The article “Girls’ Bodies, Girls’ Selves: Body Image, Identity, and Sexuality” by Elline Lipkin is an informative article describing how men and women are treated differently in certain scenarios throughout the country. The title of the article suggests that females are having trouble figuring out who they really are with or without the help of media and advertisement. The title also suggests that women are the only ones who suffer from sexual objectification, which is not the case.…
Women often are judged outwardly based on their appearance, focusing their attention to the importance of dressing themselves well in order to balance with the societal pressure. In Deborah Tannen’s essay “Marked Women”, she asks herself that “what style we women could have adopted that would have been unmarked, like the men’s. The answer was none. There is no unmarked woman.” (270) which emphasizes how women can be marked. She implies that women have a certain duty to choose a style and can hardly dress without judgment being passed on their dressing. There are no “unmarked options”, everything we do is “marked”. Women express personas through clothing, reminding me of an observation developed in high school. It was a private Christian high school that had a strict dress code on our uniform. The uniform skirt was long enough to cover our knees, however, girls rolled their skirts up, trying to act pretty and sexy as…
As feminism values grow more popular in the modern world, more young girls are taught to dress for themselves, rather than in ways society suggests they should dress. Hannah Berry, a former student at Wright State University, analyzed two shoe ads and their effect on the ways society suggests young girls should dress. She argues how two shoe companies, Clarks and Sorel, remind girls that natural beauty comes from being uniquely themselves. I believe Berry has a valid and supported argument, but there are flaws in her evidence that lead me to provide a counterargument. Young women continue to establish their own guidelines regarding what they can wear everyday to distinguish themselves. However, there is still a social stigma seen in both ads that suggest beauty is the true key success.…
In today’s society young women are required to be mindful regarding the attire worn, to avoid negatively enticing the minds of young men. While girls may appear to dress provocatively, young men should exercise self-control in all environments, rather in school or their home setting. Looking throughout our community, you can see the double standards that exist, and what young women have to endure in school. One such article that shows the struggles of young women is in Laura Bates “How School Dress Codes Shame Girls and Perpetuate Rape Cultures.” In this article she covers many topics including society’s views on what is considered acceptable apparel for young women and sexism. The article states that society gives boys permission to sexually harass women because of articles of clothing or the lack thereof. The world we live in today perpetuates a culture where girls cannot simply wear clothing of their choice, due to the fact boys may find them irresistible. This makes it extremely difficult for young women to be treated without bias, dress…
Women are constantly being pressured to fit in a certain category or to follow a certain type of “normal” according to society (mainly men). The objectification of women has been around since product buying and selling started, “from the 19th century up to today, the most famous women are in the public eye and most are considered sex symbols. Causing younger generations to want to follow what they see. This cycle is creating younger women to believe that it is more important to look amazing in a bikini instead of being intelligent” (MISrep). Women who already know the truth about all the work put in behind looking perfect agree that, “The standard of beauty…
In Erin Ryan’s essay, “Selfies Aren’t Empowering. They’re a Cry for Help” she begins by introducing the opposing argument to structure the debate and establish her thesis. This approach is used to build strong refuting arguments against actual opposing statements. The emotional appeal is her main form of evidence and is also a way for her to further connect with the audience. With this she wanted to convince the audience that selfies are not empowering young women, but contribute to the need of affirmation from others to determine their self-worth based solely on appearance. However, due to her failure to present more convincing and different forms of evidence showing a connection between low self-esteem, female objectification, and selfies…
Lianne George’s article “Why Are We Dressing Our Daughters Like This?” published in Maclean’s magazine (2007), details the disturbing trend of the hypersexualization of young girls in society. George’s main purpose is to express how sexuality through the media, marketing and toys influence girls in their style of clothing.…
Julie D. O’Reilly states that women are objectified in mainstream pop-culture, specifically in comic books and television in her publication, “The Wonder Woman Precedent: Female (Super) Heroism on Trial” (O’Reilly, 442). However, few ever discuss the differences in male and female objectivity in defining bias against gender. In fact, I would venture to argue that the author sympathizes with women and overstates female objectification by injecting her own bias into comic books and television.…
Theories of ‘fat talk’; The theory that has received the most empirical attention is known as the Objectification Theory by Fredrickson & Roberts (1997). This is based on the idea that women are socialised and consorted to view themselves as objects that are in turn, viewed and evaluated by others on the basis of their appearance. Manz, Petroff, Curtin & Bazzini (2009) claimed that fat talk is a “social extension of body objectification”. By engaging in fat talk, Arroyo (2014) proposes that women are not only maintaining society’s objectification theories of their bodies, but they are also re-creating and socially fabricating their own occurrence in weight deviation, social comparison and objectification. This perspective of oneself can lead…
