During the sexual revolution, women desired the same freedom as men. They wanted to engage in casual intercourse without being criticized for it. By doing this they hoped to create a society where “women’s biological differences” were celebrated and their “sexual experiences” supported. Due to this many more women were having casual sex.

I believe that the women during this time went about this situation incorrectly. As the chapter, “Hidden Injuries of Sex,” mentioned, the sexual freedom that women were expressing “legitimize[d] promiscuity.” By having more sex, I believe that they were only pleasing men and their point was not getting across. Men jumped on this opportunity for easier sex. In other movements, like the Civil rights movement and the Student movement, the oppressed side did not give something that the oppressors would enjoy. They took away something that would hurt the oppressors. During the CRM, blacks staged boycotts and sit-ins. During the Student Movement, students protested and made life difficult for the administration. I think during the women’s sexual revolution, women should have abstained from having sex. They could have shown their power by choosing not to have sex. I think this would have hurt men more and maybe they might have been more willing to listen to women.

For many reasons, the feminist movement was healthy for promoting equal, cooperative relationships. Women had more say in their relationships or marriages, had more right to seek a job, and as such had more right to save and spend their own money. In this sense, there were less quiet wives and girlfriends that actually put their voice out in crucial decisions; they contributed to the relationship or family and they started to feel more involved in the progression of the children they reared or in the mate they sought.

Unfortunately, many aspects of the feminist movement seem to be more debatable as to whether or not they were entirely helpful or beneficial. There was an emphasis in some wings of the women's movement on knowing women's bodies and how they operate in general, not only sexually. This was a good thing, it helped advance the course of women's medicine and treatment and really brought about a new link between doctors and patients that hadn't existed before. However, those who sought more sexual exploration were targeted in a way that they may not have hoped to be. People argue that though women were finding more about themselves sexually, men were finding it much easier to get sex. Instead of men and women experiencing sex in a free and equal manner, men were taking advantage of the opportunity that they had been given. Naturally many were upset that this was the end result of the sexual revolution, as its critics saw it at least. Regardless, sex-positive feminists often saw marriage as an institution that oppresses men and women, so these women opt for "cohabitation" or living independently and reverting to casual sex to fulfill their needs. I don't think that this is necessarily one of the effects of the feminist movement that many were happy about; instead of the movement empowering women at the home or in dating, men were seduced by the lull of casual sex. Obviously, other effects of the women's movement, positive effects, have been realized; however, this was an immediate reaction to the sexual revolution that was deemed by many to be unsuccessful.

In her essay “About My Consciousness Raising,” Barbara Susan points out the important differences between the consciousness raising sessions that American women began to involve themselves in during the early 1960’s and general psychotherapy which these same women (and many more) had participated in up until that point. She explains that therapy had “separated [her] from [her] sisters by calling them “most women” and [her] special,” while consciousness raising accomplished the important feat of bringing her together with other women (her sisters) and allowing them to come together and see the problems they were facing as problems of society rather than problems of their own specific lives and lifestyles. I think that Susan is pointing out a very important discovery that makes a lot of sense, even in today’s society. If women were (or still are) kept separate and led to believe that their problems (of any kind) are unique to them through therapy, then therapy is in turn making it impossible for these women to come together, form a sisterhood, and recognized the true roots of their struggles. In her essay, Susan points out the common phenomenon of men “helping” with housework to exemplify this point. In therapy, she was brought to analyze what was wrong with her life (and most importantly herself) that would bring her to resent her role as a housewife and even more so to resent her husband for trying to help her to perform her role. However, consciousness raising made it possible for her to see that there were numerous other women feeling the same ways as she was and that perhaps her problems had little or nothing to do with her own life and a whole lot more to do with society as a whole. After thinking about this example, I believe that support groups (which are sort of a modern equivalent of consciousness raising in my mind) are an extremely important part and maybe even should become an even more significant part of today’s society. Are problems such as working women who feel like they are bad mothers due to their overbearing professional schedule just examples of overachieving women who have an underlying guilt complex or is there something more to it? Could there be some flawed aspect of our social structure as a whole that brings about these sorts of situations and feelings? After reading this article, I believe that only consciousness raising (or support group) sessions comprised of the women involved in the dilemma can or will truly answer such a question.

