Rodriguez 1

Christina Rodriguez
John Kubler
English 115
9 December 2014
Exploitation in Media
Nowadays, sexuality is a huge part of our culture. You can see sexuality anywhere that
you turn. Its on billboard ads, commercials, music videos, video games, etc. Some of us go
about our day not thinking about these ads or these music videos, because of how often we see
them, they have become a normal occurrence. But what is this display of sexuality actually doing
to the youth of today? Imagine a young girl, she goes to watch something on television, but
instead comes across a music video like Anaconda by Nicki Minaj. If this girl sees how
women are portrayed in this music videoas just a piece of meat, a sexual objecthow will this
young girl feel about herself as a female? It causes young girls, and boys, who are still trying to
figure themselves out, to set a standard on how they should look and how they should act, and it
is a horrible example. Some try to argue that these videos are empowering for women, but what
is so empowering about multiple women shaking their butts on the screen? I think it is sad that
these types of videos are a large part of our culture because these videos only set a horrible
standard to how women should look and how they should be treated. I do think that the media
(ads, music videos, movies, etc.), if done right, could send out a strong, positive message to both
men and women, but I definitely do not see this in the media that we are exposed to today.
Movies are a great hit among our society today. Most men and women, boys and girls, go
to the theater everyday to see the latest movie. We do not think about it too much because it is
such a normal thing to do. Even I go to the movies occasionally, but how do these movies
actually impact these men and women? For example, the movie Crazy, Stupid, Love is, in my

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opinion, a bad representation of women in our society today. The movie shows a man named
Jacob who is portrayed as someone with money and power. He visits the same bar each night to
talk to women and then take them home to sleep with him. The scenes where Jacob is shown
picking up the women, portray the women as these mindless bodies that are only good for one
thing, sex. Jacob picks up these women and has no regard for who they are as a person, nor does
he have any respect for any of them. He is there to get women to sleep with him and that is it.
This is a terrible thing to be showing our youth today, it exposes young girls and boys to this idea
that women are nothing more than a piece of meat, and that it is okay for men to treat women
that way. As a female watching this movie, I feel offended, because it is a bad representation of
what a woman is. These women in the movie are swept off their feet by Jacobs good looks and
his charm. They do not show women who can be strong and intellectual on their own, nor do
they show women as equal to men. This film exposes our society to this thought that men have a
power over women and it causes not only women, to view themselves as less than men, but for
men to believe that they are better than women.
Because of this wrong portrayal of women, men believe that they can take advantage of
women and use them for what they think they are, a piece of meat. We can see examples of this
in the book The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. In the chapter The Croissant, Marji
got a job as a waitress at a cafe. As she was working one day, a man decided to pinch her butt.
This made Marji angry, but she was told that The customer is always right and she can not talk
back to them, so instead she had to walk away and take the pinch (Satrapi 224). But why do men
feel it is okay to sexually harass a woman this way, or in any way for that matter? It is such a
violation for women, but most men dont think that way and it is because of the things in the
media that young boys are exposed to. They see these music videos and films of women treated
as sexual objects where men have power over them from such a young age that when they grow

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older, they have this ingrained belief that it is okay for them to treat women without respect or
without any empathy towards how women might feel to be violated and treated so poorly.
Another example of this in the book is in the chapter The Trip where Marjis mom is insulted
and harassed by two men who yelled obscene things at her. When Marji and her family go home,
they hear on television that, Womens hair emanates rays that excite men. Thats why women
should cover their hair! If in fact it is really more civilized to go without the veil, then animals
are more civilized than we are (Satrapi 74). In other words, they are saying that women who are
sexually harassed are at fault because they do not have their hair covered, since a womans hair
excites a man. They choose to cover women because of the image that society places on the
female body, that it is for the pleasure of men, instead of trying to figure out why men think it is
alright to sexually assault women.
The media also sets a double standard for men and women. On the television there are
shows where we see women fighting with other women calling each other sluts and various
other words for having slept with multiple men, but when we see two men sharing their multiple
sexual encounters, they congratulate each other as if it is a great accomplishment. This double
standard creates a fear for women, as Jean Kilbourne from the Generation M video explained,
Women who are sexually active, have many different partners, are still labeled sluts, women
still feel often that they need to be drunk in order to have any kind of sexual activity
(Generation M 5:33). Basically, because of this image in the media, that women who are
sexually active and have multiple partners are sluts, women do not feel free to have any sexual
encounter without having an excuse like saying that they were drunk. But why is there such a
difference in how we see women with multiple sexual partners than how we see men, when they
are doing the exact same thing? If men are not viewed as sluts, then neither should women,
and if men are congratulated, then women should be congratulated as well. It is not a fact that

