Media Profiting from the Seduction and Rape of Women Essay -- Feminism

   "Rape is the current advertising metaphor" (Wolf, 79)   Ã‚   When did sexual assault become a legitimate advertising tool or form of entertainment? At some point in time, it did because it's prevalent in society today through films, television, and magazines. One of every eight Hollywood movies depicts a rape. Magazines are full of ads that depict either explicit or implied sexual assault of women by men. I was more than a little surprised by magazine ads that depict rape. One for Chaleur d'animale perfume showed a naked women chained to a naked man. Why? What on earth does this have to do with perfume? How is rape supposed to sell any product? Why are advertisers using such images?   Images of women and "beauty" become more extreme. As advertising executives told The Boston Globe, "You have to push a little harder...to jolt, shock, break through. Now that the competition is fiercer, a whole lot rougher trade takes place [Rough trade is gay male slang for a sadisitic heterosexual partner.] Today, business wants even more desperately to seduce...It wants to demolish resistance.(Wolf, 79)   There are also some images which aren't overtly rape, but serve to degrade women sexually and objectify them, which tends to have horrifying consequences. "...In a raft of Rock and Hip Hop videos, women get turned into pieces of booty served up for the pleasure of pwerful men..." (Mtv) A recent cover of Esquire magazine showed a naked woman covered in caviar. Pictures in the feature article showed the woman's face covered in honey, her eyes closed, her mouth opened with her tongue provocatively exposed.   "Turning a human being into a thing, an object, is almost always the first step toward justifying violence against that person.... ...lifetimetv.com/shows/specials/changingface/illusions2.html Life Time Entertainment Services. 2000 Changing Face of Beauty: Models http://www.lifetimetv.com/shows/specials/changingface/models.html Life Time Entertainment Services. 2000 Changing Face of Beauty: Views. "Sela Ward" http://www.lifetimetv.com/shows/specials/changingface/views5b.html Life Time Entertainment Services. 2000 Changing Face of Beauty: Views. "Maricia Gillespie" http://www.lifetimetv.com/shows/specials/changingface/views.html Life Time Entertainment Services. 2000 Douglas, Susan J. Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media. New York: Random House Publishing, 1994, 278. Starr, Bernard. IT AIN'T JUST PAINT:AGING AND THE MEDIA  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://www.longevityworld.com/justpaint.html. 1997 Wolff, Naomi. The Beauty Myth. New York: Doubleday Publishing, 1991