As many people know, Sarah Jessica Parker has been the spokesperson for the GAP for the past year. Numerous women were excited to see a woman over 30 be a spokesperson for such a major clothing store. Despite her crow’s feet and being a mother, GAP still gave her a $38 million contract. However, GAP decided this season, which was when Parker turned 40, to not renew her contract. Instead they decided to go with a 17-year-old British soul singer Joss Stone. The GAP’s reasoning for this change is so they can get the attention back to the teenage consumer, whereas using Sarah Jessica Parker was attracting more of the older crowd, and much less of the younger crowd.

This is an example of how the media still portrays women as beauty objects and uses them to sell products. In this example, GAP has made it clear that beauty and age sells clothes. By switching from 40 year-old Sarah Jessica Parker to 17-year-old Joss Stone, GAP has, in my opinion, let many women down. By using a person to sell products based solely on their looks is a shallow thing to do. I mean Parker is a very talented actress who is extremely popular, especially right now with her show, Sex and the City. So by switching spokespersons, GAP has really made it clear that they, like many other clothing stores, look for their spokespersons based almost solely on looks, rather than talent, popularity, ect.

In contrast to this, I really can understand why the GAP changed spokespersons. Because until we, the consumer, can look past the person selling the product, and look at the product, clothing and many other stores will keep using women (young, beautiful women) to sell their products. Companies have strategies; they use young, pretty girls to sell products, because that is what people respond to. Consumers are more likely to buy a product that is being advertised by a good-looking young woman; rather than people buying products advertised by older and motherly women. So really the GAP is just trying to keep it’s sales up by using younger girls in their advertising campaigns. Even though this might enrage some women, we just have to realize, that until we, as consumers, mature to where we don’t have to by products that are being sold behind a pretty face, then I don’t think we have a very good argument as to why the GAP shouldn’t have changed it’s spokesperson.

In retrospect of the events occurring throughout the 1960’s, it seems that the success of the women’s movement was highly dependent on the occurrence of both the civil rights and student movements during the same decade. In simple terms, it seems the feminists simply took advantage of the prime time for radical change and threw themselves into the mix. Even with the world watching and expecting new changes, the women’s movement was still unable to rack up the immense levels of popularity and support that the other two accumulated. It seems like a valid conclusion to assume that if the women’s movement had occurred a decade earlier or later, it may very well have fallen apart unnoticed and unappreciated.
The feminists were propelled by the wake of the other two world shattering revolutions of the decade. Without the African-Americans and counter-culture of the 60’s being beaten and killed in the streets on national television, the world would not have been prepared for such a radical revolution. The stage had been expertly set for them to step up and claim what was rightfully theirs. If this opportunity had not appeared, the women of the 1960’s would have had a difficult time trying to catch the national spotlight. They lacked the leverage of civil disobedience and huge effective public demonstrations. The violent situations that fueled the student and civil rights movements were never going to occur on a group of housewives protesting in public. If the media and national mindset had not been tuned in on protesting, they almost assuredly would have missed or ignored the emerging women’s movement.
The problem for many of the feminists was that they needed public support and attention; however, many of their issues dealt exclusively with the personal domestic setting. The time was perfect for women to make private issues a public concern. After witnessing the chaos and cruelty that occurred, and was often still occurring, the country was simply looking for containment. It is likely that many jumped on the women’s movement bandwagon quickly in a desperate attempt to avoid the disasters of the other two movements.
While women certainly deserve every right they fought for and gained through the women’s movement, it is unlikely that they could have had the success that they did without having the prime opportunity. The movement of the 1960’s is often referred to as the second women’s movement occurring after the previous attempt in American history. Although the first movement had its accomplishments, it spelled out the possible fate of this movement when it eventually faded out. The time was perfect for the feminists of the 60’s to act, and they took the opportunity and ran with it.

