The Issue of the Pornification of the Social World - Essay Example

MASS MEDIA By Name Course Instructor Institution City/State Date Mass Media Introduction In recent times, the term pornification has been criticised widely by social activists and in various books; for instance, Naomi Klein, a social activist criticises pornography citing that it negatively affects sexual self-confidence of women and reshapes men’s desire. Sexualisation normally targets young girls, particularly through fashion, and it appears that young boys have deeply developed sexist attitudes. In the last five decades, more liberal attitudes together with technology advancement have resulted in the high acceptance of and utilisation of pornography. For this reason, organisations in different industries have actively stylised as well as promoted pornography with the motive of benefiting commercially. Besides that, social media explosion has made pornography become an all-pervasive within the society. Such a continuous imagery can lead to the legitimisation of an approach that has made pornographic aspects become desirable and fashionable. As a result, this has a negative impact on the attitudes towards things like sexuality, intimacy, gender identity and more on the culture that people reside in. therefore, pornification can be defined as the sexualised depiction of people with regard to pornography, which has gained access to the mainstream culture. Pornification differs from the freedom of expression because it stems from the desire for romance as well as intimacy, which has resulted in sex fetishisation. Pornography definition has progressively changed from something that was considered indecent and explicit to something that is more acceptable. Nowadays, pornification is about sexuality commodification, whereby organisations are using sex so as to sell various products. This paper focuses on the pornification of the social world and why it has turned out to be a pernicious form of media content. The paper provides a sociological explanation of this issue and recommends some of social measures that could be adopted so as to deal with this problem. Discussion This is happening because a lot of young people are nowadays seeing thinspiration and pornification as a new way of life. Many women have accepted the stereotyped depiction of the bodies in a way that looks like pornographic. Today, social media is full of Thinspiration ‘selfies’ photos of young girls who look skinny and emaciated. Thinspiration according to Klein (2013, p.13) is a form of print, media, videos, pictures or online used unhealthy so as to promote the weight loss. Normally, the information is in the form of pictures of celebrities that are slim; people suffering from an eating disorder or skinny models and is normally shared amongst online members. The eating disorder is normally promoted through music lyrics, poems, videos and so forth, and has made many women believe that being skinny is not a disorder but makes one look sexually attractive. The media is these days full of images praising the thin bodies as well as vastly promoting the ‘thigh-gap’, which seemingly every woman should have and for those without, they must work hard to reduce their quadriceps and try to achieve the unachievable thighs that are sexually attractive. Nowadays, mass media in the form of television commercials, magazines, and billboards provide a platform where the pornographic depiction of women’s bodies is considered normal. In the society today, being seen as sexually attractive is considered a form of acknowledgment associated with sexual availability. Media products such as Playboy and FHM are not marketed to the people in the society as pornography but have lulled people to believe that the representation of pornographic images are harmless in a world that is becoming more and more hypersexualised. According to Rizos (2012, p.48), women can still achieve something, devoid of contravening their sexual desires when they are shown in the mass media in a pornified manner. But they should view this as pornography rather than self-expression or liberation. More than 400 films are made annually, but the porn industry is currently making between 10,000 and 11,000 films in the same period. Besides that, revenues from pornography from websites, magazines, movies, cable, and other mass media are close to $14 billion annually. The revenue generated from pornography is unfortunately more than revenues made from movies as well as basketball, professional football and baseball combined. This proves that pornography can no more be considered as a ‘sideshow’, but rather as ‘the main event’. In some countries like the U.S., porn stars are commonly featured as guests on talk shows both on radio as well as television. Globally, mainstream programmes viewership like the Paradise Hotel and Big Brother has been associated with discourses of pornography. The mainstream media has indirectly been saturated by pornography in what Christensen and Jansson (2011, p.211) refers as pornification. Besides that, online spaces and practices have been associated with the promotion of the pornification. The video technology has developed rapidly, and as a result has transformed the pornography industry. Pornographic videos accessed through virtual means have been associated with high levels of sexual violence as compared to magazines (Barron & Kimmel, 2010, p.162). From as sociological perspective, popular culture, which can be defined as the society’s lifestyle that