Degradation of Women Finale

      Degradation for females occur everywhere. It occurs in work place, social media, movies, music, and so many more mainstream outlets. However, for my final post, I want to discuss degradation of women at college. Specifically, I want to go into depth about Penn State party scene.

     "I heard DTD, AEPI, and ATO are having a social tonight" my friend enthusiastically declared. At Penn State University, Greek life is vital to our community. Every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night we joylessly roam frat row looking for a party. But people fail to realize what these parties actually consist of. Of course, everyone wants to have a good time with their friends, but without even realizing it, the vibe and aroma at parties are completely distasteful.

     At these parties, you have females kissing guys that they literally just met. Also, females are dancing to songs that are condemned as offensive outside the non party scene. For example, a popular song called "Miley Cyrus", by a rapper named Stitches, raps explicit lines. Some of these lines are very vulgar, but majority of the females sing a long to the lyrics. He explicitly describes intercourse in the song in a very aggressive voice, but a lot of the females the parties love it. It makes you wonder: why and how do these females even approve of another person yelling about sex every line of a song? 

       Frat row contains nothing but heavy drinking, music that becomes very repetitive, and the same group of people you seen at the previous time before. However, we still go to these parties despite knowing and expecting the same results. We have become so accustomed to this lifestyle that people are pledging and rushing these fraternities and sororities just to continue this flabbergasted lifestyle frat parties try to envision.

      Some females are willing to walk in mini skirts with just a top on in 30 degrees of cold weather. It can be raining, snowing, or any type of climate, but females will still wear revealing clothes to look attractive. No wonder why so many people are sick. Every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday are females roaming around frat row with only outfits to look "sexy". Who cares about dressing for warmth now and days. 

Because of this, it is now a norm for females to get with a hot guy at a party. Or, get really wasted to a point where they do not remember anything. Also, dress in clothes that will not be acceptable in a work place , and dance to songs that are clearly disrespectful towards females. Disclaimer, not every female is like that, but out of all the experiences I encountered thus far, it is easy to make this observation.

Therefore, WE ARE PENN STATE. I love my university, but at the same time, there is degradation of women that exists here. The problem is people fail to see the problem. The problem is in front of us the whole time. We are so enamored with the college life that movies and videos depict that we are oblivious to the degradation.  So, to end my post, if you want to make a difference on the way how females are viewed in college, go against the typical norms of frat row. Dance with your friends, you do not have to make out with strangers. Actually dress for the weather. We live in Pennsylvania, not Florida. Finally, be yourself. All because everyone is doing these norms does not mean you have to do it. Just be your own individual and do what makes you feel good. Everyone is beautiful in their own way.

What Are You Watching?

      Do you remember sitting on the couch watching your favorite television show? While things are getting intense, all of sudden it went to commercials? For some people, people despise commercials since they rather continue watching their show continuously without being interrupted. However, commercials are businesses trying to promote their product, organization, or beliefs that they are trying to endorse. While creating a commercial, the whole objective is to instantly grab the attention of the viewer. Once the viewer attention is grabbed, the people that creates the commercial aims to persuade the viewer to buy or tune into their product or company. So, what are things that will get the attention of mass viewers?

      It so happens that one of the most manipulative way how to persuade men to be engaged in the commercial is to have "beautiful" women participate in the commercial. For those that do not know why "beautiful" is quoted, it is quoted since social media, reality, and commercials define "beauty" through visual than the actually definition. The actual definition of beautiful is: pleasing the sense or mind aesthetically. However, the visual conveys women that have skinny waist, big cleavage, and of course, big rears. This is what the media THINKS is appealing to the sense or mind. However, they are a lot of beautiful women that do not fit into this generalization of beauty. But the media does not portray it as much as they should.

      How many commercials do you see on a daily basis promoting all types of beauty? When I say all, I am depicting women in all sizes and shapes instead of the typical image commercials endorse. Of course there are some commercials that do, but it is displayed at a high frequency. Because of that, this gives the women an internal reflection of where they stand to other females by comparing themselves to the ones that they see. This causes low self esteem and depression for some since the ones that are on television looks nothing like they do. Why do the media keep endorsing these type of women? Specifically, why are men more attracted to these type of women? To answer that question in my own belief, if a person sees something once, a person would take note of it. If it happens again, then they will recognize it since it had already occurred before.  But, if it is repeated enough, then eventually, the person is going to eventually believe in it since they are surrounded by it so much. For example, if a person was surrounded by people that were racists, then they might succumb to racists beliefs since they re surrounded by that type of beliefs. So, since men and women watch television so much, this causes the media to keep repeating the same visual of these type of women causing this to be the accepted definition of "beautiful".

