This article depicts women who are running for political office and the fact that the media focuses on their materialistic features. They focus on the fact that women in the public eye must look put together, good fashioned, groomed, however never be spotted in the act of grooming. Kate Spade wedges have become a popular shoe that have come to represent "a circle of younger women aspiring to power or already in it, women directly and indirectly passing on to one another ways of navigating the particular challenges of being a woman in the public eye". Much attention is paid to what shoes these women are wearing opposed to their personality and capabilities for which position they are running. Some still believe this is progress from the past where women wore male inspired outfits. They appearance in the public eye has shifted to become more feminine. Women no longer have to appear in masculine outfits to be recognized. However at the same time, the media still hardly pays attention to what shoes men running for political office are wearing. Many of these women refuse to name their footwear and other favorite fashion brands to the media in order to keep the media's attention focused on more important, non-fashioned related issues.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/24/nyregion/24bigcity.html
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Carl's Jr: NOW SELLINGS BURGERS & BOOBS
Clearly sex sells.. and today sex sells everything including burgers!
What is the point of these commercials and why do they even exist?! What is the world coming to?!
Whoever thought burgers and bikinis were part of two different worlds, think again. Carl's Jr. advertising campaign has come to the conclusion that placing hot women in scantily clad bikinis while eating a burger sells. Here are three of their commercials that feature hotties Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, and the newest one from reality star Audrina Pattinridge.
What is the point of these commercials and why do they even exist?! What is the world coming to?!
Normalizing Women
Philosopher Michel Foucault wrote of one of the major mechanisms in society—the categorization of people into “normal” and “abnormal.” Foucault's emphasis is particularly relevant in establishing notions of female sexuality in the media, and works to perpetuate misleading standards about women’s bodies
…Common Themes of Normalization Include:
▪ The body is pathological—it is diseased, sick, damaged, and in need of repair.
▪ The body is abnormal—certain bodies are considered in need of correction, such as overweight ones, non-white ones, and wrongly proportioned ones.
▪ Certain bodies are normal—proportions, size, placements, and the like are deemed by society to be the models that all should replicate, follow, and mimic.
▪ The body is your enemy—people are told that their bodies are out of control and in need of punishment; the body is something that is to be feared and worked on.
▪ Technologies of correction are available—society provides people the appropriate means to correct their bodies, including cosmetics, surgery, dieting technologies, makeup, fashion, etc.
▪ Before and after—people are told "success" stories of how a person went from a wrong body to right one; these stories are used to motivate people to act on their ‘abnormal’ bodies as the case with Heidi Montag.
…If women can join together to work against these deceptive and seemingly inherent notions, we can work together to deconstruct the misleading conceptions regarding the female body.
"Sex and the City" and the Empowerment of Women
It's obvious that our society is highly sexualized and women are depicted more often than not as sexual objects. Women are continuously shown in the media in sexualized positions and half-naked, or sometimes fully in their birthday suits. The television show "Sex and the City," which later became a movie, is a great example of how women have contested the naturalized stereotype of them being portrayed as sexualized objects. The television show does promote sex, but at the same time it contests the sexual stereotype of women by having the four main women characters in powerful positions in society with high paying jobs. The four women are hard working, dedicated, independent women who don't need a man to support them. This television show and movie promotes the empowerment of women in society and shows women partaking in a more active role in society. As much as the media does portray women as easy on the eye, passive and sexualized, there is media out there that is promoting the empowerment of women and contesting the sexism and "Sex and the City" is one of them.
Degradation of Women in the Media
This YouTube video features images of women that represent how they are sexualized in the media.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Y2VsOdPSQM&feature=search
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Y2VsOdPSQM&feature=search
What men really think about us women
Here lies the problem....
This male perspective regarding the female brain has only worked to perpetuate women being depicted as sexual objects for male's desire, rather than being considered intellectual equals.
Perpetuating the Stereotype
Celebrities like Heidi Montage only work to perpetuate the notion of women as sex objects.
By the time she turned 21 in September 2007, MTV reality star Heidi Montag had already had a nose job, collagen lip injections, and implants that turned her A-cups into cantaloupe-round 32-Cs. In the years since, she's mulled over what to have done next, saving photos of stars like Angelina Jolie and consulting her surgeon more than 20 times. In this week's People, she describes her behavior as "absolutely obsessed." Which led her to the operating room once again, on Nov. 20, for a total of 10 procedures in one sitting.
The problem it creates is that young girls see this as normal (at Least in Hollywood.)
We've grown up on pop culture that screams that everything is a candidate for improvement. We've watched bodies transformed on Extreme Makeover; faces taken apart and pieced back together on I Want a Famous Face. We dissect Demi Moore's Photoshopped body on the cover of W magazine and wonder how the 47-year-old mother, even before the airbrushing, could possibly look so good. Meanwhile, statistics from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery show that cosmetic-surgery procedures performed on those 18 and younger have nearly doubled over the past decade, while nearly 14 percent of Botox injections are given to those in the 19-to-34 age group, like Heidi. "I think it's a very interesting time for girls, in that what we all grew up believing—that you have to play the hand you're dealt—is no longer true," screenwriter and director Nora Ephron recently told NEWSWEEK. "In some sense, you really can go out and buy yourself a better face and a different body."
