Extra Credit: Youth Sexuality in Media

[http://current.com/items/89589757/teen_banned_from_wearing_christian_purity_ring.htm]

[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1091901/Teenager-banned-wearing-Christian-chastity-ring-school.html]

Jonas Brothers were seen wearing purity ring making a promise to remain a virgin until they are married. At VMA award show,the host Russell Brand made fun of the Jonas Brothers for wearing the purity ring and he made the remark saying that "Well done the Jonas Brothers. Each wear a ring to say they are not going to have sex, I’d take them more seriously if they wore it around their genitals." He basically is poking fun at them for making the decision to remain a virgin and not having sex until they are ready. Media is the most influential way of communicating what is going on and sex is one of them. In the reading "A Content Analysis of Sexually Transmitted Dieases in the Print News Media," media educators see that mass media itself if becoming more and more effective on how audiences acts. "...media literacy is believed to lead not only to a greater understanding of the stories (including sexual scripts) that media tell and the sources they use but also may result in personal changes, such as improvements in self-esteem, taking responsibility..." The above image is a teenage girl wearing a purity ring. The article is about how her school have discriminated against her faith and banned her from wearing a purity ring. She was inspired to wear her purity ring after seeing the band Jonas Brothers wearing them. Media can be very effective when it comes to important issues like sex. When audiences look at different programs, it is for the entertainment but also for learing what is the norm. Especially the youth, they can be influence by seeing their favorite band wearing certain types of clothes, the way they talk and even be inspired by them to make a change, like the 12 year old girl that was inspired by Jonas Brothers.


[http://bookninja.com/magazine/winter2007/annickint.htm]

Teenagers at a stage where they feel like they are grown enough to make their own decisions but still need an adult guidance to fully understand the things that they are going through, an example of this is sexuality. It is at the age where they want to explore and understand what sex is but talking about with their parents is to them, "embarrassing" and little too personal to talk about. So where do teenagers get the information that they need about sex? They either talk to their friends or through media. This book, " The Little Black Book for Girlz: A Book on Healthy Sexuality" by St. Stephen's Community House, which looks at not only sexuality but also girl culture by teenagers. The book is a community youth project who had questions about sexuality where teenage girls got together and made a book on what sex is about. They collected poems, stories and art works to answer the questions that they had. The topics that they have are relationships, periods, sex, birth control, pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections/AIDS and sexual assault.


[http://www.newsweek.com/id/124098]

[http://www.psfk.com/2008/09/racy-chilean-teens-and-the-web.html]

This is an article from NY Times. It is talking about how Chilean teenagers are "not so quietly forming "sex rebellion" raging on among Chile's party hard youth." According to NY Times, Latin America are known for being sexually conservative is now becoming sexually open in public. The teenagers can be seen in sexual acts starting from making out to things that is too graphic to talk about. "...some doctors, academics and other experts are pointing to the rise of the popular website Fotolog as one of the movement’s main drivers/enablers (NY Times)." "Dr. Arias did a study of the Fotolog phenomenon, scrutinizing the kinds of photos teenagers are posting, even the angles and distances of the pictures — all of which are part of an “identifiable” language, he said. “The kids of today are expressing their sexuality in erotic ways for the whole world to see (NY Times).” Sharing photos at a website is only the half of the story. With the evolving culture, they do not provide the educations that teenagers need and to learn about sex.

Final Blog: Heterosexism vs. Homophobia

Popular media provides many examples of the power play between herteronormative ideals and homosexual culture. In society there is a struggle of power between the people who have it, and the ones that don’t. In this battle for social power, the media acts as an arena for the public to view the fight. However, some participants fight dirty, even if you don’t see it. While the media doesn’t always advertise hate, it does often use subliminal messages to reinforce the heteronormative ideals of what is acceptable. This means that the heterosexism in media perpetuates homophobia. This can be done in many ways, including the over-feminization of homosexual characters, the use of gay characters as plot devices or catalysts, and over-exaggerations of heterosexuality in order to deny possibilities of homosexuality. This is a social issue and it is worthy of discussion because of the media’s proven influence on culture. These types of messages encourage homophobia and do not address actual issues, and this leads to reinforcement that while homosexuality is struggling to gain presence, validity, and recognition as a normative lifestyle, heterosexuality is innately superior.
When a homosexual character appears in popular media, they are very frequently over-feminized. This includes gay males and lesbians. Gay males are often feminized in the way they talk, the activities they participate in, the way the dress, and their general mannerisms.