      If we want the degradation of women to come to a dissolution, we need to stop feeding our children, our men , and our women the same superficial image of women that consists plastic surgery, Botox, and make up to cover the person that they are deeply insecure about. All women are beautiful. Do not let these commercials trick you into believing you are not.

It's time to give Credit where Credit is Due

      For a lot of my blog posts, I basically been blaming a plethora amount of people for the degradation of women on social media. However, it is time to take acknowledgement for those that do not partake in this act. I am talking about men that gives females compliments for their beauty. There is a difference between calling a female "beautiful" and "Sexy". It is a fine distinction. There are a lot of men in this world that are gentleman, and can make a women feel more powerful and uplifted than ever before.

      Also, I got to give credit to those females that are focus on their education; it is very easy to become a statistic of a pregnant mom that didn't finish high school. According to cdc.gov, in 2012, there were a total of "305,388 babies born to women aged 15-19". It is more common to see a teen mom now then ever before due to our generation being more sexual active. Therefore, for those females that are focused on their career, focused on achieving their aspirations, and determined to make a living are completely exempt from degrading themselves. Instead, those are the type of people that are changing society perception of females that they are "sluts" and "deserve to be in the kitchen. Now, people are more aware of how independent females can be, and deserve way more respect compared to the treatment and image they receive on social media. It is very easy for those to not receive recognition as often as they deserve to due to the simple fact it is easier to criticize than give credit. Thank you to the true gentleman that knows how to treat themselves; thank you to the true females that have more respect for themselves and have ambition to make a future for themselves. The final recognition I have is for the parents that raise these men and females with respect. The parents do not get enough credit either since they are the ones that instill the values among the children.
The parents are supposed to be there to teach them from right and from wrong. If the parents are successful at raising their kids properly, then the kids can pass down the same parenting style towards their kids and so on and so on. Children are the future, so that is why it is important for them to be raise with the right values so that they can fix these problems like degradation of women. When will this problem ever be solved? To be honest, I think it is going to be more than 2-3 generations to tackle this problem since degradation of women is ingrained in our music, videos, movies, television shows, social media, and so much more. However, the only way how it can be solved is if the parents utilize their parental skills, and help their children become future leaders. There are some parents that has been successful at this, but some is not enough if we are trying to tackle this problem.

Moral of the Story

    Do you remember the time when you wish you was a tad bit skinnier? If that does not apply to you, do you remember the time you wish you was a tad bit bigger? Forget about size, do you find other people more attractive than you? In today society, one thing that is highly noticeable is the low self esteem. There has never been a time I heard someone say they are completely happy with their body figure or the image they have. Instead they always want this or that. Its never satisfaction with what they have. For example, I went to my barber the other day. We were talking about what we both wanted within ourselves. I wanted to lose weight, and he wanted to gain weight. The whole time I am wishing I can have the perfect body weight that he has while in reality, he wants to be somewhat close to my size. Why can't we feel comfortable with our bodies? I know females that are beautiful and call themselves ugly. I can never tell if it is to get attention, but deep down, it hurts hearing someone view themselves in that manner. We all lost a sense of identity. We lose ourselves trying to become the ideal image society depicts. Because of this, some women are internally degrading themselves. These type of women have low self esteem, confidence, and pride in themselves. They are too worried about pleasing others that they are actually not pleasing themselves. For instance, there are a total of 100 men in this office. 99 of them told the same female that she is gorgeous. However, the remaining male told the female that is not the beautiful, she is actually ugly. That one comment will stick with the female more than the 99 compliments she received before the insult.

    Why is it like this? Not all females are like this, but I haven't met one female without insecurities about herself. I am not saying men do not have insecurities either, but due to the typical stereotype of men being masculine and men do not cry or show any emotions, their insecurities are overlooked. We can not solve a problem if we do not know it exists. Some of these females need to realize that they take their lives for granted. There is always another person wishing they had the life that you are living. It might be hard to distinguish these type of people due to everyone having pride, and will be hard to admit it, but people are jealous of the things you have and possess.

    I know my blogs do not receive staggering amount of views every week, but for those that are reading it, the moral of the story, male or female, is: do not take your life for granted. Your life is awesome because there will always be someone out there that is having it worse than you. There are people with diseases, with syndromes that can be fixed, and disabled people that are living life with no regrets. Forget about other people's judgments, do what makes you happy.

Degradation of Women in Hip Hop.

