Sexism in the Media

What comprises sexism and feminism? Do sexist images in the media micturate an strike on wo workforce and girls? And, what be the broader political issues here? I am hoping that we bed reframe the debate around sexism and nudity in the media in a carriage that makes sense for socialists. Were all probably aw ar of sexist representations in the media from unfermentedspapers and magazines to the movies, TV and radio. For example, Rolling Stone magazine didnt used to be a soft porn magazine, nevertheless it is so common directly for fe man uniform musicians to be in soft-porn poses on its cover.Howard Stern, the radio DJ, is always inquire his female guests and callers what they atomic number 18 wearing. Stern contractes heavily on womens strong-arm attri savees for the titillation of his male lisdecadeers. We also see many movies each social class where the female characters be there solely to support and gratify the male characters. Magazines frequently show exactly pi eces of a woman, such(prenominal)(prenominal) as her legs, or torso so that women ar seen as pieces of a human organism, minify to yet corpse parts, which argon usually hyper sexualized for male stimulation.The circulating(prenominal)ly touristy TV show Desperate Housewives has a predominantly female audience, simply tends to appeal to male viewers with story lines involving the women in their underwear or locked aside of their houses nude. Soft-core pornography is the staple of many mainstream mens magazines such as Maxim. In the past decade the decline of the mass movement, and the capitalists promotion of escapism, has been at the cost of increased degradation of women in the media. Womens MovementWebsters Dictionary defines sexism as attitudes or behavior found on traditional stereotypes of sexual eccentrics or discrimination or devaluation establish on a persons sex. According to Websters, this word came into rule in the period of 1965-1970 and was modeled after the word racism, which it ego came into use in the 1865-1870 period, during the revolutionary days of Reconstruction in the South. The timeline of the creation of the word sexism gives us an idea of the dramatic change in the consciousness of women in the sixties and 70s, which was directly influenced by the civil rights movement.However for a word with such a short history, a mere 40 years later, capitalist economy is trying to make women believe that sexism no longer exists. In my interrogation for this introduction, I came across discussion of something termed post-feminism which argues that the doddering ideas intimately what is sexism and who is a libber no longer apply. That it is not sexist, but merely ironic, that defenseless women be used in advertising such as the TV ad where Nicolette Sheridan from Desperate Housewives dropped her towel in front of a football grazeer to get much men to watch the NFL.The idea is that women are instanter in control of their bod ies and that to object to the use of a nude woman in an advertisement is actually an guarantee to repress that individual womans sexuality, or an expression of prudishness, and not a comment on the exploitation of women for financial gain. The Repackaging of Sexism & Feminism Feminism is being repackaged and portrayed as a repressive police force telling women what not to wear, how to give way sex and not part withing women to live their personal lives without the constraints of a rigid ideology, as one post-feminist writer put it.On the positive side women, and especially juvenility women, are more confident or so their sexuality, but for some women this emission is expressed through the assumption of some of the roles, attitudes and sexual behavior antecedently more common among men. This is what one so-called feminist writer describe as a shift from the old victim feminism to the impudently power feminism. In fact the shift is away from challenging the old male- predomin ate place quo and toward finding a place within it.Christine doubting Thomas in her article The New Sexism writes about this shift in feminist thin tycoon. She writes about the recent way of the increased acceptance of strip clubs and lap saltation club Lap dancing, it is argued, is empowering not exploitative be suit of clothes, when leaprs throne earn as much as $800 a night, theyre often earn dampen bills than the men theyre stripping for. As one schoolchild told the BBCs Inside Out program I work when I deficiency to. I make the amount of money I want to, and if I dont feel homogeneous it I can quit.No-one is pushing me to do it. moreover contrast this with the comment of a unwavering frequenter of lap dancing clubs It makes me feel like a king to be sit down there with all these women surrounding me, giving me slews of attention. nonhing beats the thrill of calling a woman over, sitting her down and talking to her, geting that if you give her money she is going to ride all her clothes off. Its great to ca-ca that kind of control, that power, and its an ego boost to contain all girls competing with each other to dance for you. However empowered individual dancers might feel (and of course not all dancers are well paid) lap dancing itself promotes the idea that women are not thinking whole beings but body parts objects uncommitted for men to control and enjoy. 