Women / Sex Object in West

**donsaeid** · 10-22-2006, 01:18 AM

برپايه گزارش‏هاي شخصي، ‏تخمين زده شده است كه در انگلستان از هر ده زن، ‏هفت نفر در دوره زندگي شغل خود به مدتي طولاني دچار آزار جنسي مي‏گردند. آزار جنسي ممكن است رويدادي منفرد يا الگوي رفتاري پيوسته و ثابت باشد. در حالت اخير، ‏زنان غالباً در حفظ آهنگ معمول كار خويش با دشواري روبه‏رو مي‏شوند. ممكن است مرخصي استعلاجي بگيرند يا به كلي از كارشان دست بكشند (Mackixnon, 7991).

گيدنز، ‏آزار جنسي زنان را در محيط كار در غرب، ‏پديده‏اي «بسيار معمول» دانسته است. به گفته او، ‏آزار جنسي بخش بزرگي از زنان شاغلِ حقوق بگير را مستقيماً تحت تأثير قرار مي‏دهد. از جهتي همه زنان قربانيان تجاوز جنسي هستند، ‏زيرا ناچارند احتياطهاي خاصي براي حفاظت خود به عمل آورند و با ترسِ تجاوز جنسي زندگي كنند.[ 4 ]

گيدنز، ‏همچنين به انواع آزار جنسي زنان در محيط كار‏اشاره مي‏كند و مي‏افزايد:«آزار جنسي در محل كار مي‏تواند به عنوان استفاده از اقتدار شغلي يا قدرت به منظور تحميل خواسته‏هاي جنسي تعريف شود. اين كار ممكن است شكل‏هاي خشني به خود بگيرد؛ مانند هنگامي كه به يك كارمند زن گفته مي‏شود: يا به يك برخورد جنسي رضايت دهد يا اخراج شود. بيشتر انواع آزار جنسي تا حدودي زيركانه‏تر است؛ براي مثال، ‏اين نوع شامل فهماندن اين مطلب است كه پذيرفتن خواهش‏هاي جنسي، ‏پاداش‏هاي ديگري به همراه خواهد آورد يا چنانچه اين‏گونه خواهش‏ها برآورده نشود، ‏نوعي مجازات مانند جلوگيري از ترفيع به دنبال خواهد داشت.»[ 5 ]

«هانس اينگوار جانس» در مقاله‏اي با عنوان «زنان سوئدي و فرصت‏هاي مساوي» پس از اينكه كشور سوئد را «قهرمان جهاني برابري بين زن و مرد» معرفي مي‏كند و از‏اشغال 142 كرسي (41 درصد) از 349 كرسي پارلماني توسط زنان سخن مي‏گويد، ‏به گونه‏هاي اذيت و آزار جنسي‏اشاره مي‏كند و مي‏نويسد: «گونه‏هاي مختلف نابرابري و آزار جنسي عليه زنان در سوئد موجب شد قانون سوئدي برابرىِ بين زنان و مردان، ‏سند فرصت‏هاي برابر از كارفرمايان بخواهد مستخدمينشان را از هرگونه آزار جنسي محافظت كنند.»[ 6 ]

در سال 1989 هنگامي كه مجله «نيويورك تايمز» موضوع «مهم‏ترين مسئله‏اي كه زنان‏امروز با آن مواجه‏اند» را در آمريكا به همه پرسي گذاشت، ‏تبعيضات شغلي، ‏بيشترين درصد پاسخ‏ها را به خود اختصاص داد. در پايان دهه هشتاد، ‏80 تا 95 درصد زنان شاغل مي‏گفتند: از تبعيض شغلي و نابرابري دستمزد، ‏ناراضي‏اند. در اين دهه، ‏هفتاد درصد زنان از آزار و اذيت مردان شكايت داشتند.»[ 7 ]

پيش‏تر نيز «سيمون دوبوار» در كتاب جنس دوم، ‏آزارهاي جنسي عليه زنان در غرب را بررسي و اعلام كرده بود كه زن‏ها به‏خصوص در كارهاي نخ‏ريسي و پارچه‏بافي، ‏مورد سوء استفاده قرار مي‏گيرند. اربابان غالباً آنها را بر مردها ترجيح مي‏دهند. آنها كار بهتري در قبال مزد كمتري انجام مي‏دهند. اين فرمول وقيحانه، ‏روشن كننده ماجراي غم‏انگيز كار زن غرب است.

«تروكن»[ 8 ] مي‏گويد: در كارگاه‏هاي ناسالم كه نور آفتاب در آنها راه ندارد، ‏نيمي از اين دختران پيش از پايان كارآموزي، ‏مسلول مي‏شوند.[ 9 ]

به گفته دوبوار، ‏سركارگران از زن‏هاي كارگر جوان سوء استفاده مي‏كنند. نويسنده ناشناس «حقيقت در باره ليون» مي‏نويسد: آنها براي رسيدن به منظور خود، ‏از تهوع آورترين راه‏ها (نياز و گرسنگي) سوء استفاده مي‏كنند.[ 10 ]

«كارل ماركس» در يكي از ياداشت‏هاي «سرمايه» با‏اشاره به وضع اسفبار زنان در محيط كار مي‏نويسد: «به اين ترتيب است كه خصلت‏هاي خاص زنان به زيان خود آنها تمام مي‏شود و عوامل اخلاقي و ظريف طبيعت وي، ‏وسايلي براي به بردگي گرفتن و رنج دادن وي مي‏شود.»[ 11 ]

«ژ. درويل»[ 12 ] به همين علت در تلخيص كتاب «سرمايه»، ‏زنان شاغل در جوامع غربي را «حيوان لوكس يا جوان باركشِ» جوامع مدرن معرفي مي‏كند. وضعيت تبعيض‏آميز و فراوانىِ برخوردهاي خشن جنسي با زنان در محيطهاي كار، ‏به گونه‏اي در جوامع صنعتي غرب رو به تزايد بوده است كه بانوانِ كنوانسيون رفع تبعيض را بر آن داشته كه در جاي جاي سند بين المللي پكن (1995) ‏ـ به ويژه بخش زن و اقتصاد از مواد 150 تا 181 سند ‏ـ ضمن هشدار به جهانيان در مورد گسترش بي‏رويه نابرابري‏ها و آزارهاي جنسي عليه زنان شاغل، ‏تدابيري براي جلوگيري از اين روند فزاينده اتخاذ و توصيه نمايند.

اين سند مي‏افزايد:

بسياري از زنان كه به كارِ مزد آور‏اشتغال مي‏ورزند، ‏با موانعي مواجه هستند كه آنان را از تحقق توان بالقوه‏شان باز مي‏دارد. تحمل آزار رساني جنسي، ‏توهين به حيثيت يك كارگر است و زنان را از ارائه خدمتي متناسب با توانايي‏شان باز مي‏دارد. دولت‏ها يا بخش خصوصي و سازمان‏هاي غيردولتي، ‏سنديكاها و سازمان ملل متحد بايد به نحو مقتضي قوانيني را در برابر آزار جنسي و ديگر صور آزاررساني در جميع‏اماكن كار، ‏وضع و اعمال كنند.[ 13 ]

بي‏دليل نيست كه رسانه‏هاي گروهي و افكار عمومي در غرب به «بازگشت زنان به خانه» ابراز تمايل مي‏كنند. روزنامه انگليسي زبان «ملت و جهان» در مقاله‏اي با همين عنوان: «بازگشت زنان به خانه» مي‏نويسد: در ايالات متحده آمريكا، ‏بسياري از زنان، ‏مشاغل خود را رها كرده و به مادران تمام وقت تبديل شده‏اند. ديويد بالنكن هوان رئيس مؤسسه ارزش‏هاي‏امريكا اين رويكرد جديد را «مكتب جديد طرفداري از خانواده» ناميده است.

اين مقاله را با شعري از شاعر بزرگ «هنري ود روژت لانگ فلو» به پايان مي‏رسانم: در خانه بمان قلب من و استراحت كن، ‏قلب‏هاي حافظ خانواده، ‏خوشبخت‏ترينند. 13

**donsaeid** · 10-22-2006, 01:40 AM

غرب و گرداب بحران اخلاقي

همه چيز آغشته به شهوت و مسائل جنسي شده است. تمدن جديد و كشورهاي غربي به خصوص ايالات متحده، ‏الگوي بسياري از ملت‏ها حتي در كنار گذاشتن اخلاق و رو آوردن به مسائل جنسي شده‏اند و جدا شدن از اخلاق تا آنجا پيش رفته است كه ديگر خوب از بد و رفتار مناسب از نامناسب بازشناخته نمي شود.

