Baluyot 1

Cayla Baluyot
Mrs. Renard
English 1B
9 May 2014
Sexual Media: Here, There, and Everywhere
Even dating back from the publication of Ovids myth of Philomela from the book of
Metamorphoses, to Shakespeares Titus Andronicus, and to Andersons Speak, the
strong association between sexual violence and silence continues to become a fundamental
concept within Western culture. These narratives all present a recurring concept in which a
woman is ravished and left with no choice except to remain silent. Throughout these time
periods, women are constantly reduced to objects of helplessness and powerless. Social culture
plays a big role in this phenomenon. During a persons primary socialization, one learns what
type of behavior is socially acceptable from his or her immediate family, friends, and
environment. In Lavinias case, she is raised to believe that women are supposed to follow mens
order, which is evident when she is not given a choice to who she would like to marry - all
decisions are made for her. Lavinia is further objectified by Chiron and Demetrius when they
brutally raped her and mutilated her hands and tongue so that she will not have any means of
communication to reveal her perpetrators. The correlation between sexual violence and silence
continue to exist today. I speculate that the ubiquitousness of sexual media, specifically in the
areas of advertisements, music videos, and pornography, greatly influences ones socialization;
therefore, it is the reason why the concepts of sexual violence and silence continue to be so
central within modern Western cultures.

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Advertisements that portray sexual images indirectly cause the prevalence of sexual
violence and silence. For instance, Figure 1 displays Skyy Vodcas promotion of their new
product, Skyy Vodca Infusion. In this advertisement, two womens faces are cropped out of the
picture, which highlights and switches the viewers focus on their bodies. The company uses a
marketing strategy that uses womens bodies to accessorize their product. In doing so, women
become tools of pleasure that attract men. The effect of the cropping tool in advertisements
degrades womens humanity because they are not represented as a whole people; they become
dismembered pieces of objects that are intensely fetishized. Consequently, media advertisements
greatly affect and mold men and womens perception regarding how women should be treated,
thus compelling them to conform to the ideology that women are the same as objects. In the
article, Rosalind Gill explicates advertisements effect on socialization and how they indirectly
cause sexual violence as a result of the objectification present in ads:
Adverts dont directly cause violence but the violent images contribute to the state of
terror. Turning a human being into a thing, an object, is almost always the first step
towards justifying violence against that person. The violence, the abuse, is partly the
chilling but logical result of the objectification (96).
Processes of objectification in advertisements, such as Skyy Vodcas promotion, opens a gateway
to understanding male violence executed against women.
Although unconsciously, the impact of advertisement towards society is pervasive.
Repeatedly presenting women as sex objects implies the social acceptance of violence against
women. In fact, according to a survey conducted by Julie Stankiewicz and Francine Rosselli,
they report that Womens reasons for not reporting rape and sexual assault reflect their
perception that such crimes are trivialized in American culture (580). Advertisements indirectly

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cause sexual violence by implanting an idea to society that women are to be treated like objects
that are designed to fulfill sexual desires. Furthermore, because ads already provide a gauge of
what is expected of womens roles and standards, women, as well, accept these principles. In
turn, the cultural acceptance of rape causes some women to be silent when reporting instances of
sexual violence.
In addition, music videos also affect ones socialization by promoting stereotypical
gender roles that convey a hierarchal relationship between men and women that can be
attributed to why sexual violence and silence remain so central in modern Western culture. One
prime example of the male dominance and female subordination stereotypical roles is Ricky
Martins Livin La Vida Loca. Martin sings the lines She'll make you take your clothes off
and go dancing in the rain. However, the music video depicts Martin singing this line under the
rain, fully clothed, while the women surrounding him strips to their undergarments. On the
surface level, it seems as if Martin is opposing what he is singing by refusing to take his clothes
off; however, this scene shows mens refusal to be depicted and degraded as a sexual object.
However, for women, indignity is expected to part of their gender role. In Michelle Kistler and
Moon Lees article, the authors provide an evidence that demonstrates the correlation between
music videos and sexual aggression:
Thirty percent of the men in the misogynous rap condition chose to show the
sexuallyviolentvignettetoafemaleconfederate,ascomparedtoonly7%inthe neutral
condition,suggestingthatexposuretomisogynousrapfacilitatessexually aggressive

cognitionandbehavior(5).
Althoughtheaforementionedstatisticsonlycoversasinglegenre,therelationbetweensexually
themedmusicvideosandsexualaggressionisundeniable.