1 This new feminism also represents a shift from a collective to an individualistic approach to womens equality. If a given woman feels oppressed, feels exploited, or feels demeaned, it is because something is wrong with her. Perhaps she is not belligerent enough or not motivated enough.She has not figured out how to advance within the current system. When women buy into the basic concepts of capitalist culture, the new feminists imply, as many doors impart open for women as for men and they will no longer be victims. The new post-feminism also argues that the male dominated em pire is crumbling and that more women than ever are now in positions of power. However, we know who these powerful women are Margaret Thatcher, Hilary Clinton, and Condoleeza Rice. They actually represent a step rearwards for womens equality.Condoleezas promotion to Secretary of State reinforces the illusion that racial and gender discrimination no longer exists and that failure to succeed is scarcely the failure of individuals to take advantage of their opportunities. Her work for the Bush administration is lot to increase the attacks on all workers, women and men, which in turn especially increases the buck economically on women. Her promotion represents no change whatsoever for the status quo and for the veryity of work class women across the United States. How Equal are We? Women today still consistently make less than men for fulltime work in the same ancestrys.In statistics from 2002, nationally women average 78% of mens pay for all jobs. Among the highest paid professi onals (doctors and lawyers) women exclusively make from 58-76% of mens average pay and they make up about a threesome of the workers in these jobs. On the other hand, those jobs that are predominantly occupied by women such as cashiers or child care workers women make about 95% of mens absorbs. But the average weekly wage for men and women is very low at $250-$300 per week. Also, traditionally enrol jobs like nursing and construction have higher average weekly wages and women make about 91% of mens pay. 2However, the galvanise fact is that in the Bureau of Labor Statistics information from 2002, out of hundreds of job categories, there is not a single job where women make more money than men do. thither are also a radically higher proportion of women than men living in poverty in the U. S. For many American women, violence is also a nasty reminder of the inequality in this society. Estimates of non-fatal domestic violence against women range from 1 million to 4 million a yea r with nearly 1 in 3 women experiencing a physical assault from a partner in boastfulhood. Women have a 10 times greater likelihood of being victimized by an intimate than men.Also, 33% of all women murdered are murdered by an intimate partner. In fact the leading cause of death among pregnant women is not complications from pregnancy, but murder. 4 The sexist representations of women in the media are a direct reflection of this economic and social inequality. But these images also serve to reinforce the lower status of women not only through showing us as a commodity to be packaged for mens enjoyment, something to be controlled, but also by directly undermining womens self-esteem and emphasizing the unattainable type of a perfect woman. Up to 80% of American women are issatisfied with their appearance. Much of the trade of the ideal woman is targeted at women directly. Womens magazines, both in articles and advertisements (and it is often difficult to distinguish the two) carry a lot of ideas about the ideal woman. In addition 1 out of every 3. 8 video commercials carries some sort of attractiveness message. 5 Media Images and Girls The American Society of malleable Surgeons reports that 82% of all cosmetic surgical procedures are performed on women. The close to common procedures are liposuction, nipple augmentation, nose reshaping and eyelid surgery.In the years from 1992 to 2003 good cosmetic surgical procedures increased by 192% with breast augmentation increasing by 657% and liposuction by 412%. 6 Not only are women reshaping their bodies in eternalise numbers to try and fit some type of female ideal, but girls are influenced by this pressure as well. Some 81% of ten year-old girls are afraid of being fat and 51% of 9 and 10 year-olds feel better about themselves if they are on a diet. Of radiation diagram dieters, about 5-6% will progress to partial or full syndrome eat disorders. 7Eating disorders often start for women in their teen and pre- teen years, and represent an extreme attempt to control ones body. It may not seem such a distorted priority to young girls to achieve the perfect body through self-punishing starvation or vomiting when record numbers of adult women are voluntarily subjecting themselves to invasive surgeries. Now this process is being deepen and normalized through TV shows such as Extreme Makeovers and The run. Here, mostly women are shown going through a series of major cosmetic surgeries.In The Swan a prize goes to the best makeover. capitalist economy sends mixed messages to women that only take a leak anxiety. Their perfect woman is young, thin, and never has acne. However, the unhealthy food big moving in pushes at us makes this perfect woman even more unattainable. Not only do they profit from selling us this bad food, but the food itself almost guarantees that we will need to spend more money on cosmetics, dieting, surgery, or antidepressants if we buy into this ideal woman concept. We ca nt talk about sexisms effect on women without also iscussing its effect on men who are also damaged by it. From boyhood, men are sent the message that women are here for their pleasure and that they are primarily commodities for their consumption. If this idea is completely internalized, it makes men unable to connect with women in any but the most superficial way, and cuts them off from a deeper sense of both themselves and women. Just as the oppression of women has forced women in familiar to develop a more skillful understanding of human relations, so too male privilege tends to stunt mens blood skills.Also, for men that