Showing posts with label Gender Studies. Show all posts

Top Gender Discrimination in Women

Lie #1 - Women are less than human
The women in Playboy magazine are called "bunnies," making them cute little animals or "playmates," making them a toy. Penthouse magazine calls them "pets." Porn often refers to women as animals, playthings, or body parts. Some pornography shows only the body or the genitals and doesn't show the face at all. The idea that women are real human beings with thoughts and emotions is played down.
Lie #2 - Women are a "sport"
Some sports magazines have a "swimsuit" issue. This suggests that women are just some kind of sport. Porn views sex as a game and in a game, you have to "win," "conquer," or "score." Men who buy into this view like to talk about "scoring" with women. They start judging their manhood by how many "conquests" they can make. Each woman I "score" with is another trophy on my shelf, another "notch" in my belt to validate my masculinity.
Lie #3 - Women are property
We've all seen the pictures of the slick car with the sexy girl draped over it. The unspoken message, "Buy one, and you get them both." Hard-core porn carries this even further. It displays women like merchandise in a catalog, exposing them as openly as possible for the customer to look at. It's not surprising that many young men think that if they have spent some money taking a girl out, they have a right to have sex with her. Porn tells us that women can be bought.
Lie #4 - A woman's value depends on the attractiveness of her body
Less attractive women are ridiculed in porn. They are called dogs, whales, pigs or worse, simply because they don't fit into porn's criteria of the "perfect" woman. Porn doesn't care about a woman's mind or personality, only her body.
Lie #5 - Women like rape
"When she says no, she means yes" is a typical porn scenario. Women are shown being raped, fighting and kicking at first, and then starting to like it. Porn teaches men to enjoying hurting and abusing women for entertainment.
Lie #6 - Women should be degraded
Porn is often full of hate speech against women. Women are shown being tortured and humiliated in hundreds of sick ways and begging for more. Does this kind of treatment show any respect for women? Any love? Or is it hatred and contempt that porn is promoting toward women?
Lie #7 - Little kids should have sex
One of the biggest sellers in pornography is imitation "child" porn. The women are "made-up" to look like little girls by wearing pony tails, little girl shoes, holding a teddy bear. The message of the pictures and cartoons is that adults having sex with kids is normal. This sets the porn user up to see children in a sexual way.
Lie #8 - Illegal sex is fun
Porn often has illegal or dangerous elements thrown in to make sex more "interesting." It suggests that you can't enjoy sex if it isn't weird, illegal or dangerous.
Lie #9 - Prostitution is glamorous
Porn paints an exciting picture of prostitution. In reality, many of the women portrayed in pornographic material are runaway girls trapped in a life of slavery. Many having been sexually abused. Some of them are infected with incurable sexually transmitted diseases that are highly contagious and often die very young. Many take drugs just to cope.

TOXIC PORN, TOXIC SEX: A REAL LOOK AT PORNOGRAPHY

Porn & addiction...sex out of context

On a cool, dark night, there's nothing augmented than a blazing ember in the fireplace. It's safe, hot, relaxing and ardent. Now take on to that same blaze out of the fireplace and slip it in the center of the thriving room. Suddenly it becomes destructive. Sex is following that ember. As long as it's expressed in the protective loyalty of a marriage attachment, it's fabulous, affectionate and admiring. But porn takes sex outside that context.

What Fuels Porn Addiction

One of the most offended parts of mental air is a healthy idea of who we are sexually. If these ideas are mixed, a necessary share of who we are becomes twisted. The porn culture tells you that sex, esteem and intimacy are all the same shape. In porn, people have sex subsequent to quantity strangers -- people they just met. All that matters is my satisfaction. It doesn't matter whose body I'm using, as long as I purchase it. Porn gets you to think that sex is something you can have anytime, anywhere, back anyone, in the space of no outcome.

effects of pornography - porn addiction - pornography addictionThe problem in the space of porn's shallow viewpoint is that associations are not built on sex, but occurring for adherence, caring and mutual trust. In that context, as well as flare in the fireplace, sex is astounding. Being subsequently someone who loves and accepts you, someone who is effective to you for your sum lives together, someone you can manage to pay for yourself very to, that is what makes sex in fact colossal.