This over-feminization puts the gay male into a category with females. This de-masculinizes them and lowers their threat level.

This occurrence is used as a tool to maintain the traditional male power. By feminizing gay men and grouping them with women, they are no longer a threat to straight males. In the article “Reinventing Privilege: The New (Gay) Man in Contemporary Popular Media”, Shugart points out about gay males:

...that their entrée into heteronormative culture is ultimately guaranteed by strategies apparent in a second, subtler subtext, one that features increased sexual access to, license with, and paternalistic control of women, all of which accordingly reframe gay male sexuality as an extension of heterosexual male privilege predicted on control of female sexuality (Shugart, 80).

Lesbians are also frequently over-feminized for the same reasons. A masculine lesbian is perceived as threatening, and an ultra-feminine lesbian remains inferior to straight men and is also perceived as “hot” and adds flare to the straight male gaze.

This works as a tool to objectify them and push them further down the social hierarchy. Straight males are often hyper-masculinized in order to reinforce their heterosexuality, especially when they are placed in situations that may lead to the questioning of their sexuality.

Another phenomenon that takes place in popular media is when a gay character is introduced to a plotline purely for entertainment or as a catalyst for a dramatic plot. The sexuality of the character is often made fun of or lightly discussed, but no real in-depth examination is done into the character’s life or issues surrounding their sexuality. This occurrence uses the individual homosexual as a tool to feed the plot and denies any individual identity from the character and aids in the holding of homosexuality at an inferior level to heterosexuality.

This also presents a message to media participants that homosexuality is funny or dramatic. Therefore, people think that it is ok to make fun of gay people in real life and that gay people are the frequent cause of problems in the world.Also in the article, “Reinventing Privilege…” the concept is pointed out:

Gayness is seen through the eyes of the confused heterosexuals, struggling with their own reactions and feelings. While I applaud the attempts to reckon with heterosexual fears and homophobia, I am afraid that this focus can further marginalize gay people, set them aside as vehicles for straight enlightenment, much in the way that people of color serve as avenues for white understanding of race (Shugart, 70).

This keeps the main focus on heterosexuality and eases anxiety about gay people being a threat to heteronormative values. It promotes a tolerance and acknowledgement of the gay culture, but does not delve into it in a way that equalizes it or validates it. This also inhibits the strength of homosexuality in the power struggle.
Heterosexism is a systematic way of enforcing heterosexuality as the cultural norm. It’s accomplished in media by clearly showing heterosexuality and justifying any homosexual subtext as part of that heterosexuality.

If there is an advertisement that has two men, they either have to being playing sports to justify their physical contact, with a woman to reinforce which sex they are attracted to, and if part of the ad is unclear, they are hypermasculinized to compensate for any uncertainty.
Homosexuality doesn’t threaten heterosexuality unless it’s perceived as threatening. Perception is subjective; just because something exists, doesn’t mean that it exists to rival something else. Without homosexuality, heterosexuality doesn’t exist. Homosexuality validates heterosexuality by contrasting against it. The media influences culture by showing examples of what the world is supposed to be like, and since most media is heterosexist, it continues to create homophobia in the public’s eye. This favoritism gives heterosexuality an advantage in the social power struggle.

We have also arranged our images within "The Box" that represents the power struggle between the different mediated examples. The examples that use homosexuality but are excused because of sports and other scapegoats are at the top because they are still heterosexual, where as the further down you go, you see more examples of pure homosexuality which have less power.

>> Click here to see "The Box"

Peers Blog Critic

http://ifyouseekamyinthemedia.blogspot.com/

When he was talking about the image above, I did not understand what he was trying to say. It was for the topic "Examples of Socially Constructed "Appropriate" Sex." When he was explaining the image, he talked about how the image is "implicitly telling us that oral sex occurs and need condoms for protection."