have themselves experienced abusive upbringings, it makes them more likely to be trapped into attempting to control women through physical or emotional abuse. Sexism and Capitalisms new Moral Divide In the 1984 movie, This is Spinal whang the fake documentary about an English heavy metal band, a female record company executive lets the band members know tha t they have concerns with the bands album cover. They feel that the image of a naked woman wearing a leash and dogs cop is sexist. Sexy, one of the band members says, whats wrong with being adult? There is enormous confusion today surrounding this difference between what is deemed sexy and what it sexist in the media. The recent media hype around the Janet Jackson breast exposure incident and the uproar over the NFL commercial I antecedently cited are examples of how this discussion is being spun in the media as the relentless sex-oriented focus of popular culture verses the purity of family values. In an era where some women are losing access to services that help them control their bodies reproductively, we are now perceive the control of images of womens bodies as an issue in the media.The new feminists would have us believe that the ultimate control of an individual womans body belongs to the woman herself and so the images are not discussed in the setting of sexism. The lib erals argue that a womans naked body is no big deal and cant we be mature and draw in that its just a womans body failing, like the guy from Spinal Tap, to distinguish between sexy and sexism. The family values alignment argues that it is damaging to children to be exposed to nudity and the subject of sex reservation it appear that any outrage is due to prudishness.The argument goes that these are the oppose interests in the discussion leaving little voice for most mint. Is it affirmable that this divisive construct is promoted by the media itself to obscure the real issue? The real issue is the exploitation of a womans body and sexuality for the purpose of selling products magazines, TV shows, movies, football games. If we understand it this way, then we have a way to object to the objectification of women without falling into the trap of prudishness.We can censure CBS and the NFL not for showing us Janet Jacksons breast, but for exploiting her want to further her career a nd the captive audience of viewers to boost ratings, which in the end makes more advertisement money for them. Capitalism typically creates and exploits divisions for the purpose of undermining working class solidarity. Sexism undermines the solidarity between men and women. By failing to time period out capitalist economys role in this issue, we can allow a new threat to class solidarity to take root. This non-class based division, created by the media, the so-called moral divide. A New Mass Movement The current trends in the media represent a step backwards for women in the seek against sexism and exploitation. This is another facet of the global phenomenon, regardless of gender, of working class people being attacked more fiercely by the capitalist class. The current oncoming of sexism, besides undermining class solidarity, also serves capitalism by expanding markets for diet and sweetheart products and for surgery. It also represents a huge drain on the resources of an indiv idual woman.With her self-image and self worth constantly under attack, it is no surprise that some women have fallen into an individualistic, superficial, self-absorption, spending less time fighting to change the work and the community. Especially with the failure of working class and womens organizations to fight on concrete issues that are important to women. However, just as in the 1960s, a mass movement gave birth to the womens movement and sexism even started to be talked about, so too a new mass movement of workers that confronts capitalism will also confront sexism. Working class women will be at the fore of such a movement.In fact, women play a pick up role in many community struggles. LMV has been involved in the track down for Renters Rights a direct action group in which women took the leading role in fighting off Section 8 housing cuts. 8 In the 70s we saw how differently women could be do by in the media with real stories about real women. There was a trend toward increased realism in TV and film including the portrayal of women. In the movie Alice Doesnt Live Here Anymore a working class woman who is a single parent stands up against everyday sexism. The central character is a woman who is strong, funny and insightful.The scarcity of movies like this since the 70s with strong female characters confirms the degeneracy of not only the popular media but of capitalism itself. Socialism, on the contrary, will not only achieve material equality between men and women, but also allow both men and women to better explore their own individuality, and chemise free of the base superficiality that market capitalism promotes. January 2005References 1 Christine Thomas , The New Sexism, Socialism Today Issue 77 Sept 2003 2 The Bureau of Labor Statistics, Median usual weekly earnings of regular wage and salary workers by detailed occupation and sex, 2002 annual averages. house servant Violence Statistics, District of Columbia Coalition Against Domestic V iolence at www. dccadv. org More stats from case Domestic Violence Hotline at www. ndvh. org. 4 Kim Curtis, mar The leading cause of death for pregnant women. Associated Press April 23, 2003 5 National Eating Disorders Association at www. nationaleatingdisorders. org 6 American Society of pliable Surgeons at www. plasticsurgery . org 7 National Eating Disorders Association 8 For more on this struggle see www. laborsmilitantvoice. com