I remember my grandparents close friends being all the fashion label manufacturers and retail outlets, people dressing me at a young age, telling me how slim and tall I am, I remember the discomfort I felt when everyone in my junior class was shorter than I was. My grandmother and all of these people telling me I should go into modelling or air hosting. She worked in the retail industry. I remember at the age of 9, holding my baby Louis Vuitton over my wrist and knowing it came from Istanbul, walking my jewel stiletto’s and knowing that it came from Euroart, having diminutive cleavage my underwear coming from Lasenza and a crop off shoulder cleavage mess and lace top and beached skinny jeans from LTD and YDE. Straightening my frizzy hair, this entailed 45 minutes of pulling with a roundbrush and hairdrier or using chemicals. My biggest desire was to be a lingerie model, even though I loved writing, sketching and painting. I feel embarrassed as my hair has a label, if I don’t have perfectly sculpted Wembley clinic eyebrows, I feel a caveman, my premiere gym contract and my fruity shower gel and shampoo. I’m proud to say that at a young age I became a product of social engineering, buying into a particular construction of femininity, more importantly a particular form of desirability and attractiveness being sex appeal. This was constructed by models, really thin women with boobs that formed a v shape and never sagged, their arms and legs muscular, their bodies waxy and hairless expect for their head filled luscious locks that flowed. This consumerism I saw and bought into became a part of my socialisation.
My early reads of sexual narratives were in my art class, I later on went on to reading Cosmopolitan. I remember getting an issue each month, along with my new pair of jewelled stiletto’s, thigh length boots, and lacy lingerie. My grandmother’s cheque book never bounced and her credit card was never declined. Later I used this way of thinking, lifestyle and marketing to incorporate it into my writing attempting to create a body of literate that is sexy, desirable, and descriptive. I have experience in retail and print journalism. When I worked in retail I remember dressing people, people wanting what I had on my body as if I was a mannequin and this reminded me of my grandmother and my early experiences of just being a consumer. Something miraculous happens to you in the fashion industry be it retail if in store, manufacturing, designing or consumer you learn the art of perfection. You find things that help to change people’s lives and your own. Products can eliminate your insecurities and exhibit your bodily and material assets.
These magazines, like Cosmopolitan emphasis that sexuality and consumerism are drivers of mass culture industry, femininity and consumerism is strongly linked and this is associated with the empowerment of women. Although a monolithic paradigm of what it means to be a women and what female sexuality is, and portrayed as. I used this to market what type of women was looking for, to conduct my interviews. They needed to be thin, having flowing locks, have cleavage and long legs. Their dress code being shorts or miniskirts with low cut tops. Moreover, the advertisement emphasises confidence and sassiness which is what I think Cosmopolitan embodies. Each woman will be given 10 interviews to distribute; questions will be indirect and specific. However, interviewees will be eased into interviews and thanked by incentives such as sweets or samples of edible body products. Secondly the four interviewers will be paid; they will also be interviewed to ask them about their experience working for my eDiaries; Pink Butter Diaries which is a subheading under my pseudonym Pinkbutterflow. The work that Pinkbutterflow has done includes staging and participating in trade union protests, campaigns for land ownership and distribution. However our current page is still a working progress. The label came about one day when I wore pink lingerie, ate peanut butter on toast, watching Mtv Base. The label embodies my lifestyle which revolves around the colour pink, sports mainly rugby, protests, fashion and sex appeal. Our main interest is helping you as the consumer or spectator to eliminate any of your insecurities through sharing and consumerism. As they say retail therapy is the best therapy. Below is a picture of Gabriella David at Cape Town Fashion Week, the same picture was used for my advertisement, seeking female interviewers. I have an expectation for them to look like or resemble her.
