sexualized femininity/masculinity in the media

The images of masculinity and femininity portrayed in the media sets the status quo for what it means and looks like to be feminine or masculine and how we, as individuals, relate to ourselves in terms of our own femininity and masculinity. I find it disheartening that much of what is portrayed in the media sets the standards at a place that is difficult to achieve for most average humans (like the woman in example one), which likely means that many people are struggling with these identities within themselves. This is evident in the rampant advertising of products for both men and women aimed at making us look and feel sexier, thinner, cleaner, more toned, muscular and so on. In addition, the fact that media images represent such clearly set, and distinguishable boundaries between what constitutes masculinity and femininity is limiting to the broad range of characteristics and roles that men and women can encompass. The images I selected for this assignment are mostly extreme examples of the way this is perpetuated in the media.

"America's Next Top Model" presents a material world where style supercedes substance. Femininity is represented not only in the physical attributes of the women on the show but also through characteristics of competition, sexuality, vanity and jealousy as they compete to become the object of desire. Cosmopolitan magazine, the equivalent to Maxim for men, acts as a "how to" guide for femininity. The styles, articles, and concerns featured in the magazine act as a reflection of what women should concern themselves with, the majority focusing on how we are supposed to look or act and most importantly, how to get, keep and please a man. Pleasing men seems to be the topic of importance in much of the features of Cosmo and in turn sends a message that femininity is about how we, as women, relate to men, how good we are at pleasing them and how attractive we are to them. In addition to setting standards of femininity for women, Cosmo also dictates masculinity for men. Articles that speak to issues such as, what men want women to know, what turns men on, and how to tell if he is really into you create (often unrealistic) expectations for women about how the men in their lives are supposed be and react to them. Cheerleaders, the object of many typical male fantasies, personify a stereotype of women as bubbly, sexy and unintelligent. Cheerleaders are present at (mostly male) athletic events as a decorative element for the pleasure of male viewing. Their presence can diffuse the masculine energy and provide an outlet for male desire in an arena that is made up of mostly men. They are sexualized by the scantily clad outfits they wear and the femininity that they encompass is represented only by their physical aspects, as they are rarely, if ever shown as having an individual identity of their own.

Music video's, especially rap music video's often portray constructions of both masculinity and femininity. Masculinity is often defined by how attractive or desired the man is by the women around him as well as by material possessions such as cars (big cruise ships in this video), jewelry, shoes and clothes (or lack of for most of the women!). The assumption is that if the man has these material things, he is more desired by women. The more women shown in the video with the man, the more masculine he is. Physical attraction is seen as important but not as important as it is for women to define their femininity. Women are shown with little or no characteristics other than their physical attributes. Physical characteristics are less important for the men, who are often defined by their material posessions and the beautiful women that surround them. There are often very large (fat) men pictured with women hanging all over him, but his physical attributes do not seem to matter because he has money or material things that are desired by the women. These images send messages that women should desire material possessions over other characteristics from men and that women are desired only for their physical attributes.

1.



2. America's Next Top Model

http://www.cwtv.com/thecw/americas-next-top-model10-photogalleryhub


3. Cosmopolitan magazine

http://www.cosmopolitan.com/

4. Cheerleaders

View .ack-online.de's map

Taken in a place with no name (See more photos or videos here)

