Sex Violence and Crime - Essay Example

? Do popular magazines tell the truth about sex? Do popular magazines tell the truth about sex? Introduction The question as towhether or not popular magazines tell the truth about sex must first be measured against the actual truth about sex. However, what is that truth and what is simply popular myth? Sex is one of the more complicated concepts of human existence, performing a function of reproduction, but also creating a foundation for an extensive amount of the identity. Foucault discussed the concept that sexuality was extended by the intercourse of language between people. Furthermore, popular magazines form a part of the communication of language as seen through the Freud/Marxist theories which “reproduces sexuality as the male gaze toward a woman/object” (Keddie 1996). Carrette, in a critique of Foucault, however, believes that he has left the female perspective out of the discussion of sex, his history on the topic male centered without the feminine point of view. In examining the concept of what is true, discovering how truth is defined provides some substance to the topic. Truth is a concept that suggests that there is a sense of the absolute somewhere within the greater historical perspective. However, according to Foucault, it is all perspective and indefinable through a notion of reality versus illusion. What is presented to the readership of popular magazines is a perception of truth that can neither be confirmed nor denied as the possibility exists that it is someone’s truth (Taylor 2008). The plausible deniability of complete falsehood makes the representations have validity. Despite the desire to rail against the overwhelmingly illusionary editorial elements of the imagery and rhetoric within popular magazines, the reality of the world that is created has the prospect of reflecting the truth somewhere, thus they can be said to be true. The Discourse of Sex within Magazines Sex is a rudimentary element of life which has a biological function of procreation, but sexuality is an extended element of culture, complicated and confusing as it has become a focus that extends far beyond its founding purpose. Sex is mediated by culture, described, commented upon, and distorted in a never ending search for identification, classification, and perfection. According to Paris (2011), sexual behaviors are a learned process in which the ways in which sexual identity is displayed in order to find a mate is defined by the norms of a culture. In observing each other, the members of a society discover how to behave in order to become a part of the social groups that are divided by gender. Gender ideals are defined by mimicking the feminine or masculine of older generations, children looking to their role models in order to find their position in the sexual framework of their culture. In this age of communication, however, the focus has shifted from members of familial groups and their communities towards the images and discourse that is provided through the popular media, magazines providing a great deal of the images that affect the perception of female and male sexual roles. Little girls no longer focus their attention upward towards their mothers as much as downward into their hands a they peruse the magazine and forward to the screen of the television or their computer, these images impressing upon them an unattainable perfection through which they seek their own position within the framework of their gender. The hegemony of culture infected by the conceptualization of truth that is brought forth through a discourse of untruths that are presented as realistic reflections of a cultural script that is imposed rather than developed through social interaction (Norris 1996). In other words, rather than the dialogue happening through interactions with others within a community, interactions are now constructed between a person and the power of the magazine in dispersing ‘truths’ and designing dominant knowledge. The pressure on little boys is just as profound, their mandate to find a woman who reflects the ideals that they see on the airbrushed, manipulated images of magazines and the perfect forms of the actresses in film media. Furthermore, the message that is given is that to be married is to be tied down to a person who will not fulfill their needs, that to seek multiple partners and to stay free of commitment is a far more exciting and fulfilling lifestyle (Gauntlett 2008). Despite the desire for companionship and to be involved in a meaningful relationship, the message that is often heard is that to remain single provides for a freedom that exceeds the experience of being committed. Men’s magazines have centered around the prospect of the male identity within the modern world. According to Gauntlett (2008), the essential problem that is most often observed is that the male has failed to let go of the traditional role of central provider and emotional rock, in control and dominating within his environment. Men’s magazines are focused on teaching men how to navigate through their world in regard to forming relationships and modernizing their approach to their gender. However, visually this seems hard to comprehend. Take for example Figure 2, a beer advertisement that reveals the desires of the male in regard to the presentation of the female. The advertisement takes the mundane act of drinking from a water fountain and objectifies the female figure by positioning her in a pose designed for sexual presentation. A woman must navigate a myriad of information about the identity of her female gender in order to form a position within her world. No longer does the tribe give to her a position from which to support the community and an