In today’s society, most women will go to great measures to fulfill the image of the idealistic beautiful woman that has permeated several aspects of our lives. Because of it, men are very picky in what they view as true beauty and women are constantly pressured to fit in with the stereotypical culture. For some, the pressure calls for taking drastic measures, such as plastic surgery, eating disorders, and even extreme depression. The cause for this is extremely evident: media and attention. No matter what television channel you watch, the actresses are practically flawless. Even the Disney Channel, broadcasted mainly toward children, has characters such as Lizzy McGuire, who encompasses the idea of a beautiful girl that every viewer wants to become. From personal experiences, Hilary Duff in real life is not that good-looking, and nowhere near as sweet. However, the image she portrays on camera is perfect. Commercials are centered on a sexual image, usually irrelevant to what the advertiser is selling. Beer advertisements are huge in today’s society, and almost every beer commercial has a girl with a perfect body, dressed provocatively, and holding out an “ice cold beer.” People realize these commercials work because of the “sexy and perfect” woman on the advertisement: obviously, that’s all men care about, and it sells. Victoria’s Secret centers their advertisements around beautiful girls scantily clad in sexy lingerie. Because of this, women buy into the idea that they have to wear the sexy undergarments to become like the models, and they buy the product. Billboards give the same messages, and magazines top them all. From what I have noticed, teens are obsessed with woman’s magazines and always pay attention to “what’s in.” For example, I was helping my girlfriend shop for a new formal dress; when I pointed one out, she immediately said, “Oh the new Cosmopolitan said those are out of style for winter.” The media is feeding female brains! Feminine ad’s, such as make-up commercials, fat-reducing products, and tanning salons, send an image to the viewers that the only way to look good is to spend massive amounts time, money, and stress. The problem is that some women do this, making others feel they must follow these same steps in order to be as “beautiful” as the competition, or to impress their spouse. This sense of beauty takes a lot of focus away from the value of personality in a woman, which creates a need for their appearance to define them. It is extremely obvious the impact the “perfect woman” has on our kids. If you go to a party, or even school, all the girls are wearing skin-tight jeans, tons of make-up, and shirts showing cleavage. In a society where everyone is supposed to be equal, it’s surprising women are practically discriminated upon if they are not appropriately dressed or good-looking. People talk about women’s rights, yet women take away their own rights by dehumanizing themselves by focusing on their beauty, instead of individualism. Most of the problem derives from the media, yet women may bring it upon themselves, too. Appearance has become a means to describe someone and individuality now, for the most part, centers around it. Dress code is very unlikely to change anytime soon, and advertisements will continue to use what works best to sell their product. What we can work on, is to shift the focus onto a woman's personality, not physical features. This step will help bring about individualism in society and correspondingly will slowly take away the need for women to be so pressured to become something they truly are not.
David Weibel

Women have been struggling with the stereotype of “the perfect woman” for centuries. So many women seem to relate success with physical beauty. Many feminists agree that the female ideal of beauty and sexuality is extremely detrimental – its effect on many women can lead to body image distortion and eating disorders. According to Naomi Wolf, "the anorexic may begin her journey defiant, but from the point of view of a male dominated society, she ends up as the perfect woman. She is weak, sexless, and voiceless, and can only with difficulty focus on a world beyond her plate." Wolf believes that the cultural fixation on female thinness is an obsession with female obedience, not an obsession with female beauty. As women, we are constantly reminded that thin is beautiful, and that beautiful is mandatory. The media and fashion industry dictate the cultural ideal, using anorexic-looking models in magazines and television shows. It is nearly impossible for most women to achieve this impossibly thin look, so they result to eating disorders. Naturally, women are supposed to be healthy and curvaceous. Young girls and women face pressure to conform to idealized images of thin women in the media and popular culture, regardless of their natural body shape. Here are some closer-to-home statistics:
• 19% or more of college aged women in America are bulimic.
• As many as 10% of college women suffer from a clinical or nearly clinical eating disorder, including 5.1% who suffer from bulimia nervosa.
• 25% of college-aged women binge purge to manage their weight.
• 91% of women surveyed on a college campus had at one point dieted to control their weight. 22% of them were dieting often or always.
• Studies indicate that by their first year of college, 4.5 to 18% of women and 0.4% of men have a history of bulimia and that as many as 1% of females between the ages of 12 and 18 have anorexia.
In order for women to overcome this fear of being rejected because of their weight, society needs to change its ideals. Women are killing themselves through starvation, in an effort to please the men around them. The most impressive stand against these labels has come from Dove Soap. Their “campaign for real beauty” is changing the way women view themselves by giving them more information. With more allies, women can begin to view themselves in a healthy, positive way. It MUST be done in order to reach the gender equality these desperate women strive for.

References:

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/psychology/health_psychology/feminist.htm

http://womensissues.about.com/cs/eatingdisorders/a/edstats.htm

http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/flat5.asp?id=4464

Anyways, it's all funny, regards to religion

It seems the approach here has been that the sexual revolution was a good thing, which goes against fundamental Christian thinking and against my own personal thinking.

