(New York Times Style Magazine, Dec 20th, 2011)
Media: Women and Gender Studies
Calling it Rape: Differences in Experiences of Women Who do or do not
Label Their Sexual Assault as Rape
This Journal article relates ways women interpret sexual assault. Importantly, the authors concluded from both quantitative and qualitative analyses, studying responses derived from 33 women who labeled their assault rape and 56 who did not, that when assaults involve a boyfriend or husband it is less likely to be classified rape (Kahn, 2003).
Precisely, if a woman is under the influence of alcohol or illegal drugs she would not recognize the assault on her body. Maybe, it would be recognized days later and she cannot hold anyone responsible. As such, the incident cannot be deemed rape (Kahn, 2003).
Also, women who acknowledged the incident to be rape were much older and sensitive towards rights in giving consent for any sexual activity. Interestingly, the journal article was researched in relation to an image posted in the December 20th, 2011, New York times Magazine close to a caption, ‘Nearly 1 in 5 Women in U.S. Survey Say They Have Been Sexually Assaulted’ (Rabin, 2011).
On the same page is a woman athlete with another caption underneath, ‘She Just Looks Like A model.’ The link associated with the caption leads to a photo of the woman caption in the front page of this document. It communicates an impression that women athletes are sexually assaulted; it is prevalent among American women athletes and that it is associated with their model figures which maybe an imposition of their discipline. What else can you read into the page as the academic journal article?
Advertising: Week 3
(Bing Image, 2011)
This is a Bing advertising image taken from a billboard caption, ‘The Best way to advertise.’ It would appear that using an almost nude girl is the best way to advertise. Also, underlying this body image portrayed is this advertisement it is evident that she is expected to relate the usefulness of iPod, Mac OS X, MacBook Pro, Apple among some minute markings which cannot be clearly discerned for interpretation. Precisely, the products mentioned are hot contemporary items on the market.
This billboard is very suggestive that a young woman’s body is capable of advertising modern products and those which are in great demand. No one can doubt that a great the feminine sexuality has infiltrated the advertisement. What this had to be so? Could not a male offer the same effect?
Could it be that the manufactures of these items that are placed on a woman’s body image, wanted to attract men to their products and thereby used a female to depict their intentions? However, there seems to be an accompanying gender bias in than nowhere on the billboard is a man’s naked physique along side to compel female viewer’s attention.
Clearly, is seems to be concealing the sexuality of males and exposing that of females. Really, some pertinent questions for girls and women to contemplate is whether their self esteem is strengthened or weakened while engaging in such lavish display of their bodies publicly. How do they perceive the way men would value them as an individual after viewing the advertisement. Further research is required into investigating the extent to which women in a advertisements as these influence marketing.
References
Kahn, A. S., Jackson, J., Kully, C., Badger, K., & Halvorsen, J. (2003). Calling it rape: Differences in experiences of women who do or do not label their sexual assault as rape. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 27, 233-242.
Rabin Rohni (December, 14th 2011). Nearly 1 in 5 Women in U.S. Survey Say They Have Been Sexually Assaulted. New York Times.
Links
1. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1471-6402.00103/abstract
2. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/15/health/nearly-1-in-5-women-in-us-survey-report-sexual-assault.html?_r=1
3. http://www.nytimes.com/pages/t-magazine/index.html?WT.mc_id=TM-D-I-NYT- MOD-MOD-M232-ROS-1211-URL&WT.mc_ev=click&WT.mc_c=152907
4. http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=advertising+-women%2fgirls&view=detail&id=8E40E86FDCB5D5203C2F1FBC645AF1D5D69E52A0&first=0&qpvt=advertising+-women%2fgirls&FORM=IDFRIR