The research regards the representations of women sexuality in the media in bodies of sexual narratives? What sex appeal means to them. How women are represented in the media? How women are represented in Cosmopolitan, Men’s Health and Cleo? How they are represented in sexual narratives such as sex tips in the sex section of these magazines? In this proposal I shall be bringing together different arguments from the following authors: Laguitan, Wood, Patrizia Gentile and Kite on popular culture, media and female sexuality, how female sexuality is represented in the media and how women are sexual objects embedded in gender stereotypes. Furthermore how most media imagery regarding female sexuality is captured and depicted within a patriarchal paradigm where the focal point is appearance and pleasuring men. Exhibitionism is found to be the most prevailing within all sexualized or desirable imagery or literature.
Five magazine articles about sex and sexual activities will be used to explore how women’s sexualities are represented within the media. I have collected these articles about sex and sexual activities. The magazines I have selected are Cosmopolitan, Cleo and Men’s Health. The concept of representation will be linked to identity which is linked to taste and preferences. Furthermore representations of female sexuality and constructions of femininity found in these magazines will be expanded on. Focusing what it means to be gendered as women and how these are represented in a mediated paradigm but how this contrasts with lived experiences/realities/appearance of women. In this way how the public becomes the private. Shifting focus to how much autonomy and control women have over their sexualities. How do they exercise this power and what it means to them. Brings us back to how their female sexualities are portrayed and represented in the media. In order to do this one would first have to look at appearance because it is the focal point of any sexual activity. Discourses of appearance are vehemently linked to sexualized discourses/narratives. Exhibitionism and consumerism are key terms when referring to sexuality that is embedded in a niche market. Exhibitionism is when people are displayed; they are moulded into what is desirable and are seen as commodities like artwork. Men’s health’s Stoddard re-labels sexual objects, niche market of sex as exhibitionism. (Stoddard, 2006:143) The woman wearing sexy lingerie for her man and striping for him regardless who bought it still has motives of preserving and representing a patriarchal gaze where women are there to serve men. In this way women are depicted as sexual objects. Bell Hooks in representations of black women dancing is seen as a sensual but pejorative act it focuses on particular body parts of women such as their bums and breasts. Additionally, women are the performers, and are the ones who enjoy performing. In Cosmopolitan and Cleo they enjoy participating in striptease and lap dancing; it arouses “her” man and helps you as a woman to get in touch with your sexuality. In Cosmo women are going to “striptease lessons,” giving their “man lap dances.” (Van den Berg, 2009:102) the focus is pleasing men, being attractive to, desired by men, what arouses men. This is described in Cosmo’s Robb’s Penis GPS: Master his member giving a breakdown of instructions on how to give your man good penis foreplay these include blow jobs and hand jobs. (Robb, 2012:88) for a women’s magazine that constantly claims to prove that they want women to empower themselves by taking control of their sexualities and careers, their main focus is how to please men, therefore offering a male gaze into what is desirable, attractive or needed. However as Hook points out that dancing is originally associated with representations of black female sexuality which is often associated with Satanism, dirtiness and seduction. In these articles white women are participating in these acts. Striptease and lap dances are normally something a man pays for from a prostitute. Prostitutes are women who are paid to perform sexual activities. These female readers are willing to “put on a show” for their partners who are predominantly men in exchange for underwear and the need to be desired and found attractive. “One key to a great relationship is a healthy sex life. My boyfriend loves to buy me sexy lingerie, and when he’s lucky I give him a little show. Maybe it would be hot if I bought him a policeman’s uniform.” (Van den Berg, 2009: 102) Getting in touch with one’s sexuality was an important part of grand sexual experiences and narratives. These include statements about edible grooming products and masturbation, Angelina Jolie shares “I love to put on lotion. Sometimes I’ll watch TV and go into a lotion trance for an hour. I try to find brands that don’t taste bad in case anyone wants me.” Regarding masturbation, Kim Cattrall, “The earlier you learn to masturbate the better your sex life will be. It took me years of self-discovery to get there- even read books by sex therapists and stood naked in front of the mirror to try to learn how to get in touch with my body.” Secondly Woody Allen says that “don’t knock masturbation- it is sex with someone you love.” (Van den Berg, 2009: 102) Confidence and trust in conjunction with communication is seen as key to achieving this but is secondary to investing in sex toys and masturbation. Lastly the lack of representation of ethnic groups and sexual minorities, as the main focus in these magazines is heterosexual sex.