چكيده:

همه چيز آغشته به شهوت و مسائل جنسي شده است. تمدن جديد و كشورهاي غربي به خصوص ايالات متحده، ‏الگوي بسياري از ملت‏ها حتي در كنار گذاشتن اخلاق و رو آوردن به مسائل جنسي شده‏اند و جدا شدن از اخلاق تا آنجا پيش رفته است كه ديگر خوب از بد و رفتار مناسب از نامناسب بازشناخته نمي شود. جوانان، ‏خانواده ها، ‏اجتماع و... در فساد غوطه ور شده‏اند و در چنين شرايطي پيام خدا براي بازگشت به سلامتي و كسب قدرت اجتماعي، ‏توبه است.
ما اكنون 30 سال است كه انقلاب جنسي 1960 را پشت سر گذاشته ايم. آثار اين انقلاب بر جامعه چه بود؟ براي آينده چه بايد كرد ؟ مسائل جنسي همه جا را فرا گرفته است. همه چيز آغشته به مسائل جنسي شده است؛ فيلم‏هايي كه مي‏بينيم، ‏تلويزيوني كه نگاه مي‏كنيم، ‏موسيقي كه مي‏شنويم و مجله و كتاب‏هايي كه مي‏خوانيم.
به نظر مي‏رسد كه جامعه به واسطه مسائل جنسي‏اشغال شده است. شايد هيچ گاه جامعه به اين ميزان در اين مورد ناآگاه نبوده است و هيچ گاه انسان‏ها تا اين حد از نا آگاهي جنسي صدمه نديده بودند. اخيرا گزارش شده است كه بيماري‏هاي قابل انتقال از طريق جنسي مانند ايدز، ‏سوزاك و سفليس سه بيماري واگيردار اصلي در ايالات متحده هستند. اخيرا حتي بيماري تبخال پوستي نيز با شدت و حدت بيشتري بازگشته است.
روزنامه انگليسي ايندپيندنت اخيرا گزارش داده بود كه تبخال پوستي تناسلي كه بيماري لاعلاجي است كه در سايه ايدز از انظار عمومي و توجه پزشكان پنهان مانده بود اكنون بيشترين قرباني را در انگلستان دارد. متخصصين برآورد كرده‏اند كه در شهر لندن از هر 10 زن يكي حامل ويروس اين بيماري است و در ايالات متحده مطابق تخمين‏ها هر ساله 500 هزار نفر به اين بيماري مبتلا مي‏شوند. البته رفتار و اخلاق جنسي تنها يكي از معيار‏هاي بررسي استانداردهاي اخلاقي يك ملت است، ‏اما اين معيار نقشي بسيار اساسي دارد.

پس از انقلاب جنسي؛

ما اكنون سه دهه است كه انقلاب جنسي را پشت سر گذاشته ايم و با ارزش‏هاي آن زندگي كرده ايم. مجله نيوزويك در سال 1967 تغييراتي را كه در اين زمينه در حال شكل گيري بود، ‏چنين ثبت كرده است: تابوهاي قديمي در حال مردن هستند. جامعه‏اي نو و اباحه گراتر در حال شكل گيري است... و در پشت اين توسعه اباحه گرايي، ‏جامعه‏اي قرار دارد كه در آن ديگر بر سر موضوعاتي اساسي مانند رابطه جنسي پيش از ازدواج توافق ندارند و موضوعاتي مانند ازدواج، ‏كنترل مواليد و آموزش‏هاي جنسي مورد اختلاف واقع خواهند شد.(نيوزويك، ‏13 نوامبر 1967، ‏صفحه 74). اكنون با گذشت سه دهه از انقلاب جنسي، ‏وقتي كه جامعه در برابر موضوعاتي مانند مسائل جنسي قرار مي‏گيرد، ‏راه صحيح از ناصحيح را بازنمي شناسد. جامعه در اين موضوعات سردرگم است. ما نيازمند اين هستيم كه رفتار جنسي مناسب و صحيح را از رفتار جنسي نامناسب و غير صحيح از منظر خدا بازشناسي كنيم. كتاب مقدس به ما مي‏تموزد كه بايد از رابطه جنسي پيش از ازدواج خودداري كنيم و در ازدواج نيز به تك همسري عمل نماييم. بر اساس كتب مقدس هرگونه رابطه جمسي خارج از بنيان خانواده غير اخلاقي و گناهكارانه است. واضح است كه بسياري از ملت‏هاي مدرن از اين آرمان الهي دور افتاده‏اند. آمارهاي موجود نشان از آن دارد كه رفتارهاي زناكارانه از كنترل خارج شده است. گزارشي كه از سوي مؤسسه كنيسي منتشر شده است، ‏نشان مي‏دهد كه 37 درصد از مردان آمريكايي در دوران ازدواج خويش از لحاظ جنسي به همسر خود وفادار نمي مانند و 29 درصد از زنان آمريكايي نيز در دوران ازدواج خود به همسرشان خيانت مي‏كنند. زنا رفتاري است كه خانواده را از هم مي‏پاشد و از اين طريق قلب جامعه را تخريب مي‏كند كه اين‏امر آثار بسيار زيان باري براي كودكان دارد. ويليام كريك پاتريك[ 1 ] به عنوان يك منتقد اجتماعي معتقد است كه «در طول قرن بيستم آمار طلاق 700 درصد رشد داشته است كه بيشتر آن در دهه‏هاي نهايي اين قرن رخ داده است.» او همچنين معتقد است كه «اثر مخربي كه طلاق و جدايي والدين بر فرزند دارد از مرگ يكي از والدين بيشتر است.» حيرت آور اين است كه از هر 5 كودك آمريكايي كه در سال 1986 به دنيا آمده‏اند سه نفر تا قبل از 18 سالگي شاهد طلاق و جدايي والدين خود خواهند بود.

رفتار جنسي در جوانان

«پيشرفت ها» صرفا در ميان بزرگسالان رخ نداده است. سطح روابط جنسي پيش از ازدواج و حاملگي در ميان جوانان نيز «پيشرفت ها» ي مخربي را در ميان كشورهاي غربي شاهد بوده است. در پاسخ به اين سئوال كه چه تعداد از جوانان آمريكايي زير 20 سال در روابط جنسي نامشروع شركت دارند، ‏اكثرا متخصصان اين زمينه به عددي بالاتر از 6 در صد‏اشاره مي‏كنند. در انگلستان بر اساس گزارش‏ها بيش از يك پنجم جوانان تا پيش از 16 سالگي سابقه روابط جنسي نامشروع را پيدا مي‏كنند. در آمارگيري‏اي در سال 1996، ‏31 درصد از پاسخ گويان مؤنث ابراز داشته‏اند كه پيش از آنكه به بلوغ برسند و از لحاظ جنسي آماده باشند، ‏براي روابط جنسي تحت فشار قرار گرفته‏اند.(اينديپندنت، ‏16 سپتامبر 1996).

به طور قطع چنين آماري اثر فراواني بر ميزان حاملگي پيش از ازدواج دارد. در ايالات متحده، ‏مطابق برآوردها «هر ساله يازده درصد از دختران زير 20 سال ازدواج نكرده يك فرزند به دنيا مي‏آورد.» ويليام جي. بنت، ‏[ 2 ] وزير پيشين آموزش ايالات متحده بيان مي‏دارد: «تولدهاي نامشروع در ايالات متحده از سال 1960 تا 1990، ‏400 درصد افزايش يافته است.» مركز گزارش «نيوز‏اند ورد(اخبار و جهان) ايالات متحده» برآورد مي‏كند كه مطابق روندهاي موجود در ابتداي دهه اول قرن 21 از هر دو كودك آمريكايي يكي به طور نامشروع به دنيا مي‏آيد.

