Mediated Examples of Femininity as Specifically Sexualized

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[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]

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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.