We've grown up on pop culture that screams that everything is a candidate for improvement. We've watched bodies transformed on Extreme Makeover; faces taken apart and pieced back together on I Want a Famous Face. We dissect Demi Moore's Photoshopped body on the cover of W magazine and wonder how the 47-year-old mother, even before the airbrushing, could possibly look so good. Meanwhile, statistics from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery show that cosmetic-surgery procedures performed on those 18 and younger have nearly doubled over the past decade, while nearly 14 percent of Botox injections are given to those in the 19-to-34 age group, like Heidi. "I think it's a very interesting time for girls, in that what we all grew up believing—that you have to play the hand you're dealt—is no longer true," screenwriter and director Nora Ephron recently told NEWSWEEK. "In some sense, you really can go out and buy yourself a better face and a different body."
Women as Sex Objects
Global understand of the problems with pornography sets a clear agenda for agents of change working for a free gender society. Analysts found profound levels in which pornography works to attacks the social fabric of society, even outside the realms of sexuality. The indication is that the mere presence of pornographic materials in the workplace allows males to force females out of the industry. A further analysis of different types of pornography and negative depictions of women may surprise some individuals who believe that only extremely violent and sexual depictions of women, such as Hustler type magazines, cause an increase of violence against women. In fact their study indicates that exposure to media depicting women in degrading and subordinate situations, even if not explicitly sexual or violent in nature, will lead to increased violent behavior of men against women in society.
...the following ads share one thing in common- it views women as base, without any meaning other than a sexual one. Consider just on ad, and the focus on the dehumanization related to the imagery and context of the ad. Would anyone want her or his daughter or son represented as the women in these ads? If you can answer no to this question, consider joining the fight against sexism in popular culture.
World's 100 Most Powerful Women
As many of you may know, Forbes loves to do lists of the world's billionaires, leading companies in America, most influential people, most powerful people, etc. But one that is striking is a Forbes list done on the World's 100 Most Powerful Women. The list is composed of not necessarily the most famous or most wealthy women in the world, but instead they are the ones that are most influential. These women that make up this Forbes list include Presidents, Chancellors, Chief Executives of major companies, etc. These women run countries, companies, and organizations and our world would be very different without them. The women who hold's the number one spot is the German Chancellor Angela Merkel who is the leader of the worlds fourth-largest economy, and has held this number one spot for four years! Imagine that.
In the past, women hardly got any recognition, and were hardly involved in huge corporations and running countries. But today women are strikingly becoming quite powerful, and they are finally getting the recognition they deserve.
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/11/power-women-09_The-100-Most-Powerful-Women_Rank.html
In the past, women hardly got any recognition, and were hardly involved in huge corporations and running countries. But today women are strikingly becoming quite powerful, and they are finally getting the recognition they deserve.
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/11/power-women-09_The-100-Most-Powerful-Women_Rank.html
Women bringing home the bacon
In today's article on Psychology Today, Samantha Smithstein looks at the changing dynamics of male and female roles within American households. She analyzes how females are starting to make more than some of their male counterparts. She also writes about how women are climbing up the socio-economic ladder in today's society. It's interesting to see her analysis of these recent changes! Go women!
Local San Diego Workshops for Female Empowerment
Dr. Jen
-Create balanced relationships
-Be comfortable with their bodies
-Speak their truth
Some good lectures to attend:
Why Good Girls Don't...and Do. Girls and young women receive many conflicting messages: Be a good girl. Boys will only like you if you put out. Show off your body to get attention and worth. Don't be a slut. It can be difficult for young women to negotiate what they do and don't want, and to be able to voice that in a healthy way. This interactive lecture delves into the power that young women have and how they can make choices that honor their bodies, health, feelings, and future.
Love My Body – How Do I Do That? We hear the message “Love Your Body,” but what does that really mean and how can we do that? This interactive lecture explores media depictions of bodies and the consumer culture around that, as well as gender socialization, components of body-image, what we can do to support each other, and skills to build a strong foundation for self-love physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, and spiritually. The focus here is on women’s bodies, but the messages and skills are relevant to all.
Female Sexual Empowerment for the 21st Century. Is a young woman in Girls Gone Wild sexually liberated? Or is she following gendered scripts of what it means to be valuable as a woman? Young women are socialized with many conflicting messages about what it means to be a woman, in a relationship, sexually active, and empowered. This interactive lecture digs at the many layers of awareness and worth women have, and how to tap into that in loving and empowering ways.
Dr. Jen offers local workshops where students will learn to:
-Make healthier decisions-Create balanced relationships
-Be comfortable with their bodies
-Speak their truth
Some good lectures to attend:
Why Good Girls Don't...and Do. Girls and young women receive many conflicting messages: Be a good girl. Boys will only like you if you put out. Show off your body to get attention and worth. Don't be a slut. It can be difficult for young women to negotiate what they do and don't want, and to be able to voice that in a healthy way. This interactive lecture delves into the power that young women have and how they can make choices that honor their bodies, health, feelings, and future.
Love My Body – How Do I Do That? We hear the message “Love Your Body,” but what does that really mean and how can we do that? This interactive lecture explores media depictions of bodies and the consumer culture around that, as well as gender socialization, components of body-image, what we can do to support each other, and skills to build a strong foundation for self-love physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, and spiritually. The focus here is on women’s bodies, but the messages and skills are relevant to all.
Female Sexual Empowerment for the 21st Century. Is a young woman in Girls Gone Wild sexually liberated? Or is she following gendered scripts of what it means to be valuable as a woman? Young women are socialized with many conflicting messages about what it means to be a woman, in a relationship, sexually active, and empowered. This interactive lecture digs at the many layers of awareness and worth women have, and how to tap into that in loving and empowering ways.
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