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| Rubin painting Adam and Eve |
I
believe since the beginning of written history of the creation of man and
woman, and when “they became aware of being naked because, as a result of
eating the apple, each saw the other differently. Nakedness was created in the
mind of the beholder.” (Berger 48) This awareness
of our nakedness between men and women in these male produced and published
scriptures in a patriarchal society had caused man from the earliest
civilization to begin aware of the women’s body and started policing women’s
bodies as well as other women policing and other women’s bodies because of our
social and culture behaviors. In the patriarchal
society, women were treated as objects to men and women are often being
objectified by men as well as by other women. For the men, they also started policing their
objects, their women, to make sure they are kept to their approval to their visual
and sexual appeal, as well as for others to admire.
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| Female gazing Internet stock photo |
For the women, they also started to
police or monitor themselves to make sure that they are in trend with other
women of their stature or better for completion for attracting potential future
male suitors. As it was mentioned in Naomi
Wolf’s The Beauty Myth quoting Berger “men look at women. Women watch
themselves being looked at. This
determines not only the relations of men to women, but the relation of women to
themselves.” (Wolf 58) This actually
impact women from an early age even before puberty when their body starts to
develop, like the development of breasts, body hair and arrival of their first
period. It’s not only policing the women’s
body, but policing the women’s mindset also.
Even at an early age, as Bell Hook had mentioned in her book, “The Will
to Change” that her “parents believed in patriarchy; they had been taught patriarchal
thinking though religion…As their daughter, I was taught that it was my role to
serve, to be weak, to be free from the burden of thinking, to caretake and
nurture others.” (Hooks 18) And those are the values instilled into the minds
of young girls, young women and even after they take on the role of mothers,
women continue to be fed with those values and self-worth by the social and
cultural norms of the patriarchal society.
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| Hasidic Jewish family Internet stock photo |
And if you live in nations where culture
and religion has total control over women’s freedom, like certain places in
Asia, Middle East, chances are, women’s body and their presence are not only
constantly policed, but are discipline on the spot with the women violates
their cultural and religious laws. Like
the women currently living in Iran, India, or other parts of the world like
Borough Park, Brooklyn where strict religious laws still apply today.
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| Tehran police in new dress code crackdown |
Today’s mass and multi-media has an even
greater impact on women’s image, lifestyles, and culture than ever before with
the aid of the latest innovation of all those personal digital devices on the
market like the smartphones, tablets and other many other remote portable
devices with Internet access to the world wide web where all those wonderful
multimedia advertisement waiting for you at breakneck speed provided by local
Internet Service Providers. Today’s
marketing scheme has not change, sex sells then, and sex sells now, except the
images are no longer on paper magazines, or the old fashioned syndicated television. Today’s we can see images of sexy scantily
clothed women posing for ads from mechanical tools, cars to even ordinary household
appliances. “Advertising is an over $130
billion a year industry and affects all of us throughout our lives. We are exposed to over 1500 ads a day,
constituting perhaps the most powerful educational force in society…Adolescents
are particularly vulnerable, however, because they are new and inexperienced
consumers and are the prime targets of many advertisements.” (Kilbourne 121 – 122)
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| Miley Cyrus VMA on MTV |
Unlike the days when FCC were able to
have some sort of control and censorship over the contents over radio and
television, today’s new digital medium and the blurring of the transmission
medium and carriers, FCC little or no effects on today’s contents, and even if
they do, the penalty and fines are so minor, violators just pay the fines and
it will be business as usual.
Today, the media, or the powers that be
that owns their media empires in reality are doing very little to combat
negative views of women’s bodies and sexuality, because that is their bread and
butter, in many cunning ways, they are actually perpetuating women objectivity
by continually airing reality series like that of “Keeping up with the
Kardashians” and other trash series on the cable’s MTV channel like “16 and
Pregnant” and “Teen Mom.”
With today’s reality celebrities constantly
getting more air time with more negative publicity because these guilty
pleasure actually attracts more ratings to
attract more advertising targeting those mindless viewers who are also easy
target for the ads that would pay for those air time. What I would like to see is that ALL female,
women, feminist, LGBT, whether you are conservative or alternative, just come together and joint forces and fight
as one entity, because if you ladies
cannot play nice with each other, what
kind of message are you sending to the young girls you are supposed to be
fighting for?
With men, they really don’t care, old men
are just that, old men. Whether you are
a gay old man, a white old man, a black old man, or black gay old men, they are just old men. There is a lesson in there somewhere because of the 11 riches people in media only two are women, both are over 60 and both are family members of their family's business.
Berger,
John. Ways of Seeing. London:
Penguin, 1972. 37 – 64.
Wolf,
Naomi. The Beauty Myth: How Images of
Beauty Are Used Against Women.
New York: William Morrow and Company, 1991. 58 – 85.
Hooks,
Bell. The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity,
and Love. Chapter 2: Understanding Patriarchy. New York: Atria Books, 2004. 2 – 33.
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