In Cleo, a female magazine, “6 sex tips by women who know;” (Baker, 2009:94) is fragments of sexual experiences/narratives to create a grand narrative of sex and sexuality of women. Traditionally women did not openly voice their views about sex as it was and still is a very private and intimate thing. Predominantly heterosexual sexual relations and representations are presented, using words like “my boyfriend”, “my man” or “my husband” additionally that sex is exclusive to relationships. (Baker, 2009:98) Furthermore the purpose of the article is to tackle any insecurity and commonalities regarding sex, it does so by sharing the sexual experiences of readers, Cleo’s response to the experience and what experts say. In this way they present a “realistic” but factually objective of sexual narratives. The focal point is the heteronormative ideal that sex is all about appearance, it labours the point that sex appeal is associated with being “sexy” but also that “looking sensational” and “dressing to impress” is important to have great passionate sex. (Baker, 2009:99) The imagery used with the article supports its argument, with pictures of sexy lingerie, textures of leather, satin, lace and silk serve as enticing and titillating. Touching these lingerie is associated with sexiness, sense of touch is important during sex particularly for women who mainly get orgasms by clitoral stimulation. As these fabrics are used for evening wear, they create a glamorous this is based on the idea that sex is mainly had at night and that sex should be in the done in the bedroom. Even though those ideas are only implied implicitly, the article contradicts itself by stating in one of the six steps that one needs to step out of one’s comfort zone, “3. Get out Of the Bedroom,” the sense of touch is very important because in this context sex is seen as a sensual and intimate thing. (Baker, 2009:97) Furthermore this explicitly implies that traditional ideas about sexual activities and its location have shifted from the private to the public. However, even though the sex has moved out of the bedroom it is still had in the house, “be adventurous, curious and keep mixing things up-don’t restrict sex to the bedroom.” (Baker, 2009:97) It fails to prove its main point in this section as the sexual narratives of these female readers is not progressive as it is still done in the household, “try on the kitchen bench, on couch, or on the dining-room table.” (Baker, 2009:97)
The imagery represents a particular type of femininity, this is that there is a certain way that women need to be and should behave. They are associated and must be seized by consumerism. Tons of lingerie is photographed. This conveys the message that in order to be sexy and have great sex means to wear sexy, expensive and high fashion underwear. This lingerie is mainly used to arouse, entice, seduce and entertain men. In this way women become the objects of men’s desire and sexual play things, “I took a few naughty pictures of myself in sexy lingerie.” (Baker, 2009:98) This again labour’s the point that appearance is central in magazines particularly women’s magazines and this is associated with looking great and being in a relationship. What is seen as healthy sex is focused on appearances and perfection such as exercising for the perfectly sculpted body, grooming particularly being hairless and moisturised. However even though the women sharing their experiences centre their narratives on bettering their relationships by bettering their sex lives focusing on their male partners and what gets him aroused, Cleo offers objective perspective on these narratives based on commonalities such as “grooming’s the first thing that slips once you’re comfortable.” (Baker, 2009:98)
Women need to be seductive, adventurous, mysterious, autonomous, creative and about appearance. In Cosmopolitan women are put on exhibition, the main image represented in this magazine accompanying articles are images of white women with long hair, perfectly sculpted bodies, perfectly painted faces half naked either barely covered by sheets, in lingerie or naked. Most of them are positioned in the “ride the pony” position which is wear the woman is positioned with her legs spread onto of the man, her breasts are bare and accessible for him to touch, suck or nibble. Regardless, they always oozed sex appeal, their facial expressions are pouting and alluring and their breast are exposed, their bodies are distorted but it appears painless. There is a lack of representations of ethnicity and sexual minorities. (Tara.K, 2009:1) The heterosexual couple is mainly represented and portrayed. The male gaze is used to depict these women as sexual objects and play things. They are seen as the object of every man’s desire. (Wood, 1994:36) The women in the Cosmopolitan article are celebrities but in Cleo ordinary women share their sexual experiences. The Hollywood actresses in character in films they have been in. the advice that celebrity women gave were mostly about having self-knowledge of one’s body, trusting one’s self and one’s partner and being in touch with one’s self and sexuality. Comparing this to what the ordinary everyday women stated that sexy lingerie, getting out of the bedroom and sex toys are needed. The main focus was the exhibition of women’s bodies be it in sexual positions, masturbating, lingerie their partner’s bought. Representations of sexuality and female bodies are described in western terms, this homogenises all women as a single group and stigmatises anyone who does not fit western criteria of whiteness. The female body is there to be moulded by constant work outs, desired and lusted by men and displayed with sexy lingerie. Women and men are represented in stereotypical roles, the focus is appearance and every aspect of a woman’s life can and should be used and adjusted to increase her sex appeal and better please the men in her life. (Kite, 2011:6) In Cosmopolitan, Men’s Health and Cleo claims to want to empower women however empowering for women, but as something men desire- a “turn-on” for someone else, rather than a source of personal power and self-esteem.
In Men’s Health, women are stated to enjoy being kinky and having sex as much as women do. Women enjoy performing in bed and being displayed/exhibited. The accompanying image is of a skinny white woman. Her body is perfectly sculpted tanned, long blonde locks in sexy matching lingerie and stiletto boots blindfolded untying herself from the ropes, the other image she is tied in chains. She is a sexual object, play thing there for male desire. (Gentile, 2007:1) This is a soft porn image of her lying on her stomach, polished and oiled. Her getting out of the chains and cuffs is symbolic of an emerging female sexuality that is assertive and dominates. (O’Shaughnessy and Stadler, 2010:138) This article is had two titles Do You Dare and Kinky with 4 sub titles, such as exhibitionism is women in sexy lingerie, women on display, sex toys, role playing, camera and action taking sexy pictures or videos with your partner, BDSM that is an abbreviation for bondage this entails tying up one’s partner. This article lends its statistics from Cosmopolitan, stating what women want in bed and if they want kinky sex. You might ask why would Men’s Health use Cosmopolitan this is because Cosmopolitan represents the alpha woman and Men’s Health represents the alpha man they strive for perfection, constantly wanting to better every aspect of their life and that is what the content of these magazines offer their readers. The alpha species are dominated, the leaders, succeeds, skilled at hunting and the most attractive. They have a preoccupation with appearance.
Julia T. Wood stated in Gendered Media: The Influence of Media on Views of Gender argues that the mediated representation of gendered power dynamics is that women are subjects to men’s desires. The irony of this representation is that the qualities of beauty, sexiness, passivity and powerlessness that they are encouraged to develop in order to meet cultural ideals of femininity contribute to their victimisation. (Wood, 1994:36) Women are their beauty regardless of their achievements or their abilities. They receive the most attention when it revolves around their physical appearance. This allows them to be sexual objects that are exhibited for the desires of men, this victimisation is being disgusted as standards or means for empowerment. In Cosmopolitan femininity is strongly linked to appearance and consumerism, sexuality is something that can be bought and is disgusted as empowering is something that has restricted female sexuality to only one type of orgasm, only one dimension of sexual experience and discriminates people of sexual minorities.
