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.

No Homo!: Is Moonlight Gay?

A friend of mine recently tried to convince me that the 2017 Oscars Best Picture Moonlight was not about the main character, Chiron, being a gay man. He argued that they had played the gay scenes heavy-handedly, and when I asked what the movie was instead about, he seemed to cop-out by saying it was about Chiron exploring several different parts of herself. To be clear, I fully agree that the movie was multi-faceted; I simply believe that the greatest intersection explored throughout the movie (almost certainly capturing the most screen-time) was between Chiron’s being a black man and a gay man. Of course, if you’ve seen the movie for yourself, you probably have your own opinion of what the movie is about. I just find it difficult to argue that Moonlight is not a movie you will find under the LGBT category of Netflix in a month or two (especially when "is moonlight gay" is the 3rd Google autocomplete option when you start typing it out).

In contrast, Tucker Carlson of Fox News recently decried Moonlight’s Oscar win for being too “politically correct,” and implied that only Hollywood could love a film like that. In Tucker’s view, the film was too gay (and likely also too black) to have fairly won an Oscar, whereas in my friend’s opinion, the gay themes of the movie weren’t strong enough to make it a gay movie. These seem like opposing viewpoints, and in some ways they are, because I don’t consider my friend to be a socially conservative person. However, it’s important to note that both of these views work toward the same end. One of the central takeaways from both arguments is that there is need to suppress the gayness of Moonlight as it contributed to its winning an award; my friend’s argument marks the gayness of the 2017 Best Picture as forgettable, and not relevant to the film’s winning such a high-profile award; Tucker forcefully suppresses the movie’s “politically correct” aspects by condemning their merit to take home the gold.

In theory, it could be difficult to see Moonlight as quintessentially gay when compared to a movie like Brokeback Mountain, which was nominated for best picture in 2006. It was more sexually explicit than Moonlight, and didn’t deal with many intersections of oppression considering that the main characters were white. One could say that each of these movies portrays, and furthermore serves, a different gay experience. Perhaps the intersectionality of Moonlight compromises between the two experiences of being black and gay, making it difficult for some audiences to take the two in tandem, as I believe they were meant to.

Moonlight’s victory at the Oscars was certainly a triumph for every gay in America, but our society still has a lot to work on in terms of embracing, in this case, homosexuality, and more broadly, queer sexuality. Neither Brokeback Mountain nor Moonlight are universal gay films; as it stands, any sufficiently mainstream gay movie is exclusionary in some way. This is not to mention that lesbian films have yet to achieve the same success as gay movies, along with films centering their themes on being bisexual and trans. In my mind, despite the success of Moonlight, which absolutely deserves celebration, many aspects of the reception of the movie prove that there is still squeamishness and misunderstanding among moviegoers and LGBT movie subjects.

Does choice entail agency?

Often, we believe that choices are synonymous with freedom, as having choices entails that we possess the capability of choosing the course of our destiny. This is hallmarked though current social movements that are shaping our nation, including the pro-choice movement, which advocates for the right for women to choose whether or not to maintain a pregnancy. This is one of the most well-known controversies to date, as many believe that the freedom of choice may encourage the frequencies of abortions. The pro-choice movement is also generally coined as a “liberal” agenda; the term “liberalism” is usually defined as a method of discarding traditional values. The term of liberalism is derived from the word liberal, which tends to get associated with the meanings of freedom or progressiveness. This however, is misleading—liberal does not mean free. This is seen in the early twentieth century contraceptive movement, led by Margaret Sanger. Although Sanger is considered a liberalist in contemporary terms, her advocacy for the freedom to choose birth control does not necessarily mean that women were expressing agency through their choice of using contraceptives. The ability to choose should not be equivalent to agency, as choice does not always mean that the individual is operating within their own terms of freedom.

