Chapter 1
Chapter 1
“To discuss key factors of sexual objectification through male-gaze and feminist perspectives”
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The key aspects of sexual objectification by both male gaze and feminist viewpoints are explored in chapter to obtain a concise understanding of the effect this has on culture in the fashion industry. Sexual objectification happens when a person is perceived as a sexual object, or when their sexual characteristics and physical attractiveness are separated from the rest of their personality and existence as an individual and reduced to instruments of pleasure for another person (Szymanski, Moffitt & Carr, 2010). Frivolous fashion culture promotes to women and girls the harmful myth that their values are based on how sexy they appear to others. “So, if modern society is queuing up for a glimpse of a gleaming thigh, a nipple...and shimmering bosoms, does that make it right? Is it an accurate depiction of the woman? Is that the woman in the picture… Do media and fashion design-
Exploited Or Empowered
Exploited Or Empowered
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“Objectionable form of commodity fetishism, and the conviction of the majority of secondwave feminists that fashion is an arena in which women… display themselves in order to gratify male desire.”- (Haworth, 2016)
ers and producers even think about these things?” (ACFODE, 2021). The female body is often inevitably dominated by social expectations and the commodification of the body by industries such as fashion, media and entertainment. The overly manipulative essence of appealing to high sexual impulses to market fashions, products, and trends or to promote in advertising therefore downplays the woman’s role and reputation in society and has long-term implications for women in general (ACFODE, 2021). Although sexualisation and sexual objectification are often used synonymously, they are two distinct definitions. Mass media often portrays both sexes as sexual objects in an objectified fashion. Sexualisation is, in reality, a phenomenon that implies attention to the appearance of individuals, whereas sexual objectification is characterised as the portrayal of an individual as a mere body object to others’ sexual desires.
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