Cultural Suppression Of Female Sexuality By Roy Baumeister And Jean Twenge

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As a freshman in college, many students are beginning to develop who they are as a person. With newfound freedom, there are a number of unfamiliar decisions and situations students are confronted with. Drinking under aged is often a result of students testing these newly discovered uncharted waters. However, combine the pursuit of self-realization and underage drinking, and it can result in an unwelcoming situation. In the case of Jane, a freshmen seeking acceptance from social peers, her actions at a party resulted in an unbecoming photo of Jane exposing herself from the waist up along with a slanderous caption. The photo posted by Joe captured the moment of Jane’s lapse of clear judgment, and transformed it into a photo categorizing a group …show more content…
Jane’s decision can best be explained as a result of social peer pressure. However, there is a larger social context of the peer pressure Jane felt the night of the incident that women face regularly. Roy Baumeister and Jean Twenge, authors of “Cultural Suppression of Female Sexuality”, explain the double-edged sword that confronts women day to day. They assert that, on one hand, women are criticized for their behavior if they act too sexually; on the other hand, women are often ridiculed if they don’t act on their sexuality and called names such as “tease”. This is the dilemma that Jane faces. She is at a party, slightly intoxicated, and wanting to fit in with her peers when all of a sudden she is being pressured to act in a sexual manner. This is a catch-22 because either way she can’t win. She is in the presence of cameras and people, one of which is Joe, who captures the exact moment Jane decides that being wild and is better than being labeled a prude.
Although none of the other women have complained about the pictures on Joe’s website, they are, nonetheless, very offensive and it would be in Jane’s best interest to have it taken down. Clearly, Jane’s decision to expose herself was poor and inexcusable, yet her request to have it taken down expresses that she felt uncomfortable with the post. For that reason, I feel Joe should respect
…show more content…
In pornography, men and women are depicted with a desire to expose themselves and act on their sexuality. Although they are legally within their right to do so, the agents of pornography are often troubled and don’t see the harm being done to viewers. To further expand of this, one could say, “they are free to make porn, and I (the viewer) am free to watch it”. This attitude is how I perceive Joe’s statement to actually mean. Although he was free to record Jane and post the picture, was it morally right to do so? Pornography is morally wrong because it defaces the person being captured on film; Joe’s statement reveals that he finds nothing wrong with defacing Jane because he was within his legal boundaries. Moreover, Joe’s caption “UT party girls” categorizes Jane with a group of promiscuous women and strips her of any subjectivity in the post. Although Jane was not under the same circumstance as an actress in porn, she was pressured to expose herself by men chanting at a party, which demonstrates her decision was made by pseudo

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