What I got from this image is that, "you can have a good time but if you want sex be safe about it." The image has champagne and a heart shaped box with chocolates in them which shows signs of romance but with the condoms it means there is something more. Because it has a romantic feeling, it is showing sex should happen with someone that you love and care about. Socially that is how people understand sex but in reality that does not happen. For example guys usually show how masculine they are through how many times they have slept with women. Also socially people know that they should wear condoms when having sex but that does not happen. Even though there is a solid meaning of what sex is, it seems that people do not want to see it fully. In media, when couples have sex there is no consequences that happen. Audiences that watched the movie is not going to think that they had worn a condom that is why nothing happen after. People are going to think that the couples who had unprotected sex have nothing happen to them so why should they?

Sexualized Minorities, "Sexual Otherness" and Heterosexism in Media

[http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~prism/events.htm]

[http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=175260031]

[http://focusboy.net/2008/04/kerry-degman-for-tetu/]

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DAEiAfSBAg] - Katie Perry "I Kissed a Girl"


[http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup/object/3803288-two-girls-and-a-guy.php?id=3803288]

The artifacts that I chose to focus on are gays and lesbians. The music video by Katie Perry "I kissed a Girl," is about a woman who fantasizes about kissing another female. Female homosexuality is what every guy dreams about, with two attractive females making out with each other. Ever since Katie Perry's "I Kissed a Girl," female on female has been little more appreciated in the media. It became the "new" trend to experiment with other females and explore female homosexuality. Even though it is usually persuaded by males for the females to act sexually with each other, other times females act sexually with each other to teach heterosexual males a lesson. In the reading, "Potential Lesbian at Two O'Clock" talks about how the mainstream media use lesbian portrayals by heterosexualizing the scenes "in order to promote the conventional straight male's lesbian fantasy" and the actresses that are playing these roles are usually heterosexual females. Lesbianism might be "acceptable" in the mainstream media, there are still limitations on how far they can go. In the films, lesbian portrayals are used for viewing pleasure of the male audiences but usually their actions does not go beyond kissing or touching each other and the rest is up to the audience to fantasize. Another thing there are certain image that are put on lesbians, which is they are "hot." For example, Jenkins talks about the film American pie 2 where boys are on their walkie talkie while they are watching two lesbians in actions. One of the males says "lesbians?" and another male clarifies it by saying, "hot lesbians" which is acceptable. There is this stereotype that lesbians have to hot, attractive and sexy while there are lesbians that are little more masculine.

Male homosexuality is usually not looked upon fondly in the media. For example when the film Brokeback Mountain came out it was a huge deal because it show male homosexuality between the two male characters. The film played on the heterosexual script for little bit since Heath Ledger was shown as heterosexual at the beginning of the movie but later in the movie it expended on his homosexuality. In media, male homosexuals are shown as something negative and they need to be fixed. They are usually shown lot more feminized and ridiculed. When people think about homosexual males before, they were usually seen as acting feminine and looking more feminine than masculine. Because of these stereotypes, homosexual males are lot more masculinized. One thing I noticed was that similar to how females are portrayed in ads, homosexual males seen to be portrayed in a same way. The ad for Dolce and Gabbana, there is a male that is laying down fully naked in front of two males. The male that is naked is sort of objectified as a sexual being. He is clearly in a vulnerable position of the two males and they are looking at his body. Another thing is that, when homosexual males are shown, they tend to focus on one certain area which is the males privates. They do not fully show it but it is similar to how female bodies are shown where the audiences need to fantasize about what is behind it.

Mediated Examples of Femininity as Specifically Sexualized

[http://software.emule.com/t/kombat]

[http://www.playfuls.com/news-list-display_page-44.html]


[http://www.beautyaddictmag.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=13817]
Can not be too skinny to a point where she looks anorexic but if she gains weight she is seen as not sexy and unappealing to "look at." How to females know where to draw the line between too healthy looking and healthy looking?


