Commodification of Sex
"From a Marxist perspective, business owners want one thing : to make money by selling their goods." (1)
This statement is very true of most big business owners. These companies have found that using sex to sell their products is very lucrative. One of these big businesses is definitely Hollywood, which frequently puts women on screen solely to exploit them as sex objects, and therefore, make male consumers spend more at the box office.
This statement is very true of most big business owners. These companies have found that using sex to sell their products is very lucrative. One of these big businesses is definitely Hollywood, which frequently puts women on screen solely to exploit them as sex objects, and therefore, make male consumers spend more at the box office.
Originally coined in a 1991 New York Times article written by Katha Pollit, this phrase refers to a TV show or film in which "a group of male buddies will be accented by a lone female, stereotypically defined." It's name comes from the children's cartoon The Smurfs, which featured a large group of little blue men, along with Smurfette, the only female. Her entire purpose was basically to fill the role of the token female character. Female characters in this role are often very defined by gender roles and tend to be overly sexualized. Pollit perfectly explains the dangerous lesson this type of character organization teaches viewers (young and old):
"The message is clear. Boys are the norm, girls the variation; boys are central, girls peripheral; boys are individuals, girls types. Boys define the group, its story and its code of values. Girls exist only in relation to boys." (4)
With so many female characters portrayed in these exploitative, stereotypical ways, it is no wonder that sexual objectification of women and the idea of male dominance are so normalized in our society. Based on what it portrays, the film industry uses its power as a tool of socialization to create the norms and sexual scripts that define what we find "sexy" and what the appropriate sexual behaviors are. (5) This is unsettling since many Hollywood films do not teach healthy messages.
Footnotes: (1) Seidman,
Steven. "Theoretical Perspectives." Introducing the New
Sexuality Studies. Ed. Steven Seidman, Nancy Fischer, and Chet Meeks. 2nd
ed. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2011. 3-12. Print. (2) https://www.nyfa.edu/film-school-blog/gender-inequality-in-film/#!prettyPhoto/0/ (3) http://seejane.org/wp-content/uploads/full-study-gender-disparity-in-family-films-v2.pdf (4) http://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/07/magazine/hers-the-smurfette-principle.html (5) James,
Kelly. "Sexual Pleasure." Introducing the New Sexuality
Studies. Ed. Steven Seidman, Nancy Fischer, and Chet Meeks. 2nd ed.
Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2011. 32-7. Print.