To Find Freedom from Porn Addiction: Recognize the Lies

You can't learn the concrete about sex from pornography. It doesn't contract in firm. Pornography is not made to educate, but to sell. It's a colossal issue that makes a lot of money and doesn't care how. They'll dispute out you anything they think will make you arrive liveliness and get bond of more. So, pornography will proclaim all lies attract and bond the audience. Porn thrives upon lies -- lies nearly sex, women, marriage and a lot of extra things. Let's see at some of those lies and see just how intensely they can mess happening your vibrancy and attitudes.

We have looked at the empirical evidence of the adroitly-known feminist dictum: "pornography is the theory--rape is the practice" (Morgan, 1980). While earlier research, notably that generated by the U.S. Commission approaching Obscenity and Pornography (1970) had found no evidence of a causal associate along as well as pornography and rape, a auxiliary generation of behavioral scientists have, for on top of a decade, made considerable effort to prove such a connection, especially as in the make remote as "sudden pornography" is concerned. The first share of the article examines and discusses the findings of this subsidiary research. A number of laboratory experiments have been conducted, much akin to the types of experiments developed by researchers of the effects of nonsexual media sick-treatment. As in the latter, a appreciative degree of increased "aggressiveness" has been found knocked out certain circumstances, but to extrapolate from such laboratory effects to the commission of rape in alter simulation is dubious. Studies of rapists' and nonrapists' immediate sexual reactions to presentations of pornography showed generally greater arousal to non-violent scenes, and no difference can be found in this regard together in the midst of convicted rapists, nonsexual criminals and noncriminal males. In the second share of the paper an attempt was made to psychiatry the severe precondition for a substantial causal connection in addition to the availability of pornography, including rasping pornography, and rape--namely, that obviously increased availability of such material was followed by an deposit in cases of reported rape. The proceed of rape and attempted rape during the become primeval 1964-1984 was studied in four countries: the U.S.A., Denmark, Sweden and West Germany. In all four countries there is certain and undisputed evidence that during this era the availability of various forms of pictorial pornography including violent/dominant varieties (in the form of portray magazines, and films/videos used at home or shown in arcades or cinemas) has developed from extreme scarcity to relative abundance. If (violent) pornography causes rape, this exceptional take to the lead in the availability of (violent) pornography should enormously anyhow be weak the rape statistics. Since, however, the rape figures could not handily be acclaimed to remain steady during the era in ask (later it is nimbly known that most new crimes increased considerably), the expansion of rape rates was compared by now that of non-sexual violent offences and nonviolent sexual offences (in correspondingly far afield-off as handy statistics acceptable). The results showed that in none of the countries did rape amassing highly developed than nonsexual violent crimes. This finding in itself would seem ample to discard the hypothesis that pornography causes rape.

Investigations into popular culture representations of masculinity suggest that hegemonic masculinity and its corresponding characteristics are emphasized (Craig, 1992, 1993; Evans & Davies, 2000; Gauntlett, 2002; Hanke, 1992; Messner, 2000; Vigorito & Curry, 1998). This is particularly true within sport, which has always been regarded as a male domain (Lenskyj, 1990; Messner, 1988) and highly symbolic of masculine culture (Dworkin & Wachs, 1998; Koivula, 2001; Thornton, 1993). In particular, sport emphasizes the characteristics of the dominant masculinity such as violence and aggression (Dworkin & Wachs, 1998; Thornton, 1993), toughness (Dworkin & Wachs, 1998; Messner, Hunt, & Dunbar, 2001; Sabo & Gordon, 1995), risk-taking (Coakley, 1994; Sabo & Gordon, 1995), and competition (Koivula, 2001; Thornton, 1993).

As a primary masculine culture in which the characteristics of hegemonic masculinity are highly valued and frequently displayed, sport culture may be considered an important socializing agent for learning masculinity and masculine behaviour. Messner (1992), for example, contends that sport is one of the most powerful socializing institutions for masculinity, while Messner et al. (2001) maintain that sports programming sends uniquely powerful messages that may aid in the socialization of males into the dominant masculine culture.

While there have been numerous investigations into masculinity in sport, few of these investigations have focused specifically on professional wrestling. This may be largely due to the discounting of professional wrestling as a legitimate “sport” (Atkinson, 2002) and its categorization as a form of entertainment. Nevertheless, Atkinson (2002) argues that professional wrestling is conceptually comparable to professional sports such as football, hockey, and soccer, and Schnirring (2000) contends that professional wrestlers are much like other competitive athletes. Thus, professional wrestling can be considered a pseudo-sport, and as such, investigations of masculinity in professional wrestling can be undertaken to determine whether professional wrestling exhibits the same kind of dominant “cult of masculinity” revealed in sport.