[http://miley-cyrus-blogger.blogspot.com/2008/10/miley-cyrus-celebrates-sweet-16-at.html]

[http://www.batchplease.com/2008_10_01_archive.html]

In media, females are often portrayed as being weak and dependent. When females are shown as independent and strong they are sexualized in others ways through their clothing or their bodies. In the reading "Two Steps Forward, One-Step Back: The Selling of Charlie's Angels and Alias," the author talks about how Charlie's Angels and Alias portray females as strong and independent women yet in the they send out a mix messages by highly sexualizing the characters. He explains this by how advertisements might show women as powerful and independent but in a highly sexualized way. The bottom two images with Dakota Fanning and Miley Cyrus sort of connects this with the reading. They are independent because they are successful at what they do and considered to be a well known celebrity. On the other hand they are young, Fanning who is turning 16 soon and Miley Cyrus who is 16, are dressed older and mature. They are wearing heels, short dresses and showing skins. In Hollywood, it seems that the teens are encouraged to grow up faster and act beyond their age. When they hit certain point, they become sexualized usually through they way they dress or by taking on roles that could help them make that transition.

In the article, "Pixel Pinups: Images of Women in video Games," points out that female characters in video games are nothing more than damsels in distress, femme fatalities in skimpy clothing or buxom babes because of their body. women in the gaming industry are mostly artists where very few are game designers so how women are designed in the video games are up to the male designers. Games like Donkey Kong, Super Mario and The Legend or Zelda, included females that gets captured by the enemy where the hero goes faster them to get her back. The games mission is just that, get the female back safe which in the end the hero would be rewarded with either a kiss or a hug. In the game Duke Nukem, the females, to show how grateful they are to their hero, it does not only include hugs and kisses but also sexual favors. With these message, is only shows that the women are powerless, dependent on men and indebted to the hero who saves them according to Hunteman.
When females characters are shown strong and powerful, they are sexualized through their body and by what they wear. For example the very first image of a female character in Moral Kombat, she is masculinized because she is able to compete equally with the male fighters. Even though that might be the case, through her clothing she is highly sexualized. She is barely covered, wearing nothing but a pantie and a very small jacket to cover her breasts.

All of these images are contradictory messages that are send by the media. They show women as aggressive, strong and independent yet maintaining the femininity by sexualizing them so that they can appeal to the male audiences.

Mediated Examples of Masculinity as Specifically Sexualized

[http://bloggerdigest.blogspot.com/2007/02/casino-royale-legend-of-james-bond.html]


[http://www.artknowledgenews.com/files2008a/Monkman-TheTrappersBride.jpg]


[http://www.zimbio.com/Calvin+Klein+Fashion/articles/19/The+Calvin+Klein+Steel+launch]


[http://stuffgayguyslike.wordpress.com/2008/03/20/5-designer-underpants/]


[http://www.voices-unabridged.org/index.php?numero=7]

These images pretty much show how masculinity is sexualized in the media. The first two is an example of masculinity shown in the form of a hero. The male character is portrayed as tough, attractive and heroic. James Bond is a good example, I mean what kind of women would not fall for a sexy man with a gun? He is the definition of masculine. He fights the bad guys, saving the day while being constantly surrounded by beautiful women. The reading "Centerfold Syndrome" talks about how young boys are encouraged to not show their feelings or weakness and are expected to become a man by developing muscles and ignoring their emotions. Like James Bond or any other heroes, young boys are pressured to be brave, strong, aggressive and learn to distant themselves from love or affection. Heroes are shown with women just by their side or just as a trophies. "Centerfold Syndrome" explains this by masculinity is shown through who has "obtained" the most valuable prize which is women. The second picture ties into this idea also. The male in the picture is the hero with his winning "prize" which is the female.