    Before I begin, I do not want to make a generalization by stating, "All songs in Hip Hop are degrading to women", but the Hip Hop songs that are played on YouTube, on the radio, on sound cloud, on iTunes, and on Pandora all have lyrics that degrades women.

  MAJORITY of songs in the previous generation did not depict women as sex objects. The old school believed in monogamous relationship. Because of this, the songs illustrated what it means to be in love, what it means to be loyal to your partner, and what it means to be enamored with the lady personality instead of her aesthetics.

    Now, it is completely inverse. Women are now "twerking", revealing more skin in music videos, and glorifying guys that mistreat them. In music videos, of course it is an image/ video the raper wants the media to perceive them. However, there is a psychological stand point about the treatment of women in Hip Hop.

    For example, if you constantly hear something or have the image ingrained in your brain, then you are going to have a long term memory of the image you seen. Now, if the image is a female wearing a bikini, dancing in a sexual manner, then it probably will not make a big difference if you do not see it or hear about it that much. On the other hand, if you watch these type of videos so many times, you are instantly going to start to view women in a different perspective. You are more inclined to believe they do not have any self respect if they are dancing in revealing clothes for money, and doing more degrading things a female does not deserve to do. Because of this, since every rapper desires acceptance, the rapper will follow the trend that everyone is liking so that he can get attention. In this generation, the newer generation of Hip Hop refer to women as "bitches". Now, a rapper will use words like "bitches" and "sluts" to fit in with the main stream type of music to promote his music. But, without even knowing it, these dirty name calling and mistreatment of women actually symbolizes degradement since females are not put on a pedestal. Instead, they are treated like sex objects that only gets value by how big their assets are over their personality. It is very hard to find songs talking about love flourishing in Hip Hop like it did in the past due to the fact that the newer generation are infatuated with the facade lifestyle the rappers created.

    In my opinion, the main song that created this degradation of women was: tip drill by the artist Nelly. The song contains filthy lyrics, women dancing provocatively in revealing clothes, and more degrading images that are disturbing to talk about I put the link to the video below, but warning, viewer description is advised since it is very explicit. 

    Because of songs and videos like this in Hip Hop, this affects the way how men treat women. If music videos are as common as the one above, then their perception of women are going to be analogous to the music they listen to since they see and hear it so much. Therefore, Hip Hop needs to be reformed. These type of lyrics and videos are unacceptable, but most importantly, damaging women's credibility as the intelligent hardworking female the 1700's try to vouch for.

Degradation of Women on Television

  How does television play a huge factor on degradation of women? Television is now accessible to all ages now. A 5 year old can watch mature rating television series now. So, when a child is watching television, it is not that easy, compared to an adult, to distinguish what is right and what is wrong.  Because of this, low self esteem is developed due to the fact that the younger children are not fully capable of knowing that there are more shapes of beauty than what television depicts.

   For example, when you turn to VH1, the females that are depicted all have fully developed bodies. Some of this is due to plastic surgery, but majority of the females have bigger cleavage, bigger bottoms, and heavy usage of make up to cover their blemishes. So, when a child at a very young age see all of the attention these type of women are getting on television, then that is what they want to be. They now are becoming hurt and crush that they do not meet the standards of the models they see on television. Instead of believing in natural beauty, they are forced to believe in a façade of what society view as beautiful.

  It is highly important to understand why seeing these things at such a young age affects how the children grow up. If a female feels like they can't become the women they see on TV, then they are devastated. This will affects the way how the female presents herself when it comes to confidence. also, it will affect how the female is in relationship since she will feel like she is never good enough. It is a sad reality that television created.

  Television do not focus on natural beauty. Every commercial, television series, or movie you see always have females wearing make up with society's ideal image of a perfect body. If there is a show or clips of natural beauty, it is heavily outweighed by all the fraud beauty there is. A female should prideful of their body no matter what television portray as beautiful.

  Since television creates this hoax of an ideal female, this relates back to the degradation of women because some men are more inclined to fell for the women that have a "better body" than a female that is more natural. Television made men enamored with females that have a slim waist, but big hips. I am not saying that EVERY female on television has botox in their face, lips, cheeks, or other body parts, but a lot of females on television do not promote self beauty. Children watch these television shows, and they are more gullible to believe in these typical standards society have for females.

  In conclusion, television plays a huge factor on degradation of social media. It is nearly impossible to reform television movies, series, and commercials due to the fact that everyone is addicted to television now. However, the thing we can change is letting the youth watch these superficial women on television since they are too young to worry about if their body is perfect or not, or if men and will approve of their image.

