This essay will address the manipulation of sexuality within the media and creative industries. It will look at both negative and positive consequences and effects this has on society in western culture. To enable the readers understanding of the claims made there should be an understanding that the sexual revolution is classified as a time between the 1960's to 1980's as the aftereffect of scientific investigation of sexual reaction by Masters and Johnson*. But the sexual revolution referred to in this essay is both historical and contemporary due to more recent changes in social attitudes to fetish, female sexuality, gender fluidity etc.
Since the historical sexual revolution and initial acceptance of female sexuality and pleasure the creative industry's views on women and the ways they are portrayed have changed drastically. Particularly within film and advertising the image of women has been negatively manipulated into a selling tactic and a way of repressing women. Women are now recognised equally as sexual beings but instead this has culturally been flipped into a negative “She is not an autonomous being but an object for a man’s erotic needs, his comforts and for procreation” (Frankl.G, pg.140) This repression of women is overt within the advertising industry therefore reinforcing the idea men are the dominants.
This advertisement for Burger King clearly shows the oppression and over-sexualisation used to objectify women. The woman in this image has been posed and modeled to look similar to that of a blow up sex doll along with the sexually suggestive tagline of ‘it’ll blow your mind away’. The advert has been created as a shock tactic, irrespective of gender it's likely to make you look twice in passing and successfully draw attention to the product. The negative connotations of this advert are the conscious societal opinion of women this creates, women become an object of advertising and an object of pleasure rather than an equal to men. A less conscious negativity of this is that passing women see the objectification and perception of femininity in advertising sexualised in this way and the bombardment of it all creates an ideology to conform to this nature. In simple terms men feel its socially and morally acceptable to think of women as submissive and women feel abnormal if they don't carry themselves as belongings and lesser figures to men: history repeating itself using physiognomy to create social order.
The manipulation of women's sexual freedom by the media is evidently damaging to the idea of equal society. But fighting against such obvious misogyny are many groups of feminists in all forms (artists, activists. etc) Activist groups such as the Guerrilla Girls protest women's rights in society and the creative industries.
This image above is an example of one of the Guerrilla Girls campaigns in an attempt for the Met. Museum to hold more exhibitions by women artists. The posters were plastered onto the building and surrounding areas, as a result the figures actually increased and more women artists were accepted but the figures are still far from balanced equal (as they are in the majority of art galleries). This example of feminist activism is a perfect example of how the sexual revolution is far from over, true gender equality is needed before anything can truly be complete.
The backlash against sexual inequality within art is extremely prominent within contemporary art also as manipulation of sexuality using creative media can be both positive and negative dependant on the maker. Particularly among feminist artists who are accepted and embraced within the public eye who turn this into something liberating. For example this piece ‘Au Naturel’. This piece is overtly sexually suggestive without being embarrassed or censored at all. The true defining meaning of the artwork is open to interpretation but the apparent concentration on the bucket is very suggestive towards it being a commentary on objectification of women. The artwork of Lucas and similar artists allows the audience to think differently about social views of sexuality and propose questions on gender politics.
Of course this emergence of activists and artists expressing their thirst for equality and change creates opposition (which in plain sight shows examples of shameless sexism).
“Hello Guerrilla Girls or Guerrilla cunts. I have read your anti-white chauvinistic,
sexist statements concerning men who far exceed your talents in painting.
Why should we purchase your pms paintings? From what i’ve seen in some
photos, your talents are truly lacking. Women love to downgrade men to compensate
for their insecurities and weakness…” (Girls.G, pg.92)
The misunderstanding of feminism is that the movement hates men and aims to achieve a society ran by women. This is an mis-informed opinion, the feminist movement strives for equality in important issues such as equal pay, maternity leave, sexual harassment etc. Just because the name is derived from the female pronoun it doesn't mean female dominance. Once again opinions like this one make it apparent the sexual revolution is not over as recognising that women have sexual needs and pleasure was the tip of the iceberg and has opened up many new issues in contemporary culture. But historically mass media feeds one opinion of sexual revolution in the aim of repressing uprising, change and ultimate freedom of sexual being, so the journey may be long yet.
Although many of Freud's theories of sexual deviancy and the physocological routes of our seuxal aims are now considered wrong they can still be used to explain why many people are closed minded when it comes to equality. “The man is convinced that the woman needs him, that without him she will lose all moral control and rapidly descend to a deplorable level” (Freud.S, pg.5) His theories are subjective to social construct, upbringing and educational systems both dependant on decade and location but they can be applied throughout. Freud's theories explain how a man's attachment to his mother (the oedipus complex) leads to his relationship to women as he develops. His core physiology is one reason he feels superior to the woman but it's the manipulation of this by the advertising, film industries and general society that evolves these basic feelings into the dominance of the male figure. Contemporary education systems are created to prevent revolution, change and uprising to ‘the norms’. The hierarchy of ‘genius’ and ‘people learning’ restricts future generations from expressing their own thoughts and the change in social construct from being easy. Theory by Jaques Rancier on the idea of ‘the flipped classroom’ pose possibilities of educational constructs that could benefit the general hierarchy and positively affect the gender equality issues posed in society. A large issue with current education regarding sexuality is the taboo area around homosexuality, gender roles, gender fluidity, transgender etc. But in a flipped classroom situation learning is fluid, the teacher is no longer considered more intelligent and enlightened, instead they pose as a route of discovery allowing the pupils to question things and the teacher helping to create a range of possible and questionable answers to be interpreted. In a flipped classroom environment instead of impressionable youth being told a defining opinion that should be followed the curiosities of sexual construct could be discussed openly in theory creating a more equal and well considered opinion of gender and sexuality equality in the future. An example of the flipped classroom in contemporary creative practice is The School of the Damned, by throwing out tuition fees and framework construction by authority figures this art school successfully follows the flipped classrooms theory. As a result of this ‘lack of direction’ many describe its unorthodox outcomes as radical. The fluid nature allows for freedom of speech, enlightenment of individual and personal thoughts and an equality of being un-reliant on race, age, gender, sexuality.
