This makes me so hot. I'm a victim of my generation...

Not to downplay this AT ALL, because I think this is a serious issue but...,
(and I am a father of a twelve year old daughter that I must raise in this new marketing insanity).

I wonder if those abuse statistics have really changed much over the years. We are becoming so hyper-sensitive to the issues of abuse, it makes me wonder if this is actualy on the rise or is it just hitting the channels of communication more. Especialy with the internet, individual cases are more accesable to the mainstream population. Are we just opening our eyes to it in a new way or is it on the uprise.

Also I wonder if with the way communication is changing, are more woman just stepping up and admitting the abuse.

I am awear that as the population grows, the case numbers increase, but what is the percentage of increase for abuse. And have the percentages of men Vs. women changed over the years. These are all things that skew these statistical numbers.

Today's media is an opertunistic industry that creates waves because it sells.
The truth is, I don't have the facts but I wonder if there are some clear/cut facts out there. Of course, trying to prove who is to blame is an argument that will never solve itself.

My job is just to educate my daughter on self-esteam and to keep her awear of the crap that sells on the news stands.

as someone who spent 23 years as an abuse statistic in one relationship or another, i have often wondered the same thing. i know my grandfather was abusive to his family and my mom and grandmother still will never ever admit to it, the physical violence in my family as a child was kept hush hush and we still do not talk about. i have been divorced for 3 years now and am just now starting to admit to the violence in that relationship and i will never tell my family.

domestic violence is not a new thing, but really has only been socially unacceptable and openly talked about for the last 25 years or so. its visibility in a lot of ways has developed alongside this sexually sensationalized media market. its interesting and id like to see an in depth analysis of it.

oh, in my human development class we learned that only less than 30% of adults who were abused as children abuse their own children. so the "abused grow up to be abusers" is a little sensationalized.

Typically, woman rely on beauty and men rely on money. Is one really more superficial than the other? The reason woman have it worse is because they're not encouraged to make it on their own, but both sides are still trapped in believing nonsense.

Oh yeah...

Question:
"Why would a philosophy professor, especially a man, make a film about misogyny in media and culture?"

Answer:
To get laid. He focuses the video on a worthy cause, but still has to put himself in the center of it like every other self-important wanker. Why are we supposed to give a shit why HE would make this video? If he wasn't after recognition why even mention it? Are we supposed to believe he is the first man to realize the blight of the western woman's sexual oppression? He's not the first man, he knows he's not the first man, but he still claims some sort unique standpoint. But surely we MUST be informed that he is putting something before himself. If the reason is not to get laid, then he must be a pretty awful university professor if he's spending his time belaboring such a developed subject. Why make a film? WHY MAKE A five-minute youtube video? How about: why write a book, why give a seminar, in fact, why not stop simplifying a very complex problem into another case of simple victimization, and actually start understanding that western culture commodizes EVERYTHING, including woman, including men, including foreign labor, including the idiotic rappers who do those songs, including natural resources, children, creativity, and everything that has a word for it. Why not fight that?

^ this is actually the trailer for an entire documentary. i agree that first bit SEEMS a tad self-serving, but im gonna reserve judgement until i see the whole film.

also, the problem with having 1 causes is that, as you seem to be pointing out EVERYTHING is connected. i cant care about the exploitation of women in this country, without also being concerned about the exploitation of the children in another, then i must also be concerned with poverty, and then comes the environment, and then i cant eat meat because it both destroys the environment and exploits animals and poor people. i cant use any products that may have at some point been tested on animals and i spin myself around in a circle until i can not function in the world i was created in because every one of my actions has negative impacts on someone elses world. ive been in this place before. its maddening.

i dont know what the solution is. but this is one thing that i care about. and this is one thing that someone is trying doing about it (speaking up, striking the conversation, inspiring debate). and i will appreciate it.

^ I totally agree. This needs attention and people should know. I just find the subject matter very safe. This discussion has been going on for decades, since the dawn of woman's lib, and now here is the same discussion again, except he has exchanged the variables (the woman who are currently famous).

And I'm not trying to say that you can't be concerned with woman without being concerned about the mistreatment of park squirrels, but I think it would be an incomplete discussion if it purposefully made the influence of woman through media seem singular.

