Dal Soglio, Rodriguez, Vasile 1

Megan Dal Soglio

Melina Rodriguez
Andrew Vasile
John Kubler
English 115
9 December 2014
Society Is Killing Us
In todays society, the media today portrays women as sexual objects whom may be used
in advertisements to sell products, or to help sell their own image. There is a controversy to our
hyper-sexualized society today and it is that half of the world believes that these sexualized
images of women that we see on television or in music videos is female empowerment, while on
the other hand, the other half of the world says that it is degrading women. In the article,
Technologies of Sexiness: Theorizing Womens Engagement in the Sexualization of Culture,
authors Adrienne Evans, Sarah Riley, and Avi Shankar argue that this new hyper-sexualized
society is actually female empowerment. They argue that, sex is stylish, a source of physical
pleasure, a means of creating identity, a form of bodywork, self-expression, a quest for
individual fulfillment (Evans 3). How could any of the images of hyper-sexualized women in
movies or television be seen as empowerment? In another article that is opposing this
empowerment would be Sharon Lambs article, Porn as a Pathway to Empowerment? A
Response to Petersons Commentary, she discusses the negative effects that the porn industry has
on women in our society. She claims that, The pornography inspired version of sexual
empowerment is tied to a multi-billion dollar industry that has at its center exploitation, not the
eradication of shame with free sexuality (Lamb 3). The media tries to sell this idea that women

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who wear less clothes and more make-up are empowering themselves and their body image. The
truth is the media is making billions from exploiting these women and tricking younger girls to
act the same. For this final project, the group assignment including a video, a newsletter, and a
website that were all created to elaborate and share our groups opinion that our society is
heading in a harmful and destructive direction with signs of degradation and profanity of our
Western culture as supported by the lyrics in song we chose for our project.
The first part of the our video project, which we gave the title, The Empowerment
Project, included creating a video with a song chosen, that related to the idea of a hypersexualized society. We then created a video with videos, pictures, and clips that we chose and
put together recorded over Colbie Caillats song, Try, which was a perfect example of the
negative effects of a hyper-sexualized society as well as a form of empowerment for women.
Our groups overall argument is based on how our American society has been increasing the
extent to which it hyper-sexualizes the culture through all the sexually explicit images in
entertainment, media advertising, and in the fashion industry. The video was broken up into
different portions in order to make our statement clearly obvious.
In her first portion of the song, the lyrics talked about what girls normally do to get ready.
The images used in this past, were of clips from music videos, TV shows, and movies that
showed the hyper-sexualized image of girls getting ready. The introduction from the television
show Orange is the New Black was used as our opening video clip, followed by music videos by
Nicki Minajs, Miley Cryus, Christina Aguilera, and Jessica Simpson. Movie clips from Legally
Blonde, The Mean Girls, and Grease were also used to start off the video. There were shots of
celebrities and models in the entertainment industry that some girls look up to as role models,
when in reality they are just sexual objects used by directors and producers to tantalize the male

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audience and to show this sexualized image to younger women so they will dress the same.
When the chorus came in, millisecond shots of magazine covers that showed sexualized women
in todays society, that is where the argument was made with the lyrics try, try, try, try, that
this is what young girls aim to look like because they see them on the front cover of these
magazines. They want to look just like these women because they are the ideal body image and
look to appear empowering.
After a news report that talked about a society that is literally killing themselves to be
thin, the mood of the music video changed. The shot sequence changed to show the negative
effects the media has on these women who try to fit in and look sexy according to societys
standards. Girls will go to any extent to look the perfect image whether it is getting procedures
done, going on diets, starving themselves which then consequently cause people to suffer from
depression, eating disorders, and anxiety and pain from not living up to these standards. Then to
finish up the video project with an inspiring message, the last part of her song, Colbie Caillat
writes, Wait a second, why should you care what they think of you and from that point until
the end of the song there were images of women who felt empowered by just simply being
happy, laughing with friends and being comfortable in their own skin for who they are.
An important addition to The Empowerment Project was the graphic newsletter. The
purpose of this portion was to make a newsletter that represented the argument of the negative
effect of a hyper-sexualized society and female empowerment. It was decided to make a
representation of our music video that was visually appealing to the eye as well as informative
enough to provide any information that wasnt made clear enough in the music video. Initially, a
template was made from scratch for the newsletter rather than using one which was previously
made. That allowed for more freedom to design the newsletter how it would look best. To make

