These two stories echo each other despite the fact that they took place more than a 100 years apart, one of which takes place a little before the Progressive Era and the other more recently:
"A beautiful woman of only twenty-six years who was truly an angel wife... was deserted by her husband... [A]fter a long struggle with poverty the derserted wife and mother was drive into the underworld. It was the only means to support of her children." – Josie Washburn, The Underworld Sewer (1871)
|
"I got married... [b]ut I couldn't depend on my husband. He was running around with other women while I was pregnant.... It didn't last. I was selling popcorn when my boss came over and said, 'I got another job for you in the strip tent.'" – Shortie, Carnival Strippers (1976)
|
Both these women found their ways to prostitution because of their failed financial support from a man through marriage and their lack of options of other forms of labor that paid their uneducated background. During the Progressive Era, there were many voices on prostitution. The sex worker's movement was a rebuttal to the image of the prostitute as a scapegoat to radical feminism.; prostitutes worked with academic scholars to challenge the portrayal of women and it established the sexualization of women as an issue. However, the stories of prostitution continue up until this day (as Shortie's story suggests); sex workers are still marginalized and devalued in the American culture, women are still, if not more, objectified because of the emergence of a completely different form of exploitation: the media.
According to the Dove Self Esteem Project:
|
Reported by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) from 2000 to 2009, there was a:
|
![Picture](/uploads/8/4/9/4/84943018/published/funny-old-advertisement-about-women-1.jpg?1487116485)
The representation of women in the media has always been exploitative. In the modern day, the means by which the media takes on try to mold girls and women into stereotypical "beauty" are endless from advertisements to TV shows. Advertising is everywhere: an average American consumer sees over 3,000 commerical messages a day. These commercials can set the gauge for what our society and culture considers "normal." Moreover, recently, there have been an increasing number of TV shows like The Swan, Extreme Makeover, and Revenge Body, which all assimilate to the stereotypical definition of "beauty" attained through plastic surgery, working out, and performing extreme make overs. The Swan is a show based on turning "ugly ducklings" into beautiful swans by winning a beauty pageant. It starts with 16 women and each week, two women compete to continue onto the pageant. 8 women who make it compete in swimsuit, revealing photo shoot, and lingerie events. What makes the show even worse is the fact that some of the women's kids sit in the audience, watching their moms be publicly sexually exploited. Also, the large demographic of audience consists of teenage girls who are self conscious and easily influenced.
The hypersexualization of women is widely perpetuated in media, which affects the mental, emotional, and physical wellness of girls and women.
The hypersexualization of women is widely perpetuated in media, which affects the mental, emotional, and physical wellness of girls and women.
It's the intensity and extent of being sexualized – not just one or two elements, but much more – that we are seeing increase in the portrayals of women" Erin Hatton, coauthor study at University of Buffalo
So, has there been anything that has been done to address this issue? What are the threats or hopes on the horizon?
|
Dove's advertising campaign, titled "Dove Real Beauty Sketches," attempts to move towards a universally beautiful depiction of women in media. The goal of the film was to show women that they are more beautiful than they think they are through comparing their self descriptions to those of strangers.
"You are more beautiful than you think." |
The 2011 documentary Miss Representation addresses the worsening trend of the sexualization of women. Despite it being a rather disheartening film, it ultimately carries an uplifting message–that we can all fight back, that there is a way to change the way girls and women think and degrade themselves and are misrepresented in the media through the means of education and advocacy.
|
|
The feminist online community is also helping:
- SPARK (Sexualization Protest, Action, Resistance, Knowledge)'s is run by girls (age 13-22), who post blogs, organize events, which includes the SPARK Summit. Their mission is to create innovative solutions against sexualization, objectification and images of violence against women.
- Women's Media Center's Name It. Change It. campaign calls out sexism in political journalism
- 4 Every Girl campaign calls on entertainment and media industry leaders to create an environment where young girls feel valued and are defined by health media images
- Women and Hollywood call out Hollywood sexism both on screen and behind the scenes
Comparative Analysis
![Picture](/uploads/8/4/9/4/84943018/published/55df4b0b1400002e002e438b.jpeg?1487117419)
It is an understatement to say that the sexualization of women has worsened. The relatively new form of technology, the media, has added a whole new layer and means to sexual exploit women since the Progressive Era.
With the surge of women progressivism and women's movements in the early 20th century, there was an introduction of print media and mass advertising. These two trends grew parallel to each other and despite the efforts of past generations to suppress such portrayals of women in pornography and prostitution, the representation of women in images have remained constant. These patterns manifest and repeat themselves because women succumb to financial pressures by selling their bodies into prostitution (like Washburn and Shortie did), consumers buy into these "norms" that advertisers play off, and we create the "ideal" woman as someone who is inferior, weak, and helpless. Whether one is conscious or not, buying into these patterns and succumbing to societal pressures only perpetuates the negative attitudes and depictions of females.
There is no doubt in saying that progress has been made, however, because we do have hopes on the horizon. Since the 1960s, the modern sex workers have engaged in global social movements to self advocate for civil rights, which added to the feminist movement. Although these sex workers are often devalued, scholars are starting to view these “whores” as intimate to the history of American culture as they stood up for themselves and resisted the oppression of sex.
Events from the progressive era has and will continue to inform the choices and methods of issues activists take on today. Through technology, feminist online communities, documentaries, and advertising campaigns present similar mottos to the sex workers who challenged the portrayal of women’s work. We have brought this issue to light and are educating and informing more people about the issue everyday.
With the surge of women progressivism and women's movements in the early 20th century, there was an introduction of print media and mass advertising. These two trends grew parallel to each other and despite the efforts of past generations to suppress such portrayals of women in pornography and prostitution, the representation of women in images have remained constant. These patterns manifest and repeat themselves because women succumb to financial pressures by selling their bodies into prostitution (like Washburn and Shortie did), consumers buy into these "norms" that advertisers play off, and we create the "ideal" woman as someone who is inferior, weak, and helpless. Whether one is conscious or not, buying into these patterns and succumbing to societal pressures only perpetuates the negative attitudes and depictions of females.
There is no doubt in saying that progress has been made, however, because we do have hopes on the horizon. Since the 1960s, the modern sex workers have engaged in global social movements to self advocate for civil rights, which added to the feminist movement. Although these sex workers are often devalued, scholars are starting to view these “whores” as intimate to the history of American culture as they stood up for themselves and resisted the oppression of sex.
Events from the progressive era has and will continue to inform the choices and methods of issues activists take on today. Through technology, feminist online communities, documentaries, and advertising campaigns present similar mottos to the sex workers who challenged the portrayal of women’s work. We have brought this issue to light and are educating and informing more people about the issue everyday.