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women who sleep with multiple men are sluts, it is only a made up concept in our society, so
instead of ridiculing women for doing the same thing men get congratulated for, they should start
portraying women as equal to men, so that this concept can be left behind, and we can move
forward to a world where men and women are both accepted as equals.
While some choose to argue as I have, that the media is plagued with degrading images
of women, others like to say that these images are empowering for women. Kate Taylor from
Todays ultimate feminists are the chicks in crop tops, chooses to take this stance. She argues
that the media and raunch culture is about women rediscovering the joy of being loved for their
bodies, not just their minds, and while I do agree that it is a great thing to love your body, I do
not think that the media sets a good example of this (Taylor 1). Most of todays media does not
show women being celebrated for their bodies, they are being exploited for the sole pleasure of
men. As Sharon Lamb argues in her article Porn as a Pathway to Empowerment?, The
pornography inspired version of sexual empowerment . . . is tied to a multi-billion dollar industry
that has at its center exploitation, not the eradication of shame with free sexuality (Lamb 316).
In this quote, Lamb is targeting the pornography industry arguing that the industry does not care
about empowering women, they instead are there exploit women because it turns in a large sum
of money.
There is so many types of media nowadays, it is hard not be affected by it. I cannot count
the times that I have received sexist comments in person or on social media. I think this shows
just how bad it is, that males can see and read these things and think it is alright to say them to
females. Even short remarks such as go make me a sandwich or get in the kitchen that can
be viewed as a joke, are sexist and degrading to women. For males to think that these kinds of
things are jokes and should be taken lightly, is what we need to change in todays media.
Everyday that we get online, turn on the tv, read a newspaper, or even walk outside into the

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world, we are exposed to all of these stereotypes of men and women, men are taught how women
should be treated and women are taught how the should act when they watch the music videos
like Anaconda by Nicki Minaj or Booty by Jennifer Lopez and Iggy Azalea. But why do we
use media to degrade women when we can instead use it as a tool to empower women? Media is
everywhere, but we use it for all the wrong reasons. There should be billboards across citys with
messages of encouragement and examples of true empowerment. I do understand that it is a
controversial topic amongst people and that change cannot come overnight, but everything has to
start somewhere. We need to learn how to use the media to benefit us, instead of using it for
exploitation. For example, Anita Sarkeesian is a feminist who has used the media to show how
women are wrongly portrayed in video games, with barely any clothes and unproportionate
bodies. Sarkeesian has made videos on the internet exposing just how video games degrade
women and these videos have begun to open the eyes of many people, and they have gained
support from both women and men. This is only one example, but if we can continue to share
things like this, then soon the media will display true empowerment for women all over the
world.

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Works Cited
Satrapi, Marjane. The Complete Persepolis. New York: Pantheon, 2004. Print
Lamb, Sharon. Porn as a Pathway to Empowerment? 10 Mar. 2010: 314-317. Print.
Taylor, Kate. Todays ultimate feminists are the chicks in crop tops. 22 Mar. 2006: 1. Web.
Crazy, Stupid, Love. Dir. John Requa and Glenn Ficarra. Warner Bros., 2011. Film.
Generation M. Vox Populi Productions.