You're right, I should watch the entire documentary before I pass judgment, but I just find the trailer to be flamebait with no original thesis. I guess it still works fine as a trailer though since they're only supposed to peek your interest

While I agree with most of what is said in this video, the problem is not as gender-specific as they seem to portray it. The media pressures young men to look, act, and be a certain way, just as it does with young women. Moreover, men are pressured to be with women who also look, act, and are a certain way, so the media's perpetrations against women are clearly perpetrations against men as well.

Moreover, the statistics of domestic violence are difficult, at best, to pin down. One case of domestic violence is, to be sure, too many, but the problems--again--exist for men, perhaps in a worse way because, how many men do you know who would admit to being physically assaulted/abused by their wife or girlfriend?

The gender imbalances, the "war between the sexes," is a tricky issue, at best, especially given its convergences with questions of "beauty," "relationship," and "sexuality." The mass media's complicity within this battle only adds kerosene to the inferno, making the problems between the genders one of the gravest threats to face our species, comparable to even the climate crisis.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'female, media, pop, culture, marketing, feminism' to 'female, media, pop, culture, marketing, feminism, pussycat' - edited by MrFisk

Ovid was exiled from Rome.

trancecoach - i absolutely agree. i read some articles a few months ago about the 2 conflicting attitudes we're given about sex and gender, one from the media and one from our institutions - government, school, religion, family - it discussed how boys were bombarded with ideas of masculinity from the media that tell them to be macho, objectify, be tough, be cool. and from our sex our sex education programs - your penis will kill someone and make babies you wont support - these ideas are just as damaging to our sons as they are to our daughters. i am raising both a son and a daughter without a television in our home or a father to provide the masculine perspective... im just as concerned about my son as i am about my daughter.

i have some videos about it i will sift in a bit when i have more room in my queue. perhaps a sift talk post featuring articles about sex and gender need to be in the works.

also, i feel like it goes without saying that the oversexualization of girls and the huge misogynistic presence in the media and culture has an equally profound impact on boys.

*promote

Promoting this video back to the front page; last published Sunday, March 22nd, 2009 1:48am PDT - promote requested by kronosposeidon.

lets talk about masculinity in the media now : http://www.videosift.com/video/Tough-Guise-the-crisis-in-masculinity
and http://www.videosift.com/video/Black-Masculinity-in-America

Male feminism?

It may not be obvious but these girls like it the way they are. Just look around you. Most girls look normal and natural, but those that imitate some Hollywood slut want to be just that. "She likes the attention."
Why is this guy fighting for something that that category of women don't want?
It's the same with boys. Not all are tough muscular douchebags. Only those that choose it. I believe it's called freedom.

PS: Where I come from, people still realize that there is more to life than wallpapering your face to look pretty.

I think there are plenty of valid questions in this area that need to be explored, but this video's presentation does the message a disservice. There's no contrasting viewpoints, specious implications between media imagery and domestic violence, a corny soundtrack that tells you precisely what you should be feeling at any given moment, and a bunch of self-righteous talking heads who presuppose that The Media is the villain and we're nothing but a monkey-see, monkey-do culture.

If the makers of this movie truly want to engage the intellect - and it seems to me that at least part of their point is that emotion-driven media is to blame - then they need to respect their viewers and leave the manipulative tactics out of their argument.

^ once again, its a trailer!

I've only ever been hit by two people in my entire life. (without gloves on) They are:

1. My mother
2. My wife.

^ Assuming the trailer's an inaccurate representation of the movie, then I stand corrected. But the trailer's still shamelessly manipulative.

"Put anthrax on your tampax and slap you until you can't stand!"

LOL! That's not misogyny. That's hilarity.

ah.. such is the plight of the trailer... this trailer is still a victim of the misogynistic media bias! just look at that thumbnail!

>> ^callistan:
^ Assuming the trailer's an inaccurate representation of the movie, then I stand corrected. But the trailer's still shamelessly manipulative. <IMG class=smiley src="http://static1.videosift.com/videosift/i/emoticon/wink.gif">

These guys are morons plain and simple.

To somehow say bad music videos = rape at the end? That's retarded.

Stupid people who watch TV and believe they should do everything the people they idolize do are to blame. Kill stupid people and we'd have less problems.