                Devices and Desires, a book by Andrea Tone discussing the history of U.S. contraceptives, attempts to discuss Margaret Sanger’s agenda for increasing the availability of contraceptives to women. Sanger is often credited as pushing a liberal agenda which gives women the right to choose to use contraceptives, with a particular emphasis on the use of female diaphragms. This is typically propagated as freedom for the woman to take control of her sexuality, and to dictate whether or not the sex should be considered procreative. While this may seem like freedom from patriarchal notions of women being subject to the concept of male sexual dominance, the “freedom” to take control of contraceptive use also meant that women were subjected to ridicule when the contraceptive use failed. Western culture subjects the majority of men to taking on the role of an alpha male that cannot control sexual desires, and therefore cannot be held accountable for the repercussions of sex.  Women that choose their methods of birth control are still held accountable when birth control fails and results in pregnancy—this notion of responsibility placed upon the women for pregnancy ties directly into the long-standing misconception that men cannot be held accountable for the consequences of sex. If anything, contraceptive use in the early twentieth century reinforced the ideals that women are to blame when sex yields undesirable outcomes, as women are now given the ultimate “choice” of preventing an unwanted pregnancy. This does not represent freedom, as their choice of preventing a pregnancy still operates within the patriarchal system that excuses men for actions of sexual misconduct. This argument is important due to the fact that the right for women to have access to birth control is still a point of controversy that is often dismissed by those who do not deem themselves as liberals—the ability for women to choose methods of contraception to prevent pregnancy will only be a tool of agency for women once society stops believing that the responsibility of sustaining a pregnancy is solely a concern of women.

Comprehensive Sex Education vs. Abstinence Only

For my second blog post I would like to talk about how children in the school system are introduced to and taught about sex and in some cases how they are misinformed about it or not even taught the subject at all. I know when I was going through school the sex education classes were mostly abstinence classes and they taught us little to no safe sex practices, which would have been way more practice than what they actually did. These classes were so awkward and taught half-heartedly. I remember one of our abstinence classes they made us all take a paper heart and walk around to other classmates and ripping a piece off every time we talked to someone else. This was to teach us that every time we had sex with someone that a piece of our heart would stay with them so we needed to save our self for just one person that is right for us. Needless to say it was utterly ridiculous and we as hormone driven high school students learned absolutely nothing from it. Then the second part of our abstinence education they basically sat us down for an entire period and showed us STD ridden genitalia for 55 minutes and said that this would happen to us if we had sex. Once again this did nothing to detour our sexuality and we went on with our exploits, but they failed us in one big way. They never taught us how to properly protect our partners or ourselves if and when we did engage in sexual acts. There were several people in my class alone that ended up becoming pregnant and some became pregnant right after high school and had to drop out of college. The school system had failed us by leaning solely on abstinence instead of using comprehensive sex education in its health classes. I feel like the abstinence only courses were primarily taught to appease the religious parents in the community and it was just the easiest and safest route to keep anyone from getting offended, rather than teaching us students what we actually needed to know in order to protect ourselves in the real world. 

I looked at some studies that argued whether abstinence only or comprehensive sex education classes were more effective than the other. One of the main arguments for the abstinence only argument is that if we teach students safe sex practices then it will promote the students to have more sex thus leading to more teen pregnancies and the spread of STD’s. But this appears to be the contrary on many studies covering schools that taught safe sex practices. The conclusion of one of these studies showed that there was no direct correlation with increasing the risk of teenagers having sex. They also found that schools that aught comprehensive sex education had less teen pregnancies than schools that taught abstinence only. The reason being that if the students were going to have sex anyway then these abstinence only programs would do little to nothing to prevent this. So these kids will have sex with little to no knowledge on how to protect themselves and end up pregnant or with some sort of communicable disease. So they say it is better to have a hybrid program were they teach that abstinence is definitely a effective option to prevent pregnancy but also teach them that if they are going to have sex how to do it properly and safely. So in order to try and spur conversation, my question to you all is what types of programs did you all have in your schools and were they perceived as effective? Which do you think should be taught in our school systems and why?




