"Our culture is depicting sex as rape so that men and women will become interested in it."
- Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth (1991)
Feminists for decades have been battling against the media for depicting images of women that they consider to be demeaning and obscene for the sake of beauty. This quotation, taken from feminist best-seller, Naomi Wolf, puts into perspective the feminist views of the damage that media induces on its female consumers and the subliminal message it sends to both men and women. Do women actually enjoy being raped? I find this statement quite hard to stomach. Such a traumatic event results in post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, as well as a loss of self-esteem and trust, and on-going intimacy issues. Thus, it is hard to fathom that under enough exposure to the same event would cause any women, much less a rape victim, to become sexually aroused by the event.
In her book, The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf argues that while feminism has fought to earn the rights of women to vote, to denounce the stigma of sole domesticity as ‘a woman’s place and priority,’ and to their “reproductive rights [giving] Western women control over their own bodies,” the media has managed to find ways to undermine women’s liberation through what she defines as “beauty pornography,” and “beauty sadomasochism” (Wolf).
The idea or belief many of these feminists have is that all of these acts manifest a similar message: that women must enjoy forceful submission and subversion in order to achieve ultimate ecstasy and satisfaction. Some of these messages are misconstrued in order to prove their point. In the preface of the book Who Stole Feminism?, Christina Somm (Siegel) (Hedges) (Soble)ers describes on many occasions how she refer...
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...to dictate the standard of their individual reality, dissatisfaction and dishonesty is sure to ensue.
Works Cited
Division, Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS). "UCR Program Changes Definition of Rape." The CJIS Link (2012): 7-8.
Hedges, Chris. Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle . Nation Books , 2009.
Newman, Cathy. National Geographic . n.d. 15 December 2013 .
Siegel, Lisa Z. International Exposure: Perspectives on Modern European Pornography: 1800-2000 . Rutgers University Press, 2005.
Soble, Alan. Pornography, Sex, and Feminism. Prometheus Books, 2010.
Sommers, Christina H. Who Stole Feminism?: How women have betrayed women. Simon and Schuster, 1995.
Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth. Harper Perennial, 2002.
Schneider L, Mori L, Lambert P, Wong A. The Role of Gender and Ethnicity in Perceptions of Rape and Its Aftereffects. Sex Roles [serial on the Internet]. (2009, Mar), [cited March 16, 2014]; 60(5/6): 410-421. Available from: SocINDEX with Full Text.
Shaw, Susan M., and Janet Lee. Women's Voices, Feminist Visions: Classic and Contemporary Readings. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2012. Print.
Feminism, the idea that women are equal to men, is a concept that has been an aspect of American society since the nineteenth century. However, while it was first constructed in 1848, feminism has not always been a widely embraced topic. It was once seen as an extremely taboo, controversial notion that could easily ruin a woman’s reputation if she were to dare speak of it. Despite this, many females put their fears of criticism aside and gained the courage to stand up for the freedoms of womankind. Two women who took the risk to write about the ideas of feminism were Mary E. Wilkins Freeman and Kate Chopin.
...room for improvement. The second perspective that also influences the development of rape culture are myths and societal conceptions of sexual assault, rape, and victims. Kahlor and Morrison, authors of TV Rape Myth, suggest that two of the main myths are the notion that victims “asked for it”, whether by dressing a certain way or behaving flirtatiously, and that some women lie and “claim rape” after regretting consensual sex.
Naomi Wolf's "The Beauty Myth," discusses the impact of our male-dominated society upon women. Wolf argues that women's most significant problems associated with societal pressures are a "fairly recent invention," dating back to the 1970s (6). She explains that women have "breached the power structure" by acquiring rights equal to men in areas such as, education, professional careers, and voting. As a result, Wolf suggests that the "beauty myth" is the "last one remaining of the old feminine ideologies that still has the power to control those women" (3). Considering that the beauty myth is women's last battle, the struggle is increasingly more difficult. Wolf claims that women are currently experiencing "a violent backlash against feminism," noting the recent rise in eating disorders, cosmetic surgery, and objectification of women's bodies (3,2). While Wolf accurately defines the beauty myth, she incorrectly states that eating disorders, cosmetic surgery, and pornography are recent issues, resulting from an intentional "backlash" against women's rights.
Many of the attitudes, beliefs, and mistaken ideas about rape have been with us for centuries. By looking at myths, such as “women ask for it,” and “it would do some women good to get raped,” from a historical perspective, lead us for better understanding how they evolved. Women are still seen as the property of men, are protected as such. Men and women are still taught to occupy very different roles in today’s world. Men are usually more aggressive, and women are seen as passive. (Vogelman) This socialization process is changing, but slowly.
Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women. New York:
During the chorus of the song, the line ‘I know you want it’ is repeated multiple times (Sociological Images.) This is a phrase that many sexual assault victims have reported that their rapists say. This is a ra...
Freedman, E. B. No turning back: The history of feminism and the future of women. New York: Ballantine, 2002.
Oftentimes, the things individuals take for granted as preexisting facts are merely the products of social construction, which exert tremendous impacts on belief and action. Men and women are socially constructed categories inscribed by norms of masculinity and femininity that enables rape to occur. Catharine MacKinnon claims that rape is defined in a male perspective, which lacks the account of female experience. On the other hand, Sharon Marcus argues that rape is a constructed language that scripts the female body. As bell hooks points out, black men celebrate “rape culture” as a mean of expressing patriarchal dominance and endorsing female subordination. In order to redefine rape and to develop effective rape prevention, it is crucial to deconstruct the predetermined assumptions about men and women. Rape is socially constructed, through the ways how individuals possess misogynistic ideologies and endorse patriarchal power, turning the erotic fantasy of male dominance into “reality”.
Many of the attitudes, beliefs, and mistaken ideas about rape have been with us for centuries. By looking at myths, such as “women ask for it,” and “women secretly enjoy rape,” from a historical perspective, can lead us for better understanding how they evolved. Much stems back to the idea that women are still seen as the property of men, and are protected as such. Men and women are still taught to occupy very different roles in today’s world. Men a...
McAfee, Noëlle. "Feminist Political Philosophy." The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Ed. Edward N. Zalta. Winter 2011 Edition ed. Web. 24 Jan. 2012.
The article “Post-feminism and Popular culture” by Angela McRobbie(2004) befittingly deals with post-feminism, defining it as ‘’an active process by which feminist gains of the 1970’s and 80’s come to be undermined.’’ In this insightful article, McRobbie envisages post-feminism in a positive way, raising feminism and achieving equality. She associates 1990 as a year of change, “the moment of definitive self-critique in feminist theory” (McRobbie, ). In this period, post-colonialist feminists interrogate the claims of the second-wave-feminism, and popular feminism could express itself. Ultimately McRobbie suggests that by means of tropes of freedom and choice that are now connected with the category of ‘young women’, feminism is decisively aged and made to seem redundant. McRobbie demonstrates how 21st century post –feminism challenges the ideology of feminism by using the example of the “Wonderbra” advertisement (1994) picturing the model Eva Herzigova, to emphasize the work of the “undoing” feminism (post feminism) or third wave feminism. In this advertisement, Eva admiringly looks at her body and is inviting the audience to look at her. She does it out of her own choice, not caring about anything or anyone. She seems to be in an active position and makes her a subject rather than an object. In doing so, this advertisement gives a sense of seeing feminism as a past matter, not being relevant anymore. The advertisement provocatively presents sexism. To me it seems that women present themselves in an ironical way and consequently, they are the subjects with power, or their body is the sight of power. Women have control over their body and hence, are
Feminism has negative connotations in popular culture. When people think about feminism or feminists, they envision angry women who absolutely hate men. This may be true for some feminists, but not all. It may surprise a few people that feminism is integral in all facets of life. Its roots lie in a social and political movement, the women’s liberation movement, aimed at improving conditions for women. Feminism has many definitions, but one common definition features the concept of equality, such as the belief that women and men should have equal opportunities. Feminism also examines women's social roles, experiences, interests, and politics in a variety of fields. Common themes explored in feminist theory are discrimination, objectification (especially sexual objectification), oppression, patriarchy, stereotyping and so forth. These themes have developed over time and have created feminist theory. This section of paper will describe the three waves of feminism, the feminist rhetorical pioneers and their critics, and will explain how to use feminist criticism.
Usually in a rape, more focus is placed on the rapist while the victim is forgotten and criticized by society for letting it happen. Society often fails to understand what the victim is going through, because in order to understand a rape victim, you must either have experienced it first hand, or learned about it, which most people do not. Recent research has established that rape and other forms of sexual assault have a traumatic and often enduring effect on the victim. For example, Burgess and Holmstrom (1974) found that rape victims experience a “rape trauma syndrome, consisting of an acute stage where the primary response is fear, followed by a reorganization stage, characterized by phobias, insomnia, sexual dysfunctions and other major changes in lifestyle” (Ruch, Chandler and Harter 248). Much trauma occurs as a result of shock; and rape victims go into shock while experiencing being raped because at the time they may not even know what’s happening and may even be in denial that it happened. Their denial supports our own, and choosing to ignore the victims’ side of the story, we are, in fact ignoring them when they are in a state of distress. Failing to acknowledge the rape victims shows how little we care about them and their state of