Are Women Sex Objects to Men?

In most college movies, the women are seen as sex objects to the men in the movies. Men in theses college movies are always partying, drinking, and having sex. All the women do is to give the men the pleasure of their sexy bodies. Hollywood makes several movies each year and a few of those movies are comedies. Why does Hollywood choose to exploit college life and college education by the use of stereotyping women and degrading them?

So I have chosen two articles that both related to my issue as well somewhat related to the analysis of both my movie and the scene that I chose. The two articles that I have chosen are: Sexting, Catcalls, and Butt Slaps: How Gender Stereotypes and Perceived Group Norms Predict Sexualized Behavior and Mean Girls? The Influence of Gender Portrayals in Teen Movies on Emerging Adults’ Gender-Based Attitudes and Beliefs.

My first article is a study that was performed to examine the role of endorsed stereotypes of men and women as well as the group norms regarding the three distinct stereotypical sexualized behaviors (Jewell and Brown, 595). One way that the population is being affected by these sexualized stereotypes about men and women is through the media itself. Yes, that is right Hollywood, TV commercials, movies and magazines are targeted to the late adolescents of the United States (Jewell and Brown, 595). Seeing how the media is greatly affecting the young adults and college students about the stereotypes of both men and women is very frightening. So why is the media degrading or even stretching the truth about college in general in their college teen movies in the first place?
In Sexting, Catcalls, and Butt Slaps, it is stated that “Although we predict a link between sexualized gender stereotypes and stereotypical sexualized behaviors, we assume that stereotypical sexualized behaviors will be gender-specific, as each gender has a different part in the heterosexual script,” (Jewell and Brown, 596). This statement pretty much proves that both the men and women in the world have a specific “sex role” in life. The in the study that is talked about in this article, the participants were mostly women (178 girls, 72 boys) and that more than 39% of the women in the study were a part of a sorority Jewell and Brown, 597). Um, hello is the connection between the media, aka Hollywood, college women finally connecting in your brain. Hollywood and the media are focused on the women in sororities at college!! The article even states that a little more than 29% of the men in the study are a part of a fraternity (Jewell and Brown, 597). The connection between my movie, American Pie Presents: Beta House, and this article is so greatly connected that it blows my mind.

In the other article, Mean Girls, it has a two part study that explores the exposure of teen movies and the cognitive theory framework of documenting gender portrayals. The students were participated in this study were surveyed about their viewing habits, gender-related beliefs, and attitudes ( Behm-Morawitz and Mastro, 131). The first sentence in the article says “Research examining the effects of media exposure demonstrates that media consumption has a measurable influence on people’s perceptions of the real world, and, regardless of the accuracy of these perceptions, they are used to help guide subsequent attitudes, judgements, and actions,” (Behm-Morawitz and Mastro, 131). This statement is true because in the real world today, people are told that college is all about the parties that happen on campus. It also lets the reader know that people’s judgements about college are wrong in a way that they want to believe what they hear. When I first came to college, I was surprised at hoe much time the sororities and fraternities spend doing fundraisers as well as participating in the campus life at UNC-Charlotte.

The study gives a list of what teen movies are and also gives some examples. “A Teen movie is defined as a movie starring teenage characters that focused exclusively, or predominantly, on these characters, and that was marketed primarily to teens and young adults, (Behm-Morawitz and Mastro, 134). Some of the teen movies that are provided are as follows : Freaky Friday(2003), The Lizzie McGuire Movie(2003), Bring It On(1999), A Walk to Remember(2002), and many more are listed. These movies are true teen movies whereas Beta House, Good Will Hunting, Neighbors, and etc. are considered college movies. The difference between these groups of movies is that the second group is more focused on the college life and what happens in college and on a college campus. Some of the movies such as Beta House and Neighbors, focus more on the partying and Greek Life of college, while Good Will Hunting focuses more in the education aspect of college life, which in turn the first two college movies lack. But the first set of movies listed that came from the article, are the teen movies that teenagers, 12-15 year olds, should watch. Teenagers don’t need to watch the college movies because (1) the movies can be rated R, (2) the graphic nature and sexual nature of the movies, and (3) teenagers are too young to be viewing the college movies that deal with sex.

So, how do my two articles relate to my issue of women and stereotypes? Well, college movies portray when gender roles in the movies based on the stereotypes that are generally focused around college like parties, drinking, and sex. The media, *cough cough* Hollywood, likes to the stretch the truth about the big stereotypes based upon women (they are only sex objects and just give men sex all the time). And finally, how does the articles, my issue and my movie relate to one another? UM HELLO?? Each one talks about the women and how they are considered “sex objects” in college, when in reality the women are not that. The women of sororities are respectful young women who help out in the community and around campus.