To date, only a handful of critical commentaries, conference papers, and graduate research projects have looked at masculinity or gender roles within professional wrestling, with only a footnote or two appearing in published academic papers dealing with sport and masculinity (see Messner et al., 2001). Nevertheless, what has been done suggests that masculinity is presented in professional wrestling primarily in its culturally ideal form. For example, Jhally and Katz (2002) contend that professional wrestling glamorizes the culturally ideal form of masculinity, emphasizing physical strength and aggression. Likewise, the Communication Studies 298 research team (2000) found evidence of a hegemonic masculinity in professional wrestling displays which emphasizes strength, toughness, aggression, violence, and dominance. In performing a textual analysis of Wrestlemania events, Cherry (2002) similarly found the dominant masculinity to be strong in professional wrestling with themes of violence, strength, toughness, emotional restraint, and athleticism predominant. Moreover, Atkinson (2002) argues that many of the masculine characteristics presented in professional wrestling are the same characteristics exalted in conventional male sports, including violence and aggression, physical prowess, competition, athleticism, courage, and physical toughness.

Interestingly, Stroud (2000) contends that professional wrestling may be even more extreme in constructing masculinity than so-called conventional sports. Including professional wrestling in their analysis of sport and masculinity, Messner et al. (2001) found that messages about masculinity were most clear in the dramatic spectacle of professional wrestling. Moreover, while Mazer (1998) argues that alternative masculinities are sometimes presented in professional wrestling, she maintains that it is typically the culturally dominant form of masculinity that is packaged and sold to professional wrestling audiences.

As professional wrestling may be considered an alternative form of sport with a heavy entertainment component, it might be expected that this form of “sports-entertainment” would provide more opportunity for alternative expressions of masculinity than mainstream sports. Thematic analyses concentrating on the construction of masculinity in televised professional wrestling were thus undertaken to determine whether alternatives to hegemonic masculinity were given space for expression within this popular pseudo-sport.

Types of Feminism:

There are three basic forms of feminism:

Liberal feminism
Social feminism
Radical feminism

Liberal feminism: It is imbedded in classic liberal thought and believes that individuals should be free to develop their own abilities and follow their own interests. This approach visualizes gender inequalities as rooted in the attitudes of our social and cultural institutions. Liberal feminists do not understand women's equality as requiring a reorganization of society, but they do seek to expand the rights and opportunities of women.

They focus mostly to protect equal opportunities for women through legislation. Passage of the Equal Rights Amendment in 1972 was major step forward for liberal feminist programme, which in part states that, “Equality of rights under the law shall not be abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” Reports indicated that in US, 35 states have ratified the amendment; 38 are needed for it to become part of the U.S. Constitution. The 15 states that have not ratified the Equal Rights Amendment include those in the Deep South, Midwest and Southwest and include Florida, Missouri and Nevada.

Socialist feminist theory: It advanced the philosophies of Karl Marx. Socialist feminism was a subdivision of feminism that became popular in the women's movement during the 1960s and 1970s. Socialist feminism recollects many of the same goals as the first feminist movements. Socialist feminists accepted the ideologies of radical feminists that gender roles need to be abolished. But they visualized gender and sexuality as social constructs both capable of transformation. While they recognize that biology does play a role in determining personality, anatomy does not confine or limit our capabilities as human beings on an emotional or a physical level.

Akin to Marxists, socialist feminists viewed capitalism as a major factor in women’s oppression, as well as in the oppression of other minority groups. Dissimilar to Marxist feminists, however, socialist feminists believe that capitalism is only one of many tangled factors that contribute to women’s oppression. Other factors include male dominance, racism, and imperialism.

It is established in reports that socialist feminists agree that liberal feminism does not appreciate the depth of the oppression of women and basically only addresses the situation of women of the upper and upper middle classes. They also agree that women have been oppressed in almost all known societies, but the nature of this repression has differed because of the different economic realities. Socialist feminists do not contemplate that the oppression of women is based solely on the economic system, and they recommend that patriarchy and capitalism are combined into one system. They consider that we must understand the continuing effects that colonization, imperialism, and racism have on the women of the world.

Socialist feminists inferred that it is incorrect to propose that any one form of oppression is the most important form of oppression. Instead, they identify that oppression based on sex/gender, class, race, and sexual orientation are all interwoven. To effectively challenge any one of these forms of oppression, it is required to well understand and challenge all of them.

