Observational Analysis 3

I chose to research how women are often sexualized in media.

References

Ain, M. (2016, July). Emma Coburn: Steeplechase barriers will “leave you pretty

scarred.” ESPN. https://www.espn.com/espnw/story/_/id/16742536/runner-emma-coburn-

talks-confidence-workouts-olympics-espn-body-issue

This is an online profile on a runner named Emma Coburn. The article is from a segment ESPN

used to do called body issue (they recently stopped). Essentially the athlete would do a

photoshoot naked and then an article would be written about them (unrelated to the photoshoot).

This was meant to rival sports illustrated swimsuit magazines. However, sports illustrated was

showcasing a vast majority of Female athletes over males. Body Issue had the same issue. Most

covers were female. This, to me, just seems pointless. The readers aren’t going to care about the

athlete or what they’re doing, they’re just going to want to look at the pictures. All this was

doing was sexualizing women (and men a bit).

Murphy, J., Braham, H., Robbie, M., Elba, I., & Cena, J. (2016). The Suicide Squad.

In the 2016 Suicide Squad they completely sexualize the Harley Quinn character unnecessarily.

They completely change her outfit from the cartoons and comics to a much more revealing outfit.

The outfit is also rather impractical for everything they’re doing in the movie. Even though

Harley Quinn is crazy, I feel like she would still put on a more practical outfit realistically.

Again, this is just sexualizing another woman for no reason.

Murphy, R., Falchuk, B., & Brennan, I. (2010, September 28). Britney/Brittany (Season 2,

Episode 2). In Glee. Vision Ryan Murphy Production.

The show Glee is full of stereotypes of all kinds, it’s just part of the show. So, while the

sexualization in this episode is intentional, intentional sexualization of women in media is still

sexualization of women in media. In this episode, the students are under drugs at the dentist and

have visions of them being Britney Spears. In these visions the girls are very clearly being

sexualized. This also becomes a problem when a male character has the vision of Britney Spears

as well, but he isn’t sexualized at all in his vision. There are many more times these issues come

up in this show.

Swift, T. (2010). Better than Revenge. Speak Now. Big Machines Records.

This is a song by none other than Taylor Swift. Taylor definitely doesn’t regularly sexualize

women in her music, but this song is an exception. Specifically, because of the lyric, “She’s

better known for the things that she does on the mattress.” This lyric is definitely a bit

stereotypical, and sexual. Women are sexualized in music all the time, sometimes intentionally,

sometimes not. This was most likely not intentional, but the sexualization is still there.

The Fragrance Shop. (2014, April 8). Rihanna “Rogue” fragrance - full TV commercial.

YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRwxyrkjMQ8

This is a clear example of women being sexualized in the media. This is a YouTube video of an

advertisement for Rihanna’s fragrance, Rogue. The camera angles and shots of Rhianna in the

chair have nothing to do with the fragrance. All it is doing is sexualizing her. It becomes a

problem for young girls to be seeing women constantly being sexualized in media, especially in

widely viewed advertisements.