روندهاي مشكل ساز، ‏آينده وحشتناك

هزينه‏ها و آثار اين روند كاملا هشدار دهنده است: «هر ساله بيش از يك ميليون دختر جوان آمريكايي حامله مي‏شوند كه 75 درصد آن‏ها خارج از ازدواج صورت مي‏گيرد.» از اين ميان 80 درصد اين مادران جوان گرفتار فقر مي‏شوند و زندگي آن‏ها وابسته به پرداخت‏هاي رفاهي دولت مي‏كردد. اين مشكل براي ماليات پردازان آمريكايي 7 ميليارد دلار در سال هزينه دارد... در ايالات متحده هر روز 1300 كودك از اين مادران جوان متولد مي‏شوند و 1100 مورد ديگر سقط جنين صورت مي‏گيرد. در سال گذشته 3 ميليون جوان آمريكايي دچار بيماري‏هاي مقاربتي شده‏اند. شيوع اين روابط جنسي نامشروع به ديگر ملت‏هاي غربي نيز سرايت كرده است. نيوزويك در شماره اروپايي خود در 20 ژانويه 1997 نوشت: «در سوئد بيش از نيمي از كودكان متولد شده، ‏به پدر و مادراني تعلق دارند كه ازدواج نكرده‏اند. در فرانسه و انگليس اين آمار در حد يك سوم است.»
در نتيجه «چيزي شبيه به مراحل اوليه اين اتفاق در آمريكا، ‏اكنون در انگليس در حال وقوع است: مشكل حاد مواد مخدر، ‏فقر و نااميدي به همراه مادراني جوان كه از دبيرستان اخراج مي‏شوند و هرگز شغلي به دست نخواهند آورد. در يك آمار گيري اخير در انگليس، ‏يافته‏ها نشان مي‏دهدكه: اولين آميزش جنسي اغلب برنامه ريزي نشده است و از قبل توقع آن نمي رود، ‏از اين رو در برابر حاملگي و بيماري‏ها نيز حفاظت نشده خواهد بود. در گروه سني 16 الي 24 سال فقط 37 درصد آن‏ها در هنگام آميزش از روش‏هاي پيشگيري از بيماري و حاملگي استفاده مي‏كنند.» بدون شك اين رفتار جنسي كاملا با آمار حاملگي و سقط جنين در ميان جوانان ارتباط دارد. اين روند حاكي از چيست؟ نه تنها نسل‏هاي جوان نيازمند بازسازي استاندادهاي اخلاقي در زمينه مسائل جنسي هستند، ‏بلكه بذرهايي در ميان آن‏ها كاشته شده است كه از خطرهاي بيشتر و مصائب بي‏شماري براي آينده خبر مي‏دهد. يكي از مهم ترين نگراني‏هاي دستگاه‏هاي اجراييي در ايالات متحده ظهور نسل‏هاي جديدي از جنايت كاران است. اين جنايت كاران جديد نوجواناني زير 20 سال هستند كه در خشونت و جنايت از جنايت كاران دهه‏هاي گذشته عبور كرده‏اند. آن‏ها معمولا خشونت‏هاي انفجاري به كار مي‏برند و نسبت به حيات انسان‏ها بي‏تفاوت هستند. جامعه شناسان معتقدند كه اين افراد معمولا فرزندان طلاق هستند. آيا مي‏توان شكي داشت كه اين اباحي گري بر ابعاد مشكل خواهد افزود و به عبارت يكي از پيامبران عبري «آنان كه باد مي‏كارند، ‏طوفان درو مي‏كنند.» طوفان پرقدرت خشونت در حال حاضر مي‏رود تا جامعه مدرن را در هم كوبد. وقتي بخش خاي بزرگي از جامعه، ‏رفتاري غير مسؤولانه دارند، ‏ساختار اجتماعي ضرورتا با نتايجي خطرناك و گاه فاجعه آميز روبرو خواهد بود. بسياري از آمريكايي‏ها نگران آينده كشور خود هستند.
در يك نظر خواهي كه از سوي نيوزويك صورت گرفته است، ‏76 درصد آمريكايي‏ها ابراز نظر كرده‏اند كه ايالات متحده از لحاظ اخلاقي و رواني در حال انحطاط است.‏اما آيا ايالات متحده در سطح ملي كاري براي متوقف كردن اين افول خواهد كرد؟ دستور خدا به همه مردم روشن است. او به همه انسان‏ها در همه جا دستور مي‏دهد كه توبه كنند. كلام خدا نشان مي‏دهد كه افول اخلاقي رفته رفته به نابودي ملي مي‏انجامد. آن‏ها كه با كتاب مقدس آشنا هستند مي‏دانند كه كتاب مقدس وضعيت وخيمي را براي آنان كه بر رفتارهاي غير اخلاقي اصرار دارند، ‏پيش بيني مي‏كند.

**donsaeid** · 10-22-2006, 01:40 AM

نگاهي گذرا به تحقيقات در اين زمينه

منابع ديگر نيز از آثار زيانبار رو به گسترش فساد اخلاقي ابراز نگراني كرده‏اند. تاريخ در اين زمينه حقايق روشني را ثبت كرده است. مردم شناس انگليسي جي. دي.آنوين[ 3 ] با بررسي تاريخ 5 هزار ساله، ‏86 جامعه مختلف را بررسي كرده است. نتايج تحقيقات وي پس از مرگش در سال 1936 منتشر شد. عنوان اثر منتشر شده او «بنيادهاي اقتصادي و جنسي جامعه جديد» مي‏باشد.

آنوين فرهنگ‏ها و‏امپراطوري‏ها را بر مبناي رفتارهاي جنسي آن‏ها مورد بررسي قرار داد. او خصوصا به بررسي روابط جنسي پيش از ازدواج و پس از ازدواج جوامع علاقه داشت. او ميان اين رفتارها و آن چه كه «قدرت توسعه مت» مي‏ناميد، ‏رابطه‏اي معنادار كشف كرد. قدرت توسعه ملت، ‏به تعريف آنوين، ‏توانايي مولد باقي ماندن و حفظ موقعيت رهبري و اثر گذاري بر ديگر ملتهاست. آنوين بيان مي‏داردكه «قدرت توسعه مذكور هرگز از سوي جوامعي كه الگويي از چند همسري و يا تك همسري تغيير يافته را به ارث برده‏اند، ‏رخ نداده است. در تاريخ بشري هيچ موردي را نمي توان نشان داد كه در حالي كه نسل جديد بر خويشتن داري پيش از ازدواج و پس از آن تأكيد ندارند، ‏جامعه‏اي داراي اين قدرت باشد.» او نتيجه گيري مي‏كند كه: «تاريخ نشان مي‏دهد كه در گذشته، ‏هر گروهي كه به قدرت رسيده‏اند، ‏به علت اين قدرت بوده است و در طول زمان به قدرت رسيدن، ‏قواعد روابط جنسي در ميان آن‏ها كاملا مشخص بوده است. و اين گروه، ‏تا زماني داراي اين قدرت بوده و بر جامعه مسلط بوده است كه قواعد روابط جنسي آن‏ها چه پيش از ازدواج و چه پس از ازدواج، ‏بر خويشتن داري و عدم بي‏بندو باري استوار بوده است.
من هيچ استثنايي براي اين قاعده پيدا نكرده‏ام.» خلاصه كلام آنوين اين است كه ملت‏ها هنگامي به قدرت و استيلاء مي‏رسند كه رفتارهاي جنسي خود را پيش و پس از ازدواج، ‏تحت كنترل درآورند و آن‏ها تا هنگامي قدرتمند باقي مي‏مانند كه روابط و پيوندهاي اجتماعي و خانوادگي در آن‏ها قوي باقي بماند و هنگامي كه اين حد و حدودها از ميان مي‏رود، ‏شمارش معكوس براي مرگ آن جامعه آغاز شده است و همان گونه كه آنوين مي‏گويد: «اين قاعده هيچ استثنايي ندارد.»