Radical feminist theory: Radical feminism is concerned with equivalence for women. Radical feminism is a perspective within feminism that calls for a radical reorganisation of society in which male dominance is eliminated in all social and economic contexts. Radical feminists seek to abolish patriarchy by challenging existing social norms and institutions, rather than through a purely political process. This includes challenging the concept of traditional gender roles, opposing the sexual objectification of women, and raising public mindfulness about such issues as rape and violence against women.

Feminist political theory is a progressive field in political science that mainly focus on gender and feminist topics within the state, institutions and policies. It raises concern on the "modern political theory, dominated by universalistic liberalist thought, which claims indifference to gender or other identity differences and has therefore taken its time to open up to such concerns" (Veronique Mottier, 2010). Feminist political theory is a dissimilar subfield of feminist theory working towards three main goals:

To understand and critique the role of gender in how political theory is conventionally construed.
To re-frame and re-articulate conventional political theory in light of feminist issues (especially gender equality).
To support political science presuming and pursuing gender equality.

Feminist political theory incorporates a broad scope of approaches. It overlays with related areas including feminist jurisprudence/feminist legal theory; feminist political philosophy; female-centred empirical research in political science; and feminist research methods (feminist method) for use in political science the social sciences. Undeniably, researchers stated that, insofar as almost all versions of feminism involve "demonstrating the ways in which politics, understood as power relations, is present in our everyday lives," one could reasonably "describe feminist theory as a whole as a kind of political philosophy distinguishing factor of feminist political theory from feminism broadly is the specific scrutiny of the state and its role in the reproduction or redressing of gender inequality.

Feminist researchers have also examined the internally inconsistent and disciplinary apparatuses of welfare policies. Across various regions, feminists are challenging both the paring down of the state’s welfare responsibilities and the intensification of security functions in post-9/11 geopolitical coalitions.

It has been well documented in literature that within feminist theory, states occupy an aggravated space. Whereas states have often supported feminist objectives, states are also the locus of many of the problems that occupy feminists, such as militarism, moral regulation, and the cheapening of women’s labour. In spite of the feminist normative opposition to views from nowhere in particular that purport to be relevant everywhere, feminist state theory has played its key discussions with little specification of state contexts. Geographic coordinates and national histories remain largely undescribed in classics within the field of feminist state theory (Carole Pateman, 1988). It has been emphasized in literature that, dissimilar to more disciplined and conventional versions of state theory dominated by political science and legal studies, feminist state theories focused on other areas such as literary studies, anthropology, queer theory, development studies, history, and sociology.

In debate, Sunder Rajan and Sen argued strongly against philosophical purism, articulating modes of engagement that are cautious of the dangers of governance feminism while also being attentive to the redistributive potentialities of state power. Little’s article contradicts unitary notions of the state and indicated important subnational regional differences with respect to Canada.

Sunder Rajan’s article defines the political insufficiencies of the mourning figure as the locus of feminist opposition to the state and argues instead for a more robust agonistic approach to state politics that accounts for many female subjects and political outcomes. Park critiques use of “shame” as the framing device for understanding the history of comfort women, calling rather for an emphasis on injury and its attendant redressals. Kotef perceived that the targeting of women and children in Gaza in 2008–9 signalled a shift in the moral economies governing security. The gendered formulation of women’s role in war and peace making is being reconfigured as states such as Israel and Sri Lanka target civilians with impunity.

To summarize, Feminism is the planned movement which encourages egalitarianism for men and women in political, economic and social areas. In vast literature, it is documented that Feminist theory is an extension of the general movement to empower women around the globe. Feminism can be elaborated as a recognition and critique of male supremacy combined with effort to change it. It is well established that feminist combats for the equality of women and argue that women should share equally in society's opportunities and scare resources. Feminists consider that women are harassed due to their sex based on the prevailing belief of patriarchy. Removal of patriarchy will result in liberty for women.

Theories of the state: Feminist

Feminist theory is about equality for women and men. Though, all feminists struggle for gender impartiality, there are many ways to approach this theory, including liberal feminism, socialist feminism and radical feminism. Feminist theory is the expansion of feminism into theoretical, fictional, or philosophical discourse. The aim of feminist theory is to understand the nature of gender inequality. It scrutinizes women's social roles, experience, interests, chores, and feminist politics in various fields, such as anthropology and sociology, communication, psychoanalysis, home economics, literature, education, and philosophy.