5. Jay-Z "Big Pimpin" music video

View EOS Boy's map

Taken in a place with no name (See more photos or videos here

Examples of Class in Sexualized Media

The depiction of class in media is used to reflect the values of our society. One example of the use of class in media is the Jerry Springer show. Jerry Springer features topics on his show that are considered taboo and often ignored by mainstream media. Many of his guests appear to be of a lower social class and often do not follow normative behaviors, sexual or otherwise, they are obviously uneducated and lack "proper" etiquette".Show topics, such as the one I chose titled, "You Stole my Man", are usually sexual in nature and aim to shock and disturb the audience in some way. This is similar to Laura Kipnis' interpretation of Hustler which she says, "made its mission to disturb and unsettle its readers, both psycho-sexually and socio-sexually" (Kipnis, p. 375). Another example of class in sexualized media is Hooters. In addition to the restaurant chain, Hooters also produces media such as a calender, two magazines and has an airline with various forms of media attached to it. Hooters acts as a sort of go between for the family restaurant and a strip club. The chesty women who work there are scantily clad but because they are not topless, a quality of decency is still maintained enough for even a regular family man to take part and not weigh too heavily on his conscious while still getting a thrill from the experience. Hooters clearly targets the average middle class blue collar worker type with it's cheap and low quality food. Their logo, an owl with large eyes that resemble breasts with nipples, and their slogan, "More than a mouthful" are both charged with sexual connotation while another slogan, "Delightfully tacky yet unrefined" is telling of their target audience. Tacky is just another word for tasteless and unrefined alludes to a lack of manners, "a mechanism of class distinction" (Kipnis, p. 377).
The 90's sit com "Married With Children" is a great example of what Constance Penley refers to in her article "The Whitetrashing of Porn", that "the joke is usually on the man", a theme common in early porn stag films. In the show, Peg Bundy is the sexed up house wife and her husband, Al Bundy, the overworked middle class buffoon. His inadequecy at work, home and in the bedroom is the butt of jokes on the show. "Sex emerges as an area of humiliation for men, not as one of domination and power over women" (Kipnis). The musical movie, "Romance and Cigarettes", another example of sexualized media with class distinction, takes place in Manhattan's armpit, suburban New Jersey. The location alone is telling of the social class the characters reside and set effects such as costume and design confirm this. The cheating husband, a blue collar steel worker, is shown numerous time in "wife beater" tanks and is generally represented as a fat slob that needs a woman to take care of him. The movie is charged with sexuality and uses non- normative words for mainstream media, such as cunt and cock, and has a very dirty and raw feeling to it. The musical aspect of it sets it apart as a comedy in what otherwise may have been a rather depressing drama film. Penley notes that musical films are "porn's closest kin" and can be traced back to the bawdy songs and dirty jokes that inspired the low-level humor in early stag films.
That birth is sexual is one of society's best kept secrets. Laura Kipnis, in her articel (Male) Desire and (Female) Disgust: Reading Hustler" talks about the bourgeois, in their attempt to be civilized "seek to suppress in themselves every characteristic they feel to be animal" (Kipnis, p. 377). Birth is one of the last animal- like behaviors that humans must still undergo and the fact that it has been hidden away in hospitals (temples to science) and silenced with epidurals is reflective of society's desire not only to silence women but also to "remove the distasteful from the sight of society" (Kipnis, p. 377). In the article "Too Posh to Push", featured in Time magazine, the author looks at the cesarean fad among celebrities and high class women that are choosing this as a clean, convenient alternative to the "grossness" of birth. The fact that it is women of a specific class making these choices (according to the article) shows a relation to Kipnis' proposition that the lower stratum of the body is equated to lower social class.

1. Jerry Springer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=886sAIv8L1Y

2.


http://www.hooters.com/

http://www.hootersmagazine.com/


3. Married With Children

http://www.sonypictures.com/tv/shows/marriedwithchildren/







4. Movie trailer: "Romance and Cigarettes"




5. Too Posh to Push?

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,993857,00.html

Violence and Obsenity in Sexualized Media

Collecting images as examples of violence and obscenity in sexualized media made me think a lot about what violence and obscenity really are. Who dictates what is considered violent and obscene in the media and where do I get the ideas I have about what I think is violent or obscene? For me, it is easier to detect and agree on what images strike me as violent, but I still found that there was a gray area. For example, the first image shows a woman's mouth bound, which could be portrayed as a violent act against her. However, it is hasty on my part to label it "violence" without knowing more about the context of the situation. Maybe she is a part of the kink community and enjoys this kind of sex play, or maybe she is not enjoying herself at all. Dwarkin, in her article "Against the Male Flood" suggests that images such as this add to the suppression and silencing of women and therefore constitute as violence towards all women.
The second image, taken from a new Showtime show "The Tudors", has appeared on billboards and magazine ads with the caption "King takes Queen". The fact that his hand is around her throat along with this caption suggest violence toward the woman by the man. I have not seen the show so I cannot say if this is true or not, but that is the impression that I got and I feel it is meant to give that impression. The woman does not all together look as if she is unhappy in the picture which also sends the message that women enjoy being dominated or treated with force.

