Thursday, March 23, 2017
Pornography in the Media
With the growing amount of pornography shown in the media the idea that we as a society seem to be becoming more accepting of this. Even last night I was watching HGTV, which is portrayed like a family friendly channel, and there was a Volkswagen commercial that insinuated a couple having sex in their Volkswagen car, having a child, and then upgrading to the next biggest car that Volkswagen has to offer. The were ultimately advertising their new edition of one of their largest vehicles, but used sex and the growth of a family to do so. We also see this in other commercials such as the Hardees, where women, wearing next to nothing advertise hamburgers, French fries, and sausage links in provocative ways. We see more and more television shows having sex scenes such as Sons of Anarchy, Mad Men, Game of Thrones, and Orange is the New Black and movies such as Magic Mike, Fifty Shades of Grey, Friends with Benefits, and No Strings Attached reaching top charts all over the nation. Sex, although we have learned throughout our class has never been fully suppressed, but at the very least with the Comstock Acts and the opinion of people such as him, even the talk around birth control and women's bodies was considered obscene and banned from public access. Now there are not only birth control, tampons, and other feminine products advertised and publicized, but sex itself is advertised and flaunted throughout the media in general. Even though this seems progressive for our society, we still have regressions such as women's "secret gardens" and sex education is still suppressed throughout our society. Therefore, even though we the use of pornography and other items related to sex and sexual anatomy, our society may not be as progressive as thought, including the sexism and discrimination against other sexualities that is also present throughout our society.
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Overall it seems like you make some very solid points on the presence of pornographic material in the everyday life of people across the world. In the old days, these commercials would have been banned due to their obscenity, or what would have been viewed as obscenity. In my opinion, I don't think that these businesses are placing sexually suggestive content in their advertisements because they are sleazy companies. Ultimately for these businesses and movies, it comes down to making a profit, and especially in the United States, the moniker of "sex sells" is very prevalent.These advertisements choose to include sexual content in an effort to increase the sales of a particular product. Take for example the Volkswagen commercial. I don't believe that the emphasis is on the baby as it pertains to the sexual nature of the commercial; rather, I think the commercial includes this imagery because it is trying to subconsciously tell its audience that if they buy a Volkswagen, they will automatically get laid. I think the inclusion of a baby was only prevalent so that Volkswagen could kill two birds with one stone and present a case for two separate vehicles in one commercial. Whether the use of sexuality in movies and commercials, and these items popularity says something about the progress or lack thereof that our society has made remains to be seen. You are correct in stating that sex education is still oppressed in the country, which could be caused by a repression of sexuality in an effort to increase morality via a religious track of abstinence. My opinion is that as a whole when it comes to the topic of sexuality and sexual relationships, the country and the people in it have become more progressive and accepting; however, this acceptance is largely in terms of heterosexual relationships. While one could argue that the SCOTUS ruling on gay marriage shows a progression in the acceptance of homosexual relationships, there are still many people in today's society, who believe that homosexuals are sexual deviants. Homosexuality, while in theory is more widely accepted, still does not receive the same level of approval as a heterosexual relationship. All one simply has to do in order to prove this is look to a commercial produced by Cheerios a few years ago. Given, this commercial was produced prior to the SCOTUS ruling on gay marriage, but the same principle applies. In this commercial, Cheerios presents a homosexual couple with a child living life as a family. There was no presence of sexual content in this commercial, but the media backlash was astronomical. The sheer number of people who bashed Cheerios for producing this commercial show that heterosexual relationships, especially with the presence of a child, are not accepted. Some people argue that homosexual couples can not successfully raise a child, and that the child is "doomed" to be homosexual, despite copious amounts of evidence that disprove this theory. Overall, I would argue that we as a society have become more progressive in our treatments of sexuality and sexual relationships, both heterosexual, and to a lesser extent homosexual. While non-heterosexual relationships are still the subject of discrimination, they have been legalized by SCOTUS. When one considers that under the Comstock Acts birth control was illegal, progress has most definitely been made, as condoms are now being sold in gas stations, and it is much easier for women to gain access to birth control via their primary physician or OBGYN. Discrimination most definitely exists, and this society has much more potential for progression; however, when one considers where we started in relation to where we are now, it is difficult to say that progress has not been made.
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