Lets go on a Date ! ;)

    Have you ever went on a blind date before? If so, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Women does this, but as a male, the first thing we say if our friend sets us up on a blind date is: "Is she hot?" IT IS VERY VERY VERY VERY, I do not know how many capitalize "verys" is needed to emphasize this point, rare for a male to say, "Forget her looks, what is her personality like?" on a blind date. Why is that?

    In today's society, majority of men are infatuated with aesthetics and the physique of women over her personality. But can we blame men for that? Just as much as females look for acceptance and appreciation from other females, men feel the desire to be gratified and worshiped for their mate.

It is called bragging rights. A male typically brags about his wife, his car, his house, his accomplishments, and more of his possessions. So, to have a wife that instantly gets attention for her beauty, then the male reached happiness knowing that the world approves of his mate. So, if other men does not find that female "attractive", then it is typical for the male to lose interest in the female. But wouldn't you feel infuriated at the fact that you can not make an impression on people because of your looks? There is a saying called, "Do not judge a book by its cover." But lets be realistic, if you have never met a person in your life, the only judgement you can make of a person is based off of their looks. Someone can look very scary, vicious, and terrifying but can actually be the nicest person you ever met. Therefore, for our dating preferences, why do we make "looks" a necessity over personality? There are a lot of beautiful females out there that have a nasty personality. On the other hand, there are females that might not have the same "assets" or "features" as other females, but actually have an amazing personality. So, why does this juxtaposition between looks and personality exists?

   It exists because of degradation of women! Music videos, Instagram models, celebrities, actors, magazines, and reality TV creates an image of what a "beautiful" female consist of. Even if her personality is amazing, if her "looks" does not meet the typical society's standards, then her personality will be overlooked by some men. Because of this, some females become inspired to get detox in the face, implants, and even tans to conform into society's image of "beautiful". Therefore, if the female does not have the perfect body, the infallible skin tone, and the perfect features, then this "blind date" will not last long despite how beautiful her personality is. Social media created this mindset of looks over personality. Little do people know that this mindset is degrading to women since women are given chances or attention based off of their looks instead of their personality. NOT ALL MEN, but for those men that mistreat women, you need to treat women with more respect. Actually listen to them instead of having sexual intentions. Finally, ALL females are beautiful in their own way: in all shapes and forms, sizes and height, and many more features that make you unique. Thanks for viewing!

Can't Take a Step Forward Without Taking a Step back!

   Everything we do today relates back to the past. When it comes to the government, their decision making is based off of previous laws to make new ones. Also, same apply to judges. Judges look at the previous court cases to help determine the ultimate decision for the current case. Therefore, it is a necessity for me to go into details about the history of degradation of women.

   Social media such as: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Snap chat did not exist back in the 1800's. Social media instantly became a sensation in the early 2000's and is still flourishing till this day. However, internet, iPhones, Androids, and more advanced technology occurred in the late 1960's. Consequently, it is completely unfair to blame social media for direct blame for degradation of women in present today. We MUST evaluate the past.

  Back in the early 1820's, the belief was called separate spheres or formally known as cult of domesticity. Men were supposed to be the "breadwinner" of the family. Then, women were forced to stay at home, cook dinner, and take of their children, Instantly, this type of behavior is ingrained with today's society for SOME females. Some females are dependent on men instead of focusing on their goals. This not only hurt the standards of the total representation of females, but it also creates the common stereotypes to this day.  For example, females are only made to look pretty; more of a showcase of her beauty instead of her accomplishments and personality. Another stereotype is "go back to the kitchen and make me a sandwich." This straight blatant disrespect still resides with some men and female in our present. This type of language, expressions, and dialogue only degrades women. How can a female be expected to be more if they are being treated like less? Think about it! Women never received equal pay due to the ideology that was mention before. That is why women with the same occupation as a male will still get paid less due to the discrimination of the past.

  In conclusion, to tie everything together, degradation of women on social media exists today because of the previous laws, actions, and beliefs that were set in the past. For example, some women on social media have a desire to reveal more skin and less clothes on their photos. Women in the past were easily being degraded but social media makes it more noticeable to the public's eye. So, when a female reveals more skin, it is usually to feel more accepted by the men and her peers. In the past, if the female violated the belief of the cult of domesticity, then they were to get punished. So, that is why some women feel the desire to fit in with the typical nude less selfies to be accepted rather than be ostracized for being an oddity. Therefore, we can definitely blame social media for the degradation of women, but it will be completely false if we think that the past does not have any relevancy with degradation.

