To understand how issues of class play out in sexualized media it is first helpful to understand how sexualized media functions on multiple levels. In order to accomplish this it is necessary to understand the fundamentals of media literacy and use these to deconstruct the various levels in which we interact with media on a daily basis. There are three basic components of media that we would like to explore before we explicate how issues of class play into the general function of sexualized media messages.
The first is the relevance of media as an instrument of social construction. In her article, “Prurient Interests: Sexuality, Ideology, and Popular Communication,” Jane Banks (2003) reminds us that, “The social construction of media is important for all kinds of reasons…First sexuality is a stand-in for other issues, so that discourses about sexuality may also (or really) be about race and ethnicity, social class, upward mobility, money, gender relations or social stratification” (p. 7). She states that it is in this way that popular texts dealing with sexuality function as strategies for social control (p. 7). Next it is critical to realize that the media are influential storytellers, and mediated communication is a powerful tool. Ubiquitous in our society, the media have the ability to set personal and public agendas (McCombs & Shaw, 1972; Brown, 2002). This ability to define, or limit what people think about is particularly important when thinking about the social implications of sexualized messages in the media. In her article, "Mass Media Influences on Sexuality," Jane Brown (2002) states that the media reinforce a relatively consistent set of norms, and “The result often reinforces stereotypes and helps define what is considered appropriate and inappropriate behavior in the culture” (p. 44).
Finally, one cannot understand the full impact of contemporary media without taking into account the social elements of political economy within sexualized media. Especially when discussing issues of class representation in contemporary media, we must always take into account who produces and distributes the mediated images and messages that we consume, why are they produced, whose interests do these messages serve, and who benefits from these messages (Dworkin, 1992; Jenkins, 2005; Jensen and Dines, 2004; Mayer, 2005).
Understanding the above criteria, we can then turn our attention specifically to issues of class representation with in sexualized media, with the understanding that class representations in sexualized media almost always functions as a political tool. Class representation can be effectively used as a mirror, to reflect upon one’s own social position, or it can serve as a vehicle of social critique, elucidating class differences in a way that empowers the lower-class, by mocking bourgeois sensibilities. Most frequently, however, we must look past the manifest messages to the latent content; it is here where we see the repetition of certain norms and patterns that serve as vehicles of social control, affirming the hierarchal status hegemony of the dominant class.
In Laura Kipnis' article "(Male) Desire and (Female) Disgust: Reading Hustler", she creates an analogy between the lower hemisphere of the body and low social class, "the reference to the body being invariably a reference to the social" (Kipnis, p. 376). The "grossness" of the lower stratum is pit against the "classical" or orifice-less body that represents the bourgeois where all that is unpleasant to the eye is neatly tucked away as if it didn't exist. There is a "strong tendency of the bourgeois to want to remove the distasteful from the sight of society" (Kipnis, p. 377) This element (the lower stratum of the body representing low social class) is an element that we found throughout our examples of representations of class in sexualized media, particularly in examples one and two.1. Too Posh to Push?
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,993857,00.html
Vaginal birth compared to Cesarean birth photos:
2. Puppetry of the Penis, live theater show
http://www.puppetryofthepenis.net/
Another element we discovered within our theme is the use of language and humor to poke fun at social class. This is particularly prominent by those of lower class making fun of upper class (example 4) and those of low social status differentiating themselves from and poking fun at those of lower social status (example 3). In Constance Penley's article "Crackers and Whackers: The White Trashing of Porn", she talks about the necessity of those from low social class to differentiate themselves from what they believe to be lower social status. The example she uses is the need for white trash to distinguish themselves from blacks. This, she says, is an attempt to "express some minuscule, if pathetic, measure of your culture's superiority" (Penley, p. 310). The use of humor also provides comic relief in what may otherwise be an awkward situation as well as minimizing degradation into a form that is normalized and culturally accepted. Class distinction can also be used as a scapegoat for one social class to put all that it does not like or represent onto another group in an attempt to rid itself of what it believes to be undesirable.
