The issue of women objectification in media has gained a new meaning when Jennifer Aniston wrote her essay which was provoked by the news about her possible pregnancy. She appealed the mass media claiming that they should stop writing about women body and appearance. In this sense, the "objectification" mean "sexual objectification". By itself, the objectification does not only apply to women, and it is not just about appearance. For example, the employee is also an object, as he/she seeks to sell his/her work, and employers choose which workers are more profitable to rent. Basically, the word "objectification" is used only in relation to advertising that is not quite right. This phenomenon is quite extensive, and if try to enumerate all …show more content…
Theorists/or feminism talking about the phenomenon of self-objectification. Roughly speaking, it is when women begin to follow the rules of the Patriarchal world, accept the fact that their beauty is a resource, and used it consciously and intentionally: dress up openly, achieve something with the help of flirt, or just put a lot of money, time and effort to "improve" the appearance and to get the approval. Make a note: this does not mean that any action to change the appearance are self-objectification. Given the realities of the world in which self-objectification people live, to condemn them means absolutely nothing – they just behave as they are …show more content…
Of course, it is often accompanied by low self-esteem (and problems provoked by that), eating disorders, not always successful plastic surgery and a lot of wasted effort, money, and time. Even it is called self-objectification, it is clear that some subjectivity remains in man always. It turns out, that in the man with self-objectification there simultaneously aligned the self-awareness as the subject, and the acceptance of the role of the object. It happens like this: a person realizes that he/she has a function (for example, cooking, or emotional support); understands that there are people who need it; and does it for them to get an approval or to receive some bonuses – without any internal motivation. The actions with the internal and external motivation may not be different outwardly, but in fact this is a huge difference between self-objectification and action for yourself. For example, there are two girls sunbathing topless on the beach. One of them doing it knowing that her appear is attractive to others and she will get their approval, when the second do that because she wants an even tan or something
Objectification includes the perception that individuals can be treated as objects or tools. For instance, social media like the different social networking sites and other forms of media like commercials, and reality television treat women as objects to be used, for example to sell cars, to advertise different merchandise, even food. In Sabrina Rubin Erdely’s article “Kiki Kannibal: The Girl Who Played with Fire”, Erdely explains the drawbacks of creating an online image by focusing on the tough and harsh treatment that Kiki faced over the internet. In Rachel Kadish’s article “Who Is This Man, and Why Is He Screaming?” she states her concern in that “there is something dehumanizing in the spectacle of a young man’s face being carried on the wind like dust” as she debates the uncontainable spread of her cousin’s image. Finally, in her article “Ghetto Bitches, China Dolls, and Cha Cha Divas”, Jennifer Pozner reveals the ways in which she thinks reality television stars are manipulated and edited into extremely typecast images in a way that
Regardless of race or gender people in today’s society have probably seen something on the media and have strived to be more like that image. Women objectification is very common like in Alabama’s sorority recruitment video, they only showed the prettiest of girls with the nicest body; the whole video did not tell of any offers or why an individual should come to their college, instead it only showed girls playing around in bikinis or minimal clothing (WKRGNews). Although this recruitment video was later taken down due to the controversy it caused, it shows that women objectification is out there and very common. Men are similar to women in the fact that they are also objectified. Objectifying men is seen as not as big of a problem than female objectification but it is equally important. Magic Mike XXL objectifies men by portraying Mark Wahlberg and other actors with great bodies by dancing and other classic chick flick scenes (WarnerBrosPicture). Actors in movies like Magic Mike XXL make the average man look plain disappointing as well as women in magazines or other movies. The average person in today's society can differentiate between flawless and average but none the less objectification of men and women occur frequently in the
Reading Response to “Looking at Women” written by Scott Russell Sanders is an article about Sanders
Strong-willed, intelligent, and motivated are only some of the words we can use to describe Betty Friedan. Credited as being the mother of the second wave of feminism, Friedan was an influential women’s right activist during the twentieth century but her legacy has continued to strive well into the twenty-first century. Friedan is the author of a variety of books including The Feminine Mystique, which became a phenomenon because of its powerful message to women for self-exploration outside their traditional roles. This book helped to define Friedan’s role in the fight for women empowerment and equality. It evoked emotions in many women who agreed that they did not want to fulfil traditional roles, creating an atmosphere of change. She was also the cofounder of the National Organization for Women (NOW), serving as its first president and also helped to create the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws and the National Women’s Political Caucus. With these organizations, Friedan became the face of the women’s movement and encouraged women to take a stand against the pathological idealization of women by creating a sense of community
What do you see when you look in the mirror? Do you like what you see? In Jean Kilbourne’s article, “Two Ways a Woman Can Hurt,” she discusses the sexualization of women in advertising and how it plays a role in violence against women. Elline Lipkin discusses the causes and effects of negative body images in her article, “Girls’ Bodies, Girls’ Selves.” Although I agree with Kilbourne that advertising and violence can be related, it is important to consider Lipkin’s argument about how advertising shapes body image in a negative way because while a lot of women experience violence, everyone experiences the effects that advertisements have on body image.