آگاهي از اقتدار خدا

فرهنگ آمريكايي در طول 50 سال گذشته مسلط بوده است. بسياري از ملت‏ها خواسته‏اند كه از رفاه و ثروت و پيشرفت آمريكا پيروي كنند و ناراحت كننده اين جاست كه بسياري از ملت‏ها در زمينه رفتارهاي غير اخلاقي نيز از آمريكا پيروي مي‏كنند. ايالات متحده جهان را در بسياري از رفتارهاي جنسي رهبري مي‏كند. در حاملگي پيش از ازدواج، ‏آمريكا در جايگاهي بيش از دو برابر ديگر كشورهاي غربي قرار دارد؛‏اما اين تفاوت نشان دهنده استانداردهاي اخلاقي بالاتر در ديگر كشورها نيست؛ بلكه نشان دهنده ترديد و تزلزل آمريكا در مورد پيش گيري از حاملگي و سقط جنين است. در ديگر كشورهاي غربي نرخ فعاليت‏هاي نامشروع جنسي، ‏و سني كه اين فعاليت‏ها در آن آغاز مي‏شود، ‏با آمريكا يكسان است. تاريخ نشان داده است كه ملت‏ها اثر اعمال خود را چشيده‏اند. خدا اغلب اجازه مي‏دهد كه آثار گناه و عواقب ان بر ملت‏ها چيره شود. خدا به مردم هشدار مي‏هد كه «بدكاري خودتان شما را اصلاح خواهد كرد و عقب گردهاي شما، ‏شما را سرزنش خواهد نمود.» اكثر مردم، ‏دخالت خدا در‏امور عالم و اصلاح ملت‏ها را غير قابل تطبيق با تاريخ مي‏دانند، ‏اما خدا زنده است و با هدف خود، ‏گاه در تاريخ دخالت مي‏كند و در نهايت، ‏او به تنهايي است كه تقدير ملت‏ها را معين مي‏كند. خدا مي‏تواند‏امپراطوري‏ها و‏امپراطوران را تغيير دهد. فرمانرواي رومي پونتيوس پيليت[ 4 ] به مسيح گفت: من قدرت از ميان بردن تو را دارم، ‏مسيح به او پاسخ داد: «تو هرگز قدرتي عليه من نخواهي داشت، ‏مگر آن كه از سوي خدا به تو داده شده باشد.» در گذشته، ‏ملت‏ها و رهبران آن‏ها بيشتر به اقتدار خدا اعتقاد و آگاهي داشته‏اند و عامل خدا را بيشتر در نظر مي‏گرفته‏اند. مثلا پدران بنيانگذار ايالات متحده به اين نكته توجه داشته‏اند و در اعلاميه استقلال 4 بار نام خدا را آورده‏اند. همان‏ها اعتقاد داشته‏اند كه قوانين و استانداردهاي ملت بايد بر آموزه‏هاي متاب مقدس مبتني باشد.
جيمز مدسيون[ 5 ] اصلي ترين نويسنده قانون اساسي آمريكا مي‏گويد: «ما تمامي تمدن آينده آمريكا و حق حاكميت هر كدام و همه ما بر خويشتن را برمبناي ده فرمان خدا استوار ساخته ايم.» آبراهام لينكلن[ 6 ] هنگامي كه در ميان جنگ‏هاي داخلي آمريكا مردم را به يك روز عبادت و دعا دعوت مي‏كرد، ‏گفت: «ما سال‏ها با صلح و آرامش و ثروت زندگي كرديم. در اين مدت، ‏هيچ ملتي مثل ما در رفاه و ثروت و تعداد رشد نكرده است، ‏اما ما خدا را فراموش كرديم و در اعماق قلب خود خيال كرديم كه اين‏ها همه حاصل آگاهي‏هاي برتر ماست... بنابراين اكنون بايد براي پاك كردن اين گناه و بخشش آن عبادت كنيم.» همو در نامه‏اي به يكي ازآشنايانش مي‏نويسد: «اكنون همه ما اعتقاد داريم كه همان كه جهان را آفريد، ‏آن را اداره مي‏كند.»

خدا و اخلاق

مسير تاريخ از مخروبه‏هاي‏امپراطوري‏هايي مي‏گذرد كه اصول خدا را فراموش كرده‏اند، ‏خصوصا اصول خدا در زمينه مسائل جنسي، ‏ازدواج و خانواده. ژوزف دي ميستر[ 7 ] در كتاب درس‏هايي از تاريخ به نقل از تاريخ داناني چون ويل و آوريل دورانت، ‏[ 8 ] مي نويسد: «تا پيش اززمان ما هرگز نشاني در تاريخ وجود ندارد كه بتوان زندگي اخلاقي بدون كمك مذهب را از آن استنباط كرد.» جرج آن گير[ 9 ] در همين زمينه مي‏افزايد: «من به اين نتيجه رسيده‏ام كه داشتن جامعه‏اي اخلاقي بدون اعتقاد به خدا ممكن نيست، ‏چرا كه بدون خدا همه چيز به «من» انساني وابسته مي‏شود و «من» به تنهايي بي‏معني است.» او هشدار مي‏دهد كه: «امروزه ديگر آمريكايي‏ها بر مبناي اعتقادات اخلاقي و مذهبي خويش عمل نمي كنند و به آن چه كه زماني درست مي‏دانستند، ‏جامه عمل نمي پوشانند. اكنون براي آمريكايي‏ها «من» ملاك همه چيز شده است. در حالي كه اين فقط جوامع اخلاقي هستند كه كارآمدي دارند. اگر كسي مي‏پندارد كه ميان وحدت شخصيتي و رفاه اجتماعي در جوامع، ‏ارتباطي مستقيم و غير قابل انكار وجود ندارد، ‏بايد گفت: كه او تاريخ رانخوانده است. جوامع اخلاقي بزرگ همه بر مبناي اعتقاد به خدا و نيز اعتقاد به فضيلت، ‏راستي و... بنيان نهاده شده‏اند. حدود 160 سال قبل الكسي دوتوكويل[ 10 ] تاريخ دان فرانسوي نوشت: «آمريكا بزرگ است چون خوب است، ‏روزي كه آمريكا خوب بودن را متوقف كند، ‏بزرگ بودن آن نيز پايان مي‏يابد.» دوتوكويل قدرت قرن 19 آمريكا را ديده است، ‏اما اگر اكنون آمريكا را ببيند چه خواهد گفت ؟ آيا او باز هم آمريكا را به عنوان يك ملت خوب و منفرد در جهان نام خواهد برد؟ آيا اكنون ملتي در جهان وجود دارد كه مصداق گفته خدا باشد كه «آن‏ها كه مرا عظيم مي‏دارند من آن‏ها را عظيم خواهم داشت.» و خدا مي‏گويد: «آن‏ها كه به من به ديده تحقير مي‏نگرند، ‏حرمت و احترامي نخواهند داشت.» كدام ملت مدرن به نحوي زندگي مي‏كند كه خدا را تعظيم نمايد؟ آيا اين مشكلات بزرگ ما نشان نمي دهد كه ما خدا را تعظيم نكرده ايم.

پيام پيامبران

پيام پيامبران كتاب مقدس، ‏شبيه به هشدارهاي منتقدين اجتماعي فعلي است: جوامعي كه زير ساخت‏هاي اخلاقي خود رارها مي‏كنند، ‏در نهايت به زباله دان تاريخ خواهند پيوسا. براي فهم اين معنا كافي است كه نگاهي به فروپاشي ابر قدرت‏هايي چون يونان، ‏آشور و بابل بياندازيم تا بفهميم كه استيلاء و تقدم ملت‏ها مي‏تواند در تاريخ مضمحل گردد. پيامبران گذشته به پادشاهي‏ها اخطار كردند كه كشورهايي كه بدون توجه به خواست خدا به دنبال اهداف خود باشند، ‏سقوط خواهند كرد. وسوسه ملي مسائل جنسي منجر به شهوت زدگي خود آگاهي اخلاقي خواهد داشت و در نهايت به سقوط مي‏انجامد. ملت‏ها مانند خاك كوزه گري كه در دست كوزه گر است، ‏در دست خدا هستند. خدا همه ملت‏هاي جهان را به توبه مي‏خواند تا همه گناهان آن‏ها را كاملا ببخشد و زمين آن‏ها را به بهشت تبديل كند. 10

**donsaeid** · 10-22-2006, 01:46 AM

Does America Hate Women?

Bob Herbert's op/ed column, "Why Aren't We Shocked," in today's New York Times is must reading for Christians. You'll need a hard copy of the newspaper because the column is not available online except for "TimesSelect" subscribers, all ten of them.

Herbert takes up the cultural roots behind such actions as the recent Pennsylvania gunman who separated girls from boys, killing only the girls. Herbert, correctly I think, identifies an increasingly violent misogyny in American culture fed by commercial corporatism and sexual libertarianism. He opens his column with a caption from an Abercrombie and Fitch T-shirt for sale in a mall near you: "Who needs a brain when you have these?" Herbert wonders why, after ten years since the death of Jon-Benet Ramsey, we are still watching the sexualized images of this prepubescent child dancing around in make-up and high heels. He further points to gangsta rap depictions of women and commercial advertisements of products such as Clinique makeup that evoke imagery from pornographic depictions of women.

Herbert concludes:

You're deluded if you think this is all about fun and games. it's all part of a devastating continuum of misogyny that at its farthest extreme touches down in places like the one-room Amish schoolhouse in normally quiet Nickel Mines, Pa.

Bob Herbert and I would disagree on the solution to this problem. He sees more egalitarian feminism as the answer; I would argue it is the conspiracy between feminism and libertarianism that provoked this plight. He would probably find the solution in a more rigorous application of the ethics of Gloria Steinem. I would find it in an application of the woman-affirming Christian ethic of Peter, Paul, and Sarah.

But, even if just for a moment, we can agree that something has gone horribly wrong in a commercial culture in which women are regularly depicted as objects of loveless sex and ruthless violence.

**donsaeid** · 10-22-2006, 01:53 AM

Sex AppealThe handsome couple walks down the street, obviously pleased with each other's company. She laughs, reaches over and pats his behind. She's a Charlie Perfume woman.

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He's standing in the phone booth when she appears outside, beautiful, seductive, giving him the eye. He melts into a pile of quivering goo, hangs up in midsentence, and opens the door. She smiles seductively and slides past him into the booth. He steps back -- and she closes the door in his face. With an expression of "What happened here?" he goes for a beer.

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She leans forward, exposing an incredible quantity of cleavage. The headline reads, "This is Debbie. She wants you to have this pair in your car." The rest of the ad talks about buying the grease gun cartridges she holds in either hand.

