Tough Guys Act

Blog 5

Jackson Katz believes masculinity should be designated as a public health hazard because there is a hard distinction between masculinity and violence. Katz’s documentary Tough Guise: Violence, Media, & the Crises in Masculinity talks about how men wear a mask to hide their vulnerability. Tough guise is a word Katz created as a metaphor for the “front that so many men put up that is based on extreme notion of masculinity that emphasizes on toughness, physical strength, and gaining respect and admiration from others through violence or implicit threat of it” (katz, 1999). The tough guise act can be hazardous to the public because there is a lot of pressure to act tough, and this means violent acts come out of the tough guy act. 85% of people who commit murder are men, 90% assault reports are committed by men, 95% of domestic violence are committed by men, 95% of dating violence are committed by men and teen boys, 95% of sexual child abuse are committed by men, and 99% of rapes are committed by men (Jhally, 1999).  These numbers could be high due to the stigma of a masculine male, and in order for men to seem masculine and dominant they must act out in violent way to gain “respect”. It is sad to say that little boys grow up knowing what it means to be a masculine man, and try to carry out these masculine traits in order to feel accepted by the public. Males keep the front of a tough guy act because they do not want to be seen as a “bitch”, “queer”, “pussy”, “fag”, and “mama’s boy” (Jhally, 1999). All the negative names men get for not being macho are girly ones, and no man wants to feel they are equivalent and weak as a female.

The media shows what it means to be a masculine man by showing buffed guys (WWE stars), boxing as a sport (giving praise to beating someone up), gang movies (such as, Good Fellas, American Gangster, The God Father, and so on), the role of a jock (mean, bully) and much more. “Since the late 1990’s, there has been growing attention paid in media and cultural studies to the power of cultural images of masculinity” (katz, p.261). The media has created what a masculine man should be and act, and the media, also, kept creating the same images and actions over and over in different forms which, then, instills the notion of what it means to be a man to everyone. If everyone had media literacy knowledge, then people will not take everything they see from the media as factual and, instead, question it.

I agree with Katz that the “tough guise” act should be taken serious as a possible health hazard. The media stigmatized males how to be tough and violent to receive respect, which could be the reason why reported abuse and rapes committed by males are extremely high. Seeing all the “masculine” male roles in the media, I believe, definitely could have affected males’ thoughts on how to act. Most of the time, when people see something on television and like the outcome, those people will then act out that same thing in their daily lives in hopes of the same outcome. The media could clam down the masculine, macho guy and make room for the calm, real respectable man, and then maybe the notion of masculine and violence can be distinguished as separate.

References

Jhally, S. (director). (1999). Tough guise: Violence, media, and crises in masculinity

[Documentary]

Katz, J. (2011). Advertizing and the construction of violent white masculinity: From BMWs to

Bud Light. In G. Dines & J. Humez (Ed.). Gender, race, and class in media: A critical reader (pp. 261-9). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Kid Photo Retrieved from http://www.sodahead.com/living/are-americas-boys-more-confined-

by-gender-stereotypes-than-girlsvideo/question-1796441/?link=ibaf&q=&imgurl=http://oldsuptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/april10/musclekid.jpg

WWE Photo Retrieved from

http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&sa=X&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=G45XH1kaT65bJM:&imgrefurl=http://www.pimpmyspace.org/comments/code/201532/&docid=0qSDinfGB6YgTM&imgurl=http://cdn.pimpmyspace.org/media/pms/c/8b/b1/1y/wwe.png&w=464&h=360&ei=cZDVToLFAeXLsQLLhaWHDw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=984&vpy=353&dur=406&hovh=198&hovw=255&tx=232&ty=149&sig=105670646833120343828&page=5&tbnh=123&tbnw=157&start=80&ndsp=19&ved=1t:429,r:12,s:80&biw=1280&bih=649