With articles of masturbation, dildo’s are displayed and marketed as a solution. The more realistic these dildos are in appearance or closer resemblance to a phallic the better. In Cosmopolitan’s Masturbation article written by Twiggs is about female readers speaking about “a lifelike vibrator with veins on the shaft of the penis, and it has balls and settings. In this way the vibrator can keep up with the woman’s pace. In this way she has control over her orgasms, the way she has orgasms and finding her gspot. They go on to give a male description of the dildo, talking about the “balls”, its size “12-inches.” (Twiggs, 2012: 72) Contrary to this the dildo is feminised, in this way feminising male sexuality; they become “pink dildos” that resemble a rabbit made of silicone. (Twiggs, 2012: 72) The appearance of silicone, rabbit shape and pink colour are symbols of femininity purely being about appearance and consumerism. Therefore this is an explicit way of describing how women have control over their own bodies by exploring their bodies. This is restricted to male genitals. This part of the article describe sex toys, titled Top of the toys a pun for the fashion dialect “top of the range” which again associates sexuality with fashion and consumerism. (Twiggs, 2012: 72) The readers who have knowledge about dildos share what types there are and what works best.
Additionally Laguitan states that magazines are created to generate consumers and through this gender stereotypes are reinforced. The women’s magazine industry distributes magazines that contain messages and signs about the nature of femininity. This form of popular culture tells us how to act and what our role in society should be. (Laguitan, 2009:1) Men’s magazines speak to the reader as a friend by offering hints, pointing out downfalls, and giving helpful advice. Compared to a women’s magazine the authors claim to be experts and provide their readers with factual information. Men are stereotypically believed to be masculine this means that being a man is centred on your physical strength and ability and not your emotions. Men can only be interested in consumerism and style if they were heterosexually promiscuous and violent enough. (Kite, 2011:7) Men’s health represents the muscularly fit, well groomed, wealthy and prominent man. Furthermore the main image used for the Do You Dare, is of a white, blonde naked women, loosely wrapped in ropes holding handcuffs and wipe. This image is associated with men and their association with violence and preying on or regulating women. Although the loosely wrapped ropes and her holding these weapons that are used as sex toys is symbolic of universalism and an emerging female sexuality, one that seeks adventure, is assertive and in touch with her body. The second image is a zoom in on her lower back, bum and thighs. She wears black lace panties with suspenders and fishnet stockings, her hands are handcuffed, even though she has the policeman gloves on. This could represent the victimisation and exploitation of women being bonded and in bondage while “she has sex.”(Stoddard, 2006:140) Without the use of her hands how does she get away if she no longer wants to have sex. How is this different to coercion crimes such as rape? This is accompanied by what one of the readers stated about their experiences of kinky sex that, “I like being powerless to stop him.” (Stoddard, 2006:141) The last image is a high angel shot that looks over the blond model lying on white fur rug in chains, black bikini, and pointy stiletto boots with buckles. She is viewed from a male point of view as Men’s Health is a men’s magazine, she is the prey or bait for men and male desire. She is the epitome of what it means to be sexy or have sex appeal. It’s total trust, and that’s sexy.” (Stoddard, 2006:141) Cosmopolitan limits its acknowledgement of any social group to white and heterosexual people. Anyone not pertaining to this description does not fit. According to Tara.K it also emphasise the importance of looking sexy, acting sexy and attracting sexy men. It is important to note that the magazine has set standards and fails to acknowledge anyone who does not meet these standards; one could refer to the content as symbolic of the Aryan race of Hitler’s Nazi Germany, Genocide, or Apartheid. Furthermore all the articles give the impression that all women are heterosexual, this is that they are attracted to and want to attract men, this is stereotypical. Additionally this illustrates that heteronormativity which is associated with heterosexuality is central to Cosmopolitan and not sexual minorities. There is an absence of representation of sexual minorities, this is LGBTI. All the articles I collected from Cosmopolitan only have images of white and thin women, they are positioned in positions that resemble heterosexual sex, giving a male gaze over the female body as something to be lusted upon, desired, and displayed. (Kite, 2011:7)