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You may recognize the above examples. What they all have in common is sex -- sex as an appeal to the consumer, some subtle, some blatant. Why does advertising use sex as an appeal to the consumer? The answer is simple: because it works.

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Sex is the second strongest of the psychological appeals, right behind self-preservation. Its strength is biological and instinctive, the genetic imperative of reproduction. However, its effectiveness and application are gender linked. The differences in male and female psychobiology cause different approaches to and perceptions of sex, both the act and its outcome.

Sexual desire is an instinctive reaction in animals, and an individual's perception of a suitable mate is the basis. That perception usually is a set of criteria that the opposite sex must meet, or at least approximate. An individual regards a member of the opposite gender that meets or exceeds (at least, within the available pool of possibilities) those criteria as being superior to others of that gender. It is therefore the individual that will provide the chance for the highest quality offspring with the best chance of survival. When a possibility doesn't meet the criteria, sexual desire does not occur.

As in other animals, humans base their criteria on their reproductive strategies. And as in other animals, men and women have different strategies, based on that will increase each gender's chances at genetic success.

In time and energy, the male expends virtually nothing in sexual contact compared to the female. Biologically, the best strategy for a man is to be promiscuous. The more women with which he mates, the greater number of children containing his genes are possible.

Thus, a man's biological criteria can be simple: 1) she must be healthy; 2) she must be young; 3) she must be receptive; 4) and she must be impregnable. The sex act is of paramount importance to the man; it is how he impregnates the woman. After that, his concern is having more women to impregnate.

Women, on the other hand, have a far greater physical, physiological and temporal stake in producing children. This means she must be highly selective in her choice of men if she wishes to produce the highest quality children in her reproductive lifetime. If she selects just any man that comes along, she could waste all that time and energy that pregnancy and rearing require on a possibly weak or nonviable child. She thus aims her biological criteria at getting the best possible man. The sex act, and his participation, being so brief, doesn't have to be of any particular interest to her. What is important is the quality of genes he brings and the help, if any, she will have while carrying, bearing and rearing the children. (See Biological Basis of Human Behavior; | Reproduction; |Reproduction: Part 2; |Social Basis of Human Sexual Behavior|and Cultural Basis of Human Behavior for discussions of the influences on human reactions to sexual stimuli.)

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However, humans are not just biological creatures. There is something unique about us that makes reproduction unusual: we can think. We are the only creatures on earth that can manipulate their environment, communicate across distance and time, remember the past as discrete events and project possible present actions into the future effects of those actions. We have evolved complex societies and cultures based on these (as far as we know) unique abilities. Thus, human criteria for sexual desire and selection are greatly complicated, since we apply not only physical, but societal, cultural and economic criteria to desire and selection. The evolution of the human being and human mind has resulted in an incredibly complex psychophysiology.

Nonetheless, the biological criteria still apply. The man has a drive to impregnate as many women as possible, to create as many children with his genes as possible.

However, a man is a member of the human race, and thus is also aware of human society, its constraints and demands. He will desire any woman in sight who satisfies his physical, instinctive criteria. However, he also applies societal and cultural criteria that overlay the instinctive criteria.

Women, on the other hand, run into a real problem: the human mind. A woman's mind allows her, and indeed forces her to examine possible criteria to a much greater extent than any other animal. She can also imagine the outcome of choices in the future. The criteria for her to desire sexually a man can include strength or health or fighting ability, like the lion or the wolf, but can also include intelligence, money, power, prestige, position, status, attitudes, political or religious convictions, any number and combination of factors that will lead her to believe that he will contribute the best possible genes and chance for survival to her children.

She also has sexual desires as strong as a man's. However, she will often subordinate that desire. That is, she may desire a physically attractive man, but she will not actually have sex with him until he has satisfied more than physical criteria.

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If she fits his instinctive criteria, a man will often ignore it if a woman doesn't fit the societal criteria, since men have only had to consider them for a few thousand years. Physical attractiveness is all his instincts say is necessary for him to desire sex.

She, on the other hand, will rarely ignore her societal criteria since they are dominant in her determination of the right man. Physical attactiveness may be enough for her to allow his approach, but he must satisfy her other criteria before she will allow sex. If he satisfies her societal criteria to a large enough extent, she will even ignore physical attractiveness. Societal criteria have a greater influence on her and her children's future in human society than her criteria on his physical appearance.

However, society does not reduce the considerable differences in the way men and women regard sex on an instinctive level. The instincts that control sexual desire have evolved over a billion years: male promiscuity and his simple, physical criteria for a female to be desirable; female caution and her complex physical and social criteria to select the best possible male. That many of the social criteria that she had to consider have lessened, and that he didn't consider have increased, in the last forty years, cannot reduce those millions-year-old instincts.

**donsaeid** · 10-22-2006, 01:55 AM

SEX APPEAL IN ADVERTISING

What does all this have to do with sex in advertising? The purpose of advertising is to convince people that products are of use to them in one way or another. If people agree, they will buy them. However, advertising must do its job very quickly; it doesn't have the time or the space to go into detail or explanations (see Chapter One, An Overview of Advertising).

For many products it is possible to find (or invent) a sexual connection. However, the sexual connection is much easier to set up for men than for women. Remember that men have minimal criteria for sexual desire; basically, they are concerned with a woman's anatomy -- as long as a woman looks young enough and healthy, she is desirable. Men also consider her beautiful, since to a male beautiful and sexually attractive are virtually synonymous.

Thus, in advertising it is easy to get a man's attention by using women's bodies and associate getting the woman if he buys the product. It is playing on his instinctive rather than intellectual view of the world. The ad spends no time discussing her qualifications for sexual desire -- her mere existence is enough.

Mitigating the instinctive view is the intellectual; most men are aware that women are less concerned with mere anatomy. Women are looking for more. Thus, advertising can show the woman and sell the product on the basis of "women want this [product] in a man. Get the product, get the woman."

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The use of sex in advertising to women is a much more difficult proposition. Although they do have an instinctive sexual reaction, their intelligence strongly affects it at the same time. The use of healthy, fit men may i ndeed attract their attention and create desire, but their willingness to engage in intercourse is rarely aroused strictly because of a man's body. For a woman, sexual desire is a complex mixture of factors, most of which are extremely difficult to inject into an ad in the time and space available. A man's physical appearance plays a role, suggesting health and strength, but her instinctive concern is the long-run, not the short-term. She must see that he is capable not only of sexual activity, but can father healthy children, support and nurture her during pregnancy and birth, and herself and the child after birth, plus assure that the child will be better off than any competition it might have. Many of these factors are also learned in the culture a nd society. Money, power, prestige, etc., are factors that culture defines as extremely valuable (although rarely placed in the context of being valuable to future children). The woman learns their importance and adds them to her criteria for male sexual desirability. Again, please note that she rarely consciously considers these factors when selecting which man to examine for his suitability as a mate. She will, though, often consciously consider them when deciding whether or not to have sex with him.

However, these factors are almost impossible to put in any one ad; there is not enough time or space to set up the appeal and sell the product.(1)

Finally, remember the story of Ms. and Mr. Primate from Biological Basis of Human Behavior. Sex and aggression became linked to a certain degree by Mr. Primate changing his technique. However, to Ms. Primate, he directed the aggression at her -- she was the victim. Over the years (and it must have been hundreds of thousands of years), hard-wired into her brain must have been the connection of the sex act and aggression. That she didn't enjoy it didn't matter as long as she got pregnant and had offspring; nature doesn't worry about enjoyment and convenience, just results.(2)

Thus, it is rare for advertising to use sex as an appeal for women. Unlike men (who must enjoy sex to achieve orgasm and thus impregnate the woman), women are often less interested in the sex act itself for its own sake. They are interested in sex for what it can mean in the future. They may enjoy it as much as men, but for them it has a far greater significance. Advertising cannot take advantage of a woman's instinctive sexual desire, because advertising job is not to build for the future -- it is to sell a product now.

To sell to a woman, advertising relies on that modern idea (only a few hundred years old) about how men and women relate -- romance. Romance fits into the woman's intellectual view of relationships since its major element, courtship, the process by which men apply to be and women select mates, is the discovery of how the male does or does not satisfy her societal criteria for a suitable sexual partner. Rarely does the romantic appeal contain the blatant sexual messages that appear in ads aimed at men since such messages would counter the intellectual view. Although an ad may use a man's body as an attention getting device, he is usually shown in a romantic rather than sexual context.

Thus, it is clear that sex is a strong appeal to use in advertising. However, it is a gender linked appeal. Sex easily sells to men; it is an adjunct to women.

