Social Contruction of Sexuality in the Media

www.amysrobot.com/files/gossip_girl.htm

www.tv.yahoo.com/americas-next-top-model/show/35130/photos

abercrombiekids.com

www.outlookexpress.com/theoc_alexandmarissa.htm

www.cta.ca/mini/degrassi2006

The media’s social construction of sexuality comes from the perspective of a middle-class white male with moderate left political leanings who is in his mid thirties. This can be seen in the portrayal of women, sexual preference and orientation class and gender in the media.
To start I looked at the ads for a show called Gossip Girl. In the plot of the show, the characters are all of high-class standings, and are all in high school. In the picture (picture 1) these characters look to be in their 20’s dressed for a night on the town full of partying and sex opportunities. The middle class white male wants things to sell; he wants shows to be successful and attractive. All the characters in the ad are done up accordingly. The blonde woman is in the front, but a male on one side is touching her on the inner thigh and a male on the other side is holding her wrist. So while she seems to be the star of the show, and in control of her own identity as a woman, she is being affected and controlled by the males around her. The moderate white male media gives women their spotlight but makes sure controls and boundaries are in place.
The spotlight/boundary idea is also show in many advertisements and in the modeling world. Women are put in a spotlight, because they have attractive features and they are shown to be powerful in their sexuality, but the underlying boundaries keep these women in one place. These women lose power and status if they show that they are smart, or if they try to use their power to go above the middle class male. A disturbing but honest example of this is shown in picture 2. As America’s Next Top Model literally shows, women are often portrayed as meat in the media. Their bodies are attractive, they have a spotlight, but ultimately they have little more use than the dead cows they are wearing on their bodies. Once the white male’s hunger is satisfied he moves on.
Even in advertising for a younger audience, attractiveness is still key. Take the young Abercrombie model for example. She has bedroom eyes and a provocative pose selling the clothes you can barely see. The white male is teaching them young what is normal and attractive in the media’s eye.
The moderate white male will not be completely opposed to displaying same sex gender relationships as long as those involved are attractive and they seem straight or are incredibly flamboyant. I chose a scene from the O.C. as an example. As shown in picture number 4, Marisa and Alex, two beautiful women, decide that they want to start dating. This falls into an acceptable relationship because 1) both women are physically attractive and 2) the upper class female in the relationship is only experimenting and eventually goes back to her heterosexual ways.
I put in the picture of Degrassi to show a media artifact that does not fall into the norms when depicting relationships and constructing their definition of sexuality. One episode of Degrassi focuses solely on a relationship between two males that had a relationship in the past but one made a mistake and hurt the other and so the hurt party invested themselves in another relationship with a different male. Not one of the three males was flamboyantly homosexual, none of them fell into the typical gay male roles depicted elsewhere in media and the issues the two main characters went through were talking about normal relationship problems like lack of trust and jealousy. Degrassi is a newer show in the states but originated in Canada which explains the shift from the normal roles of sexuality.