This week instead of finding mediated examples of sexualized images, I was asked to review a peer's blog. My classmates have also been creating sexual imagery blogs over the past 9 weeks. We are nearing the end of the term and I will be presenting on topics that have appeared throughout the course. My partner, Liz and I have yet to choose a topic but first, I was asked to critique her blog.
You can find Liz's blog here. 
Photo courtesy Liz's Sex & Media Blog
After reviewing Liz's blog I found that we both have similar writing styles. I was really impressed with how her writing and style has improved from the first week she posted up to Week 8. Looking at her first post, Liz focused much of her critique on the week's artifacts and what they portray more than how they can be applied to the week's theme. Four out of the five artifacts were television images, later through the term she began to use a variety of mediums, including advertisements, music, etc. As I look through her weekly postings I recognize her Week 5 posting to be the best.
Her Week 5 post on Examples of socially "appropriate" sex in the media is creative and written extremely well. I found this blog to be her best written because she stayed on topic, relating all examples to the readings and theme of the week. She focused a lot of her posting on the article "Twenty-one Moves Guaranteed to Make his Thighs go up in Flames: Depictions of "Great Sex" in Popular Magazines" by Menard and Kleinplatz. Liz used Cosmo and print advertisement/images as a media example which was specifically appropriate for this reading. According to the authors, often within popular magazines sexual content can be found in 3 sources: 1. advertisements 2. photographic layouts and 3. editorial content. This content in women's magazines is far different from that seen in men's magazines. Within a men's magazine, the sexual content tends to be more hardcore. While, there are gender stereotyping images as well as narrow sexual scripts, there are also infinite number of images of women portrayed as sexual objects.
Her specific examples also display the 3 themes within sexual content of women's magazines. One theme displays "great sex" as being intimate, in a long term relationship, heterosexual and caring. According to the Cosmo cover it shows a second theme, sexual techniques can be taught. Third, "great sex" is chemical and beyond our own control. Meaning that there are ways women can be taught to perform to satisfy their man's needs.
Surprisingly enough, men's and women's magazines have more similarities than differences. Each gendered magazines display in magazines advice on how to have "great sex" in 5 different categories.
1. technical/mechanical/physical factors: using new techniques, improving health, (diet and exercise) how to kiss, appropriate duration of sex. This is very common in women's self-help and beauty magazines.
2. variety: get ideas from porn. Sexual experimentation, using props, sex in different places, “kinky” play, “rough” female initiated sex. These also show women how to have confidence, particularly in how to talk dirty and what to wear in bed.
3. relationship factors: have a strong emotional and physical connection, communication but verbal and nonverbal very important for “great sex”, touch more often and look into each other’s eyes. I would suggest that this theme would be talked about more in a woman's magazine but I would argue that men may be more oblivious to this theme.
4. personal factors: improve masturbation. Again, self-help magazines popularly display this theme.
5. pre-sex preparation: self prep and environment prep (candles).
Works Cited:
Menard, D. & Kleinplatz, P. (2007). Twenty-one moves guaranteed to make his thighs go up in flames: Depictions of “great sex” in popular magazines. Sexuality & Culture, 12, 1-20.
As for Liz's blog she did an excellent job of using a variety of mediums. She used examples from TV, film, magazine and product placement/advertisement. Each example was different from each other and appropriate for the topic.
First, she began her post by discussing how sex is portrayed in the media as socially appropriate or acceptable. I agree with her perspective on sex most commonly being displayed as missionary between a man and woman and that are of a young age. Her examples she chose fit this description well. Her example of the man being seduced by the woman on the bed (Artifact 3) is very stereotypical. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen an image exactly like this. It is the woman performing for the man and the man graciously accepting the sexual act. Liz does a great job of explaining how this is a common perspective in our society and within the media.
She further goes on to explain that the ideal beauty of Western society is also displayed in sexual context of the media. Her example of Cosmopolitan I agree fits for this extreme ideal. I often see "ways to have sex and loose weight", "positions that help you burn calories" all of these seem to attract the younger female audience. Liz was able to connect the idea of heterosexual and beautiful sex as a theme for this weeks topic. Her perspective on what we had learned from Menard and Kleinplatz that week was very eye opening. I enjoyed her writing style because she was able to connect all of the images rather than describing each image individually.
After her Week 5 posting I recognize Liz's writing and ability to connect course concepts to her sexual imagery blog, continuing to improve. I believe that Liz has done an exceptional job of meeting the assignment requirements and educating her audience with concepts learned in class. Great job Liz!!
No comments:
Post a Comment