Tough Guise 2, Violence, Manhood, And American Culture

Throughout history there have been two subject matters which have had a detrimental impact on our society. These subjects include the portrayal of male dominance and or violence, and the sexualisation of women through media. The videos: Tough Guise 2, Violence, Manhood, and American Culture featuring Jason Katz, and Killing Us Softly: 4: Advertising’s Image of Women, featuring Jean Kilbourne, depict the vast reality, and impact the media is having on our culture and how these implications are affecting individuals in society today. This paper will outline themes responsible for causing highly negative side-effects for societies up-and-coming generations. As a youth, there are extreme pressures to live up to the figures seen in productions,

This is greatly in part to the sexists, hostile, and stressful environments women are exposed to within the field (LC, 2013). The organizational structure of corrections for example has been known for creating an ‘ultra masculine’ environment which predominantly supports the notion for male aggressiveness in prison (LC,2013). This aggression stems from the aspects talked about previously, as the men in correctional facilities were taught this type of behaviour, and it only intensifies within the prison setting, due to the subcultures, and expectations of inmates in facilities. The way women benefit from this, is in studies done within correctional facilities, the preferred sex of correctional guards is female. This is due to a woman’s ability to show emotion, and interact intellectually without having to maintain a masculine perception (LC, 2013). However, the downside to this is women are subjected to ridicule by male correctional guards, and at the same time men are more likely to take an action just to prove they are masculine, when the situation could have been resolved in a much more reasonable way (LC, 2013). In some respects, women may feel ostracised within facilities and their roles due to lack of allies, and the sense they are

The expectation of women to look a certain way is immensely affecting women around the world. Killbourne, 2010 discusses immense influence the media has in our society, furthermore, stating “Almost every aspect of popular culture is about marketing” (J. Killbourne, 2010). The need for individuals to fit in drives the markets, which results in personas that many women believe are obtainable, however the figures displayed are often shown completely reconfigured from their original self. Killbourne, 2010 also discusses how advertisements tell individuals who they are, and who they should be; due to the nature of the advertisements targeting individuals subconscious, which furthermore creates the pressures of conformity that are extremely negative for youth. Women see models, wearing varieties of different things, which drives the subconscious to influence individuals to conform to the standards and try and obtain looks exactly, or similar to the figures they witness in adds (J. Killbourne, 2010). Another aspect of this driving force of negativity, is due to the media, we live in a society where all individuals do is objectify women’s bodies. Killbourne, 2010 discusses images created are what women, try to model themselves after, and not achieving this is a failure, creating many different emotional issues among women, especially self-esteem (J. Killbourne, 2010). Furthermore, when media only gives one type of