Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Causes of the Past, Effects on the Present, and Implications for the Future
by Scott David Ruzal
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Settle up and lean out. Make down your mind and peace in. C’mon
baby, lay forward a bit and massage your inner thighs. Tell your conscience I
said, “Don’t worry. Everything is silky smooth like butter.” Don’t bother
getting dressed; just sit over there, by the window, and bask in whispered
desires. Forget everything and remember this little something: sex sells. And
American culture and society. But just what exactly might that effect be, and
the media has become a centerpiece of American culture and for good
likened to the Holy Grail in peaking consumer interests. Those who might
associate sex with the color red, commonly associated with love, are dead
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wrong—sex is greener than any pasture, lining the pockets of business
executives like black coal compressed into a diamond. Continuing along this
line of reasoning, it almost seems ideal that most sexuality used in mass
media should be targeted at our nation’s youth; they are just beginning to
1999 show that young people spend on average of 6-7 hours a day with
varying forms of mass media (Brown, Mass Media Influences on Sexuality pp.
42). During this stage, the most prevalent concern of adolescent youths is
successful young adults who, of course, are sexually mature and satisfied
(Steele, Teenage Sexuality and Media Practice pp. 335). But as sexuality
youth culture, it is of the utmost importance that we step back and take an
objective look at sex in the media and the dire consequences it may pose to
media, we must first identify its origins. In 1924 the American Association of
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code maintaining comparative truth in product expectations and
provided advertisers with just the right amount of leniency to all but
disregard its existence (Rodman, Making Sense of Media pp. 309). After all,
very rarely does ethical conduct positively correlate with increased revenue.
Up until the 1940’s, these gender roles that were imposed upon
fashion. Then, following WWII and the subsequent return of American troops
to their wives, the Baby Boomer generation was born. Middle-class families
major cities, where they could provide their children with a safe, relaxing
atmosphere away from the hardships they endured growing up in the city,
many as struggling immigrants, during the early 1900’s. The Baby Boomer
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the American dream that developed with a heightened emphasis on leisurely
activity, social networking, and public education. The teenage years became
a critical stage of childhood development just around the same time as the
Report).
50’s gave way to perhaps the most pivotal year of the 20th century, 1968,
during which time preconceived notions of human sexuality and its societal
than human (Shenk, Every Picture Can Tell a Lie). This radical shift in sexual
drastic cultural shift occurring as many young adult Baby Boomers started
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increasingly sexually charged atmosphere inspired student activism and
mass media, including modern technologies that were just beginning their
infancy, such as the Internet and cable television. And so was birthed
Still the question remains of how American youth culture has been
saturated with sexual improvement tips and beautification, and online social
take ownership of and be responsible for the future of our country, never
mind entire world civilizations harrowed by one endemic after another, never
mind the continued survival and inevitable expansion of the human species
objectivity, with nothing but the highest respect for the philosophical
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spoon. And yet it is because of the convergence of these circumstances and
Gerber’s maturity and intelligence allow her to insightfully reflect upon the
environments (Steele, pp. 339). Using a rigorous method for analyzing the
sample of black females between the ages of 13-16 living in an inner city,
are affected by sexually explicit imagery in the media. One such study
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published in the Journal of Advertising asked the question of how popular
and Vogue, all of which are well-known by industry professionals for their use
of beauty defined by the researchers were divided into six categories: exotic,
cute, girl-next-door, trendy, sex kitten, and classic, of which the most
frequently depicted were exotic, trendy, and classic. After contacting monthly
surprising that most of those interviewed also displayed the same preference
esteem, and asking their parents for plastic surgery in order to attain such
standards of beauty (Englis, Solomon, and Ashmore, Beauty Before the Eyes
of the Beholder).
readers, editors were astonished to discover the results its survey, which
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percent wore at least a size 12 (Barthel, Putting on Appearances pp. 232).
These results outline the disparity between media images and the average
adolescent who is subjected to the implicit message that this is ideal beauty.
Similarly, a social dichotomy is created between those who are naturally born
with these body proportions and those who are not. Perceptions of self-image
that are attained from mass media imagery essentially falsifies the notion of
any sort of alternate proportions that may differ from their hegemony on
appearances.
males would experience many similar pressures, albeit with less potency due
to less time spent interacting with media and more time spent engaging in
the external world. However, extensive research concludes that not only do
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from 6-19 years old were surveyed regarding media preferences and
Shakespeare, and Bill Gates (Hirsch and Thompson, Why Media Matter pp.