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How does all this work in practice? Obviously, it depends on the product. As shown in Chapter One, advertisers aim products and services at a specific audience, a target, those most likely to buy the product or service. Since many products or services are intended for one gender or the other, the use of sex appeal varies.

For ads aimed at women, they can achieve the romance approach through using stereotypical images: roses, soft light and music, a doting man (often a bit bumbling and thus endearing). The ad sells the product on the basis that its purchase will give the woman this feeling of romance in her life.

For example, diamond advertisements use a romantic approach. Although men buy most diamonds, they buy them for women; in general, she makes the purchase decision. Thus, it makes sense to aim the ads at the woman. The images are of soft lighting, elegant surroundings, and an obviously well-to-do man (who is also sometimes a supportive and nurturing parent) offering the gift of diamonds. These images satisfy a woman's societal criteria for a desirable man: money, status, taste, and sensitivity to her wants and needs. If there are any sexual undertones, they are extremely subdued and non-threatening.

Another ad: A beautiful, naked (apparently) woman sits surrounded by darkness. She's pulled up her left leg, her right leg crossed in front of her. Her arm reaches down, her hand holding her right shin. The image is one of strong sensuality. However, the appearance is not one of strong sexuality. She appears relaxed and content, graceful rather than erotic. The only possible signs of sex are strictly Freudian symbology: her arms forming a triangle with her leg between them, which could be read as an erect penis within a vagina. However, such a reading is so subtle that few would see it: those to whom I've shown the ad said she positioned her leg to cover her breasts. She could be simply enjoying the sunshine.

Another example, for perfume: A woman walks along a street. An attractive man smells her perfume and begins chasing after her, often stumbling and bumbling like a puppy. He quickly buys a bouquet of flowers and, when he catches up to her, hands her the flowers with a look of adoration. She smiles at him condescendingly and continues walking, pleased with his reaction, as he stands and watches her go.

Changes in advertising are, of course, changing as society changes. As you may recall from above, women in today's society are much more liberated in their sexual mores than they have been in millennia past. Advertising, realizing this change in women's perception of sex and sexual activity, is beginning to alter its approach to sex as a selling tool to women. For example, an ad for Coors Light beer (see below about beer) begins with a model in a bikini walking toward the camera while the narrator says, "Because if you don't watch your figure . . .who will?" This is a clear indication that the woman's concern is attracting the attention of men from which to choose, and that using the product will aid her in her quest. The difference is in contrast to ads aimed at men, that she will attract men's attention, not that sexual activity will be a concomitant result of using the product, no matter what she looks like. This again leaves it up to her to make the choice of with whom, and whether, she will have sex.

Note there is little indication of actual sex in these examples. The ad may suggest it as a possibility, but not a certainty simply because of the product. What is certain is that any suggestion of sex is subtle and non-threatening, with the woman in total control, attracting men's attention but not arousing them.

**donsaeid** · 10-22-2006, 01:55 AM

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For ads aimed at men, courtship and romance are not a primary approach. Instead, the approach is sex without any complications or difficulties.

Let us take, for example, beer. According to demographics, men rather than women buy and drink the most beer.(3) Therefore, it makes sense for most beer advertising to aim at men. Also, since most beers are parity items (there is little difference between one brand and another), to make a particular brand more appealing to the consumer than another, the ads must induce the difference between them..

With sex appeal the second strongest appeal, it makes sense to use it to make a certain beer more attractive to males (it's difficult to show how drinking beer will keep you alive). The easiest way to do this is to show how attractive a man can be to beautiful women if he drinks that beer.

Now remember the beer ads you have seen (always bearing in mind that ads can't show actual sexual activity on commercial television or in mass market magazines). Notice that ads link the beer with beautiful women:

Four men sit alone at the beach. Three beautiful women in bikinis walk by and ignore the men's invitation to join them. The beer arrives. Immediately, those same women join the men, sitting on their laps or hugging them. Obviously, it was the beer that convinced the women that these men were desirable.

Two men walk through the desert. One opens a suitcase and a full-sized swimming pool (complete with water) inflates. They sit by the pool and a beautiful woman in a bathing suit serves them beer. When the second man asks where she came from, the first holds up a second small suitcase. Obviously, the beer gives men a power over women. (Also please note the implied attitude toward women -- they are blow-up toys designed to serve men).

Five men are by a river, fishing. A crate of lobsters falls from the sky. The lobsters are followed by the Swedish bikini team, followed by cases of beer washing up on the shore. The bikini team immediately join the men for fun and snuggling.

This is not to imply that all beer commercials use sex to differentiate their products; many use self-esteem, personal enjoyment, or even altruism. Nonetheless, sex is a powerful and easy method of getting male attention and making their product desirable.

Note that in all the ads described, there is no indication that the women are anything but beautiful (i.e., sexually desirable) and become receptive because the men are drinking a particular beer. They don't speak, show no signs of money, position, power or intellect -- they are simply beautiful. Although our culture considers deeming mere physical appearance as all that is necessary to make a woman desirable sexist and demeaning to women, the fact remains that for a male it is all that is necessary, an inheritance of biological nature. A man's eye is attracted to and follows a woman's face and form, not the fact she carries Gray's Anatomy or Plato's Republic in the original Greek, puts money in the Salvation Army kettle, or drives an expensive car. None of these make a woman sexually desirable in and of themselves: if they did, Mother Theresa, Jean ***kpatrick, and Leona Helmsley would replace Christy Brinkley, Paulina Poriskova and Marilyn Monroe as sex symbols. Although the former clearly have intelligence, generosity, compassion and/or money, it is the latter that men lust after.

Occasionally, ads will use innuendo and double entendre in the copy. for example, I recently saw an ad with the headline, "You can't win if you don't stick it in," clearly carrying a connotation of sexual activity. The ad was promoting voting, and carried an illustration of a hand putting a ballot in a box. A commercial for Tiparillo small cigars was set on a train. A man and a woman sat in a compartment across from each other. The slogan was, "Does a gentleman offer a lady a Tiparillo?" As she smiled and accepted the cigar, the train was seen plunging into a tunnel (a Freudian symbol for sexual intercourse). The implication was clear: if a gentleman offers a lady a Tiparillo and she accepts, she is accepting him for sex as well.

In this direct mail ad for an online service, the approach looks very much like those 1-900 sex talk phone ads: if you (a man) subscribe to the service, you'll have cybersex with a beautiful woman like her. Note that there is no indication of anything else provided by the online service.

An all-time classic use of innuendo was Clairol's "Does she or doesn't she?" The overt meaning is obvious: "Does she color her hair or not?" However, a covert meaning could be does she or does she not have sex. Even the rest of the headline, "Only her hairdresser knows for sure," doesn't completely remove the innuendo, since the cliche is that women tell their hairdressers everything, including about their love lives. Thus, the ad implies that a woman dying her hair may be seeking romance and/or sex, and that Clairol gives her the best chance of achieving her goal.

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Is it wrong to use sex as a selling tool, especially the way it is used to attract the attention and try to sell to men through their biological attraction to women's bodies? It depends on how you define sexual attraction. If you do it biologically, it is right. If you do it culturally, it is wrong (depending on your culture). Biologically, the purpose of being male is to become aroused by and impregnate as many viable females as possible. For a male, the criterion that a female must meet is to be sexually arousing -- nothing else is important.

Culturally, there is a difference. The difference is that the male must satisfy the female's criteria for being sexually attractive.

Please note the wording: for a male, sexual arousal is important; for the female, sexual attractiveness is important. There is a difference. For a male, he must be sexually aroused to fulfill his biological function. A human male must have an erection and maintain it through orgasm. If he fails in either, he fails in his biological function.(4)

For the female, on the other hand, arousal is not as important as receptiveness, which she achieves through finding the male sexually attractive. There is no biological need for her either to take pleasure in the sex act or achieve orgasm. If she can arouse the male, she fulfills her biological part of the sex act. Beyond that, her biological function is to get pregnant, give birth, and nurture the offspring.

However, in the human cultural world, which often subordinates biology to intellect, this dichotomy between male and female views of sex can cause friction. Women find men regarding them as "sex objects", considering them sexually attractive strictly on their physical appearance, with no regard for their intelligence or status as equal human beings, offensive and demeaning. Men find women regarding them as insensitive louts because they respond to billion-year-old instincts over which they have no control, and having women demand they suppress and ignore those instincts, offensive and demeaning. Since neither gender can alter their instincts, they must alter their intellectual views. This is easier for women, since such a major part of their instinctive sexual response is societal and intellectual to start with. Men are making a great effort to overlay their automatic responses with societal and cultural regards.

Thus, the use of sex in advertising is a two-edged sword. Although it is extremely powerful and effective when aimed at one gender, it often does so at the social expense of the other. Since humans live in a social world, consideration must be given to the feelings of the people in that world. If advertising uses the sex appeal, it must be carefully aimed and tastefully done. There is no sense in appealing to one sex by offending the other.

