Hypersexuality- Midriffs
January 8th, 2019
In Merchants of Cool, Rushkoff described a midriff as a young girl whose entire sense of identity is based around their sexuality. A midriff's sensuality is the sole focal point of their character, as that is their only positive feature.
The idea that is perpetuated in modern media is that teenagers and young women may only have their sexuality to offer to society. Their job is in being appeasing and palatable in the world of other's sexual fantasies. Only then, will they be a recognized or valued as a member of society. Popular celebrities often present as midriffs, in movies, music videos, magazines and especially social media platforms. 20 year old Britney Spears used sex to sell her 2001 hit, "Slave 4 U", in which the first lines were "I know I'm young, but I got feelings too" , and proceeded to describe how she would enslave her body to dance for us, the audience. The song, unsurprisingly achieved huge commercial prominence and success, breaking the top ten chart in multiple countries. Rushkoff briefly touched on Britney as an example, but the extent to which this theme has progressed within modern society is unprecedented, and extends beyond the influence of just one artist. Did Britney's art imitate the societal trends surrounding hypersexuality, or did it create and legitimize them?
Sex sells, and it's been contorted into a tool to market product en masse.
I think that when media industries display popular celebrities as a literal slab of meat open for sex, the implications on a society that already holds impossible standards for women is bound to be extensive. A midriff is living in an American society which shames females for not having enough sex with words like "Prude" while simultaneously degrading women that have lots of sex. Both too much and too little are problematic in the eyes of society because they're the result of women making their own choices. So therefore, a midriff's sensuality is not actually her own because modern society has sexualized the body but disregarded the human being.
In the modern age of the Kardashians, there is the derivation of an appearance oriented midriff. The Kardashians stress that women should highlight their bodies with whatever provocative clothing or makeup style that brings about the most attention or prominence. Though this is slightly straying from the conventional components of a midriff, these powerful socialites are telling their huge youth following that to be sexy, or even rich you need to look and dress a certain way, and buy a certain type of makeup. It creates this social climate in which these powerful and wealthy women are solely synonymous with sex symbols or vain appearances, yet they're favored in the media and popularized by a massive youth following who is intent on replicating those same techniques.
I think it's important to take control of your body, but never believe that your body is the only thing you have to control. Teenage girls didn't seek out these methods of hypersexuality, rather these ideas were force fed to them through large media platforms, and I think it's important to acknowledge that teenagers, and young adults will follow the trends which are heavily popularized in the media, like sex.
January 8th, 2019
In Merchants of Cool, Rushkoff described a midriff as a young girl whose entire sense of identity is based around their sexuality. A midriff's sensuality is the sole focal point of their character, as that is their only positive feature.
The idea that is perpetuated in modern media is that teenagers and young women may only have their sexuality to offer to society. Their job is in being appeasing and palatable in the world of other's sexual fantasies. Only then, will they be a recognized or valued as a member of society. Popular celebrities often present as midriffs, in movies, music videos, magazines and especially social media platforms. 20 year old Britney Spears used sex to sell her 2001 hit, "Slave 4 U", in which the first lines were "I know I'm young, but I got feelings too" , and proceeded to describe how she would enslave her body to dance for us, the audience. The song, unsurprisingly achieved huge commercial prominence and success, breaking the top ten chart in multiple countries. Rushkoff briefly touched on Britney as an example, but the extent to which this theme has progressed within modern society is unprecedented, and extends beyond the influence of just one artist. Did Britney's art imitate the societal trends surrounding hypersexuality, or did it create and legitimize them?
Sex sells, and it's been contorted into a tool to market product en masse.
I think that when media industries display popular celebrities as a literal slab of meat open for sex, the implications on a society that already holds impossible standards for women is bound to be extensive. A midriff is living in an American society which shames females for not having enough sex with words like "Prude" while simultaneously degrading women that have lots of sex. Both too much and too little are problematic in the eyes of society because they're the result of women making their own choices. So therefore, a midriff's sensuality is not actually her own because modern society has sexualized the body but disregarded the human being.
In the modern age of the Kardashians, there is the derivation of an appearance oriented midriff. The Kardashians stress that women should highlight their bodies with whatever provocative clothing or makeup style that brings about the most attention or prominence. Though this is slightly straying from the conventional components of a midriff, these powerful socialites are telling their huge youth following that to be sexy, or even rich you need to look and dress a certain way, and buy a certain type of makeup. It creates this social climate in which these powerful and wealthy women are solely synonymous with sex symbols or vain appearances, yet they're favored in the media and popularized by a massive youth following who is intent on replicating those same techniques.
I think it's important to take control of your body, but never believe that your body is the only thing you have to control. Teenage girls didn't seek out these methods of hypersexuality, rather these ideas were force fed to them through large media platforms, and I think it's important to acknowledge that teenagers, and young adults will follow the trends which are heavily popularized in the media, like sex.
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