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In this chapter, several plays from post-revolutionary Cuban theatre are examined, focusing on the strategies of representation of black women characters. Through the analysis of four plays—two from the 1960s and two from the twenty-first century—Lugo Herrera compares the strategies of representation in each period and demonstrates the persistence of racism in contemporary Cuban society. One finding is the need to create new forms of affiliation, opportunity, and recognition for black women. Plays by Maite Vera, Jose Milian, Eugenio Hernandez Espinosa, Rogelio Orizondo, Georgina Herrera, and Fatima Patterson offer us new ways to consider the sexualization of black female bodies, and the ways in which racism affects family, economic survival, and the professionalization of black women in the Cuban Revolution.

Music videos typically are used to entertain the public, but the effects of music videos can be much more far-reaching than just entertainment. In many types of music in general, and music videos in particular, there are themes of objectification, sexualization, and control of women. This study seeks to examine the representation and the objectification of women using a longitudinal content analysis of music genres and associated music videos. This study, to our knowledge, is the first to fill the gap in literature, in that it concurrently analyzes a variety of genres and eras at one time. Four major themes emerged in the research: implicit aggression, explicit aggression, aggression with sexuality, and objectification, and were prevalent in all music genres studied. It is our belief that these themes are potentially problematic as the media is one of the major agents of socialization; as such, if these stereotypes of women are prevalent in the media, there may be deleterious effects on young women and girls’ self-esteem and self-efficacy.

We argue that inequality plays such an important role in shaping human behavior because of the strong effects it exerts on individual reproductive success and thus evolutionary fitness. Here we examine evidence of the relationship between economic inequality and reproductive incentives in men and women. Inequality has been shown to increase men’s competition for status and respect, particularly among men who are younger and poorer. This competition is an important explanatory variable in rates of accidental death, addiction, violence, and property crime. We then focus on parallel links in women, summarizing evidence that high economic inequality increases women’s investment of time and attention on competitive reproductive pursuits (such as improving physical and sexual attractiveness). We suggest that these behaviors are due to proximate desires to socially signal and socially climb, and may also reflect a concern with external approval. We show that these proximate mechanisms can be interpreted in terms of the ultimate function of achieving greater reproductive success via enhanced status, safety, and material well-being in economically unequal environments.

The image of shōjo is largely conveyed through visual cues of dress, gesture, and appearance. With the exception of the now well-documented Japanese Lolita fashion, however, theoretical analysis of the association between shōjo and dress is still a rarity. Paying particular attention to fashion brand Milk, and romantic ballerinas and Victorian girls as underlying inspirations, this chapter aims to uncover significant meanings behind shōjo fashion. It contends that fashion aesthetic is crucially intertwined with the process of crafting and sustaining the image of shōjo, and further that this aesthetic subverts the stereotypical equation of girlish (shōjo) femininity with derogatory sexualization, values denounced as passive and unfavorable in many Euro-American societies. The shōjo fashion aesthetic, this chapter argues, inverts these negative associations into positive and empowering ones.

Although representing aliens in varying ways, Inisero Cremaschi and Gilda Musa’s Le grotte di Marte [The Caves of Mars] (1974), Daniela Piegai’s Parola di alieno [Alien Word] (1978), Anna Rinonapoli’s “Metamorfosi cosmica” [Cosmic Metamorphosis] (1986), and Luce D’Eramo’s Partiranno [They Will Leave] (1986) all attempt to reimagine the dualism of human or non-human, which mirrors that between Self and Other. Drawing on Donna Haraway’s critical reflections, the chapter demonstrates how science fiction—which was disregarded in Italy by dominant Marxist and feminist scholars—allowed women writers to explore new possibilities and limits in the narration of the alterity, reflecting on the interconnection of race and gender discrimination. This section challenges the idea that Italian science fiction is merely an entertaining B-genre, showing how it reflects on the legacy of colonialism, transnational migration, and processes of racialization and sexualization. This chapter also compares and contrasts the representations of aliens with those in popular Italian movies made at the beginning of a visible immigration to Italy, such as Luigi Cozzi’s Contamination (1980) and Pier Francesco Pingitore’s Ciao marziano (1980). The chapter argues that these movies give fictional shape to the repressed collective fears that might have in turn inspired contemporary racist propaganda against immigrants.