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the newsletter visually appealing, text boxes and pictures were used into multiple shapes such as
squares and circles to make it more visually interesting. Color choice was also an important
factor to take into consideration when designing the newsletter so, pastel colors were used
throughout as well as light colored background to prevent it from distracting the audience from
the most important feature which were the pictures from the music video, lyrics and their
analysis. The lyrics were broken down and used to support our groups argument.
The first line used was, Put your make up on, get your nails done, curl your hair, run the
extra mile, keep it slim so they like you, do they like you? These lyrics begin to list many of
the things society expects women to do in order to become their idea of perfect body image. The
list can range anywhere from having the latest make-up products and clothing to maintaining the
perfect weight and spending countless hours at the gym obsessing over a flawless complexion.
Salenna Russellos journal titled The Impact of Media Exposure on Self-Esteem and Body
Satisfaction in Men and Women says Not only are women pressured to be thin because of the
beauty standard, but positive traits are also linked to this ideal of attractivenessBoth men and
women are faced with the demands that society places on them to conform to these ideals of
attractiveness. Women often are obsessed with becoming societys idea of beautiful that they
label certain traits as characteristics of beauty.
The negative influence of the media has also taught women that the only form of beauty
and to gain attention is through your body. For instance, the lyrics, Get your sexy on, dont be
shy, girl take it off, this is what you want, to belong, so they like you, do they like you?
Women are influenced by media and celebrities, and are taught that the only form of
empowerment, acceptance, or fame is by objectifying your body. Additionally, Caillat
emphasizes the importance of accepting who you are and not conforming to societys idea of

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beauty. You just have to get up, get up You don't have to change a single thing. Caillat is
saying do not let self-esteem issues get the best of you, you have importance of material items
and wealth as a form used to impress others. Get your shopping on, at the mall, max your credit
card, you don't have to choose, buy it all, so they like you. Society likes and is attracted to
wealth and appearing as wealthy will gain you acceptance by others. Caillat attempts to
influence women to seek acceptance with themselves before they seek the approval of others.
Wait a second. Why should you care, what they think of you, when you're all alone, by
yourself, do you like you? Do you like you? In conclusion, the message this song is trying to
portray is that others approval or opinions on you shouldnt matter, the only opinion that matters
is the one you have on yourself.
Finally, in the songs final verse Caillat says, Take your make up off, put your head
down, take a breath, look into the mirror, at yourself, don't you like you? She is encouraging
everyone to stop obsessing over their looks and to just be yourself. The Just Say YES Youth
Equipped to Succeed program works to empower students, parents, and educators, one of them
being self/body image. They say, Media, social and peer pressures influence the way teens see
themselves. Their mental perception of what they look like can become distorted, leading them
to engage in risk behaviors when they feel they dont measure up to the impossible goal set in
front of them. People dont just decide to hate their bodies, our society teaches them to. The
way women view themselves are influenced by their surroundings and everything they see and
read throughout their daily lives. Your perception of yourself can be different than what others
perceive of you.
The final piece to the project was the website, which was also created to express and
enforce our groups opinion on the topic. This website helped to support the overall argument

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that was chosen and presented in the music video that we created. To start off the website, it was
broken down into five pages, which was made to help make our argument and evidence that was
used to be clear. On the home page there is a short paragraph to introduce you to our site and
what exactly our topic was. One of the pictures used for this page was of a girl who looks to be
about five years old, who is standing on a scale weighing herself with a title, Dont let her think
like this. There is also a short video that was related to our topic that basically sums up our
entire argument in less than three minutes. At the bottom of the page are links to each member
of the groups personal websites along with a picture of director/editor, the graphic designer, and
the webmaster. Lastly, there was an external link to a survey monkey poll that was created to
keep the viewers interacted. On the survey there are questions like, Do you like the way you
look? or, Would you have surgery to alter something about your appearance you do not like
about yourself?
The next page was background context as to why we believe our hyper-sexualized culture
is killing us. At the top were included pictures of Miley Cyrus, Nicki Minaj, and Beyonc, who
are all objectifying themselves in their pictures by being half naked, or in Mileys case,
completely naked. There are also pictures of models which are to be considered plus size
being compared next to super skinny models that are smaller than a size zero, which is the only
image to be considered acceptable and perfect. Being higher than a size zero certainly does not
make someone fat. A slideshow was also used to help prove the point that Hollywoods perfect
image is harmful to young girls and adults but also, celebrities and actresses whom have felt the
pressure to be skinny. To finish up this page, at the bottom, there was a YouTube video that was
added that was created by Dove entitled, Real Beauty Sketches. It was a truly inspiring and
empowering video that makes a person realize we dont see ourselves the way others actually see