identity based upon ancestral traditions from which she con confidently enter the world with pride and a surety of her place within it. A woman has pressures from a multitude of sources, her mother suggesting one point of view, women’s magazines proclaiming her empowerment out from underneath male domination, all the while providing imagery that suggests her vulnerability and creating a framework of defining visual cues that are impossible to fulfill (Gauntlett 2008). Foucault, Truth and Sex In looking for the truth within popular media, more specifically in popular magazines, about the concept of sex, Foucault sheds some light on the meaning of the concept of truth. Understanding the pressures that are brought by the media on the sexual identity of the readership does not approach understanding the concept of truth as it is then applied to what is revealed within the glossy pages (Caputo 2002). Whether or not the imagery and information is true is irrelevant to the concept of defining the truth through what is presented. Truth is defined by belief rather than through reality. Reality is a perception, thus suggesting that one person’s reality is not the same as another’s, a fluid concept that shifts from one person to the next. Therefore, the truth of the communication is not relevant other than within the framework of the perception of the individual. The tragedy of the revelations made by Foucault in understanding the concept of truth is that, despite all efforts of philosophy to define the reality of truth, the perversity is that true reality means we must live with untruth. Caputo (2002) states that this is representative of Foucault’s concept of the night of truth, that “The night of truth is that there is no capitalized Truth, no ‘truth of truth’”. Therefore, in trying to decide whether or not magazines represent the truth about human sexuality is to chase after something that does not exist. The truth is as it is perceived, conceived through personal understandings and beliefs about the way in which the world functions. Even then, it is not the truth, only personal delusions and frameworks about reality. The answer to the question of whether or not popular magazines tell the truth about sex is not defined by the concept of truth, but on the concept of what they interject into the realities of the readership. Magazines do less to reflect reality than they can apply contextualized truth on top of reality. As a person experiences their sexual identity, the application of a theory or concept that has been read or visually observed can put a context onto that identity, framing their experiences through satisfaction and dissatisfaction, and forming a sense of envy or dismissal of the concept that has been observed (Fiske, Gilbert, Gardner, and Jongsma. 2010). The act of sex becomes contextualized by the framework that is applied by the communication of the magazine that provides a commentary that is either accepted or rejected. The ’truth’ becomes defined by perception and in how the communication is judged and used. If ‘truth’ is not a valid concept, belief must then take its place. While magazines cannot possibly be defined by the concept of truth, they can be judged for the type of belief that they ignite and perpetuate. One might believe that magazines reflect images of that which society considers attractive. This concept is merely a perception of the experience where the reverse is more likely valid that society becomes attracted to that which the media puts forth and defines as attractive. According to Howe (2008), the discussion of truth is centered upon the framing of sexuality through discourse. Foucault suggested that sex was conceptualized by a tool of the self, the discussion of the concept providing the definition as placed through the lens of culture. Howe (2008) quotes Rosalind Coward as suggesting that the manifestations of sex are “ritualistic enactment of cultural meanings about sex”, that the aspects of sexuality were defined by cultural markers that were finite within a cultural framework. Truth, then, is a function of the cultural framework, a decision that is made about what is true rather than a reality that has no denial. Sexual Discourse through the Media An example of how truth is created rather than revealed within the pages of a magazine can be seen in the selections that are made to define sexuality within society. As an example, of sexuality that is defined can be seen through the waif-like body of Twiggy as it became a sensation in the 1960’s. The attraction to the ultra-thin body may have been due to the vulnerability and weakness that it portrayed, providing a dominance in the unseen form of the male figure. Her thin form was almost childlike, a reflection of a world in which male domination was waning through the advances of the feminist movement, the photographic discourse creating a balance within society in which the female form must be thin and weak in order to create sexual appeal (Benstock and Ferriss. 