integrates reality, experience, and language has been permeated with sexualised ideas as well as image. Although people in the society consider pornography as immoral, the popular culture realm has been penetrated heavily by the sexualised beliefs commonly found in pornography to an extent that sex is no longer considered a sacred activity since it is popular within the society. Mass media have integrated pornography with the commercial mainstream, whereby products such as perfume, soap, lotions and so forth are advertised by men or women who are completely or half naked. To understand how pornography has been normalised in the popular culture, one should first explore the youth culture transformation in the postmodern era. Postmodernity of popular culture emanates from the youth culture, which in turn, verifies the breakdown of private as well as public spheres and the crushing of the world into a money-making atmosphere that is homogenised. Pornography is nowadays everywhere; from the music videos’ suggestiveness to the popular magazines’ explicit discussions; from the sex acts refashioning into artworks to erotica mode of advertising. People in the society have been immersed by the media into the pornographic aesthetic. Pornography has become integral to popular culture and is part of people’s day-to-day lives. Sexual desire has been pornified and commodified; regrettably, this is driven by the mass media. Teenagers are being exposed to pornography through porn sites, music videos, online forums, film, commercial advertisements, magazines as well as educational sex videos. Myers (2014) posits that even though pornography is prevalent in the public spaces, the relative blindness of the society and acquiescence to the pornographic imagery is becoming worrying. This has promoted some organisations like the Hawkeye Initiative to look for ways on how commercials can be made without pornification. For instance, Hawkeye is trying to reimage female characters images from the comic books in an attempt to show a ridiculous way through which female may be portrayed for public consumption (Myers, 2014). Some of the social measures that could be adopted in order to reduce the pornification issue include advertising and promoting gender equality so as to reduce the incidence of women being portrayed as sexual objects. Through gender equality, women will feel more comfortable and will get a chance to make their own decisions without having to embrace the pornified attributes and thinspiration. Another measure that could be feasible is creating awareness, especially amounts children concerning the importance of gender equality and ensure they do not develop the pornified or sexualised attitudes. The government should also introduce regulation that prevents pornification so as to be able to reduce the number of commercials in the mainstream media with pornified content. Besides that, the society as a whole can utilise available platforms such as social media sites to protest against organisations that contravene the acceptable boundaries. Conclusion In conclusion, this paper has focused on the pornification of the social world and has explained why it has turned out to be a pernicious form of media content. As mentioned in the paper, people are living in a word where pornographers are increasingly utilising technology to change the society’s attitudes to sexualised content. In view of this, marketers are these days using porn images to become successful in commercialising their products through mass media; therefore, pornification of mass media is prevalent and has deeply penetrated into people’s private lives. When pornographic images are epitomized in a commercialized culture, they generate negative consequences like a rape culture, femininity crisis as well as prevalence of self-direction in the society. When the pornified imaged of women are used to commercialise various items, they are normally commended, both by the female and male population; therefore, youths are these days recreating their looks based on the sexual images they see through the media with the goal of gaining an instant gratification or to look like a model. The popular culture pornification has shifted how people see things such as sex; for this reason, women are seen as sexual objects that can be easily be commodified and pornified to satisfy the needs of the targeted audience. Social measures that can be used to reduce the pornification include; promoting gender equality, creating awareness, protesting against sexualised commercials, and regulations that ban ads with the pornified material. References Barron, M. & Kimmel, M., 2010. Sexual violence in three pornographic media: Toward a sociological explanation. Journal of Sex Research, vol. 37, no. 2, pp.161-68. Christensen, M. & Jansson, A., 2011. Cultural citizenship and the communicative space of mediated sexual expressivity. International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics, vol. 7, no. 2, pp.209–24. Klein, K.M., 2013. Why Don't I Look Like Her? The Impact of Social Media on Female Body Image. Thesis. Claremont, CA : CMC Senior Theses Claremont McKenna College. Myers, L., 2014. The Pornification of Popular Culture: The Normalization of Sex through Popular Music and Social Media. [Online] Available at: https://movabletypeuva.com/the-pornification-of-popular-culture/ [Accessed 8 May 2016]. Rizos, D., 2012. Lad magazines, raunch culture and the pornification of South African media. Agenda, vol. 26, no . 3, pp.38-49. Read More