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us. We have harsh judgments towards ourselves because of the way society has made our
culture feel towards body image.
The third page, was used for statistical information that was made to grabbed the users
interest and helped build support for our claims and arguments. One of the most shocking
statistics that was on this page was that young girls are more afraid of being fat than they are of
nuclear war, getting cancer, or even losing a parent. The page is full of eye-opening statistics
and facts that will just blow your mind away. When actual numbers and polls are being taken
about body image and everything related to it, people will be shocked at what they see. At the
bottom of all the infographics, there is a short quiz to test the viewers knowledge and what they
remember about all the facts and statistics that were just shown above. It is a very simple quiz to
test if readers actually took the time to read the astonishing statistics and facts. All these
statistics were used as evidence to how our hyper-sexualized society is extremely harmful to the
young girls and teens.
Moving along to the fourth page on the website, this page was to discuss and support the
basic claims on the hyper-sexualized society. At the top of the page, it starts with how people
are filled with all these images by advertisements, celebrities, and models on the internet, on
magazine covers, and plastered all over billboards. The next part was to help people erealize the
images they see all over the place and not actually the way they may look in real life. Photoshop is used on some images to enhance the image, make the model flawless, and most
importantly make them thinner. As proof there are pictures of all sorts of celebrities and models
whose photo-shopped picture is next to the original. Pictures are not only being altered to make
models skinnier but for the models already too skinny, they are photo-shopped to cover up bones
that are sticking out. The images shown around the world, arent all necessarily realistic. Which

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makes living up to these flawless complexions and body images extremely difficult and
sometimes harmful. Also on this page, are images and advertisements that literally turn women
into objects. Carls Jr commercials use women to sell their food by the way they are eating all
sexually. In one commercial, Kim Kardashian makes inappropriate noises while is lying in bed
eating the fast food. In another advertisement there is a model who is licking ketchup off of her
body very sexually. Fast food has nothing to do with sex but yet it is used to advertise and sell
their product. Jean Kilbourne was used as the expert source for she has studied this topic and
made videos on it over the past few years. She too believes that our society is dangerously
obsessive over our appearances. At the bottom of the page, there is videos of a girls personal
anorexia story, along with celebrity Mary-Kate Olsen who suffers from an eating disorders as
well. What society doesnt realize is that eating disorders, such as anorexia, are deadly diseases
that are sometimes evolved because girls obsess over their appearance and wanting to be the
ideal image. To sum up the page, there is a quote by Marilyn Monroe that says, To all you girls
that think youre ugly because youre not a size 0, youre the beautiful one. Its society whos
ugly.
Finally, the last page on the website for this project, was to briefly sum up the overall
conclusions to the sites argument. On this page, there is posted the lyrics to the song, Try,
along with pictures of our artist, Colbie Caillat. At the bottom of this page was the final video
project created by our group, The Pink Backpacks, that was gave our music video project the
title, The Empowerment Project. As stated on the last page of the website, we concluded that
to advance to a society that does not objectify women for their sexual appearance, but respects
them for who they truly are, our culture needs to stop using women to sell their products and
entertain us. Women should respect their bodies by not showing them off to the world.

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Advertisements need to stop making women feel like they have to be flawless in order to be
attractive and desired by men. Beauty cant be bought, it comes in all shapes and sizes. The
ideal, unrealistic body image needs to be destroyed. Women need to learn to accept and love
their body for the way it is and not let this hyper-sexualized lifestyle affect them. Beauty comes
from within and that is what makes someone attractive, not what is on the outside.

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Works Cited
Russello, Salenna. "The Impact of Media Exposure on Self -Esteem and Body Satisfaction in
Men and Women." Journal of Interdisiplinary Undergraduate Research, 22 Apr. 2013.
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"Self Image Media Influences - Just Say Yes." Just Say YES. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2014.
"Orange Is the New Black Opening Credits." N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Dec. 2014.
"Notebook: Eating Disorders (CBS News)." YouTube. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2014.
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"Legally Blonde - The Bend and Snap." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2014.
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"Mean Girls - Jingle Bell Rock." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2014.
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2014.
Caillat, Colbie. "Try." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2014.
"Silver Linings Playbook" (2012) - Bradley Cooper & Jennifer Lawrence - Two Crazies."
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Evans, A., S. Riley, and A. Shankar. "Technologies of Sexiness: Theorizing Women's
Engagement in the Sexualization of Culture." Feminism & Psychology 20.1 (2010): 11431. Web.

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Lamb, Sharon. "Porn as a Pathway to Empowerment? A Response to Petersons Commentary."
Sex Roles 62.5-6 (2010): 314-17. Web.