexuality and not be ashamed of it. Men are able to enjoy pornography and not feel guilty about enjoying it because it is apart of their nature. Everyone knows that men masturbate and they are not really shy with talking about it but when it comes to women it a foreign topic that if talked about makes you seem to promiscuous.

The paramount of social adversities facing the modern society is the divide between definitions of gender. Gender represents an abstract interpretation of sex and this notion is simply a societal construct. The establishment of gender has evolved into a tradition of humanity, however this tradition evolved into a social divide between masculinity and femininity. The pressure to conform to societal constructs of masculinity and femininity poisons society and branches off to toxic masculinity; such were nurtured from these figurative beliefs. Gender roles further stigmatize the victims who refuse to conform. However, gender roles has witnessed a revolution in modern times. The purpose of this collateral involves analyzing the evolution of gender roles present in media from mid 19th century to modern times. The period of time, or 1960’s, was chosen because of post World War II’s effects on stereotypes in society around the world. Post war not only challenged stereotypes but further kindled women’s role in the workforce and women began to fill in roles previously belonging to men. In later years, a radicalization of the feminist movement has spurred and our modern times is a witness to its ascension to the paramount of feminism. The media, since the 1960’s, has allowed society to be the primary witness. With the evolution of gender roles, the media must also adapt to the changes in societal views of gender roles and the entire feminist movement at large. This collateral seeks to

To begin, the researcher for the article pulled more than 650 young women from ages of eighteen to twenty-four, some have and some have not read 50 shades of grey. The results from those who have read the book are; 25% were more likely to have a partner who has yelled or swore at them, 34% had stalking tendencies, 75% more likely to diet or fast. Those who read all the books resulted in 65% are more likely to binge drink and 63% are more likely to have five or more partners in their lifetime (Michigan State University & Bonomi, 2015). In order to collect such

Throughout the documentary, I was most shocked by the sexualization of women on the news. Rachel Maddow stated that nearly 14% of her feedback she receives on her show includes ‘I hate you’ mail, threats to kill her, and all of these things, as Maddow states, “have to deal with gender and sexuality.” Another shocking statement made during this portion of the documentary was when Jay Leno asked in a playful tone, “are they professional newscasters

To begin, the researcher for the article pulled more than 650 young women from ages of eighteen to twenty-four, some have and some have not read 50 shades of grey. The results from those who have read the book were; 25% were more likely to have a partner who has yelled or swore at them, 34% had stalking tendencies, 75% more likely to diet or fast. Those who read all the books resulted in 65% are more likely to binge drink and 63% are more likely to have five or more partners in their lifetime (Michigan State University & Bonomi, 2015). In

Women have won small victories, but other battles are still being fought. With our current culture one cannot help but notice that many women displayed in ads, music videos, movies, fashion have been degraded and turned into a mere sexual object. I decided to read on both articles by author Bob Herbert because it discusses the crimes that to this day still affect women. The author makes incredible points that I can agree on. One of the many topics that I agree on is when the author stated, “The disrespectful, degrading, contemptuous treatment of women is so pervasive and so mainstream that it has just about lost its ability to shock”. (Herbert, Why Aren't We Shocked?, 2006). I agree on this because with the current “rape culture” as it’s known, many rape victims especially on college campuses that have suffered injustice because their rapists have not been stopped. Rape is not shocking anymore because our standards of women have been over sexualized, and we don’t stop and think that rape is a serious crime and the horrendous effects it has on a victim. When I see a new music video there is always a deep sexual meaning to it or there is a degrading message towards or about women. We have become so accustomed to this that we no longer view this as something wrong, but as the norm of society. Human trafficking happens every single day and there are many victims that are sold to prostitution, but yet the media does not focus on the atrocities faced by women every single day, but rather glorify the “pimps” through scandalous song lyrics. Another statement by the author is, “Now Mr. Solid Citizen can come home, log on to this $7 billion mega-industry and get his kicks watching real women being beaten and sexually assaulted on Web sites with names like “Ravished Bride” and “Rough Sex – Where Whores Get Owned.” (Herbert, Why

Worlds that are similar; Oryx and Crake and 50 Shades of Grey In Oryx and Crake, the fiction is based on a speculative idea in which the world is based on the assumption of the future our past events have led up to. The author, Margaret Atwood touches on a number of complex problems such as human sexuality and the fact that it is quite critical in the center of the problems of society. In her body of works, she also writes about animal extinction, biotechnology, climate changes, and slavery in which are all topics that modern society is facing as well.

As decades have proven gender roles have worked to create one of the main disputes preexisting in our society. The controversial phenomena, set upon by the movie, Fifty Shades of Grey, works to fulfill this very popular belief. As college senior Anastasia Steele visits the powerful business man Christen Gray, to interview him for a school paper, the story takes a plot twist as the over achieving college student and successful business owner build a deeper, and more and inmate level of relationship. Throughout the story as the plot thickens and the character's relationship goes on, the viewers are introduced to an essential theme, very common in many cultures. Although as both characters work within their roles, christen gray's character shows the stronger cultural disagreement through the use of his language, sexual action and physical control.

The hot seller Fifty Shades of Grey is a descriptive novel of a man fulfilling his dirty fantasy. It starts off clean talking about a man meeting a women, Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele, then leads to talking over coffee, and advancing to a friends with benefits. The friends with benefits is more than just hooking up with another, it becomes a submissive and dominant relationship. Christian is the dominant and exercises his sexual fantasies on Anastasia Steele who is the submissive. Throughout the novel there are correlations to the ideas and discussions in the Sociology – Gender, Power, and Society class. There are many different ways that this connection takes place, such as through the dialogue, the way things are described and

One issue that feminists should bring to the open and question is the definition of pornography. Often times anti-porn feminists argue that we can tell what is and isn’t porn easily. Yet the definition these feminists use to decide what counts as porn and whether it should be censored from the public applies to many things as Lumby points out in paragraphs nine and twelve. She draws up the movie Siren as an example of how Elle Macpherson’s nudity in the movie was widely accepted and went uncontested, but then Lumby points out how Macpherson’s shoot for Playboy was more modest than some of the shots in the film yet the photo shoot receives more flack because it’s categorized as porn (par 9).

Catharine MacKinnon, in her book Feminism Unmodified, takes a unique approach to the problem of gender inequality in America. She claims that pornography defines the way in which America’s patriarchal society perpetuates male dominance, and attacks traditional liberal methods that defend pornography on the basis of the first amendment’s right to free speech. According to MacKinnon, pornography is not an example of speech but rather an act. She proposes that this act discriminates against women as a class, and therefore violates their civil rights and should be outlawed. MacKinnon’s critics may think her argument is excessively radical, and contemporary society may not embrace the

Thesis: In recent years during the 21st century more and more people in the media have been calling out fairytales for their anti-feminist attitudes with sexism, body standards as well as societal comments about women being dependent on men.