In recent years, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) athletes have received more media attention than ever before. Declining levels of homophobia across the Western world has facilitated a greater acceptance of LGBT athletes among heterosexual teammates, fans, and the sports media. Consequently, academic interest in sport, gender and sexuality has also increased substantially. This edited collection combines studies of gender and sexuality with that of the sports media to provide the first-ever comprehensive academic overview of LGBT athletes in the sports media. It draws upon work from a wide range of international scholars to provide an interdisciplinary analysis of improved media coverage of LGBT athletes, as well as the numerous issues and barriers which continue to exist.The chapter considers the Media responses to the 2015 FIFA World Cup campaign and the perceptions of journalists in terms of the players in the English squad.

In the introduction, the book’s editors introduce the topic of mediated misogyny. They begin with a brief analysis of the 1913 Women’s Suffrage March and the 2016 U.S. presidential election as a way to contextualize the current moment of misogyny. They do this with a specific focus on how Trump uses media and Twitter to target, humiliate, and harass women. The chapter outlines how mass media, including advertising, film, journalism, and television, have a long history of marginalizing and trivializing women’s roles in society through the objectification and sexualization of their bodies. This provides context for analyzing how the Internet contributes to ongoing harassment of women. They identify the gendered nature of women’s online experiences and examine trends in gender-based harassment. The chapter also introduces the aims and scope of the book alongside some key takeaways.

The analysis of media representations of female sexuality has sparked ongoing scholarly debates in which the harms of sexualization are counterpoised against the notion of a “moral panic” over girls’ sexual expression. However, the polarized terms of the debate fail to account for the importance of radical contextualization in analyzing the mediation of girls’ sexuality. Using the Aristotelian concept of Eudaimonia, or the ideal of a “flourishing life,” and its basis in the material conditions of existence, it is proposed here that issues of power, vulnerability, and the politics of location must be taken into account in feminist media studies such that sexual representation’s connections with gendered social inequalities and injustices are recognized and redressed.

African Americans sometimes appear in 9/11 novels as secondary characters, but only to act as flattering mirrors for the white protagonists. The prevalent sexualization of black women and fear of hybridity is also addressed.

This chapter argues for 30 Rock (2006–2013, Creat. Tina Fey) as camp’s answer to postfeminism’s inner contradictions, such as an anti-feminist backlash and notions of sexualization as empowerment. Horn reads the series as a hybrid of feminist sitcom (e.g., Murphy Brown, The Mary Tyler Moore Show) and variety show (e.g., Saturday Night Live) to account for 30 Rock’s infusion with slapstick elements. Fey’s show thereby creates a carnivalesque environment for its criticism and deliberately reverses the sidekick–lead dynamic, through which the liminal (concerning sitcoms’ representation of gender) is brought to the fore. 30 Rock thus effectively combines elements of critical distance and affective involvement to foster the audience’s detached attachment to its central female characters, which enables the show’s intervention in postfeminist sensibility.

The chapter is concerned with children’s capability of sexuality as part of their bodily integrity. Since childhood sexuality is a highly contested and taboo issue, Graf and Schweiger first examine scientific knowledge about the sexual agency of children and its development. Then they focus on two different threats to children’s bodily integrity: the sexualization of childhood and sexual abuse. While the first one is situated on a societal and cultural level, dealing with such issues as the negative influence of the media, the ubiquitous availability of pornography, or the advertisement of unrealistic body ideals, the second issue of sexual abuse is located on the interpersonal level, although social factors are also important for its understanding and ethical critique.

In this chapter Eischeid continues her expose of the many issues of distortion and embellishment contained in Fenelon’s Holocaust memoir Playing for Time. Topics addressed include rehearsal hours and night work, the controversy over Fenelon’s age and its significance, false repertoire claims, fear of retribution for bad performance, false portrayals of Josef Kramer and Josef Mengele and the sexualization of the SS, embellished or manufactured details about major camp events, the inaccurate portrayal of Oberaufseherin Maria Mandl, and the untrue representations of other Auschwitz prisoners including Zofia Czajkowska, Fanny Birkenwald, Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, Helene Scheps, Violette Jacquet Silberstein, and the Ovitz dwarf family.

Global statistics show that nearly a third of the world’s girls and women will be the victims of violence. Women who are victimized have long known that they live in communities that blame them for their injuries due to patriarchal values. Global trends suggest that increasingly this victim blaming is being formally incorporated into law. This chapter explores the women’s criminalization of women’s victimizations in four areas: the merging of religion and law to criminalize female sexuality and sexual expression; the demonization and sexualization of “enemy” women as a justification for mass rape in wartime; the criminalization of reproductive rights; and the use of courts to punish victims of sexual abuse who run away from their abusers. Through this discussion, the authors suggest that the pattern of criminalizing women and girls’ victimization requires both research to document and action to challenge the “legal” abuse of women and enforcement of patriarchal privilege.