Becoming gendered is a result of socialisation, as gender is a social construct this is linked to sexuality. One can refer to these as constructions of femininity and masculinity, sexuality being what it means to be a woman and what it means to be a man. (Connell, 1987:1) Feminism is a set of movements or agencies that advocate liberty, freedom and gender equality. I will be taking the stance of liberal feminists who believe in the right to sexual preference. Furthermore that everyone is entitled to make their own evaluations regarding sexual content when it comes to what fits their needs, preferences, and what is appropriate to them. Intersectionality is the interlocking aspect that makes up one’s identity. (Collins, date unknown: 7) The reasons these discourses of gender and sexuality studies interests me is due to my background, heritage of fashion. And what it means to follow trends and where they are rooted. How sexuality has always been a fashion trend, used to sell products and concepts. As constructions of femininity and masculinity are associated with what is desirable. Fashion advertisements, articles and generally magazines use soft porn images to market what they are selling. (O’Shaughnessy and Stadler, 2010:139) I am obsessed with my weight; hence I exercise like a machine. Therefore bodies that are toned, muscular and skinny are attractive to me. In Cosmopolitan fitness and health are associated with sexiness, the thin girls with sex appeal wear lingerie, they are the models, and they advertise the clothes, shoes and lingerie. The products look better with them next to or on them. I believe in sex appeal and this is enhanced by cleavage, and showing your legs, the longer the better. For women sex appeal and perfect appearances are equated with great social and economic status. Beauty comes after money, what the magazines argue is that after money comes perfection and that in perfection there is power and desirability. Men’s Health has women with perfectly sculpted bodies, half naked in raunchy positions. My early experiences as a girl seeing these cover girls on Mtv and Ftv made me very conscious of my weight, constant reminder from my grandmother that fat girls don’t get married. She always warned me; “Nailah, please don’t get fat. No one wants to marry a fat and ugly girl.” That always stood out for me because I get abnormal amounts of male attention by too many men in my opinion. This was important to me as a Muslim women, artist, and writer and academic. This is because I come from a traditional family that revers religion. Mohanty argues that tradition is non-progressive; it neglects to see shifts with the progression of time and does not want to acknowledge differences. I acknowledge that this has always driven me to work hard on my body, because beauty equals pain. And I expected nothing less of any of the guys I was with as I saw them work out at gym, running on the pavement or beach. As stated by one of the Cleo readers that working out is to improve your appearance. Furthermore that if you are in shape it improves your sex life as you find each other sexier. This is something that has always been important to me that if you don’t find yourself sexy, then you cannot sell that impression to anyone else. It starts with the self and getting in touch with your own sexuality. Also that buying into products that are sexually appealing requires you to be skinny, sassy, sexy and open to sexuality as evolving, dynamic and something that needs to be experimented with. The exercise, as the lingerie is there to improve your appearance, if you look good, you feel good and that improves your performance in all aspects of life. However it was interesting that weight loss and being thin is more important to women that relationships. I agree that your body is something you need to look after but something you need to explore and that should not be restricted. She states, “Started working out to improve our appearance. Not only did we lose lots of weight, but we also found each other sexier as we went along. I also started a lingerie collection, which definitely helped!” This being used as a solution to her relationship problems, is another indication of women as sexual objects, which is directly linked to exhibitionism. I remember as soon as I started working in retail, my plan was to buy as much lingerie as possible because I wanted it in abundance because I worked hard to get the perfect body. My desire became a dying need that every man in Cape Town would want me, this need turned to every man in Africa and later every man on the globe. I am still longing for that. And every woman wanting me or considering wanting me. I am bisexual. There is a lack of bisexual representations in the media, but also academically. Furthermore in Islam sex is post marital act that is for procreation purposes only. Women are supposed to be humble and subservient. They are supposed to be covered head to toe. I’ve always had a sexy sense of dress, revealing, fitted, wrapped. My grandmother always in Salaah tops (Muslim female traditional dress), always wearing a scarf.
