Dominant Images of Women and Gender Construction Essay Example

1. Introduction Women in society are viewed as subordinates to men. Women are expected to listen, sit and wait for the men. There are examples of the subordination of women everywhere you look. In literature, the media and different societies all over the globe, women are portrayed as lesser than men. In the past, many Eastern and Western societies did not allow women to be educated due to the fact that men thought women should not have the knowledge and be able to use their knowledge in any way. Men treated women in such a primitive manner. All the females needed to know were the basics of keeping house, raising children, and following their husband’s orders. In section 2, I will describe two dominant imageries of women. I will provide modern day examples of these two dominant images which I chose to discuss. I will discuss how these images co-play with the mechanisms of gender construction. There will be a feed-back loop on the effects of expectations of women due to these 2 types of imagery. 2. Women as Sex Objects
Women are often viewed as sex objects. One reason why men view women as sex objects is because men use women to reproduce and without women, there will be no way to have more children. Another reason why men view women as sex objects is because it makes them feel more superior to women. This is especially true in the porn industry. Pornography constructs women as what men want sexually. Pornography is the answer to the fantasies of men. Women are constantly being dominated by men and used to satisfy the men’s desires. In many cases, women who are perceived as “dangerous” are often made to appear less threatening, more childlike. Women who are perceived to be too pure are portrayed to be more “bad”. Many antipornography feminists protest against pornography because it degrades women and promotes violence against women. Overall, pornography radiates a bad image of women to the world. As a result of women being viewed as sex objects, men