Media Analysis:
Since the news hit that Playboy is pulling all nude photos in the spring of next year many news companies all have shared their own view, however we are only going to look at two of them. Starting with the headlines from The New York Times, Playboy, an Aging Roue, Finds That Nudes Are Now Old News as it Seeks Readers. There is also CNN who states “Larry Flynt thinks Playboy’s nude-free move is ‘ludicrous’.” In both articles we will explore playboy on how it came about and the new direction it is going, along with how, Hugh Hefner and Cory Jones, one of the top editors at Playboy came to this decision, as well as any bias’ that the articles may have and how it relates to sociology.
When it comes to Playboy pulling nude photos many may believe it is going to end in financial ruin, however Playboy is confident that they need to rebrand their company in the fact that it has come to light, and both articles agree that the sales of their magazines have had a steady decline since we live in a world of social media. Now that we live in a society where you can get whatever you want with a click of a button, including porn, Playboy has gone from selling a shocking total of 5.6 million in 1975, down to only 800,000 issues. Many are probably asking the same question that Vice, Mr. Flanders asked, “If you take nudity out, what’s left?” (Somaiya 2015). The article from The New York Times, it talked of how Playboy has already been making decisions to tone down the magazine
The hypersexualization of females is fairly prevalent across different cultures. The media seems to be bombarded by it; magazines are plastered with risque images of barely clothed woman and even young girls. In 2011, a French issue of Vogue featured females as young as ten years-old as models, “Stretched and slinked on an array of animal furs.” Their clothing was low cut and revealing. This prompted the French
Tropp, Sandra Fehl., and Ann Pierson. D'Angelo. "Pornography (1983)." Essays in Context. New York: Oxford UP, 2001. 543-47. Print.
`Nevertheless Stephanie’s whole article gets masked by expert claims which consist of topics that are not connected to the main idea of the article at hand. Stephanie leans on controversial claims from experts who have PhD’s to make up her whole entire paper. Through her use of various references she tries to support her argument mainly through text. The article leads into sections such as “SOCCER HEADING MAKES A BAD HAIR DAY” (Hanes484) and “SEXY’S NOT ABOUT SEX, ITS ABOUT SHOPPING’’ (Hanes487). She uses those sections to create different aspects of sexualization and cause the reader to reflect on the given information. With that being said these sections do state things about how the media plays on hyper sexualized images and girls becoming women too fast. However the main purpose of the article gets lost upon topic such as pornography, sexy clothing and sexting. If the organizational use of research and personal experiences had tied into Stephanie’s original claim against the Disney Princesses Empire her article would have been more put together.
It is now so deeply integrated in our society that a piece of entertainment loses its value when nudity is not present in some form. With all this nudity floating around,one may ask what role does it play in displaying the message of the image. Nudity itself is a challenging ideology to our society, the line between appropriate vs inappropriate and acceptable versis unacceptable have seem to grow thin. The act of nudity can represent a multitude of ideology before being nude was seen as sacred and the act of being seen nude especially in public was forbidden.But as the narrative has evolved overtime being nude is now correlated to being free and open minded. Being nude in our society is expressing yourself in a manner that you deem acceptable, that we shouldn't lot be limited to what society deems appropriate. It is actually a very selfish narrative where everything revolves around the person and his or her personal goals.Marita Sturkin and Lisa Cartwright hit on the ideology of individual in the “Practices of Looking,” “One could say that ideology is the means by which certain values, such as individual freedom, progress, and the importance of home, are made to seem like natural, inevitable aspects of everyday life (Sturkin & Cartwright 21).” This kind of egocentric narrative is present in the Rolling Stone cover when dissected fully,and it shows how the narrative in America is more like me, me, me instead of us, us, us. Even though nudity is now somewhat encouraged by our entertainment, there are still levels to nudity. In most cases when a woman is presented nude she is usually presented in a way that is not too exposing, just as Julia Dreyfus is doing in the cover. This is due to the fact that there is still a
Gail Dines’s book Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality (Beacon Press, 2011) is about how porn is affecting our lives and why it's presence is damaging to our sexual freedom. Her point of view is just one point of view but it's very thought provoking and it makes you question a lot of things. A lot of things that you wouldn't generally think of. Some may not agree with her point-of-view because of her “anti-porn” agenda, but in this book Dine makes a fair amount of valid points.