3. Jerry Springer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=886sAIv8L1Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzhL-0_pC3E
Despite the fantasies that are generated by repetitious Cinderella fairytale narratives – or the general mythology surrounding the rags-to-riches theme of the American Dream popularized by seventeenth-century writer Horatio Alger – most people never break through class boundaries. Transcending class barriers, even temporarily, therefore, becomes another privilege for those of the dominant class. As artifacts for Hooters and for the burlesque demonstrate, sexualized forms of entertainment, especially in what might be considered the lower-class venues of camp and trash, have become mainstreamed to the point that they appear normative, without offering any real challenge to the current status quo. When speaking of the themes presented within Hustler magazine Kipnis (1992) reminds us that, “there is no guarantee that counter-hegemonic or even specifically anti-bourgeois cultural forms are necessarily going to be progressive” (388). The privilege of the dominant class is such that they can engage in lower-class behaviors, attend a “masturbate-a-thon,” laugh at lewd and obscene jokes (even those expressly intended to mock their upper-class status), safe in the knowledge that they will retain their position of dominance, and power. This is part of the political economy of sexualized media; those who produce and distribute most of the sexualized media that is consumed, realize that the stereotypical narratives presented, even when masked as counter-cultural items, more frequently function to serve to reinforce demarcations of class and cultural status, actually strengthening hegemonic ideas of class superiority (Hillyer 2004; Jenkins, 2005; Mayer, 2005).
http://www.hooters.com/
http://www.hootersmagazine.com/
6.
The commodification and objectification of women is another method by which one is able to mark class distinction in sexualized media. This is seen in the power to/powerover dynamic, both of which are represented in the music video examples seven and eight. Sexual power over women by men suggests that there are limited choices for women, a characteristic of low social status. This type of objectification is popular in rap music videos, where black women are reduced to one body part (their butt) and used by men for the fulfillment of sexual fantasy. "Women have become so accustomed to their objectification by men that they have learned to not only accept this role, but also how to use it to advance their own agenda" (Jenkins, p. 498). It is more rare for women to be shown in the power to role, in charge of their own sexuality and as the subject of the gaze rather than the object of it. "Research has shown that music video tends to be presented from a male point of view, with female characters often featured as sexual objects" (Andsager and Roe, p. 94). Although some women (like Madonna) are able to succeed in the power to dynamic, it is more typical for men to do so.
7. Madonna "Hanky Panky"
8. Nelly's "Tip Drill
Finally, some scholars argue that no matter what class status or social privilege a woman may have, she is always in a subordinate position within a patriarchal system (Attwood, 2005; Dworkin, 1992; Jensen and Dines, 2004). While Belle Hooks states that African Americans occupy the lowest class status in a ladder of social oppression, Dworkin reminds us that, “The oppression of women occurs through sexual subordination. It is the use of sex as a medium of oppression that makes the subordination of women so distinct form racism or prejudice against a group based on religion or national origin (p. 526). Evidence of this fact can be easily identified throughout the texts, imagery and overall narratives within the media artifacts that we have explored throughout the term. Whether it is a photograph of a woman selling a purse in a high fashion magazine, or women selling themselves within a music video, the objectification and commodification of women is ubiquitous within contemporary media. Considering the media’s ability to “define what is considered appropriate and inappropriate behavior within a culture” (Brown, 2002, p. 44), the most recurrent, and therefore normative message, is that whatever class or social status a woman may hold, her value is predominantly defined by her ability to arouse and sexually please men. Thus, in contemporary media, class representations are usually reduced, or reconstructed to validate the current hegemony. Thus, those who hold the positions of economic, social and political wealth within our culture (generally white, upper-class, males) are the primary producers and distributors of sexualized media; and, as such, will continue to produce messages that confirm the status quo, and existing social structures of power.
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