Feminists vs. Playboy Playmates
Naked women have been in the front of feminist's minds for several decades. Especially when they are pictured in soft-pornography magazine Playboy. Feminists for years have been yelling that Playboy is harmful to both men and women. Males around the country have countered that there is nothing wrong with their Playboy, it is merely a harmless vice. The problem I see with Playboy is not that it demeans women or subjugates them, and its not that it leads to violence. The main problem is that it fosters unrealistic images and expectation in men's minds about women. But since there is little we can do about it now, we merely need to take that first step and recognize Playboy for what it
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I interviewed one person on each side of this issue, to get the token opinion that is popular on their side of the issue. On this side is Ursula, an extremely quotable quasi-feminist who makes a strong case for her side.[1] Ursula sums up the feminist argument by saying, "Guys see the idealized sex goddess, how can women compete?" First and foremost feminists argue that the idea of a naked woman in a magazine is degrading to that woman in particular and to women as a whole; Playboy and men's magazines in general make women out to be sex objects (Burstyn, 42). Playboy objectifies women, leaving out the human side (Burstyn, 43). Feminists also say that soft-pornography leads to hard-pornography which can then lead to violent crimes against women. Rick Heibert in his article "A hard line against soft porn" says that psychologists have found that viewing soft-pornography inevitably leads to harder material (par 4). Others would take this a step further and contend that the viewing of violent pornography then leads to an increased likelihood of committing a violent sexual crime (Cramer 202). These articles would present statistical research backing themselves up, more likely than not the Meese Commission will make it in to any feminist critique.
Feminists present a third argument saying that magazines such as Playboy lead to depression or anorexia in women, especially amongst impressionable young women (Chancer, 85). There is little argument against teenagers
Featherstone looks down on publications that emphasize most of their print on Fashion, relationships and celebrities and advocates for magazines that stimulate intellectual growth, promote a healthy body image and include diversity. As an active journalist, columnist and activist, Liza Featherstone makes a good point in her article all while using most abundantly three rhetorical tools: logos, ethos and pathos that she wove into a studied text organization and a simple writing style. It is through ethos that Featherstone does a great job at defending her viewpoint, because her argument lacks a lot
Anti-porn feminists believe that pornography is humiliating to women and turns them into sexual objects that satisfy men’s sexuality. But McElroy disagree saying that when it is analyzed critically it means nothing. Humans only are the ones known to have sexuality then how can objects have sexuality. McElroy basing on this concludes saying that anti-porn feminists who believes in this are lessening their fellow’s dignity. In her article McElroy continues to disagree with this saying that there is nothing shameful on focusing on woman’s
Professor Gail Dine’s teaches women studies and female images of sexuality in pop culture at Wheelock College in Boston, MA. In addition to her work, she is a founding member of Stop Porn Culture (SPC). The goal of the group is to raise awareness of the hyper sexualization of women in Society. This is a selection from her book, Pornland (2010). “Visible or Invisible: Growing Up Female in Porn Culture” illustrates how mainstream pornographic images have become so prevalent in Western Culture Society. It also shows us examples of what is perceived to be the female beauty standard via Hollywood and pop music stars. There is the real danger that children and adolescents will perceive “the pop culture gone porn culture” (dines pg) to be normal and conform to these set standards. Dines goes on about where these images are present and how widely they are in the media. She implies the need to stop these accelerated images of female porn industry and Consumerism culture conformity. In addition, how if we do not bring these matters to attention soon, before the western culture society will lead generations to achieve a beauty standard that is not real or genuinely.
Professor’s Comment: This powerful essay contrasts the views of two feminist, Catherine MacKinnon and Sallie Tisdale, each of which perceives pornography in widely divergent ways. While MacKinnon's 'Not A Moral Issue' explains the adverse impacts of pornography to women and society as a whole, Tisdale's 'Talk Dirty to Me: An Intimate Philosophy of Sex' is receptive to pornography despite these adverse impacts, suggesting in fact that the solution to the problems associated with pornography is a greater role of women in production of that pornography.
It is now so deeply integrated in our society that a piece of entertainment loses its value when nudity is not present in some form. With all this nudity floating around,one may ask what role does it play in displaying the message of the image. Nudity itself is a challenging ideology to our society, the line between appropriate vs inappropriate and acceptable versis unacceptable have seem to grow thin. The act of nudity can represent a multitude of ideology before being nude was seen as sacred and the act of being seen nude especially in public was forbidden.But as the narrative has evolved overtime being nude is now correlated to being free and open minded. Being nude in our society is expressing yourself in a manner that you deem acceptable, that we shouldn't lot be limited to what society deems appropriate. It is actually a very selfish narrative where everything revolves around the person and his or her personal goals.Marita Sturkin and Lisa Cartwright hit on the ideology of individual in the “Practices of Looking,” “One could say that ideology is the means by which certain values, such as individual freedom, progress, and the importance of home, are made to seem like natural, inevitable aspects of everyday life (Sturkin & Cartwright 21).” This kind of egocentric narrative is present in the Rolling Stone cover when dissected fully,and it shows how the narrative in America is more like me, me, me instead of us, us, us. Even though nudity is now somewhat encouraged by our entertainment, there are still levels to nudity. In most cases when a woman is presented nude she is usually presented in a way that is not too exposing, just as Julia Dreyfus is doing in the cover. This is due to the fact that there is still a
Anderson and Domenico found that women’s magazines had 10.5 times more dieting information than men’s magazines, which mainly focus on sex and women’s fashion mistakes. Eating disorders have caused major problems in teens starving themselves just to stay unnaturally
Jacoby states that the people who most support the censorship of pornography are women. These women are often self-proclaimed feminists who ironically support the First Amendment. While criticizing the production of pornography, these feminists attempt to argue that “mainstream” pornography is no different than child porn.