The third and the fourth images shows what it means to be a man/masculine. Who has the most muscles and the biggest penis how a boy and a man is broken down. Both images show males in their underwear, with their bear muscular chest and their noticeable penis is all sign of being masculine. The fourth picture, the male has a cap on backwards, a face of a rebel and holding his crotch all portraying that he is a man and here are things to prove it. In the reading "Consuming Eroticism" she talks about the different reactions of males when they were either by themselves or with a mixed gendered group. Males who went into a porn shop solo, were either in and out type or were little uncomfortable with the surroundings. The males who went with mixed gender group, established their masculinity by distancing themselves from the "lesser valued statuses of women and gay men by verbally stating their sexual abilities with women and making homophobic jokes." I think that even though males are "expected" to be sexually driven, when they show it too much it becomes perverse. Also the guy who were in the mixed gender group, going through all that just to show that he is masculine sort of connects with the fourth image where the guy is proving his masculinity.

The last image, I thought was interesting because it reads "Our strength is not for hurting so when guys disrespect women we say that's not right." Males are known for their strength and when a man looks strong, woman feels protected. In media males strength are shown as aggressive. Males with nice toned muscles, attract women just for the sexual pleasure. In media, guys that are chubby can not get women because they do not have the masculine image that they need to attract women. Another thing is that males masculinity is tied with violence. Being violent is part of being masculine. The saying "boys with be boys" it is normalized in our culture.

Examples of Socially Constructed "Appropriate" Sex

From media people learn how to act accordingly, like what it means to male and what it means to be female. In the media it is easy to tell who is usually in the dominant position which are males. They are shown as strong, powerful, aggressive and has a sense of control. Females are known for as weak, submissive, filled with emotions and can not live without a male figure. Without a male in a female's life, she becomes distraught and has a emotional breakdown. In the second picture, the male is sitting above the female and she is looking up at him. There is a sense of hierarchy within the couple which is always to the case within our society. The site where I got the second image from has a quote which says, “The man should NOT be shorter, weaker, younger, poorer, or less successful than the woman.” I feel that this quote is describes very well the difference between male and female. Males are the one that "protects" the female, the one that is in "control." For this reason, females are portrayed as being the weaker sex.

[https://wiki-land.wikispaces.com/Maori+value+-+Male+dominance][http://lereflection.wordpress.com/2007/10/10/male-superiority-in-reinforced-in-the-media/]


This image is married couple lying in bed with their backs to each other. In movies I have not seen that many sex scenes with married couples compared to so many sex scenes with "unmarried" couples. This image connects with the reading Dempsey and Reichert because it is basically supporting the idea that sex after marriage is not satisfying compared to when he/she were single and having sex. Which is not the case because, "almost a half-century ago, a landmark sex study revealed that married partners maintained healthy and fairly robust sexual activity into their sixties. More recent research suggest that, despite the absence of sexuality between married couples in the movies, sexuality between real-life married couples remain strong" according to Dempsey and Reichert. This means that married couples that has sex are lot more healthy and has a better relationship with each other.

[http://www.sheknows.com/articles/1140.htm] [http://www.benettontalk.com/premarital-sex-is-definetly-mainstream/]


Love In This Club Part II (feat. Beyonce & Lil Wayne) - Usher
Artist: Usher lyrics
Album: Here I Stand
Year: 2008
Title: Love In This Club, Part II (feat. Beyonce and Lil' Wayne)

[Usher (Beyonce) Talking:] Yea (yea, yea)
Styles I hear you man
(Usher) This it right here
Queen Bee, yea
I'm the King, ya'll know that
She the queen, came right back
Yea, Yea Oh! Remix!

[Verse 1: Usher]
Now baby girl there ain't no more
That I can say
You know by now I want it more than anything
If I walk away and just let you leave
You'll be stuck in my head like a melody

[Beyonce:] I know you want it
But I'm hesitating
You must be crazy
I got a man And you got a lady

[Usher:]
I know we here together
So this must be something special
You can be anywhere you wanted

[Pre-Chorus:]
But you decided to be here with me
No coincidence it was meant to be
Don't be shy, gon' let yo boy get in
So you can tell all yo friends
you was on the remix like

[Chorus:]
In this club
In this club
Ladies can I put this love up on you
one time if you ain't scared say what's up!
In this club
In this club
They can keep watchin'
I ain't stoppin', baby I don't get up!
In this club
In this club
Ladies can I put this love up on you
one time if you ain't scared say what's up!
In this club
In this club
They can keep watchin',
baby I don't give up! (In this club)