In “Blame Photo Thieves, Not the Female Victim,” columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. expresses his perspective that while it is biologically natural for heterosexual men, regardless of occupation or personal beliefs, to find scantily clad women attractive, it should be a woman’s choice of whether to pose naked for the public or not. Pitts believes that a violation occurs when women are denied that choice and have personal nudes leaked over the internet, such as in recent cases involving Jenifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, Kirsen Dunst, and other high profile celebrities. Pitts claims that blaming the females for taking the photographs or placing them on an unreliable cloud would be similar to blaming the rape victim and the fault therefore lies with the perpetrator. Here, Pitt’s comments on the shrinking of the public sphere and
The pornification (or alternatively pornographication) of the social world has created lasting effects in the lives of people that they must deal with every day (Dines 1998, p. 164). Pornification is the process by which the social and cultural world is sexualised. This occurs through the expansion of media technology and the pornography industry, as well as changes in media regulations and restrictions which allow pornographic imagery to intrude into public spaces (Tyler 2011, p. 79). This essay will offer explanations for why the pornification of the social world is occurring, how the phenomenon differs from a freedom of expression issue and is instead considered a sociological issue, what consequences and harm arise from these explanations, and will offer social measures that can be adopted in order to deal with the issue. Pornification has occurred in almost every realm of the social world, including in its unaltered form on the Internet, social media, marketing, advertising, music, fashion, sport, and art. However, this expansion of easily accessible pornified content is a stark and confronting challenge for our social world.
Specific Purpose: To inform the audience of history the Playboy Enterprise while providing well researched and collaborative support from experts.
Mr. Hefner is widely known as the greatest bachelor of all time due to his Playboy magazine which first launched in December 1953. After Mr. Hefner’s first publications began to sale featuring Marilyn Monroe, the critics stepped in. Even though earning a staggering forty three million dollars in net worth feels great, it does not come easily. While people called Mr. Hefner things like pervert and degenerate, his money began to speak and people began to listen. Soon those criticizing words changed into rebel and genius. It was a terrific time to release a new sexy magazine right after the great depression. People needed something to get their minds off of the economy and nothing does that better than sex. Playboy magazine was named after an automobile company in Chicago because Hugh Hefner thought it resembled high class and high class is what he became.
There are many different aspects of American Culture. One part of this culture is the idolization of beautiful women. Playboy is one of many examples of how Americans idolize women. Playboy Enterprises, recognized by their iconic Playboy Bunny symbol, started off as just a men’s magazine that includes journal articles, fiction, and of course, photographs of nude women. Playboy Magazine was founded by Hugh Hefner in Chicago, Illinois in 1953. Hefner incorporated HMH Publishing Co., Inc. in Delaware on October 1, 1953. In December of 1953 Hefner released the first issue of the magazine that would feature Marilyn Monroe on the cover. It would become very successful, selling more than 50,000 copies of the first issue.
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).
Thesis – Multiple outlooks have been taken on the ethics of pornography, and the means by which it may either negatively influence power in sexuality, or actually provide some sort of social value and worth. These different ethical perspectives display the flaws in the industry and what it represents; yet they also end up proving the fact that it can be modified with positive influence and that pornography is not something to be deemed utterly unethical.
The pornographic industry has not lost their viewers, and the constant leaks of female celebrity personal pictures demonstrate that society has always sexualized women’s body for their pleasure. McRobbie states that there is a modern movement where women are free to choose for themselves. Females are choosing to go topless to prove breasts are merely body parts. Celebrities such as Bella Hadid and Rihanna walk the streets with see-through tops, making the appearance of their breasts nothing but a fashion statement. Many allegations are made saying self-exposing breasts comes from a lack of self-respect. The question arises, is it only acceptable for women to be topless for the pleasure of others? Not in the current pop culture world. Women are free to make their decisions, and they have decided their breasts are not to be sexualized. If a woman’s breast is out, she is doing it out of choice and for her
In recent years, pornography has established itself as perhaps the most controversial topic arising out of the use of the Internet. The easy availability of this type of sexually explicit material has caused a panic among government officials, family groups, religious groups and law enforcement bodies and this panic has been perpetuated in the media.
“Never before in history of telecommunications media in the United States has so much indecent (and obscene material been so easily accessible by so many minors in so many American homes with so few restrictions” (qtd in “Pornography and Child Sexual Abuse”). The problem addressed in the quote by the U.S. Department of Justice is pornography, a 10 billion dollar industry, has made its way from discreet taboo to something that is today considered acceptable and even common. With the internet being such a common tool, it is no surprise that there is easy access to sexually explicit material. The widespread accessibility and usage of pornography has changed people’s outlook on the normality of watching such sexually explicit material, and