Week 7 Femininity as specifically sexualized

Women's sexuality has always been a major source of power.  Maintaining power and respect due to the female bodies innate strength and re-productive organs is natural, but achieving power through societies perception about your outward "sexiness" is created.  The perception of what is "sexy" and what is not is a highly ambiguous and completely depends on the individual making the claim.  The fact that mainstream media perceives white, thin, flawless bodies as sexy vastly under estimates humans desire and ability to be attracted to every other body type, not portrayed in the media. The first example of media's representation of what is hot is a classic pin-up girl, whose unrealistic and almost plastic looking body captures the male gaze and sets the standard for sexual power. 

There have been a few recent campaigns counteracting this claim, and aim to portray women as more realistic beings to sell products. Although women in the following ad are just as objectified and posed to capture the male gaze, these women have attainable bodies for most, and make sense proportionally.  These women are shown just as empowered as the previous model. Dove seeks to act as a catalyst for action regarding the false images that mass media has naturalized.  The following video shows just how deceiving most mass mediated images can be.

Companies employ beautiful, scantily clad women to sell products by portraying them as powerful beings. They portray the models as powerful and dominating within the context of the ad, but outside the marketing world, these same women would not be taken seriously. In actuality the most powerful women, as named by Forbes magazine,  do not resemble the stereotypical always thin, plastic female body. instead they represent age and wisdom, and most commonly the dreaded "flaws" in their features.  

This video displays an interesting perspective on how sex and femininity is played out in another culture.   After researching americas ad's and use of sexually explicit materials in all of our mainstream outlets, I began to feel frustrated at the mass mis-representation these images were providing for women. But the dialogue is started, and the freedom to discuss and openly criticize the effects of these images on society is available. This Saudi author is struggling to even be allowed to discuss these issues. I feel lucky that we have the ability to discuss and we have progressed in our discussion. Issues that used to be taboo are not so any more.