And then we come to gay rights and it's like, why isn't someone saying sexual orientation obviously doesn't matter? How on Earth can there be any argument against homosexuality? And seriously, I think heterosexism is crap. But there's this argument of Christian fundamentalism against homosexuality, an argument which is crap and doesn't say a thing to justify itself. No reason for it, just something some prejudiced people said. I don't even mean this argument as anti-religion, you can be Christian and recognize that not every book in the Bible necessarily belongs there and that all the books are written by men. And do people buy that argument, so that having sex is fine, but happening to be attracted to someone of the same gender isn't. Crap!

And everyone's Christian and everyone hates the fundamentalists and no one knows what to say on homosexuality.

Let me summarize:

people's relation to religion is the damnedest thing
homosexuality, it's sort of like heterosexuality-- why would you blame anyone for who they're attracted to; what possible argument is there for that mattering?

New Amendment

Everyone goes into a religious house and prays for the end days.

In the Article titled “Sex and Caste” Casey Hayden and Mary King describe the society of their day, which still remains today in many respects. She says there seems to be “a common-law caste system that operates, sometimes subtly, forcing them (women) to work around or outside hierarchical structures of power which may exclude them.” She describes three problems of this caste system. 1. it is not institutionalized by law. 2. Women can’t withdraw or overthrow the system. And 3. There are biological differences. Because of these three problems people are able to make excuses or blame these issues for the “caste system” that exists. I think these problems are true of today. The reason there are many unfair results of being a woman are often a result of these problems. The problems are not in the laws of today. Because of this, legal reforms won’t solve our problems, but cultural reform must take a place. Women can’t overthrow or withdraw from the system. Also, there are biological differences, people are able to explain the way they view women or the disadvantages or unfair treatment because there are some biological differences. Because of these problems, it makes it very hard to advance the womens’ social movement any further in our culture.

From consciousness-raising groups to Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, one of the main topics of the women’s movement was the reluctant submission of the wife to her husband. It seems that men during that time viewed their wives as property, instead of as equals, which perhaps stemmed from the viewpoint that “he who holds the money holds the power.” This patriarchal view can be seen in almost every issue at the forefront of the women’s movement.

The first of these issues is the role of the woman in the home. The way husbands expected their wives to keep the home pristine and to have dinner on the table every night portrays a sort of master-slave mentality. This topic was raised many times during consciousness-raising sessions, with women recognizing that “there was no such thing as a personal way of solving their problems so long as male supremacy in all its formal and informal forms still existed” (Susan 490). In order for a positive change in the arena of the home to come about, a significant alteration of the social structure was imperative. Men believed “that women [were] incapable of controlling their own lives and therefore must be helped (controlled) by men” (Susan 491). Since husbands viewed their wife as their property, they believed they could control her in any way they wished.

Marital rape was another important issue that stemmed from the mindset that the wife was the husband’s property. During that era, the wife was expected to submit to her husband’s every desire, whether she consented or not. In the article The Faked Orgasm, the author quotes activist Micaela Griffo as saying that “most sex on male terms seems like rape” (151). In addition, the author describes a woman’s painful sexual encounter with her husband by stating that “when it was over, she stood up and walked to the kitchen” (149). Women during that era many times had uncomfortable or painful sex purely for their husband’s satisfaction, and husbands simply used their wives for this satisfaction because they believed it was their right. Thus, even in the bedroom, the wife was viewed as property.

For the most part, couples have evolved past the archetypal view of the “husband as breadwinner, wife as homemaker.” Women have moved from being their husband’s property to their husband’s equal, and those in relationships now share a mutual respect for one another.