This week the essay that made the largest impact on me was Marketing to “Tweens” Objectifies Women by Jeremy Merkel. The claim is apparent that after reading the title that young girls are being objectified by marketing. Merkel clearly dislikes the idea of marketing sexy clothes to young girls and teens. As a mother to three girls I have kept my girls from these types of stores. Which is easy to do when you live 280 miles from the nearest mall with any of the stores mentioned in the article. The rules for my girls were and are they can were light colored eye shadow and tented lip gloss when they enter the seventh grade. NO lipstick, NO eyeliner, and NO mascara until they turned 15. When my older girls turned 16 they did buy fancy bras and panties,
I grew up reading magazines and gawking over waistlines and standards of beauty that I believed were normal. I can remember the first time I watched the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. It was from a treadmill at the gym. I believe that I could achieve that body from hard work and dieting, but it took years to realize that could never happen. Those women are genetically blessed and they are born to have these types of careers. I believe that this trend of objectifying women is extremely harmful, and shows women that they can never achieve an unrealistic standard of beauty set by the media.
The objectifications of a woman have been known to be centered around the actions of a man. Cat-calling, slut shaming, and men being in a superior position while women are inferior or counted as their ‘objects’ are all parts of the dehumanizing nature of objectification. This indicates that women are centered around their appearance and feminine demeanor, and nothing else needs to be accounted for. However, there are other influences that have contributed to the vicious cycle society has on degrading women. Women objectify other women over similar matters as men, but not similar relevance in sociocultural context. Another contributor to women objectification is women’s self-objectification, in which they internally reflect on their appearance and demeanor to seek the approval of the observer. The last and most dominant factor that has been deemed the main culprit of turning women into objects is the culture of advertisement. Advertising has sexually objectified women for years, and is the backbone of the degradation of women in the real world. It also depicts unrealistic images of the female body and attitude that no female human being can actually live up to. The media has introduced the actions of sexual discrimination and harassment, and has influenced the ideas of how women should be treated. The combination of these three components are continuing the cycle of the objectification of women.
In the book The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan brings attention to what she calls the feminine mystique, or “the problem that has no name”. Through the use of anecdotal narratives, her own personal experiences as a journalist, editor, mother, and the interviews of many women from different backgrounds in order to unveil the truth about the women of the 1950’s. The problem which sparked the second wave of feminism in the United States is one that focuses on the inequality between men and women and the undervaluing of women in both the social and private spheres. The women of the time gave up pursuing their passions, such as getting an education or careers in science or business in order to fit the image of the stereotypical stay-at-home mom whose main goal in life is to raise her children while providing a safe and comforting home for her husband. The Feminine Mystique, as she called it, was the idea of widespread unhappiness of women, despite the preconceived notion that women were happiest when they have a family. Throughout her work, she dives into many of the problems associated with the feminine mystique and builds a powerful concept of what would eventually be labeled feminism.
Objectification according to the Merriam Webster Dictionary is “to treat (someone) as an object rather than as a person” from the feminist perspective objectification is “a notion central to feminist theory. It can be roughly defined as the seeing and/or treating a person, usually a woman, as an object.” Sexual objectification is prominent in television; from commercials to movies sexual objectification is widely known and generally accepted and considered to be “normal”. Women are commonly sexually objectified against in the media in numerous ways. The thing that most people do not consider when creating television shows, commercials, and movies is how it makes women feel about themselves. It is natural that a women looking on a television
Objectification according to the Merriam Webster Dictionary is “to treat (someone) as an object rather than as a person” from the feminist perspective objectification is “a notion central to feminist theory. It can be roughly defined as the seeing and/or treating a person, usually a woman, as an object.” Sexual objectification is prominent in television; from commercials to movies sexual objectification is widely known and generally accepted and considered to be “normal”. Women are commonly sexually objectified against in the media in numerous ways. The thing that most people do not consider when creating television shows, commercials, and movies is how it makes women feel about themselves. It is natural that a women looking on a television
The purpose of this experiment was to determine the extent to which women are presented as sex objects in magazines. Previous research by Stankiewic and Rosselli (2008) resulted in 51.80% of advertisements in magazines that featured women, and portrayed them as sex objects. The particular way in which objectification is defined, and thus the resulting rates at which women are portrayed as objects, had varied by study. The objectification of women in advertisements also varied by magazine type.
We always complain about how there are so many expectations that we have to follow and how we don’t want to do it,but who sets those expectations? The answer to that question is easy,we do.We set expectations for ourselves,but more often for each other because one of our favorite things to do in our free time is judge other people. We blame society because we feel like society is expecting us to be someone we are not,but we are the society and this problem existed long before it started concerning us. Back in 1963 Betty Friedan could see the problem the women still face today.She discussed the unhappiness of women that spread all over the United States in her book “The Feminine Mystique”.Friedan called it “the problem that has no name”(15).
These objectification trends are on the rise and are creating a low self-image for our young children. This will continue to spiral downward as they mature into grown women.
Society creates a standard of beauty for women that often changes along with society due to a new perspective on what it means to be beautiful in our culture. These standards for beauty create what our society believes makes a woman desirable, attractive, perfect, and overall beautiful. Which then enforces unhealthy and unrealistic beauty ideals that negatively affect women's self-image and their body image because society has attributed beauty to self worth. The result is with the ever changing standards of beauty means women use various ways to alter their bodies and appearance by clothing, makeup, hair, dieting, exercising, and even taking extreme measures to perfect their looks through surgery.