Battle of the Sexes

So I'm currently doing a research paper...or shall I say procrastinating on said paper...and it's about the media's influence on women in society. It's a topic I'm very interested in and more so with the research I'm uncovering. When I read the articles my teacher (female) gave out to us in class my first reaction was wow women are beyond ridiculed. Truth is, now that I've done some research I think, yes, women are obviously still looked down upon--seen as sex objects, housewives, blah blah--but every other human trait is ridiculed just as much. I think that the only reason women are so pissed about certain commercials, articles, magazines, websites etc. (if they realized the attacks even when they're not blatant) is because the most women got is the right to vote and work, the latter of which still has kinks to it. Likewise, slavery and racism is still a heated debate but the slaves were free and something was done. Men don't particularly care about most of their ridicule and anyway they have been the hierarchy of the world since what my research says is around 300 B.C. so why complain?

Anyway, commercials like the axe ones are degrading to women. The Chrysler ones too and yes, I think women are clearly exploited but I don't see how they're fighting or caring about it--or really doing anything but bitching. I was wondering what your opinions are on the whole matter?

I find the Axe commercial more insulting to men, the fact that a company believes the male to be so stupid that they will think a body spray is going make women jump all over them, is rather funny, if it were that easy, all men would be wearing it lol

That aside the media exploits everyone, not just women. Women are more readily objectified, but there are lots of women out there taking up the fight, men for that matter too. The media has become what we allow it to become.

Well on that whole subject of the axe commercial i was reading a debate and this one person posted a really good respones. It was by a guy but i have to say he pretty much ripped the words from me. Its long but def. worth the read i think:

_________________________________________

"It never ceases to surprise me what people will allow themselves to be worked up over. The ads are silly, and generally considered humorous. Sure, it depicts women acting silly over men/body spray. Plenty of commercials depict humans acting dumb for humorous intent. How much damage is being done here? I guess you could say it leads boys to believe women will have sex with you depending on how you smell (a partially true statement; I don't know many humans who would have sex with someone who smelled like cheese), and hence that they're easy, but that's stretching it a bit.

If I were looking for something to get offended over on behalf of women, I might look to the widespread media attention given to the scantily clad female form. I might point out how female characters in any media are nearly always judged based on their beauty, before and sometimes to the exclusion of any other criteria. Women wear less clothing then men and are always more likely to use their "sexuality" to get what they want. There's been plenty of research linking unreasonable depictions of the female form to disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia, not to state what kind of impact the portrayal of sexuality might place on girls.

Better yet, we could talk about the still-legal practice of female circumcision in some countries. Or the jailing of women in Indonesia for the crime of being outside at night without a husband to escort them, on the supposition they're obviously prostitutes. In Iran, women don't have the right to drive, vote, exercise the choice to wear the hijab or not, or leave the country without male permission. Or the Japanese government's current refusal to acknowledge the use of sex slaves during WWII.

Better yet, instead of focusing only on the plight of women, we could talk about atrocities afflicting /all/ human beings. There's the genocides in Darfur, or the gun crime murders in the US which are equivalent to death rates in a country at war. Speaking of war, there is the current war in Iraq with nearly 70,000 Iraqi casualties and several thousand US troop losses.

Gee, those Axe body commercials seem pretty irrelevant now. By the way, any corporation wants advertising for their product. (Advertising is important to everyone, just look at the Iran-UK conflict for that.) Commercials are written and produced with two things in mind: 1) to be memorable, and 2) to be remembered for their product. If both of those things have been done buying will usually follow. This has clearly been memorable for you, if you took the time to write a post about it, and that post in turn has created MORE advertising, as everyone who sees it thinks about the commercials and might not be that offended by them. So if they ARE degrading to women, exactly how is the dialogue here doing anything but advancing that?"

No I definitely disagree. I think you're right about the first part. Women do use sexuality as a way to get what they want--a point the guy from the blog above already stated but nonetheless they I would say are the more looked down upon. African Americans, no one can argue, are belittled but in the end if they're male they're at the point where they can have the same "respects" as white men always have. Look at the black community--particularly in the music area. They exploit women more than any other race and much more blatantly then anyone else. Even if you were to block out the bimbos dancing by their side the lyrics rarely call women by a respectable name: "hoe" or "bitch" seems to be a compliment especially when they personalize it by saying she's theirs--then women become objects and there we go. If they were on the bottom of the ridicule pyramid they wouldn't be able to put another status so far below them. As for children I think it'ss only just begun. In previous years when children were obedient and had no mind of their own they were regarded as the worlds treasure because hey, they are going to be taking care of you when you're old. The only difference now is that people are afraid because children have become more spirited. Likewise think how many male children are ridiculed versus female. Adults are still more likely to say "oh he's just a boy he'll grow out of it" then to say the same for a girl in a similar situation. The children ridicule, although important and very closley related in obscenity as the female, is newer. It's just a representation that we'll always have new problem arise but the whole women's issue I think needs to be solved first.

I think the whole issue of women seen as sexual playthings in commercials is truly laughable in its obvious connatations, for example lynx or axe deodorant ads... It clearly isn't a blatant overzealous misogynistic intended to make women be seen as hedonistic primitive who'll slep with any man wearing the deodorant...lol

No, its a post-mordern piece telling men you can get a shot with a woman if you have the right attitude and fragrance... Its a boosting rather than crippling female sexuality.

But I do think women are now supported in such a way, unheard of in past decades. Women are more accepted in the mainstream, however, I only count white women as fully supported.

But thats another subject...

"African Americans, no one can argue, are belittled but in the end if they're male they're at the point where they can have the same "respects" as white men always have. Look at the black community--particularly in the music area. They exploit women more than any other race and much more blatantly then anyone else. Even if you were to block out the bimbos dancing by their side the lyrics rarely call women by a respectable name: "hoe" or "bitch" seems to be a compliment especially when they personalize it by saying she's theirs--then women become objects and there we go. If they were on the bottom of the ridicule pyramid they wouldn't be able to put another status so far below them."

Your average African American male does not muster the same respect as a "white man". Maybe if he has excelled in education and his field of work and of course dependent on the community he lives in as well. As for the music, yes rappers "diss" women and exploit them in their music, but did you forget about rock & roll??? I can think of 3 80's hair band videos off the top of my head with half naked women dancing around. Their music is more readily accepted today because there is such a high demand and following.

Whether we like it or not we are sexual creatures in a male dominated role, women will always be exploited and there will always be those who enjoy and profit from it, both male and female.