Notes

1 Side note: the use of stereotypes can aid an ad to produce the desired effect on women, such as showing him as not only handsome and healthy, but rich by showing him with expensive cars and clothing, being intelligent and sophisticated. However, even stereotypes can only go so far before they break down.

2 Side note: there are some anthropological theories that say she got the orgasm to make up for the fear. A little thought will show how ridiculous that is. Nature doesn't care how she feels, any more than nature cares how the male black widow spider, male praying mantis, or stag feels.

3 85% of beer is consumed by men (Kauner, p. 16)

4 Side note: this is why impotence is such a psychologically devastating event for a man -- since his animal (i.e., non-cognitive, non-cultural function) is sexual potency, he equates potency with being alive, worthwhile, deserving of continued existence. Culturally and societally, an impotent man can make just as great a contribution to the commonweal, but deep down inside, he often considers himself a failure (biologically, he is).

**donsaeid** · 10-22-2006, 01:56 AM

**donsaeid** · 10-22-2006, 02:00 AM

Fill this petition and send it today

http://loveyourbody.nowfoundation.org/petition.pdf

**donsaeid** · 10-22-2006, 02:02 AM

Women's Bodies in Sports Ads

Within the more general subject of women and sports advertising, I focused specifically on how the women's bodies are depicted. Using ads from recent copies of Shape and Women's Sports and Fitness, I am looking at the photographic and ideological techniques that advertisers use to create the codes which represent female athletes. Ads are rich cultural narratives created from multiple dialogues about the roles, athleticism, and sexuality of women. Despite the complex nature of the subject matter, these ads depict a very simplistic story. "To be both female and strong today violates traditional codes of feminine identity. Any attempt to reconstruct the body is transgressive against the 'natural' identity of the female body" (Balsamo 1996: 43). The transgression is balanced out by using signifiers of hyper-femininity.

Until just recently, the female body was defined to a large extent by menstruation. "Encumbered as women were with the burdens of menstruation, pregnancy, lactation, and menopause, they were thus instructed to forgo athletic activity in favor of less strenuous pursuits" (Balsamo 1996: 41). " There has been a cultural shift away from this ideology in the last decade in an effort to include women in sports, clearly boosted clearly by the Title 9 legislation. Yet within the mass media, not much has changed; it is just coated differently. This advertising is less about the sport itself and more about being a woman. Gender markers are desperately maintained in women's sports advertising through the images, text, and ideology. Recently, cutting edge advertisers such as Nike, are distinguishing themselves by not relying on these codes, however the majority of this advertising relies heavily on these codes.

Today, the media representations of female athletes tend to draw upon the ideal of woman's natural beauty. Unlike in previous decades, these ads highlight the athletic capabilities and power of the female body, however they also reinforce the dominant cultural order through the blatant sexualization of the athletes' bodies (Balsamo, 1996, 41). This is accomplished through photographic techniques focusing specific attention on a sexualized body part. Balsamo traces this in the coverage of Florence Griffith-Joyner (Flo-Jo) in the 1988 Olympic coverage. Almost every story found a way to focus on her body before her athletic talents. The majority of the pictures of Flo-Jo show her bending over and focus specifically on the sexualized line of her legs. One article spent an entire page talking about her outfit and nails (down to how long it took her to do each nail), and then in the very last sentence the writer managed to mention that she ran the 200 meters faster than any American in history. Flo-Jo is created as a sexual object and her athletic talents are minimized.

Codes for sexuality ooze from every single page of sports ads. There is very little difference between ads in fashion magazines, sports magazines, and pornography. The female body is trapped within male ways of looking. John Berger describes this as the male gaze. "Men act; women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. Thus she turns herself into an object--and most particularly an object of vision--a sight" (Berger 1977, 47). The models in the ads either look directly out at the spectator owner or they direct their focus elsewhere but they are keenly aware that they are being watched. They invite the gaze; they work-out to be watched.

The women¹s bodies are photographed in certain ways to facilitate the male gaze and emphasize female sexuality. Similar to the pictures of Flo-Jo, the lines of the women¹s legs, hips, butt, waist, and arms are over-emphasized. They are placed in unnatural poses, such as bent over or completely layed out, both standard porn techniques, to create these lines. Notice the similarity between the Playboy spread of Cindy Crawford and the TYR swimwear ad. Also the clothes these women are pictured in helps facilitate the male gaze. Almost all of the ads I looked at had the woman in a sports bra and lycra shorts or in a swimsuit for maximum exposure and desirability.

The fantasy woman/sports model possesses all the markers of female beauty in our culture. She has long hair (preferably blonde), large lips, and perfect skin. She is slender and has a flat stomach, which of course creates unreal beauty and fitness standards, which in turn fuels the sale of these exercise magazines. Our fantasy woman is shaved, tanned, and her skin glistens with oil or water from the swimming pool.

Similar to porn, the most important parts of her body are her butt and breasts. Her body is canted to facilitate good views of these parts. Again notice the similarity between the porn image and the ads. Despite the fact that breasts are mostly fat, and you loose fat when you work out, sports models still have prominent breasts generally due to breast implants. Champion capitalizes on women¹s fear of losing their breasts (hence their signifiers as women) if they exercise, with their "In Shape Sports Bra." "Only abs should be flat." It¹s a sports bra that "respects an defines our natural shape." Remember these are FEMALE athletes. Muscles transgress, breasts and butt reinscribe.

The models are toned to create nice lines but they are careful not to have muscles that are too large and masculine. Male signifiers are carefully juxtaposed using these female signifiers. A Metaform ad is an example of this. They juxtapose a small picture of Trisha Lane bareback riding with a larger glossy image of her in a lycra sports bra and shorts lifting small silver weights. All the signifiers of "true woman"' are there: diamond earrings, pretty face, glowing tanned skin, smaller muscles, flat stomach, and most importantly pronounced breasts.

As we can see, women in sports advertising are women first and athletes second. Gender hierarchy is maintained by muffling images of strong women, and reincoding them as sexy.

**donsaeid** · 10-22-2006, 02:03 AM

Advertising stereotypes: From the kitchen to first class

A high-flying female executive takes centre stage in BA's latest advertising campaign. It's a far cry from the soap powder commercials of yesteryear. Cahal Milmo charts the journey

17 June 2005

1950s: LUX

As far as advertisers were concerned, there was only one issue that could rightly obsess 1950s women. One jingle put the matter succinctly: "Brightness, brightness, brightness, women want brightness."

The brightness in question, of course, was that achieved by a household's whites after a session in the twin-tub. With the gloom of the immediate post-war period blossoming into the full flush of consumerism, advertising stuck resolutely to the traditional image of the domestic goddess.

From the rictus grins of housewives, issuing paeans of praise to their washing powders, to pinny-wearing mothers caressing the very latest in formica-clad furniture, the first television adverts aimed at women revolved around her sacred trinity: home, husband and respectability.

Peter York, the author and historian, says: "There was an assumption that no woman could be interested in a career or a job.

"Instead, the messages were aimed at products which would allow the woman to maintain her house, her husband and family, and her appearance.

"The underlying philosophy was one of seemliness. It was about being the right consort and the way in which the products would allow them to achieve that."

By the late 1950s, marketing departments began to detect a shift in consumer buying power and had begun to target teenagers, pushing a more hedonistic set of tastes - from music to fizzy drinks.

But in the meantime, mainstream advertising continued to appeal to the mistress of the house, safe in her spotless kitchen. As another jingle ran: "Wait! Watch it! Here comes the steam/ It's the Hotpoint Hi-Speed kettle/ It's the fastest boiling kettle you can buy."

1960s: FLAKE

Contrary to the industry's self-image as pushing back social boundaries with daring forays into the moral grey zone, advertising often reinforces stereotypes.

Despite lengthening hair, cries of revolution and wafts of marijuana, almost all adverts aimed at women in the 1960s continued to plug domestic appliances and cosmetics such as Avon.

After a post-war peak in the divorce rate between 1946 and 1950, failed marriages fell by a quarter in the early 1960s and the age of first marriage for women fell through the decade to 22.5 years.

A study of the era's television adverts found that in 86 per cent of appearances by women they were shown as users of a product but in only 14 per cent were they used as the "authority", the voiceover where the product is actually sold.

But more daring advertising was emerging with women as sexual objects capable even of enjoying sex. Leading the trend was the team behind a new Cadbury chocolate bar for women. Although tame by the standards of some of its orally fixated successors, the early Flake adverts made no secret of phallic imagery.

Tony Bilsborough, of Cadbury, said: "The adverts carried the slogan 'A moment of conscious abandon', and were meant to appeal to women as a time when they could just forget everything. The ads were made to be sensual and not deliberately sexual because they had to play all day on the television and couldn't be too risqué."