Methodology
Keeping in mind the information and the way I have interpreted it and what it has meant to me over the past few years, I have used the key points that I have seen in all the magazines regarding sex, sex appeal and the way women’s sexuality is represented. Exhibitionism of women, their bodies and sexualities and how this is linked to consumerism. I have decided to hire four female students to conduct my interviews. My first attempt to conduct this interview purely from other articles and in actively failed because it had no trends and lacked focus. Then I decided that in order to successed in sexualised research I would have to explore my own sexuality, dipping into my own preferences and indulging in as much of this sexualised content. Observing the imagery on Cosmopolitan, Cleo and Men’s Health and used it to create an advertisement. This imagery assisted me to select to decide on the image I wanted to use for my advertisement but also the person I wanted. I chose a model; her name is Gabriella David’s, she best known for being in Sports Illustrated 2007 and Fashion Week Cape Town 2010. My obsession with fitness and exercise has been rooted in and driven by this need to have perfectly sculpted body, and harvested by a fetish for bikini’s, lingerie, boots, grooming products that are edible scented, reading volumes of sexual literature. I could say this is Mtv, on which most of the women in these music videos were half naked, dressed in skimpy outfits but oozed sex appeal. They were sexy and apparently that was what sex appeal was, reading and glancing over every catalogue and spread of lingerie and swimwear models.
The literature and imagery will be conveyed through a semiotic analysis; this includes analysis of the three articles I have chosen regarding sex tips in the sex section in Cosmopolitan, Men’s Health and Cleo. A semiotic analysis is a systematic way of communicating messages conveyed and represented within media texts and images. It has denotative and connotative elements. Denotation is the description of imagery that is value free. (O’Shaughnessy and Stadler, 2010:133) Connotation is the implied narrative. It contains symbolism and has associative meanings that the viewer or audience perceives in an image and they work on two levels: individual and cultural. Symbols are culturally specific. For example, lingerie in Western Culture, particularly American popular culture as traditional African dress is lion clothes and traditional Muslim dress are Salaah tops. The articles are restricted to representation of westernised women and representation of a western sexuality. This is monolithic and others anyone who does not fit within this heteronormative discourse. Individual connotations will not be used in this research as they are not shared by other people. Cultural connotation is the way in which different objects carry associations and connotations that are shared collectively by many people in a culture. Furthermore being aware of these connotations makes us aware of the cultural connotations in images. (O’Shaughnessy and Stadler, 2010:139)
Secondly doing a linguistic analysis of the words used in the articles and interviews and how they are shaped by the socialisation institutions such as the media, looking for trends, commonalities and diverse meanings embedded in dialogues and bodies of researched texts to convey the way the sexuality of women are represented and portrayed. Lastly I will be designing interviews with very specific questions and images which are directed toward unveiling a grand sexual narrative constructed from fragments of sexual narratives and discourses from a variety of people. These interviews will be conducted by female interviewers which will be paid by Pink Butter Diaries which is funded by me. These posters will be placed on the varsity noticeboards. I seek students to conduct the research due to their academic background which will assist the interviewees they approach as I have the underlining assumption that they will easily understand the concepts, the target market and the terminology or catchy phrasing but furthermore that they will know how to market the concept, use their body language and etiquette to allure, intrigue and indulge audiences. The criteria for getting selected to be a “sexy” interviewer is purely based on appearance; this includes being daring as stated by Men’s Health, being sexy and confident as Cleo and Cosmo put it. Lastly knowing how to speak bedroom and sexy dialogue, this is saying what you want, when you want, bargain, persuade and plead but above all use your bodily assets to get ahead. Basically the impression I get from these media texts and images are that anyone can be beautiful that’s the foundation but you are not just born with sex appeal, it’s something you build getting to know your body what arouses you and that is not restricted to being only something that is sexual, health and fitness is sexy, independence is sexy this is prevalent in Cosmopolitan.