Having a sexy cleavage thumbnail kinda defeats the message this kind of video might allegedly be trying to convey, no?

The artists aren't responsible for these cultural phenomenon. They merely heed the call of the demand.

Low education and low economic status makes easily gullible and easily manipulated consumers.

America considers itself more or less a large cage crammed with consumers. We are nothing more than that. We are nothing but a livestock to milk out whatever we could possibly can from each other.

Rampant capitalism run amok, but again, it is not the performers fault. We as a culture promoted such ideals. It's time we put capitalism on a leash.

and we are systematically being made stupid, look at our education stats.

i fully realize that people are responsible for their own ideas. but we are also programmed by our culture and we are growing a generation of kids right now that are being raised by the television and institutionally kept ignorant. its a dangerous combination. thats all im saying.

>> ^legacy0100:
The artists aren't responsible for these cultural phenomenon. They merely heed the call of the demand.

Of course they're responsible. If I start prostituting children because there's a demand, am I blameless?

Philosophers have identified a pandemic! Philosophy is an area of academia that has no use for statistics or evidence, because they can just say things and that makes it true!

"Thinkers" have been hand-wringing for decades, centuries, and millenium about the horrific corruption of our youth that will surely lead to the collapse of civilization Real Soon.

In order to be taken seriously by the scientific community, these experts would need to actually look at the data, like any professional would, before they declare a pandemic. After they did that, if there was really a pandemic, they would have to do a lot more work (boring!) before implying the cause is rap music and Paris Hilton movies.

On a completely unrelated note, does anyone know the name of the song starting at 3:15?

chilaxe: Agreed. This isn't a pandemic, this isn't some eye opening theory. This is the same bullshit since "culture" began. Nostradamus got famous in his time for marketing a teeth whitening formula he invented. Celebrity women of those times had such low necklines, they'd show nipple if they didn't have a typical breast size. The roman culture was all about vanity, even in politics. Egyptian queens wore little more than cheese cloth and jewelery for ceremonies.

These are all cultures where it's undeniable that women were possessions, and were beaten regularly. Often because their husbands or masters couldn't beat the men that made them angry.

Xax: You haven't come up with a clever argument. "Children" isn't a uniform term everywhere in the world, which makes it a useless ejaculate. The argument you're trying to make is invalid as it is. One being as example of parasites trying to make gains on an already heavily exploited market. The other example being designed for knee-jerk reaction to a problem you aren't actually addressing. "Think of the children" has become the new Godwin's law.

Thank you for causing some major cognitive dissonance.

>> ^Ryjkyj:
I've only ever been hit by two people in my entire life. (without gloves on) They are:
1. My mother
2. My wife.


Aside from one childhood fight in grade 5, I can honestly lay the same claim!

Videosift top 15 (as of this posting):
....
5. Sarah Silverman - On why she's not a Diva
6. Generation M: Misogyny in Media & Culture
7. Film of the Year: Nerds & Topless Girls Playing PacMan
....

I'm so happy that most of the role models for girls nowadays are complete whores.

1.boys are raised to be macho and to objectify and hate on women while competing with their friends for those same women.
2.women are raised to look down on men if they show emotion, thus getting into relationships with emotionally detached assholes and then hating men because they are "all assholes" while having no one to turn to because all other women are competition.

^ I find ALOT of people that fit this generalization an it makes me sad.

Lets grow up shall we? If all normal and kind people unaffected by the media chose other normal kind people to be with then all the assholes would have no one to interbreed with than other assholes, thus killing each other in explosive asshole fits of rage.

For every girl who is tired of acting weak when she is strong, there is a boy tired of appearing strong when he feels vulnerable.

For every boy who is burdened with the constant expectation of knowing everything, there is a girl tired of people not trusting her intelligence.

For every girl who is tired of being called over-sensitive, there is a boy who fears to be gentle, to weep.

For every boy whom competition is the only way to prove his masculinity, there is a girl called unfeminine when she competes.

For every girl who throws out her E-Z-Bake oven, there is a boy who wishes to find one.

For every boy struggling not to let advertising dictate his desires, there is a girl facing the ad industry’s attacks on her self-esteem.

For every girl who takes a step toward her liberation, there is a boy who finds the way to freedom a little easier.

*equality

Adding video to channels (Equality) - requested by burdturgler.