Canas 1

Alex Canas
John Kubler
English 115
October 22, 2014
Seduction to the max; Raunch Culture and Porno-Chic for Womens Bodies
The American society has undergone an ever-increasing hypersexualization of culture
including a steady proliferation of sexually explicit images in entertainment, media advertising,
fashion, and human public behaviors over the last few years. For some people, this increasing
hypersexualization of culture is a bad concept because it degrades women and causes women
to look nothing else than a sexual object or an object in general in the eyes of men. For other
people, such as feminists the hypersexualization of culture is a good thing because it removes
us from a sexist society and understand that sex is just part of life. Feminists believe the nudity
of women allow themselves to be equal as a male who may show the same body parts. Although
many people argue the hypersexualization of culture is a good idea for the new generations, the
hypersexualization of culture causes more drawbacks because women are portrayed as sexual
objects and causing young girls question their own identity.
Persepolis, a book written by a woman named Marjane Satrapi who lived through the
Islamic Revolution in Iran. Marjane was the great-granddaughter of Irans last emperor, thus
allowing her childhood to be affected with the history of her own country. As Marjane grew old,
her parents sent to her to Austria, where she moved to different environments and changed life
styles. One home she was living in was when she moved into Julies house and learned about
how Julie was having relationships with older men (Satrapi 184). Marjane was surprised how
Julie was so open about her sexual lifestyle because in Iran, a woman could only have sex till

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marriage. This shows how the sexual revolution is making sex seem like something normal,
which is. But this is causing women to be degrading and making woman be viewed as nothing
else than a sex object. Julie also explains how she stopped using a condom because the man feels
less of the vagina during sex. This could cause more problems because many girls and guys are
okay with not using any sort of protection. This could cause many sexual transmitted diseases,
which causes many problems later on. Laura Sessions Stepp wrote an article named Study: Half
of All Teens Have Had Oral Sex, where she discussed about how sex is being considered
okay and one night stands are being acceptable (1). Stepp explains how "The data are now
coming out and roiling the idea that boys are the hunters and young girls are the prey . . . . It
absolutely defies the stereotype (1). Girls are becoming sex objects and have now focused on
pleasing a guy, rather than having a relationship with him. Girls have started dressing sexually
and have done sexual actions just to be with a guy. Now, Im not saying girls need to be cover
head to toe. In Persepolis, the Cultural Revolution caused many woman to wear the veil and
cover their entire body, in order to stop women from seducing men. The problem is telling
women what to wear is just the first step toward limiting their rights. Showing a little bit of skin
wouldnt harm anybody. But the fact that women have started showing lots more of skin to show
dominance by using sexual actions or sexual expression have made themselves degrading. Girls
have started showing skin just because they want to grab the attention of everybody, especially
an guys. Because of Marjane mothers influence, Marjane understood how important it is for a
woman to live her life for herself instead of for a man.
Now there are people who argue woman are different from men and seem okay with
women being nothing more than objects. Biology, Destiny, and Bad Science written by
Rosalind C. Barnett and Caryl Rivers explained how that women should be confined to jobs that

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use their special relational abilities, that womens brains are not designed for leadership, and
that they cheerfully choose low-paying jobs (70). Barnett and Rivers both agree that a
womens brain is not developed to lead. To the writers, they believe a womens brain is to take
care of children and the household. The mans brain is to become a leader with strong opinions
such as lawyers, doctors, journalist and high paying jobs. Which is kind of ironic because these
woman are journalists with strong opinions but they say that women with these characteristics
are not attracted by men. Stereotypes have lowered male and females self-esteem just because
theyre considered different from their stereotype. The writers are explaining that if parents
believe those stereotypes, their child wont succeed like other students. If they dont challenge
their children, to be better, theyre going to be stuck in certain stereotypes.
The very interesting and hilarious film Crazy, Stupid, Love is about how a middle-aged
man, named Cal, life changes after his wife, Emily, asks for a divorce. Cal had met Emily during
high school, which turned out to be his high school sweet heart and soul mate. Cal hadnt been
with any other woman but Emily had been seeing another man. Cal seems shocked and tells his
wife, she could do anything she wants. In this relationship, the dominant one seems to be Emily
because Cal just agrees with everything and seems to be the one who got affected by the divorce.
After meeting Jacob, a typical womanizer, Cal decides to rethink and rediscover his manhood, by
having sex with multiple girls at the bar. Jacob, being a womanizer, was always dominant in his
relationship. He used sexual action and expression to control the woman in the bar but in reality
he was degrading himself. Jacob taught to Cal to use sexual actions and expressions to get
women. His first successful "date" happened with Kate, a schoolteacher who happen to teach
Cal's son, Robbie. Cal and Kate's relationship is very interesting. The dominant one is Cal
because he is controlling Kate and getting what he wants. Kate, on the other hand, not realizing