In contrast another development in sexual revolution that affects the creative industry is the acceptance and increase consciousness of fetish, non-monogamous relationships and ‘deviant behaviour’. A possible explanation for say interpersonal relationships can be explained briefly by Jaques Lacan’s mirror theory. A significant part of his theory discusses the difference between needs and desires. Needs are physical things like hunger that can ultimately be sustainably satisfied, desires such as love are unsatible. Insatiable desire leads to experimentation that strays from the social constructs that depict ‘vanilla’ sex. Freud's defines fetishism as the ‘replacement of the sexual object’ this is subjective to both the upbringing and early life experiences of the individual and current circumstance. For example a common occurrence of sadism in men “Most men’s sexuality reveals a certain quantity of aggression, of the inclination to overpower” (Freud. S, pg.38). In contrast men who work in positions of power (managers etc.) experience masochism as a relief and way to feel free of all responsibility. The facts of reasons these sexual ‘deviances’ occur are debatable but the real importance is the free place they're taking within contemporary society in the form of art, film, documentary; it's certainly a huge change from the pre revolutionised society that will continue to impact people. The continuous exposure to which will impact the acceptance of such things therefore impacting our own relationships and sexual desires.
These images ('Leather Top' Noemie Lenoir & Dylan Garner by Xevi Muntane for Ponystep FW 11.12) are among the increasing advertising campaigns adapting the recent acceptance of fetishism into an advertising tactic: in this case female domination/male masochism. This appearance of fetishism in advertising is a clear example of how far the boundaries of sexualisation within the media is being pushed in contemporary advertising. The normalisation of this arguably could be positive in revolutionising the way we think about sexual freedom and fetish. On the other hand arguments against fetishism discussing it as being a ‘perversion’ should also be considered; Freud states “a fetishistic condition is required of the sexual object if the sexual goal is to be accomplished”, this is a possible negative of the introduction of fetish to people's lives, in cases it makes people's sex drives reliant on their fetish.
Yet another element of sexuality impacted upon by the creative industries is gender fluidity and attraction. For instance being gay was frowned upon and even illegal in England until 1967 but the protest (much of it visual through gay awareness and pride posters) for rights and exposure of homosexualites normality has lead to more freedom.
The appearance of homosexuality equality within the contemporary creative industries is clear particularly with the visual campaigns by Stonewall. The bold iconic posters are distributed throughout the world, specifically in public places and educational buildings. The impact of this being that the phrase is now commonplace within people's knowledge, thought provoking campaign material such a this increases the equality of homosexuality within society. This campaign has more recently emerged new material with the slogan “Some people are trans. get over it!”. The ever growing acceptance of gay and transgender people has created some negative backlash from certain people, particularly within christian groups. For example the group ‘Christian Doctrine’ discusses their opposition against the campaign; replacing the slogan with “Most people are not gay. Get over it!”. “Over It’!! Sadly, they take the godless view that people should be able to do whatever they want.” (Doctrine.C, 2010), through statements like this they clearly express that not everyone is open-minded about the topics raised which makes the campaign all the more relevant. The distribution of gay and transgender equality material will undoubtedly always turn heads and spark debate in certain social circles, but the appearance of it within the creative industries continues to influence acceptance and understanding.
Until recently most representation of transgender people within creative industries and public domain was satirical; for example the traditional pantomime dame considered a figure of hilarity. Gender roles are something integrated within our society and adhered to throughout advertising and film continuously. From the moment were told the sex of our unborn babies the gender conformity begins; “You try to buy a gender-neutral gift only to find that almost everything manufactured is gender coded” (Girls.G, pg 11). Ever since the early 20th century children have been branded either one gender or another; leaving no room for fluidity or transition; the publicity of such followed through advertising creates a general conformity and further pressure to act and dress within the social limitations of your birth sex.
A highly debated recent example of the gender bias’ is within the recent limited edition re-branding of Kinder Surprise. The contents of the blue egg was toy cars, the pink was dolls. The divide between the companies appropriation of what our children should be playing with sparked debate on sexism within children's product; but the product also leaves no room or consideration for children who don't bind themselves by standard gender pro-nouns/colour roles.The exploration of gender further than male and female is something lesser explored within popular culture and the creative industries until recently. Recognition and acceptance through the coming out of celebrity figures such as Caitlin Jenner and the use of transgender characters & actors such as Jamie Clayton are beginning to bring further discussion into public domain. The creative industries attempts at broadening the minds and knowledge of the public include recent documentaries on topics such as transgender children (Transgender children - Louis Theroux) the appearance of such possibilities causes further concern towards the gender roles integrated into the design of products such as Kinder.
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