Sources:

Abstinence-Only and Comprehensive Sex Education and the Initiation of Sexual Activity and Teen Pregnancy

Kohler, Pamela K. et al.

Journal of Adolescent Health , Volume 42 , Issue 4 , 344 - 351

Abstinence and abstinence-only education: A review of U.S. policies and programs

Santelli, John et al.

Journal of Adolescent Health , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , 72 - 81

Catcalling and the Woman's Experience

I like to wear short skirts. I also like to wear short shorts, as well as crop tops. I like wearing leggings and skinny jeans, and other form fitting clothing. I know many other women like to wear these items too. Wearing an outfit that I like and feel good about myself in is always a good thing, and I think that feeling is universal. The point is that I love wearing clothes that make me feel good about my body- as many women do. A woman feeling good about herself can sometimes come at a price, however, and that price is objectification and harassment. There is a distinct and clear difference between a compliment and harassment. A compliment is intended to make people feel good, safe, and secure in themselves. A compliment is supposed to be a confidence booster, and make the receiver feel even better than they did beforehand. Catcalling, which is harassment, is quite different. Be it a honk from a passing car, or a wolf whistle while walking down the sidewalk, or a “Nice legs” from an unseen mouth, these are catcalls and they all classify as unwanted attention. Whereas a compliment produces positive results, being catcalled results in feelings of embarrassment, insecurity, violation, and powerlessness to do anything about it.

            Not only is catcalling extremely obnoxious and moderately terrifying, it represents something much more disconcerting. Catcalling is not about a man wanting to compliment a woman’s appearance; it is about male privilege and a man’s willingness to exercise it in whatever way pleases him. In the past, I have felt personally responsible for the comments I have received from random men in public. I think to myself “If I had less skin showing, this would not have happened. This is my fault.” The fact that a man can make me feel violated and dirty without so much as touching me is unnerving.

             Some women choose to cover their bodies whether for religious purposes, self-consciousness (which catcalling only makes worse), or simply because they prefer it. A man who believes he has the right to comment on a woman’s physical appearance in such a way has a specific sense of entitlement and power about him. While a man does have free speech and is free to express his views, the harm done to a woman by catcalling outweighs the harm it causes a man to not engage in this behavior. Morally speaking, men should not engage in the behavior of harassing women. I have heard people say that being catcalled is just “part of being a woman”.   People with this point of view have obviously never experienced the fear and discomfort that comes from being disrespected by a random stranger in the street.

            What does catcalling say about our society? It says that male privilege is still alive and well. Men who catcall do it to express their power-they want to show they have power over women. Some men love the idea of making a woman feel afraid and powerless by commenting on their legs or breasts as they walk by.  Some men are inherently threatening and predatory, and they use this to their advantage. Some men also thrive on feeling superior to women and feeling like they are getting away with something they should not be by catcalling; as is usually evident from the look of fear on the woman’s face. Making women feel powerless to defend themselves against objectification solidifies the social stigma that they are meant to be controlled by men. The collective female experience in catcalling is that it is wholly unpleasant. It makes us feel less than human, it creates self-blaming among victims, and makes us fear for our safety when we are simply walking down the street.

           
             Throughout each time period we have studied thus far has contained some element of the male being the superior sex. In ancient Greece, women were believed to be “underdeveloped men” and thus lacking in qualities to make them equals. During the Middle Ages, some women went to exhaustive lengths to escape the perils of being a woman by disguising themselves as men. These perils included arranged marriage, rape, and forever being under the strict control of a father or husband. During the Victorian era, women had limited rights and were the property of their husbands, which gave the man rights to what the woman produced; sex, children, and domestic labor. The pattern of men needing to control women continues into the 21^st century, and catcalling is only one of many things that perpetuates it. 