Pornography In the Everyday Life

Blog 4

Pornography is becoming more prevalent and normalized in the twenty-first century. However, the issue of child pornography or teen pornography is quite taboo. It is very hard to find any information on what the main idea behind teen porn is. No matter how one can type the subject into a search engine, as soon as the words teen and pornography are in the search engine the computer screen becomes filled with hundreds of different types of young teen pornography sites. Teen or child pornography is pornographic material featuring under-age participants. According to Wikipedia, child pornography is one of the fastest growing criminal activities on the Internet. Although child pornography is illegal, it is one of the most viewed genres of pornography. To get around the legal issues of this highly in demand genre of pornography, producers will do two things to avoid prosecution for making these videos. Producers make their videos across national borders, and, also, find actors that look very young and dress them in clothes that younger people wear. They do this because they really want to give off the idea that the actor is underage. By doing this, producers are not breaking any laws and are still getting the footage they need to make a video or photographs. 

The question is why is teen pornography in such high demand?  According to some research, the majority of teen pornography viewers are older individuals. Some individuals were asked why they liked to watch this type of genre in pornography, and they said “that being older than the actor portrayed as the teen in the video, it makes me feel empowered because I am older” (Interviewee, 2011). In an article, Sexy Thrills: Understanding the Erotic Thriller by Martin, K., someone said that watching teen pornography is like living a fantasy that they have, because being older they are no longer able to get someone interested in them that is good looking and younger. According to Jane Caputi:

When women demand and express their intellectual, sexual, and emotional freedom, society responds with both overtly woman-hating representations as well as the increased sexualization of children. In pornography, women are marked with clothing and hairstyles to suggest that they are children or teenagers. Everyday porn also shows women in poses and clothing that suggest they are little girls (2011, p. 314).

Women in the porn industries are actively playing the role of a young person in order to arouse their audience. I can not come to terms that these women are portraying a teen or child as a sexual object and understand the underline of it. I think teen and child pornography should be off limits and is disgusting. Not once have I ever wanted to be the “naughty school girl” for Halloween like most girls. Everyone is growing up with the notion of being the “naughty school girl” is hot, which is why it can be acceptable but, yet, these girls and women are not looking at the bigger picture of what they are doing and portraying. These women and girls just want to seem hot, arouse their audience, and, hopefully, make some money (in certain cases), so doing whatever it takes to be accepted by the male audience will be done. However, it would be nice to see the child and teen porn disappear for ethical reasoning.

References

Caputi, J. (2011). The pornography of everyday life. In G. Dines & J. Humez (Ed.). Gender, race, and

            class in media (pp. 311-320). Thousand Oaks, C.A.: Sage.

Love’s Baby Soft Photo Retrieved from

http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&tbm=isch&tbnid=cc4gF49uY8e8cM:&imgrefurl=http://byebyepie.typepad.com/bye_bye_pie/2010/11/pieces-of-wisdom-wednesday-whats-that-smell.html&docid=n0zF_5XE3xwRaM&imgurl=http://byebyepie.typepad.com/.a/6a00e54f9367fb88340133f5bb5081970b-800wi&w=392&h=550&ei=xK3VTpPKFtOI2gXCza2MAQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&dur=856&sig=105670646833120343828&page=3&tbnh=133&tbnw=94&start=47&ndsp=25&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:47&tx=110&ty=111&vpx=460&vpy=190&hovh=266&hovw=189&biw=1280&bih=649

Martin, N. K. (2007). Sexy Thrills: Undressing the Erotic Thriller. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois
            Press. Print.

School Girl Photo Retrieved from http://aewl.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/school-girl.jpg

Wikipedia.com (20110. Child pornography. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org
            /wiki/Child_pornography

Sex Sells!