All my life I have been exposed to movies and TV shows that give the message that women are suppose to have these mind-blowing, intense orgasms that should occur every time a woman has vaginal intercourse. After all, today’s popular and pornographic literature does teach women “that an aroused woman [reaches] orgasm seconds after penetration” (151). Never once have I seen anything that accurately portrays how women for the most part, do not achieve these blissful, multiple orgasms. By constantly pounding this message into women’s heads, it is understandable how many women would fake an orgasm so they could live up to this unrealistic image. This misconception about how women achieve orgasm has led many men to think that women always and easily reach orgasm, but the actual truth is that women “often fake orgasm to appear ‘good in bed’ and thus place an intolerable physical burden on themselves and a psychological burden on the men unlucky enough to see through the ruse” (149). When women have to fake orgasms, many men believe that what the woman is experiencing is real which reinforces the idea that they are the main factors that cause women to have orgasms. Men then believe that women only need vaginal stimulation to reach an orgasm even though clitoral stimulation is the actual key to orgasmic pleasure. But one of the reasons why society doesn’t place heavy emphasis on the importance of clitoral stimulation is “if the clitoris were the key to orgasmic stimulation . . . women could replace men with masturbation, other women, and sex toys” (150). By society not acknowledging the fact that women really don’t need men in order to reach their orgasmic peek, it teaches women that they shouldn’t explore their bodies to find out what stimulates them. Women then feel that touching their bodies to find their erotic spots is taboo because society suppresses the idea of clitoral stimulation. The faked orgasm not only reinforced men’s idea that an orgasm was easily attainable it also “revealed how overwhelming a young woman’s need was to please a man, even when she herself was not being satisfied” (151). After all, women had been made to believe that they must satisfy the man’s desires because supposedly without a man a woman couldn’t experience an orgasm. If society would stop emphasizing the importance of having an orgasm so much and instead be truthful about the situation more couples could be open and honest about their personal needs with one another. Women could then feel more relaxed and comfortable with their partners and maybe begin to have real orgasms due to the lack of stress.

The conscious raising groups that were formed during the beginning steps of the feminist movement seem to have been mainly for organizational purposes. This is because women would sit around in a circle while one would lead the discussion that day about what they were currently feeling. I believe that this was a wise trend created because it helped women talk about their feelings, experiences, and compare their problems to others. Had this been a male rights movement, I don’t think it would have been as successful because it is a fact that women are a more emotional sex and need to talk about their feelings with others so they don’t feel alone. In the article Barbara Susan states “Unless we talk to each other about our so called personal problems and see how many of our problems are shared by other people, we won’t be able to see how these problems are rooted in politics.” This proclamation encapsulates what the point of these conscious raising groups were about and what they were trying to accomplish by having them.
Unfortunately, some of the main concerns that were brought up in conscious raising groups I still see and hear today. For instance, men still “help” with the house work. I was thinking about how I grew up and what I used to think when my dad was cleaning the dishes or vacuuming the floors and I found that, yes, I still do consider it as helping my mother. This stereotype may never go away due to the fact that women are the nurturing sex. They will always be associated with taking care of the kids, emotionally and physically, as well as cooking and cleaning. Now, in defense of that statement it can be said that there is definitely an improvement in male participation around the house and with the children, but I don’t think the cliché will ever totally disappear, at least until men start becoming more in touch with their emotions.
In addition, the thought of therapy being a problem was interesting to me. It is assumed that getting help with your mental issues is the first step to recovering, however, for most women during this time, going to therapy only made it worse. Susan elaborates on this by affirming “In retrospect therapy had separated me from my sisters by calling them ‘most women’ and me ‘special.’ It had neglected to tell me that my newly acquired feeling of self worth was only going to propel me headlong into another struggle because although I felt worthy I was still a woman and very few other people were going to recognize my worth.” Women needed each other in order to deal with their social problems. No matter what a doctor says, it’s still a male telling you that your “different” and to just get over these feelings of un-satisfaction that your having. Be a woman and get on with your life because nothing is going to change.
Needless to say conscious raising possibly saved the lives and mental status of many women during this crucial time. With out it, women wouldn’t have been able to achieve the political positions they needed to have in order to take a stand. Even though these groups might not still exist, it is good to keep the things that were talked about in mind in order to remind us that we are all equal and that we can keep fighting till it stays that way in the eyes of political and social America.