Gay Men in Movies

Contemporary notions about homosexual men are rooted in everyday life including movies and TV series. The Imitation Game and Fourth Man Out offer to sides of a spectrum.  Some of our entertainments appears accepting of sexual behaviors outside the binary while others realistically portray the way society reacts and shapes ideas regarding sexuality. When watching popular TV series and movies you may find scenes with lesbians being intimate and sexual with one another. On the other-hand, scenes with gay men are much less likely to be found; and when gay men show affection toward one another it is often quite brief and leaves much to the imagination. It is important to look at entertainment because it often reflects the beliefs and values of the audience. It is wise for producers to pick scenes that the audience will not only be comfortable with but also enjoy. One can make insights about society and understand the wider implications.

The Imitation Game tells a mathematician’s story of a homosexual man decoding the German Enigma Machine. It does show flashbacks of Alan Turing as a boy and later in the movie he admits his homosexuality. However, the movie shies away from sex scenes between men. Although it appears moving on the surface that a gay man is depicted the movie which debuted in 2014 did not explicitly show Alan in a committed relationship or even engaging in same-sex relations. This movie shows that even in contemporary America being a homosexual man is not as acceptable as being a lesbian. The movie echoes beliefs much of society holds regarding gay men. Lesbian sex scenes are found scattered throughout popular culture entertainment such as Orange is the New Black, The L Word, and Shameless.

Fourth Man Out offers another window into contemporary audiences. It appears to be an accurate representation of the values society holds regarding homosexual men when the morning after an epic birthday celebration. At first his friends are shocked and do not want to hang out with him anymore,but as the movie progresses they realize he is the same guy. This movie offers a more realistic look at the perceptions of gay men. His friends first feel threatened and are sometimes uncomfortable but do their best to love him and overcome those fears because they have an experience to base it off of now    

Bollywood Sexuality

During spring break, I had the opportunity to see Taj Express: A Bollywood Musical. The show took you on a journey through Indian and Bollywood culture with song and dance as your tour guide. However, the majority of the show I found myself mesmerized by the expressed sexuality of the female dancers and performers on stage. Captivated by their flowing skirts in a rainbow of colors, swift and intentional hip movements, and their seductive glances at the audience and their male partners, I reflected on this display of femininity, seduction, and sexuality throughout the performance. Bollywood dance is the hybrid baby of traditional Hindu dance and Western, Hollywood culture. While there are some movements that have strong roots in Indian culture, hip-hop and other aspects of Western entertainment still provide a solid foundation in the Bollywood dance community. Although Hollywood is associated with the selling of sex, in Bollywood dance and performance, the sex and sensual aspect of movement stems from traditional Hindu dance. In Hindu dance, expression comes from the hips, torso, hands, and, most importantly, the eyes. The sensuality that comes from the movement of the hips and torso is obvious, as their seductive and sharp, varying speeds their hips move across the floor. Their hands complement their hips by framing their lower body or moving slowly with their hips. Their eyes, however, move ever so slightly and their sheepish smile tells the story of the sensuality and love that dictates all Bollywood works. The emotion and seduction originates in the eyes. This is the core of traditional Hindu dance. With the eyes, the body follows to tell a story of gods and goddesses who fall in love or have relations with each other to the story of a warrior who fights viciously and falls fiercely in love. However, with the majority of  this ancient Hindu dance being performed in massive palaces of powerful monarchs, much of the dances have some degree of sexual mystery or intrigue. The history of Eastern acceptance of display of sexuality, such as Hindu traditional dance and the Karma Sutra, translated to imperialism as the white man found himself entranced by the mystery (sexual) of the orient. The East was new and different from the West, with added seduction from traditional practices that drew Europeans to India. The exotic and unfamiliar land was a synonym for exotic and unfamiliar sexual experiences. Today, Bollywood has taken the exotic and sensual tradition embedded deep into the Hindu and Indian culture and integrated it with Western popular culture. By taking the unfamiliar, sensual eyes of the female Hindu and Bollywood dancer and the familiarity of Hollywood, Bollywood has managed to create a form of entertainment that is different and familiar, old and new, and still a host for European sexual adventure and seduction.