[Verse 2: Beyonce (Usher)]
Baby you know I'd be down
But we can't have all these people
staring standing around
This right here is only for your eyes to see
But you gettin' carried away
Saying we can do it where ever
The way you touchin' me like no other
(I'm gon' make you feel insane)
Tryin' your hardest to make me give in
But I'm a be down to give you
what you wanting if you keep it up
I strongly doubt this velvet rope will hold me up
And I don't want security rollin' up on us
I'm not hesitating I just don't wanna rush
You can be anywhere you wanna

[Pre-Chorus: Beyonce]
But you decided to be here with me
No coincidence it was meant to be
I'd mess it if I mess around if I let you get in
You gon' tell all yo friends
you was on this remix like...

[Chorus]
In this club
In this club
Ladies can I put this love up on you
one time if you ain't scared say what's up!
In this club
In this club
They can keep watchin'
I ain't stoppin', baby I don't get up!
In this club
In this club
Ladies can I put this love up on you
one time if you ain't scared say what's up!
In this club
In this club
They can keep watchin',
baby I don't give up! (In this club)

[Verse 3: Lil' Wayne]
Uh Uhm
Shawty want a thug
It started with a hug
And the rest went like this
I gave her neck a kissy-kiss
She gave my neck a kiss back
I said we can do it like a stack
I'm mean we can do it like a G
On the couch in VIP
Shawty we can get it on
I'm a shoutout to the DJ for playin' this song
Girl we can tag it like two damn fools
Have everybody thinkin' we doin' they dance move
Call me so I can make it juicy for ya
Meet in the bathroom
and you can be my secret lover, girl
And it started with a hug
But now we making love in this club
And when I come stylin' just because
The people in the crowd are watching us
But we don't give a damn what they say
This is the-the remix baby!

[Hook: Usher & Beyonce]
[Usher:]
Come a little closer
Let daddy put it on ya
Need you to know
What happens here stays here
[Beyonce:]
And I'm ready and willing
Almost good to go
Got you standing at attention
Keep it on the low
[Usher:]
Ain't nobody watching
Don't worry they can't see us
I know I got you hot
Now let me in
[Beyonce:]
You in the club or the car
Where ever you are
Run and tell the DJ, run it back on replay

[Chorus x2]
In this club
In this club
Ladies can I put this love up on you
one time if you ain't scared say what's up!
In this club
In this club
They can keep watchin'
I ain't stoppin', baby I don't get up!
In this club
In this club
Ladies can I put this love up on you
one time if you ain't scared say what's up!
In this club
In this club
They can keep watchin',
baby I don't give up! (In this club)

In this club
In this club
Ladies can I put this love up on you
one time if you ain't scared say what's up!
In this club
In this club
They can keep watchin'
I ain't stoppin', baby I don't get up!
In this club
In this club
Ladies can I put this love up on you
one time if you ain't scared say what's up!
In this club
In this club
They can keep watchin',
baby I don't give up! (In this club)

[http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/u/usher/love_in_this_club_remix.html]

I thought this song was a good example "socially constructed appropriate sex," because the male character which is Usher is being a pursuer or the aggressor of sex. On the other hand, Beyonce is not forcing yet not pushing away from him which means she is basically submitting to his desires. That is usually the difference between male and female when they are engaged in sex. Females want it but they should not pursue it because then they are looked at as hoes, sluts etc. But males on the other hand are encourage to take the action because of this, males are not viewed negatively, that is just what boys do. Even though in Mendard and Kleinplatz reading it did not focus on Pop culture itself,but they mentioned that sex in our society is not seen with an clear glass but it is more with an opaque glass because of our "sex-negative views." Before lyrics in music was not so sexually oriented but it was more about the "relationship" itself. Going on from Mendard and Kleinplatz reading, magazines also were not so sex focused as now. Before they had things like home economics and fashion advices, now it is geared more towards on how to attract males attention for sex but not noticeably etc.