For instance, during the first wave of feminism, women were dehumanized and degraded by men by not being given many human rights, especially women of the LGBTQ community and women of colour. Since then, women have been fighting to gain respect and equality in the male-dominant society. Those who view erotic dance as a degrading and dehumanizing profession that only pleasures men believe that it is because society has not changed in the sense that women are still degraded and objectified by men. On the other hand, those who believe that erotic dance is empowering believe that women have finally surpassed the great inequalities in society, such as the right to vote and take part in any profession they choose. Even though there are inequalities that women continue to face in our society, these feminists believe that women deserve to enjoy their femininity and experience whatever they choose, and with the new waves of technology and social media, they help “dismantle pillars of power and ensure that all voices are heard equally” (Zdrojewski, 2014,
Women of color were forced to assimilate into the eurocentric standard of beauty, one that resembled middle class white women. Overall, the commercialization of the cosmetics industry defined femininity and emphasized the division of class and
Society and popular culture influence how a girl can experience girlhood by presenting expectations and constructing ideas. The biggest issue of girlhood is sexualization. This differs from the concept of the sexual, referring to expressions of sex and practices of intimacy (Kehily, 2012). Sexualization can be defined as “processes that make the sexual visual, commonly involving forms of objectification viewing individuals solely in terms of their value as sex objects for the pleasure of others” (Kehily, 2012, p.256). This concept does not appear because this is what young girls want to see, but it is what they are being constructed to see from adults; in other words, sexualization of young girls is an adult construction (Kehily, 2012).
These artifacts have been known to show power and masculinity. On the other hand throughout history, woman genitals have been taboo. Unlike men genitals, women genitals are hidden and not seen without effort. Not being able to look at your genitals and not making an effort to understand and know your genitals can cause a female to be uncomfortable with her self-image. Studies have shown that when a woman comes become knowledgeable about her body parts and more experience with the functions and sensuality of the components become more comfortable with themselves.
This form of objectification is often used as a means to appeal to men's sexual desires in order to promote and attract consumers, because marketers still latch onto the old “sex sells”, or so it would seem (Rowland, 2016). Music videos, magazines, fashion commercials, are all channels through which women are exploited and put out to be headless objects isolated for their bodies solely for sexual pleasure and viewing purposes. Rowland explains that although this charade may allure and trap most men, this is not the case for women. Emma Rooney cites in The Effects of Sexual Objectification on Women's Mental Health, “the sexual objectification of women is a driving and perpetuating component of gender oppression, systemic sexism, sexual harassment, and violence against women”. Jessica Vanlenti writes in ‘Worldwide sexism…Women’, that researchers from The University of Missouri-Kanas and Georgia State found these forms of objectification to be linked to women’s psychological distress, and are leading causes of suicide among young adolescent women.
She wants to separate sexuality from mortality. “ it 's time to teach our daughters that their ability to be good people depends on their being good people, not weather if they are sexually active or not. Boys are praised if they are sexually active, but for girls its a diffrent story. “Being “hot” or sexy is part of the recipe of heterosexual femininity. But with one false step, it’s easy to cross the invisible and ever-shifting boundary between “sexy” and “slutty.”
The evolution of advertisements appealing to consumers with sex in the tobacco has changed dramatically. Originally sex in tobacco advertisements contained lots of words, fully clothed women, and mostly revolved around a woman saying something sexy. As the future progresses you see women being the figurehead of the advertisements, however the models are still fully clothed with just saying a slogan. Then the evolution of advertisements took a sexual turn showing very thin and attractive women in sexual poses with less clothes. Which resulted with insecurities of women trying to obtain the ideal image of a model.
For example, girls will style their hair to “become more attractive” (Berger 2014), or they will purchase ‘minimizer,’ ‘maximizer,’ ‘training,’ or ‘shaping’ bras, hoping that their breasts will conform to their idealized body image” (Berger 2014). This all appears to be harmless activities, yet when body image is only addressed outwardly and not psychologically, there can be an increase in poor and destructive behaviors. For instance, body image dissatisfaction can lead to poor self-esteem, which can create a cycle of increased body dissatisfaction, followed by decreasing self-esteem (Stapleton et al., 2017). Ultimately, a teenage girl can find herself in a cycle of “depression, eating disorders and obesity” (Stapleton et al., 2017). On study in 2012 revealed, “Two-thirds of U.S. high school girls are trying to lose weight, even though only one-fourth are actually overweight or obese” (Berger 2014).
“Although concerning sexual practices between adults and children have existed throughout history and across cultures, whether such behavior was conceived of and defined as ‘abuse’ has been dependent on the societal values of the particular period” (Denov, 2004). In today’s society, sex offending has become an increasingly, concerning phenomenon that individuals must become more aware of. Although generally regarded as a male phenomenon, over time, female perpetrators have become equally important as male perpetrators. Due to the lack of public awareness, female sexual predators go unreported. As a result, society must become more aware of female sexual perpetrators, as many incidents of females assaulting both young men and women have gone unreported for some time.
It comes no surprise that radical feminism is to be blame for shattering masculine nature as Dobson argued in Bringing up boys (2001). Therefore, it can be understood that misogyny generates and acts as a shield to secure inherent masculinity by ceasing feminists; and women’s activities and empowerment. Whereas, most feminists don’t yearn for achieving equality by causing harm to or neglecting of men’s interests (Anderson, 2015). Therefore, prescriptive gender stereotypes affect not only women’s but also men’s ways to access any institutions.
The obvious fact is that all the women are sexual provateurs in their own fashion, but what alot of people watching the video didnt notice is that the video is titled "Blurred Lines" The lines are representations of boundaries in sex life. Blurred lines are implying that the man, or woman cant say no,