While both sides aim to progress women’s rights, they have contrasting views on how pornography should be treated to achieve a more gender equal society. An examination of academic literature and pornography throughout history reveals that pro-sex philosophy is more convincing than anti-porn philosophy in three main ways. Firstly, the anti-porn movement often decontextualizes porn by selectively choosing evidence that fits their narrative. The use of minority accounts to explain the majority experience is unconvincing as it is unable to address the bulk of pornographic material. Casual arguments that porn leads
These are just some of the ways Playboy has idolized women, but that’s not all that the company and the magazine are about. In an article titled “When Playboy ruled the world”, written by Brett Popplewell, he talks about some of the cultural impacts of Playboy. Popplewell talks in his article about how Playboy is more than just a magazine that displays nude photos of women. It is a magazine that also held many great articles, fiction pieces, poetry, and interviews
12.5. Is this it the average number of times Cornell students cry during Finals week? Nope. 12.5 is the number of videos viewed per person on Pornhub.com if it was divided evenly among every person on Earth. Pornography has become a crucial part of our our entertainment consumption, especially with the rise of the Internet, where anything you can dream of can be found with a click. Although porn is as accessible as Facebook nowadays, many feminists believe that pornography is problematic and is a tool for female oppression. One feminist scholar who believes that pornography should be eliminated completely is Catherine MacKinnon. In her essay, “Sexuality, Pornography, and Method: ‘Pleasure under Patriarchy’”, she discusses the issues with pornography in our society. Although McKinnon makes valid points in saying that pornography is an extension of the patriarchy, I believe that pornography should not be eliminated because doing so will not address underlying social problems and because alternative ways, such as changing pornography to be more feminist, is more effective.
MacKinnon argues that pornography defines male treatment of women, and is the clearest demonstration of male dominance. Her perspective is radical, but valuable because it forces one to reexamine his or her view of pornography. She says that, “male power makes authoritative a way of seeing and treating women that when a man looks at a pornographic picture... the viewing is an act of male supremacy” (130). This form of expression dictates the way in which men view women as a class. The uneven distribution of power in this system makes pornography a form of discrimination. “Pornography causes attitudes and behaviors of violence and discrimination that define the treatment and status of half the population” (147). Not only women are subject to this form of oppression. “Pornography is the
Sisyphus is an ancient Greek fable of a God who was punished by other Gods to roll a rock to the top of a hill only to see it roll right back to the bottom for all of eternity. Sisyphus was never able to truly accomplishing anything forced to be tormented for all of time. Taylor used this as an example for the meaninglessness of life because it gave the reader an image in their mind of what a truly meaningless life would be as we can now currently understand it.
A close examination of the intricate relationships between: gender, sexuality, social hierarchy, ideology, power and objectification is necessary to prove that the pervasiveness of pornography in today’s society serves as a means for the construction of women’s oppression. It becomes clear that pornography is the grease that relegates women to a second-class status when its effects are fully actualized. On the other hand, some argue that pornography is empowering and benefits sexuality. An exploration into the positive effects of pornography will be provided. The merit of pornography will be disproven and it will become obvious that the perpetrator of inequality is pornography.
Research indicates that exposure to thin ideal images in women's magazines is associated with heightened concerns for body shape and size in a number of young women, although the media's role in the psychopathology of body image disturbance is generally believed to be mediated by personality and socio-cultural factors. The purpose of this research study is to know and gather solid facts and reasons about fashion magazines affecting the teenagers’ body image in a form of research to self evaluation through careful accumulation of acceptable data and relevant resources for such data to be precise and spontaneous in its respected details to support results.
One issue that feminists should bring to the open and question is the definition of pornography. Often times anti-porn feminists argue that we can tell what is and isn’t porn easily. Yet the definition these feminists use to decide what counts as porn and whether it should be censored from the public applies to many things as Lumby points out in paragraphs nine and twelve. She draws up the movie Siren as an example of how Elle Macpherson’s nudity in the movie was widely accepted and went uncontested, but then Lumby points out how Macpherson’s shoot for Playboy was more modest than some of the shots in the film yet the photo shoot receives more flack because it’s categorized as porn (par 9).