The Affect of Cultural Ideology on The Way We Perceive Images

Over the past 200 years sexual liberation and freedom have become topics of discussions prevalent within western culture and society. With the recent exploration of sexuality a new concept of sexual and gender identity has emerged and is being analyzed in various fields of study. The ideology behind what defines gender and how society explains sex beyond biology has changed at a rapid pace. In response various attempts to create specific and catch all definitions of growing gender and sexual minorities has been on going. This has resulted in the concept of gender becoming a multi- layered shifting hypothesis to which society is adapting. Since the 19th-century, philosophers and theorists have continued to scrutinize gender beyond biological and social interpretation. Margaret Atwood 's The Handmaid 's Tale captures the limitations and social implications forced upon a set gender based on societal expectations. Gender is a social construct that limits the individual to the restrictions and traditions of a society, or if it’s an individually formed self-identification of sex and sexuality that is formed autonomously. Evidence of gender establishment can be seen within literary works and supported by various schools of gender and sexuality theory.

According to some radical feminists, the heterosexual relationship, and the presumption of this as a 'norm' is a patriarchal system in itself. Adrienne Rich (1980) claimed that the assumption of a mystical/biological heterosexual inclination, a 'preference' or 'choice' which draws women towards men, obscures the covert socialisations and the overt forces which have channeled women into marriage and heterosexual romance (cf. Krieken et al, 2000). She claimed that this social arrangement emerges to enforce women's total emotional, erotic loyalty and subservience to men.

To a certain degree, seeing how these matters have progressed since the 1960s gives a good vantage to predicting where they will go in the future. In conclusion, I will look at the future of change on these matters, by examining what seems to be the "avant garde" regarding matters of sex and gender, the phenomenon of transsexualism. I hope an examination of transsexualism will point out some of the contradictions that still continue to exist in American ideas about matters of sex.

During the early 1800s into the nineteenth century it was believed that men and women came from two separate spheres. These spheres influenced the way gender roles were shaped and perceived. Suggesting that women belonged in the household, apart of the private sphere and men belonged in the economic world, apart of the public sphere. Men and women were understood to be polar opposites and because of this, women were oppressed. Female sexuality was defined as “passionlessness,” and only for the purpose of reproduction. We learn that women were considered “voracious” for expressing their sexuality however, men were encouraged to express their sexuality as part of maintaining power, prestige, and masculinity. (Cott, 1978, 222). Men

When I analyzed my self-representation I noticed many different things, from the rhetorical message that it gave to people, to the physical aspects that would be interpreted by first time viewers. If someone looks at my visual representation they would interpret that I am a very serious or conceited guy because I am just giving a smirk look. In my visual representation there is ethos and pathos appeals that helps send a message to first time viewers.

One of the first things that pops into the average person’s mind when they hear the term “rebellion” is a revolt against the tyrannical overlord. However, rebellion can also occur in the individual level. For many people, they rebel against stereotypes and their environment, not totalitarian governments. But in some ways, a tyrannical government and stereotypes can be very similar to each other as both are something that people rise up against. In Leslie Bell’s Hard to Get: Twenty- Something Women and the Paradox of Sexual Freedom, she drives home the idea that sexualiy for women is especially complicated because of the numerous stereotypes and confusion that surrounds it. Often, young women rebel against cultural norms to create their identity and do so by either

This paper examines the social aspects of the sexual identity in America, illustrating how sexual identities have progressed, evolved, and transformed. Social categories have been created as a tool used for social divide and control, inadvertently creating stereotypical facts and discriminatory opinions on sexes; while also helping create social and welcoming communities, whose goals are to diminish ideals such as those. Concluding, this paper will have explained the dichotomous categories of different sexualities and the divides within them. The already established sexual divide leaves no room for those stuck in the in between of today's society, especially one as progressive as America’s. Derived from the examples giving, this paper argues

In this example, Blum shows the reader how little to no effect “gender” has on people She emphasizes how children are brainwashed to act like “certain” gender by society however, naturally people are gender fluid. This implication makes the reader conscious of the how physical aspects does not influence sexuality and reinforces the fact that gender and sexuality are not the same, something that is also echoed in “Gender Role Behaviors and Attitudes”. By Devor discussing in depth body posture, she asserts the idea that society classifies genders on physical appearance. When Devor states, “Others recognize our sex or gender more on the basis of characteristics than on the basis of sex characteristics.” (87) she conveys how people’s gender is perceived by others based off their “look”.

The Sexual Revolution changed that as women were starting to take charge in their relationships and be more dominant. The “normal” roles that society was used to had begun to switch. In an article written by Gabriella Pastor she states, “The Sexual Revolution (the 1960s-1980s), also known as the time of sexual liberation, marked a time that involved the rejection of typical gender roles. It was a social movement that challenged what individuals had previously seen as sexual norms.” This text is explaining that as the movement continued

The cultural stereotypes around gender are perceived as “inevitable truths rather than stereotypes to be challenged [that] undermine calls for equality between men and women” (Donovan 17). This ignorance causes people to think they only need to look at the surface level when judging a person’s value as it relates to gender. What happens when someone’s value is reduced to only the stereotype they embody and the clothes they wear? The seemingly happy stereotype of the luxurious woman does just that.

operates as an ironic, quasi-feminist gesture, while at the same time, warding off any potential threat to patriarchal authority. “provocation to feminism,” a “triumphant gesture on the part of resurgent patriarchy” (McRobbie, p. 85). To resecure gender order “confined to the topographies of an unsustainable self-hood, deprived of the possibilities of feminist sociality, and deeply invested in achieving an illusory identity defined according to a rigidly enforced scale of feminine interrogate the heterosexual

In her essay titled “Compulsive Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence,” Adrienne Rich claims that any alternative to heterosexual outcome is discouraged by society. The essay claims that Western tradition has used the heterosexual family model as the basic social

The author of the article goes on to talk on of her convection in the benefits of destabilized heteronormativity. She argues that society in general can only gain from the inclusion of this perspective. On page 3 she states one important aspect being the liberation of these ideas is a commitment to transforming our cultural views. Revealing the history of the previously hidden homosexual community, and in turn empowering lesbians and gays own artwork. When discussing stereotypes represented in ads, students were told to provide essays or photographs, that would undermine these

A barrage of advertisements, photographs, videos, graphs, and graphic compositions meet our eyes every day. Some of these attempt to coax us to buy what is presented through them, while others are just presented to please us. Although, each of these images are presented for different reasons, they all have visual arguments they are trying to make. Most images have a composition that is specifically planned or captured to convey a specific message. Being in a class that teaches how to use images in a manner that conveys a message, and has emphasis on the composition of such images, I found some of the information very familiar. However, information that was new to me, was applying critical thinking to an image. Evaluating claims, breaking down

Adrienne Rich also speak compulsory heterosexuality in her work, Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence. Compulsory heterosexuality as discussed by Rich is how we view heterosexuality as a part of institution of capitalism that maintains power through the ideas of heterosexuality being acceptable to society and how we do not allow for differences in the binary system. As Rich states, “the failure to examine heterosexuality as an institution is like failing to admit that the economic system called capitalism or the caste system of racism is maintained by a variety of forces, including both physical violence and false consciousness” (Rich, 135). Meaning that we understand how heterosexuality is maintained by our capitalism system just as we understand oppression of classism, racism, and gender differences. Heterosexuality becomes institutionalized by maintaining through the normalization of forcing us to believe in the capitalism