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Cal is a womanizer, is just being used. After having many one-night stands with multiple of
woman, becoming the dominant one in all his relationships, Cal decides he is ready to get his
back together with Emily. Emily and Kate end up meeting with Cal at the same time and Kate is
furious when she realizes Cal used Kate for sex. Emily realizes Cal has become a womanizer and
how he might not be loyal as he was before. The dominant one still becomes Emily. The
difference between Cal and Kate and Cal and Emily is Emily's relationship does not include any
sexual actions or expressions.
Meanwhile, Jacob tries to hook up with a girl named Hannah but Jacob ends up falling in
love with Hannah instead. Jacob admits to Hannah that he was never happy with any of his
relationships. He would usually use sexuality as a tool to establish power and be dominant but
never actually found real happiness. This shows how sexual actions and expression actually
makes you dominant in a relationship; however, in the long run, youre just degrading yourself.
In the beginning, Jacob was the dominant one in the relationship. Afterwards, Hannah becomes
the more dominant one because Hannah changes Jacob. Later on, Jacob realizes Hannah is the
oldest daughter of Cal, which causes problems between Cal and Jacob. Even though Cal liked
that Jacob was helping him pick up woman, Cal did not approve Jacob for his daughter just
because Cal knew Jacob was a womanizer. Because of Jacob's reputation, Cal believed he was
degrading for Hannah, even though Cal was a womanizer too. The reputation of Jacob had
caused Cal not to trust him because of his past.
In the end, Cal and Emily get back together and Jacob and Hannah end up back together.
In both relationships, the woman are the dominant ones in the relationship. Cal and Jacob both
change their different lifestyles to be with the woman they want. The lessons learned from this is
that love isn't all about sex and getting all the women. One lesson is that love is equally raw and

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potentially frightening for all of the relationships. The title calls love crazy and stupid, but the
film goes into how love makes us, in equal parts, angry and sad, nervous and intoxicated.
Finally, Thomas Keith made a film named Generation M, where he shows how
teenagers have been affected by media at such an early age. Keith makes four arguments; Keiths
primary and main argument is that media uses sexist and misogynist images and stereotypes. But
what is misogyny? Misogyny is the hatred of women and examples of this is treating women like
objects, sexual objects, poorly second class citizen and actual violence against woman. Now,
Keith argues that sexuality is being introduced to girls and young women as a form of female
empowerment. Girls are exploring their own feelings about sex and theyre listening to songs
that relate to sex and how to be powerful over men with their sexual appearance. Girls try to be
older and sexual because of all these sexual images. They do this to fit in. But what harm does
this type of media have? Keith returns to the word misogyny. Misogyny is the hatred of women
and examples of this is treating women like objects, sexual objects, poorly second class citizen
and actual violence against woman. As soon as young girls start being sexualized by the media,
young boys will see females as sexual objects. Media is showing young girls to use sex to get
anything they want and they should compete against each other. Young girls are being taught
how to please a man and try to not make them unhappy. Boys and men will start treating women
poorly because of the way media portrays women. Keith is trying to hint that if the media
continues doing this, what else could happen if men keeps seeing woman as sexual objects?
Now Keiths last argument was about how men are being misogynic and women are
accepting of this. Rappers and models are able to make fun of and insult women in songs but
women still listen to the song and support these role models. Keith reinforces this point by
noting that many young men adopt the tough-guy persona in an attempt to attract young women

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who claim that they do not want a man who is soft (Keith). Keith lets us think about how
women are accepting of the sexism portrayed in songs and in the media, yet women fight to be
equal every single day.
For other people, the hypersexualization of culture is a good thing because it removes
us from a sexist society and understand that sex is just part of life. Although many people argue
the hypersexualization of culture is a good idea for the new generations, the hypersexualization
of culture causes more drawbacks because women are portrayed as sexual objects and causing
young girls question their own identity. Generation M has really broadened the view of sexuality
in the United States. The most important question remains: If women continue using sexual
action and sexual expression to be more dominant over guys but degrading themselves in the
process, what else could really happen, in the future, if men keeps seeing woman as sexual
objects?

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Work Cited
Barnett, Rosalind C. and Rivers, Caryl. "Biology, Destiny, and Bad Science". Summer 2005.
Web. 25, Oct. 2014.
Crazy Stupid Love. Dir. Glenn Ficarra, John Requa. Perf. Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne
Moore. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2011. DVD.
Keith, Thomas, dir. Generaion M. Media Education Foundation, 2008. Film.]
Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis. London: Vintage Books, 2008. Print.
Stepp, Laura. The Washington Post. "Study: Half of All Teens Have Had Oral Sex". The
Washington Post Company, 16 Sept. 2005. Web. 25, Oct. 2014.