what does it mean to be beautiful in today's society? To most it means, beautiful hair, pimpless face, big boobs, skinny,flat stomach, and nice thing legs with no cellulite. Basically it's a model in a box. These days girls are pressured so much to be the perfect woman. Everywhere I go there are advertisements in some form around me pressuring me to be something I'm not. I go to the grocery store and as I stand in line there are rows of magazines all with covers of beautiful, computer air-brushed stars. The fact of it all is that in our society today women have been pressured so hard to constantly change their appearance to fit to what the correct standards for women are. From magazines, to reality shows, to commercials, to billboard signs, to buses, to posters, the focus is maintained on women being beautiful and sex. Advertising businesses biggest slogan could probably be, "sex sells." Because it's not about how smart a woman is or what she is doing for her community that makes her who she is but her outer appearance. You don't see a teacher on a billboard being noticed for her knowledge skills or a lawyer being awarded for the huge lawsuit she just settled. Constantly women look other women up and down on the side walks of streets as they pass by to compare themselves to others. Even I catch myself doing it sometimes. I'll hear myself say in my head, "oh she's wearing a cute, short skirt and that looks cute, i want one too now." Women are always looking to be something better and these days it's getting worse. Belimia and anoxeria comes into play where it has killed girls because they just dont eat cause they constantly think about wanting to be skinny and believe they will never be skinny enough and eventually they starve theirselves to death. Is this what the advertising businesses really want? Because often this is what beauty has turned into. A competition between women to be the best looking. As a personal experience I have noticed that since I've been in college I don't dress up as much as I used to in high school. Maybe because I eventually just got tired of feeling the need to impress others to satisfy myself or maybe because I have a boyfriend so I don't feel the need to impress anyone including him since I know he likes me for me. Whatever the reason, I wished I had stopped dressing up a long time ago and realized that I didnt need to constantly need to impress others. Basically, speaking for most women, we all feel the pressures of society to be beautiful and be the perfect woman, but maybe one day we will somehow feel equal and things will change.

Because I was not aborted, I am alive today and able to write this forum paper. However, I still have a hard time with this issue. I do not believe that the Government should have a say in this matter either so In that case, I am for the Roe v. Wade decision that left the choice up to a women and her doctor at least during the first 6 months of pregnancy. Fortunately, for me, my mother’s family did not believe in abortion and it was illegal at the time of my birth. My mother was only 16 at the time she became pregnant and my father was 17. They were going to get married and have me and as the fairy tale goes, live happily ever after. Their parents had other ideas. In order to prove his commitment and support for my mom and the child that he would have, my father joined the Army. This would generate income and prove to my mother’s parents that he would be able to provide for his family. However, this created the separation needed for my mother’s parents to get him out of her life and they placed her in a home for pregnant women so that she could finish school and would not be a distraction to their other children or to the school. She gave me up for adoption and was sent to live with her sister in Florida. She turned 17 the day before I was born. My parents adopted me 19 days later. They had been trying for 4 years to have a child but were not able. After several miscarriages, they decided that adoption was their best choice in being able to have a child. We are the lucky ones in this story. Our lives continued, they with the baby that they had been trying for and me, I was just lucky to be me. I was able to meet my biological mom and now have 2 brothers and 1 sister that live in Florida. She was able to marry and have children of her own. We get together at a family reunion every 3 years and they have included me as one of the family. She had a hard time for quit some time and placed a lot of the blame on her dad. After his death her mother gave her all of the letters that my biological dad had sent her while he was in Vietnam and also all of the letters that she sent to him that were never mailed. I have also met my biological dad, he was not able to have any more children due to the chemicals used in Vietnam but does have an adopted son and is also married. We write letters and see each other when we can. Therefore, while the pains of giving up a baby for adoption are great, the joys that are given to the adoptive parents are tremendous and are giving someone a second chance on life. So, while I do believe that having a choice is good, making the best decision for the future of an unborn child is not an easy decision and one that does effect several peoples lives some may not even no it yet.

Unfortunately, there are some reasons that I do feel that abortion is a good alternative to adoption. In the cases of rape, child molestation, and if there are serious birth defects detected in the fetus. The government should do a better job as to educate people on the responsibilities of parenthood, the costs associated with children and to provide low cost birth control. The decision should always be left to the person in charge of their own body, they ultimately will have to live with the decision that they make.

