Social Aspects Of Women 's Sexuality

Women are sexually exploited in the media. In today’s society if people watch television programs such as Chingy featuring Snoop & Ludacris – Holidae; Charlie's Angels; the Z100 commercial with Britney Spears; or Baywatch they will see that the feminine image is presented differently than the masculine. In these programs men are typically placed in sexual situations fully clothed, while women are presented in provocative clothing or less. The camera will frequently zoom in on body parts to focus on the woman’s buttocks, midriff, and legs. Society is still dominated by men who control what people see. As a result women are increasingly portrayed as sex symbols as a way for a media company to turn

The sexualisation of women in advertising has become a very prominent and controversial issue in today’s society. Many brands, products and campaigns we are presented with portray women as being available and willing sexual objects, who exist to cater to the male gender. Gucci is one such brand that does this, focusing on emphasizing the sexual appeal of the female gender in order to sell their products, because as advertisers know: ‘sex sells.’ This new cultural shift can however, be seen as politically regressive for women, as the ideology it brings negatively impacts how women are viewed by society and how they view themselves.

The documentaries Dream World 3 and Killing Us Softly 4 examine the exploitation of women within the media. The media, such as advertisement and the music video industry, relies heavily on the seductive image of female sexuality. Evident in not only every genre of music, but also every form of advertisement, the videos and advertisements expose and, subsequently sexualize the female body. Such sexualization inevitable leads to

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

In 2016, the United States spent 190 billion U.S. dollars on advertisements, almost double the amount of money on advertising than the next largest ad market (Statista). These ads advertise a multitude of different products. The ads are exposed to society in many different ways, from the breaks in between songs on the radio, to the ads shown online. Ads are targeted to a specific group of people, usually, the target demographic the brand wants to buy their product. Brands will often use women’s bodies in a sexual way to get people to stop and look at their ads. Over the last few decades, speakers and activists have seen advertisements becoming more sexual and more demeaning towards women. Activist Jean Kilbourne has been analyzing ads and has been bringing awareness to this issue for years through her four documentaries. In her documentary, “Killing Us Softly 4,” Jean Kilbourne asserts women’s bodies are often dismembered, portrayed with an unattainable, “ideal” body type, and despite advances in the women’s movement, the objectification of women in ads have gotten worse. The two images below illustrate these ideas.

Advertising executives argue that the images they flagrantly display are only to catch people’s attention, and there is no deep underlying message in them. However, studies done on the effects of sexual images in the media on young women prove otherwise. According to a study done by The University of Texas, “girls with higher levels of ‘interalized sexualiztion’ earned lower grades in school and scored lower on standardized tests than their peers.” Advertising executives claim to be “playing to their audience,” but are they conditioning their young audience to think that this sexulization is normal? In Women and Media: A Critical Introduction the authors claim that the media is “deliberately structured to produce a male gaze that makes voyeurs of us all.” Over sensationalizing womens bodies takes women’s power from them and gleefully

Do you remember the last ad you saw in the past 24 hours? Do you remember what they were selling? It was definitely not the item that was mentioned at the bottom of the ad. For years, marketing has been using people 's temptations to make them interested in the ad, or commercial; not necessarily in the product. In Judith Lorber’s piece, “Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt”: Advertising and Violence, it becomes evident how many different ways a woman can be negatively affected by the media’s idea of how a sexy woman is supposed to look and be treated. Lorber’s research explains how women are negatively affected in the workforce and within their daily lives due to the constant objectification of women in ads and commercials. Women are forced to

In her article she not only discusses how men and women are sexualized, but also how each gender is sexualized under different concepts; “Briefly, the feminine gender role model encourages women to please themselves. Implicit to this model is that in the process of pleasing them-selves, women will also please others (Barthel, 1994; Wolf, 1991). Conversely, the masculine gender role model emphasized power, whether in the boardroom, bedroom, or on the playing field” (Rohlinger p.1). Men and women are equally sexualized, however, the ways people construe that sexualization varies among whether one is viewing a male or female. From this view point Rohlinger discusses that even though men and women’s sexualization through advertisement may be regarded differently “…they have a similar social effect: the body becomes an object that is manipulated, disciplined, and viewed by others” (Rohlinger p.2).

The role of women in today’s society has dramatically evolved from the views that society shared in previous decades. No longer is a woman valued for her etiquette, grace and virtues, instead we are constantly in competition with one another over being more provocative and sexually charged. A perfect example of this ironically acceptable behaviour is portrayed through the women we view on a daily basis in music videos. It is evident that the concept ‘sex sells’ is now being used in almost every advertisement and video that we watch on daily television and the indoctrination of this concept has spread wide and far throughout the entertainment

The article I have chosen for this assignment can be found in Cosmopolitan magazine and is titled, “What We Get Wrong About Black Women’s Sexuality: How do you figure out what an emancipated sexuality looks like when society at large assumes you’re hypersexual?

The 10 Percent Problems and The Social Construction of Sexuality were definitely my favorite two articles that I have read for this class. I have learned no matter how advanced our world is, there are still people that are afraid to come out and admit they are gay. Even in 2016, there are people that would be against LGBT communities. After the election, a large number of crimes have been committed towards the LGBT community. It will influence my thinking by being more sensitive towards LGBT people. In the past, some of the ideas I had about LGBT effected the way I communicated with them. After reading this article, it made me realize how rude or insensitive that was. This year I have personally met my first Transgender individual. It gave

During the adolescent years a lot of change occurs both physically and emotionally and although engaging in sexual activity is a personal decision, taking risks can certainly have outside influences. Psychologist Urie Bronfenbreener’s ecological perspective theory posits that a child’s development is formed through interconnected influences with their environment based on a layered system. These systems include: microsystem (direct connection to groups or institutions), mesosystem (the interconnection between microsystem components), exosystem (social settings that indirectly affect the child because of their influences on the microsystem and mesosystems) and macrosystem (culture, values and laws governing the other systems). (Moritsugu,

Since the invention of sexuality as a social construct, there has been the invention of heterosexual versus the other – with the other being anything beyond opposite-sex attraction. This otherness creates discrimination and hatred, thus reinforcing a normal versus abnormal feeling within people. In 2013, 42% of Americans confessed that they believed that being gay or lesbian was a choice, and that choice was to live an abnormal lifestyle (Masci, "Americans Are Still Divided on Why People Are Gay"). Abnormalities regarding sexuality – whether a choice or not – reinforce compulsory heterosexuality because people do not want to be seen as different, or abnormal. Compulsory heterosexuality is a problem within society because it reinforces a viewpoint that homosexuality is abnormal and therefore, wrong.

There are certainly many different ‘types’ of feminists with varying beliefs on various topics. Pornography is one of the most widely disputed of these topics, and has long caused controversy among feminists. Two clear, and distinctly different, sides have been taken by Andrea Dworkin as well as Linda Williams.

There has always been and continues to be a double-standard between both genders and the practice of sexual behavior. The practice of sex was to be hidden from public opinion and the idea that sex has to be done in secrecy has carried over through centuries (Markey & Markey 2007). For women, they are to embody all things ladylike which includes the practice of abstaining until marriage. For males, it is encouraged to explore their masculinity and not to apologize for their exploration. As society expands in the knowledge about sex through the growth of technology, the practice of sex is now integrated as a topic of conversation (Price, Pound, & Scott, 2014). Yet, this public acceptance of sex has caused speculation which can lead an individual to be promiscuous (Markey & Markey, 2007). This paper will examine the factors that contribute to the gender differences of sexual behavior with an emphasis on promiscuity.