DBQ for the updated version for Mrs. Cole.

Access the validity of the following statement:

During the 1990's until now, women have been degraded in pop culture.


The 1990's sparked a time of new age music and culture throughout America. The "90's generation" truely is a generation unlike any other; however, the 90's also began a time where women were sexualized by the media. While this process began in the 80's with women like Madonna and Janis Joplin, it spread through all of society in the 1990's. The ideal of degradation has been common throughout America for centuries. In the past women were degraded by being kept at home to do the "home chores" and raise the children, while the men worked. The level of degrading women have experienced in recent times, however, has been one of a sexual means, and to an extent where females are still seen as inferior to males. Throughout the 1990's until 2008, it has been apparent that, throughout pop culture, women have been degraded both by men and the media.

The biggest source of mortification on women's behalf is by far the media. The media has the ability to twist and turn their photos and articles to portray women however they want. Generally speaking, women are portrayed as scantily clad with supermodel bodies; such as in document one for instance. Document one shows singer Christina Aguilera in a Sketchers shoes advertisement. One of the Aguilera representations is not even fully in frame, therefore you cannot actually see her shoes in the footware ad. However both models in the ad are only slightly dressed, and are posed in seemingly sexual positions. Of course the maker of this ad would create a sexual aura around the scene because, now days, sex sells. If the designers of the ad had simply shown a picture of shoes, the advertisement would not have jumped out as much and screamed "if you get these shoes, you'll be hot!" In document two, a student from the University of Kansas analyzes how women are constantly portrayed as sex symbols in the media, and how celebrities use it to their ability to gain momentum in their careers. Jenna Mittelmeier states in her article, "today's society is no stranger to sexuality and controversy." This statement presumably sums up modern times in a simple scentence. She also goes to say "...we have far surpassed subway grates and short white dresses. In today's age, tabloids are no stranger to crotch shots of women without underwear (Britney Spears, anyone?) or women kissing women at the Video Music Awards." This statement gives examples of media productions and low points that the media has stooped to in order to gain their headliners, at the expense of the women celebrities. Of course, there is always a possibility that Mittelmeier was writing the article for an "anti-media" reason or simply is just against the media altogether, and so she wanted to point out only negative points. Document three shows various lyrics from three different types of bands, all three songs regarding women. In the first set of lyrics, a rap bands portrays women as "players" and states that "they got a man to meet at least for every day of the week." The second set of lyrics is the infamous "Barbie Girl" song by Aqua. The song has a female singer pretending to be "Barbie" and claiming that "Life in plastic, it's fantastic You can brush my hair, undress me everywhere." This song takes the sexualization of Barbie to entirely new level. The song is twisted and contains multiple puns throughout the entire song, making women up to be a "toy" for men to play with. The third set of lyrics, by Tupac Shakur, portrays a woman in a different light. Generally women are seen as put down by men and the ones that are constantly getting "played"; however, in Minnie the Moocher, a female named Minnie is seen as a genuine player, that completely walks all over men. While the song is showing women in a different light, it is still degrading to women in the sense that it says "Maybe it was her smile, her personality or the way she shook her shimmy or the clothes she wore But whatever it was, Minnie the Moocher was an expert." The song refers to Minnie taking off her clothes (shook her shimmy) to men, which is not exactly showing women in a "positive" light. Document 4 contains only a picture. It shows a photogrpah of a Barbie doll still in the package. The portrayl of the "Barbie doll" is a negative one on it's own. Many women in America look at Barbie like the "perfect female." They are constantly trying to acheieve that level of "perfection" with their bodies, which is where the supermodel looks originates from. However, this body type is not extremely common around the world. and it gives off the attitude that "if your body does not look like this, then you are not beautiful." This gives women from every region a complex that if you do not fit into the "Barbie mold" you are seen as ugly in society. The "Barbie mold" is also generally what advertisements portray as beautiful as well. Most models in ads of all kinds fit the Barbie body type, giving American women even more of a complex, and degrading the actual "real" women of society.

While the media fills the ideal of women being degraded, women themselves on the other hand, are not always so quick to give into society's "perfect woman." In document 5, a female writer named Naomi Wolf describes how the media has set up what a "beautiful woman" is, and how it has affected women around the country. She states, "eating disorders rose exponentially and cosmetic surgery became the fastest-growing specialty... thirty-three thousand American women told researchers that they would rather lose ten to fifteen pounds than achieve any other goal." This document gives two different viewpoints. Naomi Wolf points out how the media affects women is in a negative way, while the document itself shows how there are a number of women out there that feed off the media, and feel that if they in fact do not look like what the media says they need to, then they have failed. In document 6, writer Elizabeth Wurtzel, also female, shows how women need to step up in society, and make a stop to their oppression still felt today. She claims that, "We should be comfortable with the idea of wielding power. We shouldn't feel that it detracts from our femininity." The quotation shows that women feel if they take action, then they are no longer seen as "womanly" or "feminine." These ideals were more than likely instilled by the media; but, Wurtzel attempts to break women away from these beliefs, and she says that we need to end our ambivilence to weilding power, that if we do not step up, we will be forever seen as the "lesser gender." However, Wurtzel could just be saying this because she wants women to step up, we don't know for sure that women are ambivilent to holding power, she could simply be saying that to gain momentum for women to start gaining control of power.

Finally, while the media has the prospect of degrading women on a daily basis, there are still men in the world that continue to do so as well. In document 8, a character named Borat, from Da Ali G show, states that the only job for a woman is prostitution. While the character is a satirical one, and while it is a comedy show, the statement shows how Americans feel foreigners view us as a country (or, how they actually do). The "prostitution" remark degrades women as a whole because it makes it seem that women have absolutely no abilities aside from hopping into bed for men's pleasure. Of course, Da Ali G show attempts to try and get people on the edge of their seat, and to complain about it's jokes, that's where it's humor lies, therefore it is a possibility that this was simply said to irk the women of America into causing a scene about it. In doucment 9, an anonymous male posts in his blog about how he views women. In the middle of his rant he states that, "Then come the kids. She wants them to go the the (sic) fancy private schools, away from the inner city riff-raff (most likely the offspring of the badboys she used to *sleep with* when she was younger). " The idea of women wanting to protect their children simply because of their pasts is not only degrading, but is also stretching it quite a bit. It is possible that this man was actually a "player" and he used to sleep with tons of women and knows how the urban areas are, but he places the blame on the woman to protect his own image. Finally, in document 10, another anonymous male numbers off his reasonings for pitying women, one of them is " I pity them for making men the enemy and not loving partners." Not only is rambling off all the reasons you pity women completely degrading towards women, but it also makes this guy look like a genuine moron. Not all women make men seem like the enemy, but instead follow what they say and "obey" them in a sense. It seems possible that this male got broken up with and then he listed off all the reasons he "pitied" women simply out of anger.