The Mindless Consumer Social Media Analysis

The Mindless Consumer While scrolling through Instagram, images of family members, someone’s dog, a model promoting panties, and aesthetically pleasing food are double tapped. On Twitter, posts about last night’s game, crazy bitches and dope parties are retweeted. Snapchat displays funny filters, screenshotted nudes, videos of bottle flips and plenty of selfies. All this social media content is normal, seen everyday by the regular consumer. What media consumers have become numb to is seeinging the anti-feminist industries who promote the sexualization of the woman body through media. On Instagram, companies use models with “perfect” bodies to advertise their merchandise. Twitter comments can include degrading terminology for women, while

Though it has additionally spurred conversations and protests, inspired victims to speak up and amplified voiced that have been silenced, it has equally objectified and degraded. Media has become a platform where normal women see perfected, edited bodies of other women and feel ashamed of the body they have. This leads to self-objectification, negatively judging oneself based only on appearance. Rochelle Hine, an expert in mental health, writes, “self-objectification stems from sexual objectification and that it leads to negative emotional responses for women including anxiety and shame” (Hine, 2011). This is not to say that women should not ever be portrayed as sexy, but showing women and girls the “ideal” women as a sexual object creates lasting mental impacts. Such impacts can include depression, eating disorders and sexual dysfunction (Hine, 2011). Additionally, such media reinforces gender role and stereotyping. Television especially has created a world where women are portrayed as the sexy side kicks, or the person to be saved. In 2017, “[f]emales comprised 24% of protagonists featured in the 100 top domestic grossing films”, which is a decrease even from 2016 (Lauzen, 2018). Television and film is male dominated, adding to the significant gender gap seen in our society. Even just watching these male dominated films creates a subconscious favor

As examples, the phrase “boys will be boys” or “it was just locker room talk” are rape culture. When a woman gets raped, then asked if she was drunk or if she tried to stop her attacker, that is rape culture. When women are portrayed as only sex objects in film, that is rape culture. We can see rape culture in media as pop culture, these examples that were listed, are no longer a shock to current society. It has been so thoroughly integrated into media that it goes unnoticed by the person staring at the screen. However, though rape culture is woven into our daily lives, it is possible to bring awareness to the inequality that it supports. Such ways include, “believe and support survivors”, “avoid victim blaming”, become aware of language used in conversation, and always seek consent (EROC, 2018). Rape culture was not always a part of pop culture and does not need to continue being so. If the society within media became more aware of the culture that was being supported and took action to eliminate it, the results could be mentally and physically beneficial for boys, men, girls and