Timetable of research activities: setting up and conducting interviews
03/09 Restart research.
|
14/09 Search magazines, catalogues and internet for a cover girl for my research and campaign
|
25-30/09 Dealing with phone calls and appointments to discuss what I expect of these women regarding how they approach people and Dresscode. Design two sets of interviews, firstly for interviewees but also for the girls who conducted the interview.
|
15/10 Add visuals to my Report, these include graphies, charts, photographs and advertisements.
| ||||
04/09 Collect sexualised and sex tips magazine articles from Men’s Health.
|
15/09 Create an advertisement with my cover girl Gabriella Davids famous swimwear and lingerie model, to hire four sexually appealing women to conduct my interviews
|
01/10 Is the closing date for anyone who would like to be one of my interviewers
|
16/10 Read and add onto Report.
| ||||
05/09 Collect sexualised / sex tips magazine articles from Cosmopolitan.
|
17-20/09 Works on my advertisement. Analsize my own advertisements. And retype my proposal. The proposal is redirected and focuses on female sexuality and how it is represented within the media such as magazines.
|
01-03/10 Prepare for the interview marathon presented by my pseudonym pinkbutterflow’s Pink Butter Diaries. Presentation to be discussed and arranged with Jane Bennett.
|
17/10 Proofread and edit work on presentation.
| ||||
06/09 Collect sex tips articles from Cleo and search for academic sources regarding female sexuality, and its representation within the media.
|
24/09 Print out and stick on noticeboards the advertisement, seeking female students.
|
04/10 The girls gather together, distribute and conduct their interview on Jammie steps and in the cafeteria. I interview girls afterwards.
|
18/10 Proofread
| ||||
10/09 Gather all articles together
|
08-10/10 Read and sift through interviews and find a trend. Include information in my Report.
|
20/10 Hand in Research Report.
| |||||
11/09- 13/09 Read the articles and finds a prevailing trend and theme throughout the media articles. Search for articles on representations of black female sexuality. The composition of Cosmopolitan and Men’s Health and what these magazines embody.
|
12-14/10 Reread interviews and review thesis statement and research and finds loopholes and discrepancies and perfect or add on.
|
In conclusion female sexuality is representing through exhibitionism giving the reader a male gaze. Women are the performers, they are displayed and they are bought. The only way this can be successfully research is when put in practice with any visuals. The five magazine articles represent western culture, a sexuality that is white and heterosexual. If women are not white, they are aspiring to be white.
References:
Academic sources
Connell, R.W.1987. Introduction: Some Facts in the Case. Gender and Power. Polity Press, Cambridge.
Collins, P.H. date known. Intersecting Oppression.
Gentile, P. 2007. Popular Culture and Female Sexuality: Consuming the “Representation.” Media action Media. Carleton University, Pauline Jewett Institute of Women’s Studies.
Laguitan, J. 2009. Using Magazines and Zines to Explore Stereotypical Gender Roles. Mhtml:file://C:/Documents and Settings/sshadmin/My Documents/Using Magazine… accessed on 19/09/2012.
K, Tara. 2009. Cosmopolitan Magazine and Gender Stereotypes: How Cosmo influences Its Readers’ Self Image. http://voices.yahoo.com/cosmopolitan-magazine-gender-stereotypes-4065713.html accessed on 19/09/2012.
Kite, L. 2011. Cosmo Magazine: The Best-Seller That Sells Women Short. Beauty Redefined Blog. http://www.beautyredefined.net/cosmo-magazine/ accessed on 20/09/2012.
‘O Shaughnessy, M and Stadler, J. 2010. Media and Society, 4th edition. Oxford.
Wood, J.T. 1994. Gendered Media: The Influence of Media on Views of Gender. Article 9 pp. 31-36. The Department of Communication, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Magazine articles
Baker, J. 2009. 6 Sex tips by Women who Know. Cleo, March 2009.
Robb, A.2012. Penis GPS: Master his member. Sex, Cosmopolitan, June 2012.
Stoddard, G. 2006. Do You Dare? Girls Gone Wild, Men’s Health, March 2006.
Twiggs, L. 2012. Going Solo: How Real Girls Get Themselves Off. Sex, July 2012.
Van den Berg. 2009. Cosmo’s 82 Celebrity Sex Tips. Sex, September 2009.
No comments:
Post a Comment