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Essay Available:
Pages:
9 pages/≈2475 words
Sources:
Check Instructions
Style:
Harvard
Subject:
Communications & Media
Type:
Research Paper
Language:
English (U.S.)
Document:
MS Word
Date:
Total cost:
$ 42.77
Topic:

Objectification of Men and Women in Media

Research Paper Instructions:

Write an essay responding to one of the following questions/topics:
1. Select a recent advertising campaign (it may be located across several media and it may be a commercial campaign or a government/community/health campaign)
to critically analyse in relation to the socio-cultural construction of gender and/or sexuality. Using the critical frameworks you have developed this semester,
deconstruct the campaign through a close semiotic analysis. Develop a position on how gender and/or sexuality are constructed in the campaign through visual and
textual signifiers.
2. Can we say that men are now ‘objectified’ in visual culture in the same way as women? Develop an argument as to why the social/political consequences of
‘objectifying’ images might be different, or that they should be understood as the same, for men and women. Your argument should address why and how the social
context of ‘postfeminism’ (Gill, 2007) affects our understandings of images. You can choose from a wide range of media texts as case studies to substantiate your
argument.
3. Do social media platforms help or hinder efforts to make society a more just and equal place when it comes to gender and sexuality? With a focus on nondominant people, develop a position on this question, comparing and contrasting two or more examples as case studies. You could consider social media like
Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, Snapchat, or groups, hashtags, subreddits/threads within wider platforms. You could also consider virtual worlds like MMORPGs,
MUDs, or MOBAs. As an example, case studies might include the #MeToo movement, the #ItGetsBetter campaign, or #Gamergate. Your research and analysis may
be centered on issues of empowerment, self-sexualisation, and agency, or efforts against sexism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, and anti-racism in digital
spaces.
Regardless of which option you choose to respond to, each essay must include the following:
• Clear evidence of research beyond the required unit readings. All essays are required to include at least 8 academic sources to pass with at least 5 of those being
additional academic sources beyond the set weekly readings. Ideally, most essays should include 8-10 sources (or more), which will include a combination of
required readings and at least 5 additional peer-reviewed journal articles, scholarly book chapters or scholarly books. Consult the guide on Moodle and/or your tutors
for advice on identifying and evaluating an academic source. A list of recommended readings is provided on Moodle for each essay question/topic, and these do not
count as weekly required readings.
• The use of media text case studies. This may include images, stills from videos, lyrics, transcripts from interviews, etc. These should be properly referenced
according to the style guide you are using and can be embedded in-text. However, these sources do not count towards your minimum number of 8 academic sources.
• A clear, coherent argument developed logically over the course of your essay. The argument should be identified and sign-posted in the introduction, and built upon
drawing on your research, in each subsequent paragraph. The conclusion should neatly summarise the evidence you have gathered and reiterate your argument.
• Clear expression. Try to write in short, sharp, to-the-point sentences and be sure to leave ample time before the due date for proof reading and editing. Read your
writing out to yourself to help identify inconsistencies or awkward expressions.
• Proper referencing. Undergraduate writing is about ‘building on the shoulders of giants’ and synthesising ideas and existing research, potentially into new but wellfounded forms. You can use APA, ASA, or Harvard referencing, as long as you are consistent and use an in-text author-date system with a complete list of references
at the end of your essay. Only include references in your list of references that have been cited in the text.

Research Paper Sample Content Preview:

Objectification of Men and Women in Media
Student’s Name
Professor’s Name
Institution
Date of Submission
Introduction
If you are a man, what would you rather watch between a football match and a beauty pageant? Possibly football. What are the odds of a (heterosexual) woman flipping channel searching for a Miss Universe event soon as the swimming Olympic finals for men comes live on air? Remarkably, while many men would happily forgo a chance to savor the beauty and sassiness of the women on show at the pageant, the majority of women will prefer to watch muscular men flexing their muscles and sweating it out. Does this imply that men are not affected by sex appeal as much as women? Not quite. Objectification is rooted deeply in feminist discourses which have dominated discussion for several decades, and continue to do so. Early endeavors to tackle prejudices perpetrated against women may have begun several decades ago, but they are ceasing every passing day as women take the phenomenon into their stride. Women have turned the tide by giving the objectified portrayal an acceptability rather than the feminist resistance of old. Muscularity is bracing itself for the same fate as that which befell femininity- objectification. Men are indeed objectified as much as women in the media, and the effects of the fast-rising phenomenon are not completely different from the outcomes of objectification of women.
Background information
Back in the 80s, critiques offered by women seemed to have a single overlapping agenda in them. They discovered that the media tended to focus more on industrial disputes at the expense of the gender debate. Research on the topics of gender, sexuality, and ethnicity was at a bare minimum or ignored in the larger media focus on issues. First was working women and those in university, who unearthed that the media was handing them a raw deal in championing for things that mattered to women. These feminists objected to the notion that man was representative of all. Second came female media personalities who fronted the concern that women missed out on roles that mattered in media, such as leadership. Women were concerned that they tended to occupy the ebb of the media structure while their male counterparts occupied the higher echelons. Third, women groups sprang and took up the fight against stereotypes. The feminist movement was truly on in several parts of the world particularly Europe, Australia, and the United States of America. These groups checked the demeaning and sexist portrayal of women in the media and society in general. These women groups achieved their goal albeit with varying degrees of efficacy.
All the Women's movements had a common agenda. The National Organization of Women (NOW) carried out a study that was published in the New York Times that aimed at the study and interpretation of advertisements and commercials. Other studies showed how women were restricted to household chores (especially in the kitchen) or playing wifely duties, unlike men who appeared as taking care of the more important things. They questioned the methodology and adjudged it to be inadequate. They were opposed to the simplistic nature of the surveys and instead championed semiotic and ideologi...
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