1994). The discussion about sexuality includes an element of the innate sense of violence that is included within the framework of sex. According to Cameron (1994), the thriving culture that has developed in London around the history of Jack the Ripper shows the connection of sex to violence, the obsession with the concept of the serial killer diminishing the horror of the events. Cameron (1994) states that “The egregious discourse of the Ripperologists is erected (apt word) on the real deaths of real women whose real names we know; but the voices and lives of those women are utterly silenced by the discourse, reduced to those clinically degrading images of their final agony”. In romanticizing the serial killer, his crime is reduced and his sexual connectivity to the cultural context is raised. On the opposite side of the argument of objectification of the female form comes the subjectification of the female form, the woman empowered by the power of her body, her sexual presence a resource from which she can get what she wants. According to Dines and Humez (2011), the subjectification of the female has created a deeper set of drawbacks that have created an exclusionary paradigm in which anyone without a similar body does not have the benefit of the empowerment. In the case of subjectification, sexual pleasure has no relevance, but sexual attractiveness is the center of the discourse. In the process of the elevation of the female form as powerful, the converse side of that power is the fear that in losing one’s looks as age approaches, one is giving up value and status along with a the power that was attached. The type of advertising that promotes this, termed ‘midriff advertising’ suggests that revealing the sexuality of the power the female has in attracting the male is the highest form of power, eliminating the violent threat and promoting her elevated status. While the concept of subjectification may appear to be an advance, it is actually a detrimental blow to the female gender as they are now put into the position to meet the demands of objectification and to choose to want that status. Dines and Humez (2011)state that “Not only are women objectified, as they were before, but through subjectification they must now also understand their own objectification as pleasurable and self-chosen. In other words, the message is now that not only is the female merely an object, she must find pleasure in the fact that she is an object and that she has made the choice to be defined by her appearance. This ‘truth’ is engaged by culture rather than reflective of biological realities. Despite the enlightenment that supports the concept that women should be judged upon their intelligence and achievements, women routinely would rather be pretty than smart. The female truth is defined by her positioning within the sexual discourse of submission, violence, and innate abilities that she can neither easily cultivate or control. According to Dines and Humez (2011), 50% of girls would rather be run over by a bus than be fat and about 33% would rather be mean or stupid than have a less than perfect body. Physical attractiveness is coveted as a higher commodity than is intelligence, sight, hearing, or any other attribute of substance. This essential element of the female sexual identity is rampant within the pages of popular magazines, dominating the discourse with a cultural pressure that has evoked responses that are sometimes quite violent. Conclusion Foucault has revealed that truth is a false concept and that to understand life is to live with the concept of untruth. The media is a representation of the concept of living with untruth, the many perspectives assaulting the observer in such a way to render a focused truth absolutely impossible. Do popular magazines tell the truth about sex? The answer is that there is no truth to be told. Perception is an individual concept that defines beliefs based upon what is framed as being true. Men are given modernized concepts from which to approach their lives while advertising provides objectified women in order to re-establish male dominance. Women are given the message that they are empowered by their sexuality, their body a resource for getting what they want. However, the result of this message is that anyone not given the physical beauty required, or who ages out of their beauty, no longer has value. Truth becomes defined by perceptions of reality, the discourse on sex imposed by culturally applied frameworks that have shifted the discussion from between members of society to interactions with those members and the media. Instead of looking to each other, the conversation is with those who write about it. Culture is presented with a dialogue about sex through the media, magazines being one of the most powerful resources from which to find a way to frame societal believe systems. References Benstock, Shari, and Suzanne Ferriss. 1994. On fashion. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press. Cameron, Deborah. Autumn 1994. St-i-i-i-l going…The quest for Jack the Ripper. Social Text. No. 4, pp. 147-154. Caputo, John D. On not knowing who we are: Madness, hermeneutics, and the night of truth in Foucault. Found in J. W. Bernauer, & Carrette, J. R. 2002. Michel Foucault and theology: The politics of religious experience. Aldershot, Hants, England: Ashgate. Clinton, Megan, and Laura Faidley. 2010. Smart girls, smart choices. Eugene, Or: Harvest House Publishers. Dines, Gail, and Jean McMahon Humez. 2011. Gender, race, and class in media: a critical reader. Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE Publications. Fiske, Susan T., Daniel Todd Gilbert, Gardner Lindzey, and Arthur E. Jongsma. 2010. Handbook of social psychology. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley. Foucault, M., & Carrette, J. R. 1999. Religion and culture. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Gauntlett, David. 2008. Media, gender, and identity: An introduction. London: Taylor and Francis, Inc. Howe, Adrian. 2008. Sex, violence and crime: Foucault and the ‘man’ question. London: Routledge. Keddie, Nikki R. 1996. Debating gender, debating sexuality. New York [u.a.]: New York Univ. Press. Norris, C. 1996. Reclaiming truth: Contribution to a critique of cultural relativism. Durham: Duke University Press. Paris, J. W. 2011. The end of sexual identity: Why sex is too important to define who we are. 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