Post 4

For pretty much all of time, women have struggled for rights in all aspects of their lives. Women’s bodies have been policed for far too long by policies, legislations, and multiple social and political barriers. This impacts the way women are viewed in society because they are seen as a lower class and less equal than men. Media impacts the way we view these issues and how they are legislated because they continue to enforce the idea that women should be seen as less than men.

Starting from a young age women are policed by their schools in what they wear. Many private and public schools have specific dress codes that are often very specific in what females can and can not wear. Dress codes for females mean that they are to be covered up as not to be a distraction for males. These dress codes are usually sexist and promotes rape culture because it blames females for the way men behave.  These codes send a message that girls bodies are just objects and that boys are almost programmed to harass them. Also some schools dress code natural hair by showing that it isn’t just about sexualization but just reinforcing white norms it not only subjects women but also minority women. Girls are constantly being taken out of class and held back because her education is not prioritized over males and instead her body is seen as a distraction. In Jean Kilbourne’s article, "The More You Subtract, The More You Add: Cutting Girls Down to Size," she states, “When a girl enters adolescence, She faces a serious of losses- loss of self confidence, loss of sense of efficiency and ambition, and the loss of her ‘voice’” (Kilborne 129). This is seen with the dress code, not only at a young age to many females struggle with who they are they are also objectified by what they wear at such a vulnerable time giving them a loss of sense in themselves. My high school had no AC or fans and at the end of my 11th grade year there was a huge heat wave that lasted from Thursday until the weekend (a couple students even fainted because of the heat). At the end of Thursday there was a huge announcement at the end of the day reminding everyone of the dress code and my principal made sure to specifically call out females saying, “I know it’s hot but that is not an excuse to break the dress code”. Meanwhile the boys in the school wore tank tops that showed off their whole torso and girls were not allowed to wear spaghetti straps. The dress code was very sexist, boys would take off their shirts in the hallways and girls got in trouble for wearing shorts shorter than where their hand touched their thigh. It just showed me that female education was not prioritized over their bodies.

From Cheiftainpress showing a girl fighting back against dress code. 

Media impacts the way we view women and in turn their issues. A lot of women’s issues are not presented in the media and instead story lines and advertising that surround women are not about serious topics. In Gloria Steinems essay, “Sex, Lies, and Advertising,” she writes, “But the truth is that women's products--like women's magazines--have never been the subjects of much serious reporting anyway,” (Steinem 10).  This effects the way women are treated because when they discuss issues around their lives they are not taken seriously because serious topics are written not to appeal to them. An example of this is in Gloria Steinem’s essay when she discusses that “credit cards, insurance, sound equipment, financial services,” were normally not in women’s magazines and generally didn’t appeal to women. This is a huge problem because these are things that everyone needs no matter their gender. It hurts the way women are viewed because products that appeal to them are almost always about their body and sexuality. As a young girl I was constantly reading magazines and every ad was either about perfume or shaving and it was odd because they were sometimes next to articles about women’s empowerment. These conflicting images were confusing because it showed that those in charge of the media don’t care about important women’s issues and just care about making money off of their bodies. In Jean Kilborne’s “Beauty and the Beast of Advertising” she says, “Advertising’s approach to sex is pornographic: It reduces people to objects and de-emphasizes human contact and individuality” (Killborne 124). It is clear that women are only seen as objects and in advertising it is all about sexuality and treating women as objects that have to be fixed.

There are many laws about policing women’s bodies from their access to birth control and general health to the way they dress and act. In Naomi Wolf’s “Culture” she writes, “Women are mere “beauties” in men’s culture so that culture can be kept male” (Wolf 59). This shows that women are in a patriarchal society and often have to adhere to rules made up by men for men. In this article the author talks about how birth control is not covered under insurance but Viagra is. Men’s lives and sexuality is somehow more important than women having safe sex and getting whatever health benefits they might need. There are other laws that restrict women’s access on abortions and health care and this is a form of policing women’s bodies by not giving them the same rights as men have. It is up to us to understand how policing women’s bodies and how the media affects the way we view things in order to get rid of these negative stigmas.

Work Cited Page:

Kilbourne, Jean. Beauty and the Beast of Advertising.

Kilbourne, Jean. "The More You Subtract, The More You Add: Cutting Girls Down to Size". Deadly Persuasion. New York, NY: Free Press, 1999. Print. 128-154

Steinem, Gloria. Sex, Lies, and Advertising. 1990.

Wolf, Naomi. “Culture.” The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women.