Many scholars proclaimed that feminism is the faith that women should have equal rights to men. As a result, the feminist movement battles for equal rights and opportunities for women. There are several types of feminism and feminists themselves tend to disagree about the ways in which women are deprived and which action should be taken to get equal rights. For example, ‘social feminists’ believe that women are exploited by the capitalist system both at work and home.

Many intellectuals stated that feminist theory emphases on analysing gender inequality. Subjects explored in feminism include discrimination, objectification (especially sexual objectification), oppression, patriarchy, stereotyping, art history and contemporary art, and aesthetics.

Both females and males who categorize themselves as feminists disagree on many things. That being said, most feminists agree on following basic principles:

- Working to increase equality: Feminist thought links ideas to action insisting, we should push for change toward gender equality and not just talk about it.

- Expanding human choice: Feminists believe that both men and women should have the freedom to develop their human interests and talents, even if those interests and talents conflict with the status quo. For example, if a woman wants to be a mechanic, she should have the right and opportunity to do so.

- Eliminating gender stratification: Feminists oppose laws and cultural norms that limit income, educational and job opportunities for women.

- Ending sexual violence & promoting sexual freedom: Feminists feel that women should have control over their sexuality and reproduction.

"The boys in my halls used to sing a drinking song about rape, which obviously was just disgusting. I think there are a lot of jokes about women and a lot of so-called 'innocent' groping that goes on, which actually serves to make you feel very embarrassed, nervous and uncomfortable."

The NUS report contains much testimony of this type, but it certainly does not suggest that all men engage in laddish behaviour all the time. This sort of pack mentality, often involving heavy alcohol consumption, may only be attributable to a minority of students. However, these ‘lads’ seem to dominate the social side of university life, and many of the report’s respondents (some forty female students) also emphasised that the social sphere was where campus culture was formed more generally.

Many of the women said lad culture had damaged their personal lives:

Misogynist jokes and banter circulating in friendship groups make them feel uncomfortable
Pressures to engage in profuse sexual relationships make it difficult to establish and maintain commitments
Stories of sexual harassment and molestation are common, and accounts of sexual violence
Students feel they are unable to challenge the perpetrators and are unsure of where or whom to report to and get help

One female student reported: "I’ve been silenced in a classroom by someone who is one of the lads if you like, because I didn’t agree with something he said. He essentially did a repeat of what David Cameron did, the whole 'calm down dear' thing. Even the teacher who was female didn’t challenge it. She just looked at her papers, shuffled them, looked really awkward. I knew she had heard, everyone had heard."

Laura Bates, the author of Everyday Sexism, explores sexist behaviour at universities

Everyday Sexism abounds with tales of sexist behaviour directed from lecturers, ranging from physical groping, sexual advances and suggestive comments, to degrading remarks about the abilities of the female students. “On the first day at Cambridge University, ancient don asked whether I had had to ‘bend over’ to get in,” reported one. Several claimed that male academics simply ignored or else belittled them. One was told that “nice young women don’t ‘play with science'.”

iStock/VojislavM

Sexist, misogynist and homophobic attitudes sometimes spill over into sexual harassment, humiliation and occasionally violence. In the NUS research one student said: “I don’t know anyone, any of my female friends who haven’t had some kind of encounter that was harassment whether it be verbal or physical since they’ve been at university.”

In a debating competition at the University of Glasgow, one woman reported being booed and shouted at throughout the speeches until finally one young male competitor shouted, ‘Get that woman out of my chamber!’

The study finds frequent examples of a sexualised culture on campus involving the objectification of women, jokes about rape and aggressive 'banter'. This was similarly reflected in Everyday Sexism: “Just got called a slag by two guys sitting outside the University of York library," said one woman. Another reported an article in a University of Exeter charity ball booklet in 2011 that revealed how many calories men could burn while stripping a woman naked without her consent.

There are graphic accounts of the humiliating initiation rites carried out in the name of Freshers’ Week:

Boys scoring points for taking girls’ virginities, prizes for the ‘lad’ who collects the most bras from ‘sluts’
Parties with names such as the fancy dress ‘Slag ‘n’ Drag, or even ‘F*** a Fresher’
An event where girls lined up on stage and told to race to be the first to strip
A party where a girl was expected to down a bottle of beer that a man was cradling in his crotch

Top Gender Discrimination in Women

TOXIC PORN, TOXIC SEX: A REAL LOOK AT PORNOGRAPHY

Pornography and rape: theory and practice?

Promoting Hegemonic Masculinity

Types of Feminism

Types of Feminism: