Semester Project- The Sexualization of Women to Promote Media

My semester project focuses on the sexualization of women in order to promote media and what results from this. What motivated me to do this particularly topic was originally inspired by one of my fellow classmates. It is such a broad topic but, what I am trying to accomplish is that the media has only influenced the public’s views and views towards women.

Women throughout the course of time have always been used to promote the media, this is even more so in today's society. Being attractive and having sex appeal sells. We see women being used in popular films today, in order to bring in a larger audience; this larger audience is particularly men. The male gaze plays an important role in how it shows exactly how what a man perceives as beautiful or attractive in a woman ultimately ends up on the screen.

In the beginning of the semester we read a section from a book written by a man named Berger. In this book he mentions, “Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves. The surveyor of women in herself is male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object- and most particularly an object of vision and sight” (Berger). So the men seem to be in control of what is perceived as beautiful because they are the surveyor of women.  The next couple of examples will show how women are being sexualized in television programs as well as films, music, and more.

The first example of how the media uses the beauty and sexuality of women is in popular shows. Many of us remember shows like Charmed, Buffy the Vampire slayer. These shows obviously feature very attractive women but, notice in the images how the women are wearing sexual clothing or are dressed to look attractive or even better, look seductive. The following examples are perfect in the demonstration of women being objectified. This is done intentionally because the media's reasoning is who would watch a show with ugly women?

Focusing on the show Charmed.  The show Charmed originally featured three actresses. Holly Marie Combs, Alyssa Milano, and Shannon Doherty. The show was a success. Now notice the pictures featuring the original sisters. No sexuality just beauty. Now after they replaced Shannon with Rose, notice how the dynamic changes in terms of sexuality. Suddenly all three sisters are sexualized. I believe that Rose Mcgowan originally having a sexual demeanor influenced the show in becoming more sexual and it resulted in more views after she joined the show.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

http://richhillenjr.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/0buffy-wallpaper-buffy-the-vampire-slayer-2103075-800-6001.jpg

      

Charmed Original Sisters     season 1-3 

http://static.tumblr.com/uuldl1n/Alsm2t7p9/charmed_20sisters_202.jpg

Charmed season 4-8

http://images.wikia.com/charmed/images/1/1f/Charmed_Season_5_promotional.jpg

Charmed Season 4-8

http://images1.fanpop.com/images/image_uploads/Charmed-Promo-charmed-1222033_1500_1200.jpg

Something that I learned in my psychology 101 class was that the color red makes a person look more attractive. So when a person wears red it actually makes them stand out more and look more attractive. That is why when women were red they look more attractive and or sexual.

Rose Mcgowan as Paige in the show Charmed

http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=zMakr6fhMYv_AM&tbnid=RtLQrQUneFTqDM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fanpop.com%2Fclubs%2Fpaige-matthews%2Fimages%2F6857294%2Ftitle%2Fpaige-fanart&ei=8hqGUtHRB-ixsQTIt4GYCg&bvm=bv.56643336,d.cWc&psig=AFQjCNF3EGX9nymz4-9Ag9k-urWrGPR31Q&ust=1384606815183502

Another instance in how the media uses the female beauty to promote themselves is through the movies. Megan Fox and Gwenth Paltrow have been used to promote the films Transformers and Iron man respectively. For the Transformers movie Megan Fox was digitally enhanced to look more attractive then she already was just to attract more viewers. It is also funny how an actress does not even need to have talent these days. For example the women who replaced Megan fox in the last installment of Transformers. Yes she is beautiful and attractive but she had no prior acting experience. But, she got the role because she is beautiful. It is all about using an image to sell, using an objectified woman.

Megan Fox on Transformers 2 set

http://images4.fanpop.com/image/photos/17600000/Megan-Fox-Transformers-2-Shoot-transformers-2-17667102-438-655.jpg

Megan Fox on Motor Cycle in Transformers 2

http://photos.imageevent.com/afap/wallpapers/stars/meganfox//Megan%20Fox%20Transformers%202%20Motorcycle.jpg

Megan Fox

http://www.gotceleb.com/wp-content/uploads/pics/megan-fox/transformers-2-revenge-of-the-fallen-trailer-caps/megan-fox-transformers-2-revenge-of-the-fallen-trailer-caps-01.jpg

Gwenth Paltrow  in Iron Man 3

http://img3.allvoices.com/thumbs/image/609/480/96670609-iron-man.jpg

Rosie Huntington-Whitley on Transformers 3

http://www.hdwallpapers.in/walls/rosie_huntington_whiteley_in_transformers_3-wide.jpg

Rose Huntington- Whitley

http://cdn02.cdn.justjared.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/labeouf-tandem/shia-labeouf-rosie-huntington-whiteley-transformers-tandem-01.jpg

There are many more movies that sexualize women to make money. Recent movies like the blockbuster hit The Avengers which features Scarlet Johansson as Black Widow, this woman who can fight , not only that but, she is very attractive and that makes her profitable. There are also movies like the Titanic and Lois and Clark. A woman being attractive on a TV set or movie is always a bonus. You can even examine kid shows like shake it up. The child actresses are wearing makeup, I kind of took it as them trying to look older and this gets more views.

Scarlett Johansson on Avengers 

http://www.hdwallpapers.in/walls/the_avengers_scarlett_johansson-wide.jpg

Scarlett Johansson on Avengers

http://collider.com/wp-content/uploads/the-avengers-scarlett-johansson-black-widow-poster.jpg

Titanic Movie Poster

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTb9--uTbEdMOczXiZaABXReQ6TOItAPC1C3SbFdBIC-aIcuckKsA

Lois and Clark photoshoot

http://superman-wallpapers10.net/wp-content/uploads/images/ef/lois-clark.JPG

Lois and Clark

http://images2.fanpop.com/images/photos/5000000/Lois-and-Clark-Wallpaper-lois-and-clark-5078582-1280-1024.jpg

Shake it up 

http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/31500000/shake-it-up-shake-it-up-31514294-590-410.jpg

Blue Mountain State

http://www.pariscine.com/sites/default/files/posters/blue_mountain_state_s1.jpg

Blue Mountain State

http://cdn.serietivu.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Blue-Mountain-State-seconda-stagione-15.jpg

Blue Mountain State

http://s3.sidereel.com/cms/posts/195260/large/BLUE-MOUNTAIN-STATE-Season-3-8-550x901.jpg

Do you see what I mean? Chadwick says, “Duncan’s Essay points toward a long history in which the representation of the female body has been organized for male viewing pleasure. The subject of the nude in art brings together discourses of representation, mortality, and female sexuality” (Chadwick 280).

You may begin to ask what is the point of me showing you all of this? Well the answer is not that difficult. Basically as Chadwick pointed out in Chapter ten of her book the female body has always been organized for male pleasure. In today’s society with all the technology we have available to use this is even more amplified than it was years ago. As you can see. This influences society’s perception of what beautiful is. Basically it has a negative effect on the women emotionally and harms the views of men toward women. How so?

Jean Kilbourne has revealed through her book Deadly Persuasion- Why women and Girls must fight the Addictive power of Advertising, “the industry influences our attitudes, values, and behavior. Now, in her first book, she warns that advertisers know more about us then we know about ourselves. It is this knowledge that enables them to promote an addictive mindset among consumers. Through hundreds of examples, Deadly Persuasion illustrates how advertisers trivialize human relationships by convincing us to bestow our love on products, rather than people. Advertisers deliberately offer girls and women, in particular the promise of comfort, power, and gratification, feelings that many do not experience in their everyday lives. And in order to sell addictive products, advertisers target increasingly young audiences by promising them an outlet to express their feelings of rage and rebellion. Drawing on her extensive knowledge of psychology, the media, and women’s issues, Kilbourne presents a shocking picture of the tactics advertisers use to nurture a harmful mindset. Readers will never look at ads, or themselves the same way again.” (Abebooks.com)

Relating this to the sexualization of women in some of the shows I have mentioned women who are not famous of course have been made to believe that they have to look a certain way or act a certain way to be pleasing to society or men. The objectification of women in the media and how it is promoted though the media has really tarnished the minds of the public. Some people think like Berger, “To be born a woman has been to be born, within an allotted and confined space, into the keeping of men.”(Berger) Sometimes a woman may be too sexualized and that can lead to problems, Berger makes a fascinating point when he brought out that “Consequently how a woman appears to a man can determine how she will be treated.” (Berger) It is absolutely true.

All of these analyses can be compared to women being captured in art throughout history as beautiful or sexual. There are a few images throughout history were women have been captured as beautiful, also there are paintings that have a slight sexual context to it. There is the example or Portia Wounding Thigh. Even though the context of the piece might not be sexual she is showing some leg. There is the example of Marie Antoinette, she was very vein but very beautiful. Then there is Susana and the Elders were she is naked and unaware of the elders watching her.  Not to mention Alice Neel’s Pregnant Marie 1964 because even pregnant women can be sexualized now. There are artist like Orlan who has several pieces most being of her, but still the principle still applies. Orlan has a lot of pieces showing breast and that is something that many would agree draws attention. Orlan has had plastic surgery on herself, this could relate back to her probably trying to be beautiful by the standards set by society or men. There is also Cindy Sherman who draws a lot of photographs of women in makeup probably showing an enhancement of beauty and she is using red lipstick in a lot of pieces. This coincides with what I mentioned early about the color red making women more attractive

Portia Wounding Thigh- Elizabeth Siriani

http://www.theclosetfeminist.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Portia_wounding.png

Marie Antoinette

 http://queensransom.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/vigc3a9e-lebrun_marie_antoinette_1783.jpg

Susana and the Elders

Alice Neel- Pregnant Marie 1964

Orlan 

http://theredlist.fr/media/database/photography/contemporaine/anatomy_body/orlan/006_orlan_theredlist.png

Orlan going through plastic surgery

http://janelfeliz.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/orlan_omnipresence.jpeg

Cindy Sherman

http://svlstg.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Cindy-Sherman-3.jpg