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Music videos also play a big role on making a conception that men and women are not
equal. GoingbacktoMartinsmusicvideo,thewomeninmusicvideosoftenlowertheirheads
orbendtheirkneesthatgivesthevieweranimpressionofsubmission.These nonverbal cues or
body languages depict the dominance of males over females. In addition, Kistler and Moon also
found that females exposed to a sexually stereotyped music video indicated greater acceptance
of interpersonal violence (i.e., violence within relationships) than those exposed to neutral music
video (5). The cultural acceptance of the hierarchical relationship between men and women that
is present in music videos conveys a message to women that sexual violence is tolerable and
socially acceptable, causing them to embrace their silence towards aggression.
The pornographic industry also contributes to ones socialization by building a
conceptionofwomenasobjectsthatareavailableformentoconsume,whichaggravatesthe
problem of sexual violence and silence. Catharine MacKinnon explains how pornography
definestheroleofwomenassexualobjects:
Pornographyparticipatesinitsaudience'seroticismthroughcreatinganaccessiblesexual
object, the possession and consumption of which is male sexuality, as socially
constructed;tobeconsumedandpossessedaswhich, is femalesexuality,associally
constructed(173).
Pornographicfilms causemoreandexacerbatesexualviolencebyportrayingandsubjecting
womeninposturesofsexualsubmission;theyaredehumanizedassexualobjectswhentheyare
tiedup,penetratedbyobjects,andtreatedasservants.Furthermore, the research of Tamuy Saguy
demonstrates the social harms of objectification. Her experiment shows that women talked
about themselves for less time than men, but only if they thought they were being visually

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inspected by a man, and particularly if they thought their bodies were being checked out
(Yong). Saguys studies shows the silencing effect due to the act of objectification. Instead of
being treated as unique individuals, women are degraded to objects of desires used as a tool for
pleasure. Consequently, women changes their behavior accordingly to what is expected of them mute objects without human traits. Constant portrayal of women as subservient objects leads to
sexual violence and silence.
However, despite the ability of sexual media, whether in advertisements, music videos, or
films, to influence ones socialization and shape their perceptions regarding sexual violence and
silence as a means of cultural acceptance, some people, on the other hand, believe that media can
actually lead people to resist the messages embedded in any forms of publication and thus
question the norms established in society. Although it is true that people tend to gravitate to
media to find and resonate within themselves of what they believe in, the idea of rape culture still
exists. The Womens Center of of Marshall University defines Rape culture as
an environment in which rape is prevalent and in which sexual violence against women is
normalized and excused in the media and popular culture. Rape culture is perpetuated
through the use of misogynistic language, the objectification of womens bodies, and the
glamorization of sexual violence, thereby creating a society that disregards womens
rights and safety.
The ubiquitousness of sexual media exacerbates the problem of rape culture by continuously
projecting women as objects. They have the power to create cultural and social norms and thus
influence ones behavior. Although norms can protect people from violence, they can also
encourage the use of violence. In the end, the problem of why the relatable concepts of sexual

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media and silence continue to exist today still lies on ones socialization - a process that is easily
vulnerable to medias influence.
The theme of sexual violence and silence is still central in modern Western culture
because of the continuous exposure of sexual media messages to people than can easily lead
them to think that sexual violence and silence are culturally accepted. Although it is impossible
today to completely eliminate sexual violence, especially when it is culturally ingrained to some
people, society can still prevent and lessen the occurrences by promoting attitudes of gender
equality especially in the media.

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Figure 1

Works Cited
Andsager, Julie. Contradictions in the Country: Rituals of Sexual Subordination and Strength in
Music Video. Sexual Rhetoric: Media Perspectives on Sexuality, Gender,
and Identity.

Ed. Carstarphen, Meta. Zavoina, Susan. Connecticut: Greenwood Press,

1999. 225-237.

Print.

Cope-Farrar, Kirstie. Kunkel, Dale. Sexual Messages in Teens Favorite Prime-Time Television
Programs. Sexual Teens, Sexual Media. Ed. Brown, Jane. Steele, Jeanne. WalshChilders, Kim. New Jerser: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., 2002. 59-78. Print.

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Gill, Rosalind. Supersexualize Me!:Advertising and the Midriffs. Mainstreaming Sex.
Ed.

Feona Attwood. New York: I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd, 2009. 93-109. Print.

Kistler, Michelle. Lee, Moon. Does Exposure to Sexual Hip-Hop Music Videos Influence the
Sexual Attitudes of College Students?. Mass Communication and Society. 13: 67-86.
Print.
MacKinnon, Catharine. Feminism Unmodified. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987.
Print.
Yong, Ed. How Objectification Silences Women - The Male Glance as a Psychological Muzzle.
Scienceblogs. 12 January 2010. Web. 9 May 2014.