Blog 3

      The media portraying women are quite negative because of the sexual exploitation of females; however, sex sells. Most of these images are unrealistic, but a lot of people do not know that. The marketers’ goal for selling an item is to sell a lifestyle. If you look at a lot of advertisements, the advertisements usually have nothing to do with the product, but, usually, points to a sexier lifestyle (getting the girl or multiple girls, or you will look and smell tempting) if this product is bought. Since sex sells, many advertisements have a pornographic style in which the advertisers are selling sex to their customers instead of a product. In the pornography world, recently, gang rape (as seen in a Dolce and Gabbana ad for shoes) or male domination over females is very popular right now, now this concept has crept into the advertising world. Advertisers are using

…a “habit of thinking”, an everyday pornographic discourse (including words and pictures) that sexualizes denigration and domination as it also genders it, with “the man” being on top, and the objectified, exposed, denigrated on the bottom being “the woman” (Caputi, p.311).

Women are being exploited and degraded in many advertisements. If one looks closely, many women pose with their mouths sort of open indicating a sexual gesture (waiting for something to be put into her mouth), if there is a fully or half naked model one would rarely see her face, and if there was a fully clothed model she would have to sell sex through her face (open mouths, winks) or body language (open legs). The fully naked models do not have to do much with their face because their already being sexual by showing off their body, which is why a lot of times the models faces are cut off or facing in another direction than the camera because they do not have to sell sex through their face. I did notice that perfume ads are more likely to have naked or sexualized advertisements than other brands. For example, there is a cologne ad that shows a man with multiple girls hanging on him, which is the norm for cologne ads to have a girl or more posing with the men because they want the male customer to believe he will pick up chicks easily if wearing this cologne.

To me, this puts a dark cloud on the 85% of the female population who look nothing like skinny, sexy models. Due to this stigma, the population will think something is wrong with them or that they need to look and act like what they are seeing in the media. I believe advertisers should be held responsible for anorexia, depression, and bulimia among young women and girls who look nothing like the models they see, but, yet, will try very hard to look like those models so they feel like they belong in this society and can get men. How is this society allowing dehumanizing pictures always popping up as though it is ok? A couple advertisements, I have seen, was a girl in a trunk with her legs hanging out. This is a symbol of rap and murder as though it is ok to throw a woman in the back of the trunk who is possibly dead by strangulation and/or rape. A lot of these advertisements are seen in the everyday life. This all trickles back to the head honcho who makes all the decisions (the white, rich man). This is a way to keep women down and being submissive in America, which then helps the men out because they can keep becoming rich and powerful by stepping on others.

Good link to check out: http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/tag/objectification/page/2/

References

Caputi, J. (2011). The pornography of everyday life. In G. Dines & J. Humez (Ed.). Gender,

race, and class in media (pp. 311-320). Thousand Oaks, C.A.: Sage.

Curve Cologne Ad- http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&sa=X&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&
           tbnid=5sk9oSfn8iIPrM:&imgrefurl=http://anadaday.wordpress.com/tag/cologne
           /&docid=mLgGjwMMnQ4BNM&imgurl=http://anadaday.files.wordpress.com/2010/01
           /curveprint.jpg&w=442&h=600&ei=0rLTTqPoF6H-2QWS6p2UAw&zoom=1&biw=1280&
           bih=649
Ecko Cologne Ad- http://anadaday.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/eckoprint1.jpg
Tom Ford Cologne Ad- http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&sa=X&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&
           tbnid=4kGuopmcosB2vM:&imgrefurl=http://littlebix92.wordpress.com/2010/11/29/what-are-some-
          ads-coming-to/&docid=RwUZuzCkdEgbUM&imgurl=http://littlebix92.files.wordpress.com/2010/11
          /tom-ford-cologne-ad.png&w=300&h=185&ei=0rLTTqPoF6H-2QWS6p2UAw&zoom=1&
           iact=hc&vpx=1007&vpy=191&dur=612&hovh=106&hovw=172&tx=123&ty=67&
           05670646833120343828&page=4&tbnh=106&tbnw=172&start=72&ndsp=22&
           ved=1t:429,r:21,s:72&biw=1280&bih=649