48).
trained, muscular build is more desirable than being gifted with a genius
physiques provide an example for which they rationalize as ideal if they are
strength implicitly promotes the use of that strength, such that oftentimes it
several military soldiers as commenting, “[Killing is] like getting screwed for
the first time,” “…it’s like the best dope you ever had, the best sex you’ve
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ever had,” “Weeks of bottled-up tensions…released in a few minutes of
public figureheads have become even less of a shock due to the frequency of
journalism coverage over the past few decades. Similarly, coverage of sexual
since provisions of workforce equality were set forth by the Civil Rights Act of
has been the most popular search query on the internet for the past decade
(Brown, Mass Media Influences on Sexuality pp. 42). Coinciding with these
messages of sexual lewdness are the advertising and film media in which the
subtext teaches sex as a desirable activity. For the developing psyche of the
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adolescent mind, an overwhelming sense of cognitively dissonant messages
have for the future of our nation’s youth and future generations of youth
just as difficult not to put hindsight to good use and purvey the effects
sexualized mass media has had during the 20th century. We can justify our
quality of life unparalleled to any period in history. Likewise, the racial and
election than in 2008, and American democracy has never proven more
adept at proving that we can endure tragedy and hope for a brighter
tomorrow.
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conceived notions of gender conduct. Likewise, it must be duly noted without
barrier that over the course of the last century has constantly expanded in
favor of American mass media usage. And it is most important that this issue
cultural attitudes in American are what set our media consumption apart
Saudi Arabia a woman must have her entire face and body hidden from
public view whereas Italy is known for having the largest population of
habitual nudists and very few laws against public indecency (Nagel, Ethnicity
can display bare-chested models to sell products that have little relevance to
(Martin, Janet Jackson’s Right Breast and European Sexual Attitudes). On the
other end of the spectrum, Saudi Arabia has within the past decade seen the
advertisements, albeit nothing more revealing than their faces (Pfanner, Ads
regarding sex in the media can have a positive outcome on the future of our
society. Can there be designated line, which once crossed, would send
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American culture spiraling down some degenerative path of debauchery and
And can we truly say that mass media inspires the standards of beauty it
prefer blondes over brunettes because of the frequency in which they appear
heavily trodden, enigmatic path that is the debate of nature vs. nurture will
not help us reach a conclusion. Once again, the question begs repeating, is
being done to our children, explicit sexuality in the mass media warrants an
proven that sexual imagery does have a significant effect on adolescents and
these effects could be inherently harmful. Yes, there is the fear that perhaps
the repercussions of even spending time to debate this issue will not affect
our children, or even our children’s children, but one day the descendents of
present-day society may look back at their ancestors and curse our inaction.
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And this would indeed be the saddest of days on which mankind should face
assurance that regardless of how culture may deviate away from ethical
decency, our uniquely human sense of morality will always remain intact.
member of a group. If this is the case, then the false images imposed by
mass media are not only beneficial to individual self-discovery, but create an
environment in which such an individual can identify with a society that sees
beyond the glamour; for those who can never see further, they will never
Works Cited
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1. Brown, Jane. "Mass Media Influences on Sexuality." The Journal of Sex Research
39(2002): 42-45.
2. Steele, Jeanne. "Teenage Sexuality and Media Practice: Factoring in the Influences of
Family, Friends, and School." The Journal of Sex Research 36(1999): 331-341.
6. The Advertising Century Report. 1999. Crain Communications, Inc.. 4 Dec 2008
<http://adage.com/century/>.
7. Shenk, David. "Every Picture Can Tell a Lie." Wired 20 Oct 1997 4 Dec 2008
<http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/1997/10/7815>.
8. Brokaw, Tom. Boom!: Talking About the Sixties: What Happened, How It Shaped
Today, Lessons for Tomorrow. New York City: Random House, 2007.
10.Englis, Basil, Michael Solomon, Richard Ashmore. "Beauty before the Eyes of
Beholders: The Cultural Encoding of Beauty Types in Magazine Advertising and Music
Television ." Journal of Advertising 23(1994): 49-64.
12.Winter, David. "Power, Sex, and Violence: A Psychological Reconstruction of the 20th
Century and an Intellectual Agenda for Political Psychology." Political Psychology
21(2000): 383-404.
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14.Hirschman, Elizabeth, Craig Thompson. "Why Media Matter: Toward a Richer
Understanding of Consumers' Relationships with Advertising and Mass Media."
Journal of Advertising 26(1997): 43-60.
15.Nagel, Joane. "Ethnicity and Sexuality." Annual Review of Sociology 26(2000): 107-
133.
16.Martin, James. "Janet Jackson's Right Breast and European Sexual Attitudes."
About.com. The New York Times Company. 4 Dec 2008
<http://goeurope.about.com/cs/sex/a/euro_sexuality.htm>.
17.Pfanner, Eric. "Ads for Saudi Bank Focus on Women." The New York Times. 07 Mar
2005. The New York Times Company. 4 Dec 2008
<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/07/business/worldbusiness/07arab.html?_r=3>.
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