1970s: CHARLIE

With the 1970s came the beginning of a steady rise in the number of working women and their increasing value to advertisers with their pay cheques.

Between 1970 and 1979, the proportion of women with jobs rose from 48 per cent to 65 per cent. But pervading sexual discrimination meant female earnings were only 63 per cent those of men.

In New York the cosmetics giant Revlon moved quickly to boost sales of its Charlie perfume. Portrayed as the scent women could buy for themselves - rather than wait for a gift from a man, presumably - the most famous Charlie Girl was Shelley Hack, the model who went on to star in Charlie's Angels.

Her relaxed look, flicked hair and casual trousers were meant to show a woman at ease with herself at work and at play, though still concerned with her appearance. Revlon ran with the theme, changing the character into a sassy New Yorker. Soon, Britain's television screens were being bombarded with images of the new, independent "Charlie Girl" who pinches her male underling's backside and rides with cowboys. At the campaign's peak in the 1980s, Charlie put her hand on a man's bottom.

James Twitchell, an advertising specialist at Florida University, said: "The Charlie Girl advert showed the woman was in control. She was taller than the man, she had her hand on his butt and she is carrying an attaché case. Not only is she going to work, but the man is probably working for her. It said if you wore this elevator-emptying perfume you were not just a woman but THE woman."

1980s: VOLKSWAGEN GOLF

With the era of shoulder pads and prime ministerial handbags came a new type of adland female - the independent but also increasingly ruthless woman.

That was epitomised in the 1984 advertisement that Volkswagen broadcast to boost sales of its Golf, featuring the model Paula Hamilton.

Viewers watched rapt as the jilted woman sheds her pearls, diamonds and mink coat before stepping back from throwing the keys to her car. The voiceover said: "If only everything in life was as reliable as a Golf."

Peter Clay, the advertising account executive for VW, said: "Our storyline was designed to reflect women's independence. Women find men unreliable, they can be let down in their relationships but at least the car is reliable."

Certainly from the car manufacturer's point of view, the advertisement was considered a roaring success - VW estimates it sold an extra 37,000 Golfs because of the ad.

Commentators argue that the 1980s and the acceleration of the number of women who were in work also finally put an end to what industry insiders refer to as the "two birds and a kitchen" formula of advertising for women.

The scenario of two doughty housewives discussing the relative merits of a washing powder or cleaning product began to slip from the screen (although not before Danny Baker had finished knocking on several suburban front doors offering to relieve hardpressed mothers of their Daz). And the growth of independent women in advertising continued apace after the successful VW advert.

1990s: BODDINGTONS

With women's disposable income reaching record levels and social taboos falling away, the 1990s offered advertisers an opportunity to appeal, as one male executive put it, to "the lad in the ladies".

The result was adverts such as those screened in 1991 for Boddingtons beer, with the Mancunian model Melanie Sykes pioneering the idea that girls also drink pints.

In one of the ads, she plays an ice-cream seller pulling pints of Boddingtons instead of serving cornets, with the catchline: "Do you want a Flake in that, luv?"

The campaign was effective, helping the brewer to increase sales from 50 million pints a year in 1991 to 300 million a year by 1995.

The trend of campaigns aimed at women drinkers coincided with a 79 per cent increase in deaths from alcohol related diseases among women aged from 25 to 44.

**donsaeid** · 10-22-2006, 02:03 AM

Between 1988 and 2000, the proportion of women who drank more than 26 units a week - those classified as heavy drinkers - doubled to 6 per cent.

Advertising commentators point out that the industry has now learnt to shed most of the stereotypes that have governed the industry.

Claire Beale, editor of Campaign magazine, said: "Creative departments by now are much better at reflecting the realistic aspirations of women.

"They don't like being addressed with clichés and this is addressed. As an industry, creative departments are still male bastions - only about a quarter of creatives are women."

Other experts point out that the whole idea of tailoring adverts specifically to women is also beginning to become obsolete. The famous "Hello boys" advert for Wonderbra was aimed at both sexes.

Jonathan Mildenhall, of the agency TBWA, said: "Stop treating women as special-needs customers. There's plenty to engage and entertain women across all media, except perhaps the commercial breaks. Women consider many specifically targeted ads to be patronising, embarrassing and irrelevant."

2005: BRITISH AIRWAYS

Twenty-first-century woman works in business and jets around the world to international meetings, according to British Airways. The glossy, successful businesswoman portrayed in the airline's latest advertisement, on screen tonight for the first time, embodies a stereotype fuelled by a growing female presence in the boardroom.

One study found there were 360,000 women in Britain each worth £500,000 or more, with combined assets of £300bn. The study's author said this reflected the huge increase in the number of women working and holding senior managerial roles.

Over the past three decades the female employment rate has jumped from 42 per cent to 70 per cent, and almost a third of managers are women compared to only 2 per cent in 1974.

The campaign, devised by the advertising gurus Maurice and Charles Saatchi, has a young woman in a business suit sleeping on a long-haul flight and waking in Singapore as if she has spent the night in her own bed.

The landmark ads, markedly different from past campaigns which have always had a man in a suit as the "hero' of the storyline, reflect the growing numbers of women among international business travellers. Jayne O'Brien, BA's head of marketing for the UK and Ireland, said the airline was responding to research showing that 40 per cent of BA's UK executive club members were female.

"Yes, it's a woman in the ad and that's very deliberate," she added. "We are focusing much more on designing our products and focusing on the female market. They are an increasing part of our customer base. It is reflective of the business environment: there are more women in jobs with travel.

"We had a big debate over whether she should wear trousers or a s***t. We researched the concept with customers and women were adamant she had to wear a suit and look like a businesswoman. It had to be absolutely clear she wasn't going shopping. We deliberately did not use a top model. She's got to be someone that female flyers will look at and say, 'That could be me'."

Ms O'Brien said the airline was getting increasing amounts of correspondence from female passengers, making suggestions on everything from seat design to the contents of wash-bags. "What we have been hoping to do very deliberately is make the BA brand a bit more inclusive of female travellers," she said.

**donsaeid** · 10-22-2006, 02:08 AM

Sex in advertising is the use of sexual attraction as a tool of persuasion to draw interest to a particular product, for purpose of sale, generally using attractive models.

Sexuality Portal

Nudity and beefcake in advertising often fall in this category, even if it is often only suggestively so.

History

More recent studies have indicated an expanded overtness of illustrations depicting women as alluring or enticing sex objects. Over the past two decades, the use of increasingly explicit sexual appeals in consumer-oriented print advertising and particularly of women as sex objects has become almost commonplace. Sexuality is considered one of the most powerful tools of marketing and particularly advertising. Post-advertising sales response studies have shown it can be very effective for attracting immediate interest, holding that interest, and, in the context of that interest, introducing a product that somehow correlates with that interest.

Further evidence comes from Gallup & Robinson, an advertising and marketing research firm which reports that in more than 50 years of testing advertising effectiveness, it has found the use of the erotic to be a significantly above-average technique in communicating with the marketplace, "...although one of the more dangerous for the advertiser. Weighted down with taboos and volatile attitudes, sex is a Code Red advertising technique ... handle with care ... seller beware; all of which makes it even more intriguing." This research has led to the popular idea that "sex sells".

The use of sex in advertising can be highly overt or extremely subtle: from relatively explicit displays of sexual acts, down to the use of basic cosmetics to enhance attractive features. The more subtle end of this spectrum has penetrated all types of media including news casts, documentaries, and even fast-food advertisements. The use is not limited to visual media either: one of the criteria in selecting DJs and announcers is the "sexiness" of their voice.

Use of sexual imagery in advertising has been criticised on different grounds. Conservatives, especially religious ones, often consider it obscene. Many feminists feel it objectifies women (as women are more often portrayed in a sexual manner than men). Some claim it reinforces sexism.

Increasingly, this argument has been complicated by growing awareness of androgynous and homoerotic themes used in marketing. Calvin Klein has been at the forefront of this movement, having himself declared, "Jeans are about sex. The abundance of bare flesh is the last gasp of advertisers trying to give redundant products a new identity." In recent years ads for jeans, perfumes and many other products have featured provocative images that were designed to elicit sexual responses from as large a cross section of the population as possible, to shock by their ambivalence, and often to appeal to repressed sexual desires, which are thought to carry a stronger emotional load.

While for long nearly only women where shown as sex objects, increasing tolerance, more tempered censorship, emancipatory developments and increasing buying power of previously neglected appreciative target groups in rich markets (mainly in the west) have lead to a marked increase in the share of attractive male flesh 'on display'.

**donsaeid** · 10-22-2006, 02:11 AM