The Social World

Sexualisation is a way that mass media, celebrities or advertising can make young or old people, especially young girls, become more provocative in the way that they speak, dress and behave

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.

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

Over the past few decades, the medias force in molding society’s perception of itself has become more compelling than ever. It is becoming increasingly difficult for one to have a self-understanding of what is socially acceptable for each gender, damaging ones image from having a unique identity, apart from the influence of the media. Gender stereotypes are causing potential damage to ones physical and emotional state causing people to loose social perspective. There is such a wide gap between what is pleasing in the eyes of the media and the reality that holds majority of our population. There is no denying that sex sells, which is why it is the most prevalent way of advertising. Sexual innuendoes and references are used to advertise a majority

According to our textbook, The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology, authors Kerry Ferris and Jill Stein define sociology as “the systematic or scientific study of human society and social behavior”, or more simply put “the study of society” (9). As well in the The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology, the authors explain the definition of social science to be “the disciplines that use scientific method to examine the social world” (10). In essence, sociology is a factor of the social sciences. The way that “we know what we know” about sociology and human interaction in society is through the various types of institutions such as family, education, religion, economy, and politics. These create an impact on people’s lives by the influence

In America, the battle of hypersexualization is being wage, there are two main opposing groups and many extreme factions that are divided on the subject on of hypersexualization of youth, specifically girls. One side makes the claim that “ we [have] no responsibility as a culture of the portrayal of girls as boy’s playing from and increasingly young age, and do we really believe that the growing degradation of women has no consequence” (Boteach). The other simply states “Children are not sexual. Exposed skin is not sexual. Children with exposed skin are not sexual” (Pickles).

Following the exploration of the sexualisation of culture in the previous chapter, The current chapter takes the sexualisation of culture as a broad context for its interrogation of contemporary sexualisation claims about pre-teen girls. It focuses on key theoretical conceptualisations of the sexualisation of girls. In particular to discourses which construct the sexualisation of girls as moral panic as it has been conceptualised and vehemently circulated within mainstream and academic literature.

In a nutshell, feminist scholars claims that the objectification of women is when women is reduced to instruments of sexual pleasure for men which primarily involves disregarding women’s personal and intellectual abilities and capabilities. The examples of objectifying women that has been cited by the feminists include depictions of women in advertising and media. This, however, can be traced back in 1950’s, when women were treated as sexual object in the narrative cinema. Today, the objectification of women has been aggravated by the nudity concept in music videos, which has also becoming part of the pop culture amongst the celebrities in 20th century.

In today’s culture, sex is worshipped. From the television shows we watch to the billboards we pass on the freeway, sexually explicit material permeates itself into our world whether it is conscious or not. Research shows that this type of material has the greatest effect on women, children, and marriages. Women and children are the most obvious choice among those assuming the affect this material has on our society, but what many forget is the affect it has on marriage. The women shown in commercials, ads, and movies are far from an ordinary woman. They are perfect. What men, and women, see is an unrealistic expectation of what women today should look like. Another harmful product of today’s sexually acceptable material is pornography. Men and women alike find completely unrealistic sexual scenarios in which they let deeply affect their sexuality. When conducting research, school psychologist and Master of Education Julienne Colbow concludes that this type of material may or may not bother women or “change their attitudes”. She even goes to state that the data is “inconclusive” as to whether or not women really care about the affect this material has on them. Regardless of the way women feel about this type of material in general, I plan to argue the point that this material is detrimental to women, children, and marriages. Sexually explicit material and

Pornography, also known as porn, has been around as early as 30,000 years ago back when Paleolithic people were carving large-breasted, thick-thighed figurines of pregnant women out of stone and wood. Back in the mid-1600s erotic novels were in print and jumping through the years porn has evolved through movies and now the internet. (Pappas, 2010) In 2002 Michael Kirk and Peter J. Boyer wrote and produced a film called “American Porn” by Frontline on PBS. This film takes a long hard look at the attraction to pornography and how it is intertwined with our ever evolving culture, morals, and who we are as individuals.

The 21st century is grappling in a constant battle with media representation of the body and the continuous depictions of it in provocative and sexualized styles blasted at young adult and child audiences. As a result, these kids are all being rapidly exposed to sex and images of what is considered ‘sexy’, which quickly becomes a norm for them. Thus, our civilization struggles to formulate controls and laws on these forms of media that, especially when it comes in tandem with the varied technological developments as newer and better forms of them are pumped out every second, distort the individuals of what provocative images can be distributed.

As a form of media to be consumed, pornography ranks high on the controversy charts. Constance Penley, Celine Parrenas Shimizu, Mireille Milller-Young, and Tristan Taormino talk about the importance of pro-porn feminism and how anti-porn feminist’s beliefs can in fact be repressive towards the rights of women (and everyone).

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.

Gail Dines asked the question to her readers in Pornland; How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality, “what are the consequences of porn of culture, sexuality, gender, identity, and relationship”(xi). With the competition of the pornography industry and the consumer desensitization of porn has driven the porn industry to create more hard core porn to satisfy the consumers and raise profits. In the beginning of the book, Dines’ depicts the history of pornography and the growing number of competition porn has for consumers. Later she describes, the impact porn has on our culture, the effects on both men and women, and our relationships

The word pornography brings to mind graphic images and videos of sex and nudity. Pornography isn’t a modern idea, in fact, media meant to arouse sexual desires has existed throughout centuries of human history. Explicit murals were found among the ruins of Pompeii. The ancient Romans were delighted by erotic poetry, while the ancient Greeks adorned their pottery with sexual images. In 19th-century France, men would curtain obscene works of art and only uncover them when the women were out of the room. With the invention of photography and video recording, pornography entered a new phase. Pornographic magazines and videos could be found in gas stations and video stores. Pornography was no longer just