Dictating what is considered obscene was more difficult for me than violence. The Obscenity law, as defined by Andrea Dworkin in her article "Against the Male Flood", includes nudity, public displays, lewd exhibition, exposed genitalia or buttocks, or pubic areas, sodomy, masturbation, sexual intercourse, and excretion. I feel even some of these examples, such as lewd exhibition, can be interpreted subjectively. I chose image three, an ad for a camera, as an example of obscenity not solely on the image but because the caption "What you choose to do with it is up to you." suggests the voyeuristic act of candidly taking photos, up girls skirts or otherwise, while they are not looking. The fact that there is not consent between both parties makes this obscene to me. One could even say it is an act of violence, if crossing barriers such as this can be viewed as a violent act against one's privacy. The last two examples have both obscenity and violence within them. The fourth example is the lyrics and music to Too Shorts "Invasion of the Flat Booty Bitches". The song has lyrics about slapping "bitches" and kicking their "flat butts". Violence towards women is especially common in certain genres of rap music and is normalized in songs such as this by presenting it as entertainment. The last example is a link to a recent article published in the Washington Post about the raid of the FLDS church compound. The article talks about how very young women were subjected to sex slavery for men much older than them. The use of force against one's will in any sexual act is both obscene and violent in my opinion.

1.





2. "The Tudors" on Showtime.

















3. Camera ad in magazine



4. Link to music and lyrics of Too Short "Invasion of the Flat Booty Bitches".

http://www.rhapsody.com/tooshort/cantstayaway/invasionoftheflatbootybitches/lyrics.html



5. Link to article about FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) about sex slavery for women and children involved in the recent compound that was raided in Texas.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/04/11/1207856831642.html

sexual construction in the media

The five media artifacts I collected below are representative of the ways sexuality is constructed through the media. In culture's like ours, that are inundated with media, the media serves as a teacher and representative of what is socially acceptable and attractive in that society. Media plays a huge role in the determination our own ideas as we construct our sexuality, in this way media constructs our sexuality. The media we are exposed to outlines what it means to be sexy, what is considered (and what we should consider) attractive or not attractive, and what roles are appropriate for our gender, among others. The first example, a recent music video by Snoop Dog, shows the rapper surrounded by bikini and lingerie clad women who are all of super model beauty status. He is shown in bed with multiple women, all of them aiming to please him and get his attention. This sends a message to women about how they are supposed to look and what they are supposed to do to get a man's attention. It also sends a message to men about how the women in their lives are supposed to act and look to be considered attractive. The title of the song "Sensual Seduction" was changed from the cd title track labeled "Sexual Eruption" because it was seen as too sexually explicit for MTV.

The second artifact is a music video parody from Mad TV featuring sexy interactions between running candidates Barak Obama and Hilary Clinton. The artifact nicely portrays the sexual tension the media is creating around having both a female and male candidate running together. I chose the third artifact, a Sasson jeans commercial from the 80's, as an example of the difference in the way sexuality is constructed now compared to almost 30 years ago. While the woman is portrayed as an object of desire for men in the commercial, she is also fully clothed (not even any cleavage showing!) and also shown as active, versus the following Calvin Klein billboard showing a young girl passively and submissively laying down. The Sasson commercial also does not use extended camera shots to the bust or butt of the model as is commonplace in more modern advertising. In contrast, the Calvin Klein billboard shows a topless and very young model in a passive position. This sends messages to the viewer about the role of women and also about the age it is appropriate to view nude, or partially nude women. The last ad, for Diesel clothing company, shows a black woman and a white (or mulatto?) man together in sexually suggestive postures. The woman, shown in a receiving position with a very phallic cactus between her legs, again sends a message about the role of women (passive, receiving, submissive). The man, shown with his mouth open and apparently kissing (or eating?) the cactus, takes the more active role.






1. Snoop Dog "Sensual Seduction" video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKz-RXSeIYA



2. Mad tv hilary and Obama parady



3. 1980's Sasson jeans commercial
http://www.retrojunk.com/details_commercial/6871/


4. Recent Calvin Klein jeans billboard






5. Magazine ad for Diesel clothing company