The Usage of Filters and Photo-shop

    The next topic I want to explore in the Degradation of Women in social media is the use of photo-shop and filters. Why do women on social media use filters so much? Why are women photo-shopping their photos so excessively? Is it because the picture actually needs enhancement? Or does it relate back to the female feeling like she isn't good enough?

     The standards and expectations men set on women are unbearable. Men are now looking for women with a slim waist and a curvy body, an infallible face, and flawless skin tone. Flawless skin tone means no bumps, no pimples, no scars, no scratches, or nothing containing any damage of the skin. Because of this, women are pressured into being part of a facade that involves perfection, which isn't obtainable. But if men are looking for perfection, how can it be met? Photo-shop. Photo-shop can make someone that is 180 pounds look 90 pounds in 5 minutes. Photoshop can erase all of the pimples and scars a person has, photo-shop can change the structure of a person face, body structure, and more features, and most importantly, photo-shop can change a person's individuality. Women are losing a sense of identity when using these filters and photo-shop. They are afraid of being themselves because of scrutiny and non-acceptance for who they are. Filters are just as worse. Filters can change a person's entire complexion.

   This is unacceptable. But women are not only using filters and photo-shop for men, they are also using these methods for other women as well. Females judge other females for minor features; for example, nails, hair, picture poses, clothes, shoes, and more other aesthetics. If a female is lacking in one of these features, it is easy for the female to become mocked since she is not conforming to men's and women's expectations. That is why an average female try so hard to take the right picture, find the right outfit, and pose the best way to prevent ridicule. They are looking for acceptance. However, by doing so, women are not being themselves. So, filters and photo-shop are mentally degrading women since it is embedded in making a female look better. It is quite rare to find a picture of a female without filters and photo-shop since it is ingrained in our society to apply these methods to enhance beauty.
 
  Wouldn't you feel belittled if someone ostracized you for the way you look? That is why females attempt to use filters to prevent negative criticism. Consequently, by applying these filters, it is not YOU! You are pretending to be someone you not! Females lost self value. They forgot what natural beauty is because social media is very deceitful on persuading females their perspective of beauty. Social media is fictitious when defining beauty. Their definition of beauty is completely degrading of women. However, females are completely oblivious and not aware of how spurious social media is. Its upsetting. How can we create a solution if people do not even know that a problem exists?

Degradation of Women: Introduction

    As a disclaimer, it is essential to recognize that degradation of women has already existed before social media became popular. Instead, social media made degradation of women more noticeable and visible.

   The first essential layer of degradation of women on social media is the ideal image of a women social media endorses and promotes.

    On social media, the photos of women expresses the lack of clothes, the appeal of looking sexy, and the desire of attracting men's attention. Because of social media, an average teenager desperately seeks likes for their photos to uplift their self esteem. Social media became so ingrained in people's lives that if a person gets a low amount of likes, despite how beautiful they look, they will still delete the post. This is due to the idea of not meeting men's expectations. After realizing that a smile is not enough to get men to like them, that is when some women start to feel obligated to take selfies that are more revealing than usual. Because of this, this start a trend. Women that are receiving likes for their smiles realize that other females that are more revealing is getting more attention than them. This inspires them to join the trend, and become followers. Now, women are obligated to reveal more skin to be considered sexy.  Before, a smile was all that matters. Now, it is about physical attraction. So, the females that are not trying to fit into society's expectations are deemed as an oddity. Who is to blame for this mindset? Social media. It is despicable. This mindset is only hazardous to the females' perception of what is beautiful and causes men to treat and view women lower than what they are. Because of these images, men view women as sex objects. But can you blame the men if the women are posing in photos with barely any coverage? Can the women be blamed for being oblivious of their actions and not realizing that the reason why men treat women the way they do now is because of their photos welcoming that type of behavior?

  As a male, of course we find photos like this attractive. If a survey was conducted, I am very confident an overwhelming amount will agree with me. On the other hand, how upsetting this is that in order to get other males' attention, women must dress like sex objects. This is unacceptable.  As crazy as it sounds, women actually used to dress like this in the past:

   Major difference right? Her legs are covered, her arms are covered, her torso are covered and even her hands are covered. This is a major transition from the past to current day. Social media takes huge responsibility for this transition. Degrading of women is subliminally on social media. People will not recognize it due to the fact that it has become so normal. However, if people knew the definition of it, which is: treating them like sex objects, then people will realize that these photos only portrays that.

  In conclusion, this is only one layer of degradation of women. There are psychological problems that comes with degrading of women, and more problems. Something must be done. It is time to restore our values again.