Media 's Growing Sexualization Of Women

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

Through most avenues including music videos, movies, television programs, and advertisements it is normal for women to be portrayed in a manner that emphasizes their body parts, bodies, sexual readiness, and facial features. More precisely, they are exclusively portrayed as decorative objects that only pose and sexually dance without playing any instruments. Sexual objectification of women has been in this culture for centuries and it is generally accepted and condoned. The government can intervene by establishing and implementing programs to educate both women and men on sexuality and critically analyzing media. Further, women can be empowered and taught to become activists and resist sexual objectification in the

`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.

In a 1992 study of female students at Stanford University, “70% of women reported feeling worse about themselves and their bodies after looking at magazines” (What’s the Problem?). By looking at this evidence, it can be concluded that stricter regulations need to be implemented as far as how sexuality is depicted in advertising in order to protect the young minds of women. Without the use of regulations, the small problem of objectification multiplies into many different disorders that are harder to fix than to simply stop the cause.

Movies, magazines, advertisements, television, music videos and even music lyrics are just a handful of media sources where I have noticed an increased focus on women being viewed as sexual objects, instead of women proposing an empowering message. Many people in our society are not aware of the extent in which sexualisation of women in the media is occurring every day of our lives; this is because we live in a culture where sexuality is more accepted; this is is having negative effects on the social aspect of our society. So, has the media and society pushed sexualisation too far? It is believed that women are hyper-sexualised in the media and this is changing the way women are looked at; but what are we actively doing as a society to reduce this issue?

Magazines, Internet, radio, music videos, music lyrics, and other types of mainstream media relentlessly portray sexualized images of women that not only promote narrow and unrealistic ‘standards’ of physical beauty, but seem to endorse, glorify and encourage them. We are almost back to the 1950’s, where women were seen merely as a sex object. Horrifyingly the media is now broadening their attacks and promotions of sex to teenagers and young girls. A report created by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), attest that there are many short term and long term physical, emotional and psychological effects of the premature sexualisation of teenagers and young girls.

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

The media has a strong impact on us. From advertisement in commercials to radio, the media has been dictating what we should see and hear. The videos we watched in class showed how bad the media sexualize women in commercials and how bad women are treated in the media.

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

In Western society, the media hypersexualizes children from birth. However, this hypersexuality is commonly focused on girls aged eight to fifteen (Canadian Women’s Health Network). This leads to self-esteem issues, high teenage pregnancy rates, eating disorders, sex trafficking, suicidal thoughts, and actions, and what is called the “Lolita effect.” This hypersexuality also leads to violent relational abuse, and in boys, has been shown linked with violence (Keating). These all have devastating consequences on individuals as well as on Western society as a whole. With less and less clothing becoming more and more prominent in Western culture, by the media, it seems even children are picking up on this trend. This phenomenon, the “Lolita

Wolf begins this chapter with the discussing how women’s sxuality has been reduced. Traditionally women’s sexuality was limited due to religious views and beliefs. On the opposite side, there has been no effect to the man’s sexuality when it come to religion. Then Wolf explains beauty pornography and beauty sadomasochism in terms of how it relates to women.Magazines, books, and commercials play a major role in how women view beauty and internalize images of the beauty pornography Beauty pornography is represented, “...where the face is visible, it is expressionless in a rictus of ecstasy” (Wolf, 133). Women reading this internalize this as they must look like women in advertisements if they want to feel like that. Beauty sadomasochism is the

According to the Levine, “sexualization is the inappropriate imposition of sexuality upon a person, whether through objectification, overvaluing,or emphasizing the person’s appearance and/or sexual behavior”. Over several decades,women have been transformed into developing a pornified culture: “Social media has stimulated the sexualization rates of women and girls from 44% of women in the 1960s to 83% of women in the 2000s due to the several overwhelming media techniques such as advertisements, magazines, movies, television, and films” (USA Today 1). These images illustrate the beauty

The sexualization of girls and women has become a prominent problem within our society. Every day men and women alike are exposed to demeaning and derogatory images and depictions of women through social media outlets, advertisements, TV programs and movies, and simple internet searches. This has facilitated the development of harmful societal stereotypes and standards that have put girls and women at-risk for mental health challenges (e.g. eating disorders, mood and affective disorders) and sexual assault, sexual abuse, and human trafficking.

Hypersexual means exhibiting unusual or excessive concern with or indulgence in sexual activity. Playboy, The Bachelor, Toddlers & Tiaras, and The Bad Girls Club are few of the many media outlets that involve or are solely based on hyper-sexualized and degrading images of females. According to the media a person’s values comes from their appearance and availability for sex. Women are being sexually exposed more so then men. In a recent study of Rolling Stone Magazine covers over time it found that 17 percent of men were sexualized (an increase of 55 percent from the ‘60s), and 83 percent of women were sexualized (an increase of 89 percent) (Donovan, “Study Finds Marked Rise…”). Since we hit the 2000s there are 10 times more hyper sexualized images of females than males, and 11 times more non-sexualized images of males than females. Women in the media are not being portrayed as respectable, powerful, equals. They are being portrayed as available objects of a male’s sexual pleasure. Studies have shown that these ideas being produced and encouraged by the media has altered the male population’s perception on the value of females and has led to an increase in incidents of sexual violence.

Sexualisation of the social world has become a very prominent social issue since the early 90’s. It has affected many influential individuals in devastating ways such as that of eating disorders, body image issues and mental illnesses. This essay will explore sociological explanations to understand and draw conclusions on why the sexualisation of culture has and continues to occur today. I will explore feminism and how it has influenced sexualisation of culture today and how pornography has influenced todays pornification problems.