The video Killing Us Softly made me ponder even more about my own self-appearance than usual. Not that I necessarily feel bad about the way I look or anything, but as a woman I do often compare myself to others and through that comparison decide whether or not I am acceptable to society’s standards of beauty. The only reason why I am able to share this is because I think many other women struggle with this at some points, whether or not they admit it. I think that it is not only wrong, but it is inhumane and selfish to always depict women in the media to be flawless, no-hipped, golden-skinned perfections because of what it does to the millions of watchers who are women.
First of all, let’s talk about The Hips. Not only do most women in the media have defined abs, perky boobs, and slim legs- they also seem to have no hips. This would be fine, except that many people turn to these women to define beauty. These are the women half naked on magazines such as Maxim, Playboy, and Blender. These are the women that men drool over. Men look at these women in pornographic magazines and then expect every other woman to look like this, or so it seems. The reason why this is so hard on women is because it is impossible to sculpt our bodies to mold to these ideals. Yes, we can do a million sit ups, run a marathon a week, and do chest exercises- but there is very little to do about The Hips. For me at least, it is The Hips that bring the most frustration- it is The Hips that taunt me when looking at Paris Hilton, Jennifer Aniston, and America’s Next Top Model. I think every woman has that one thing that separates them from ideal beauty, whether it be skin color, height, or waist size. I wish the media would truly celebrate our differences- not by having perfectly beautiful “exotic” models- but by depicting real women with, for example, hips.
Secondly, let’s talk about the differences in men and women in the media. You could probably find tens of beer advertisements using average beer-bellied men to sell their product. For the record, I tried to prove my point by typing in “beer” to google.com and clicked on Beer.com. There was one man- he had goofy hair and was wearing goggles- not at all hot. Then there were several women- some posing butt naked- in photographs trying to sell the beer. It was so close to porn that I immediately had to “x” out of the website out of fear that the person behind me would think I was trying to get freaky in Austin Java! I would say that this is why men do not feel as much pressure to be ideally handsome as women feel to be beautiful- because many advertisements are accepting of men looking average, while there are few advertisements with even close to average women.
I say that it is selfish for advertisers to depict all women as being beautiful because although it makes money, it is detrimental to many women’s self image. It is inhumane because of the feelings of low self-worth and isolation it brings to women. It could even hurt people’s marriages as women age, since the media depicts women to look the same from age 20 to age 50. This causes husbands to have high expectations for their wives that cannot be met. Hopefully one day women, including myself, will be able to ignore these advertisements or the advertisements will cease altogether- but until then, back to the gym we go.

Do Women Feel Pressured to be Perfect?

Everywhere you look, you see alcohol, sports, lingerie, make-up, and clothing advertisements, which show almost flawless women posing half naked. Sometimes it is even hard to tell what the advertisement is trying to sell. Are the advertisers trying to sell beautiful women or the product which they were paid to advertise for? Either way, women are used everywhere to attract male and female consumers by becoming sexual icons. Even though these women are beautiful and have very few, if any, flaws, they are most likely touched up by computers or have had some kind of corrective surgery to enhance their looks. Many women who look at these ads do not see the touch ups and corrective surgery though. All the young girls and women see in these ads are perfect women which they can never be.
Many of these images of women being sexual icons began in the 1960’s. Playboy was introduced to everyday society, men in Vietnam were looking at pictures of women to keep their spirits up, and women everywhere were being sexually harassed by men on the streets. Although the issue was a problem during the women’s movement, and many feminists fought for their right to not be sexually harassed, the problem has escalated into something even bigger in society today.
In my opinion, young women are the ones who are mostly affected by this need to feel sexy and beautiful in a man’s eyes. Young women everywhere see Carmen Electra, Paris Hilton, and even just models in magazines, for fragrances or clothing, and feel that those images are what they need to look like to be accepted by men. When walking through a mall or to class, women constantly watch men take a double look at girls who are wearing revealing clothing or have a lot of make-up on. I know that as I walk to class I almost always see guys staring at girls who are dressed up for class with make-up and their hair done. Guys rarely ever take a double look at the girls who have on jeans and a t-shirt and their hair in a pony tail with no make-up on. Once a girl sees who gets most of the attention from men, they want to change how they look so they too can get this same kind of positive attention from men. Is this really positive attention though?
Most of the time, the boys who take the double look at the “done up” girls don’t really want to get to know the girl. In my experience, most of the guys just want to stare at them, or try to “get some.” Young women in society today try incredibly hard to look just like the celebrities on television and the models in the catalogues, because they feel like this is the only way a boy will like them. Many of these women end up with eating disorders or getting plastic surgery, because they are so obsessed with the way they look. Other women, like the ones I read about in the course packet, end up giving up. They do not take care of their bodies and refuse to ever put on make-up or do their hair, because they feel that there is no point. Most of the time, the women who give up, don’t feel like they can ever be pretty enough for someone so they don’t try.
The point is, girls should wear certain clothes and put on make-up because they want to, not because they receive more attention from a guy, who probably doesn’t even care about their goals or personality. Nobody is ever going to be perfect, and I don’t think perfection could ever be reached by trying to imitate Pamela Anderson or Jessica Simpson. I feel the pressure to be pretty and skinny, and I believe most women will always feel this pressure, because society is getting worse with their advertisements and what women should look like.