Sexual-objectification can occur in interpersonal or social encounters, and media exposure (McKay, 2013). Interpersonal and social encounters lead to women being objectified through sexual comments, harassment, whistles or shouts, and gazing from male beings (McKay, 2013). Research suggests that many women desire breast augmentation due to pressures from their romantic partners and peers (Howerton et al., 2011) Due to the social expectations, many women feel inadequate and succumb to breast augmentation or other types of plastic surgery (Howerton et al., 2011). Television shows and other forms of media educate viewers that plastic surgery is empowering and is a feminist practice, they also portray the female body as an object that needs work, and once fixed, it will solve all of their problems (Marwick, 2010). As a result of mass media and its influences, the fuller the breasts the sexier and more feminine individuals feel (Howerton et al., 2011). The interplay of these factors has resulted in many women’s interests in breast augmentation, demonstrating its relative value in female perception by society (Rohrich et al., 2007). A negative emotional consequence that results from sexual objectification is that women feel ashamed of their bodies when they perceive them as falling short of feminine beauty ideals, and encourages women to focus on their physical appearance treating themselves as objects to be looked at and evaluated (Calogero, Pina, Park, & Rahemtulla,…
References: Anthias, (2001) ‘The concept of “social division” and theorising social stratification: looking at ethnicity and class’, Sociology, 35, 4, 835-54 Barthes, R. (1985) The Fashion System, London: Cape Bourdieu, P. (1984) Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, London: Routledge Kegan Paul Biggs, S, Phillipson, C., Leach, R. and Money, A-M (2008*) The mature imagination and consumption strategies: age and generation in the development of a United Kingdom baby boomer identity, International Journal of Ageing and Later Life, Bordo. S. (1993) Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture and the Body, Berkeley: University of California Press Brewer, R.M. (1993) ‘Theorizing race, class and gender: the new scholarship of Black feminist intellectuals and Black women’s labor’ in S. M. James and A.P.A Busia (eds) Theorizing Black Feminisms: the Visionary Pragmatism of Black Women London: Routledge Breward, C. (2000) ‘Cultures, identities, histories: fashioning a cultural approach to dress’, in N.White and I.Griffiths (eds) The Fashion Business: Theory, Practice, Image, Oxford: Berg Butler, J. P. (1993) Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex”’, London, Routledge. Clarke, A. and Miller, D. (2002) ‘Fashion and anxiety’, Fashion Theory, 6, 2, 191-214 Cole, T. C. (1992) The Journey of Life: A Cultural History of Aging in America, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Craik, J. (1994) The Face of Fashion: Cultural Studies in Fashion, London: Routledge Crane, D. (2000) Fashion and Its Social Agendas: Class, Gender and Identity in Clothing, Chicago: University of Chicago Press Crossley, N. (2001) The Social Body: Habit, Identity and Desire, London: Sage Davis, F (1992) Fashion, Culture and Identity, Chicago: University of Chicago Press…
Eleven million women in the United States suffer from eating disorders- either self-induced semi-starvation (anorexia nervosa) or a cycle of bingeing and purging with laxatives, self-induced vomiting, or excessive exercise (bulimia nervosa) (Dunn, 1992). Many eating disorder specialists agree that chronic dieting is a direct consequence of the social pressure on American females to achieve a nearly impossible thinness. The media has been denounced for upholding and perhaps even creating the emaciated standard of beauty by which females are taught from childhood to judge the worth of their own bodies (Stephens & Hill, 1994). To explore the broader context of this controversial issue, this paper draws upon several aspects on how the media influences young women's body image. This paper examines an exploration of the prevalence and the source of body dissatisfaction in American females and considers existing research that presents several important aspects regarding the nature of the connection between advertising and body dissatisfaction. From these distinctions, it will be shown that the media has a large impact on women's body image and that the cultural ideal of a thin body is detrimental to the American female's body perception that often results in poor eating pathologies.…
In this study, objectification will be described through the mentioned categories. Clothing (a), includes all aspects of outfit that the women in the videos are wearing. They might be in clothes that reveals or emphasizes their private parts by being tight or clearly outlines body parts of sexualized areas such as chest, butt, and upper legs.…
Dehumanization, objectification, and violence are linked together like a chain. Each one can lead to a series of events that bring upon another, and so on. Dehumanization can lead to objectification, which can lead to violence. In society today, many women and men are dehumanized, objectified, and violated.…
In Santi DeRosa's second article the thesis statement is, "Who's to blame for objectification of woman?" In the article written by Santi DeRosa, "The Objectification of Women. Whose Fault Is It?" It discusses the struggles of a women in our society by the improper use of various venues to promote, advertise or products of universities particularly to all male audience. In the first article, it disagrees with Objectification of Women and second article discusses how women are treated in their work environment and in our society today. I agree with Santi DeRosa's thesis statement, women should be able to stand their crowd from an early age because it will guide them to make decisions or mirror their goals in the early part of their lives. Women…