Girl showing Cleavage

http://idc.i-d-e-a-s.eu/images/p-001/0612/061202_cindy-sherman_small.jpg

Since I mentioned Orazio and how she has done plastic surgery on herself in the name of art. I want to mention Naomi Wolf and what she says in her book, The Beauty Myth. She mentions in her book that, “The more legal and material hindrances women have broken through, the more strictly and heavily and cruelly images of female beauty have come to weigh upon us... During the past decade, women breached the power structure; meanwhile, eating disorders rose exponentially and cosmetic surgery became the fastest-growing specialty…Pornography became the main media category, ahead of legitimate films and records combined, and thirty-three thousand American women told researchers that they would rather lose ten to fifteen pounds than achieve any other goal...More women have more money and power and scope and legal recognition than we have ever had before; but in terms of how we feel about ourselves physically, we may actually be worse off than our unliberated grandmothers.”(Wikipedia.com) She goes on to say that, “the idea of an "iron-maiden," an intrinsically unattainable standard of beauty that is then used to punish women physically and psychologically for their failure to achieve and conform to it. Wolf criticizes the fashion and beauty industries as exploitative of women, but claims the beauty myth extends into all areas of human functioning. Wolf writes that women should have "the choice to do whatever we want with our faces and bodies without being punished by an ideology that is using attitudes, economic pressure, and even legal judgments regarding women's appearance to undermine us psychologically and politically". Wolf argued that women were under assault by the "beauty myth" in five areas: work, religion, sex, violence, and hunger. Ultimately, Wolf argues for a relaxation of normative standards of beauty.”(wikipedia.com)

Women are advertised for makeup, shampoo commercials and it is always the attractive women that are used in these commercials to advertise the product. It gets women thinking, “If I use this I will also look good.”  For men if they see the product when they are out they may think, “I should buy this for my wife and she will also look good.” The chairperson of one advertising agency explained, “If you want to get into peoples wallets you have to get into their lives. Through the exploitation of human desires, advertisements repeatedly send the message that only products can satisfactorily satiate our human desires.”(litigation-essentials.lexisnexis.com) “Kilbourne exposes the way advertisers take advantage of women’s and girls’ stifled feelings of rage and loss of control, and cause gender stereotypes to flourish. Likely to spark intense controversy, Kilbourne’s passionate treatise is a wake up call about the damaging effects of advertising in our media saturated culture ” ( Publishersweekly.com). She exposes the media for doing this in her book Women and girls must fight. When you think about it her reasoning is absolutely right. We look and judge at what is beautiful based on what the media promotes as beautiful and attractive it has distorted the mentality of society.

Woman advertising Loreal

http://ego-living.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/eva-longoria-loreal.jpg

Woman bathing with Herbal Essence

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHNcgGCmv1o6oYr5J1lcZALim96wO5sEM-K7wZAGB_y30RImWrPISpnTHZXF7u9sLDovoB_fV32xFOCCMEJVTbWxWSUcryHetMgv670AVfiJQoSAeq6a8j4fK_J1zuQpXC_fkRlN7fHOg/s1600/nympho4.jpg

Even singers use this; there is the example of Beyonce. She is also very attractive and sometimes she is very sexualized and this helps he be more marketable.

Beyonce 

http://images6.fanpop.com/image/photos/32600000/Beyonce-Album-4-Outtake-beyonce-32623421-1280-960.jpg

Beyonce

http://www.gq.com/images/entertainment/2013/02/beyonce/beyonce-gq-1.jpg

The male gaze is what influences the way women are portrayed in the media. The definition of what a woman should look like is classified as beautiful. As I brought out earlier, Berger mentioned in his book that the woman was created to be in subjection to men. So there is this idea that women have to be sexualized or beautiful for the enjoyment of men.

In conclusion, the standards for what is perceived as beautiful or attractive in today’s society had been heavily influenced by the media’s objectification of women to promote products. We all have a basic understanding of how women are sexualized to promote products in today's society but what I wanted to address is this has always been the case and it has. It is just with all the technology we have today it is definitely on a much larger scale then it was years ago. People like Berger feel that, the purpose of women is to be there for the pleasure of men both physically and visually. Also art no matter what medium it is sculpting, painting, photography, all have a way of incorporating sexuality and artist from back in the day used it in their pieces. Doing this project and taking this course has just strengthened my views toward woman, that women are not just sexual or attractive that they are much more than that, they are also smart, hardworking, and equal to men and to see them as just sexual beings is highly ignorant. Woman fought to make a name for themselves and do the jobs that were classified to be for only men. Applying this to my future endeavors, I want to be a Doctor and doing this project has helped me to not see a female Doctor as not being capable or as smart as me because she is a woman because there is much more to females than just a pretty face. And that is what I have to say.

Works Cited

Wikipedia.com

Myers, David. Psychology, Ninth Edition in Modules. New York, New York, Ed 9. 2009 Print.

Litigation-essentials.lexisnexis.com

Publishersweekly.com

Abebooks.com

Chadwick,Whitney. Women ,Art, and Society. 4^th Ed. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2007. Print.