The Objectificaion and Sexualisation of Women in the Namibian Mainstream Print Media

Authors

  • Cindy Wan Wyk
  • Fred Mwilima Lecturer: Media Studies Department of Information and Communication Studies, University of Namibia

Keywords:

gender blindness, objectification, gender mainstreaming, temptress, collective beneficiary, sexualisation.

Abstract

The 1990s saw a growing awareness towards the integration of gender issues in government policies and planning. Gender mainstreaming began to be recognised as an issue that impact women and calling on all government policies to be guided by a gender perspective. Print media remains a critical medium for transforming gender relations, yet gender blindness seems to be apparent in media reports. Societies are composed of complex networks of groups with different and sometimes competing interests. These interest groups heavily depend on the media as important sources of information about the world and a powerful means of shaping attitudes and beliefs. But the media seems to fuel inequalities in their coverage of gender related issues. In the quest to reach its audience, the media is inclined to use sexual imagery which objectifies the woman body as sex object. Given the importance of gender mainstreaming in framing national policies to stem the portrayal of women as objects and temptresses, this study seeks establish whether the Namibian print media objectify and sexualise the Namibian women as sex objects.

 

References

• Carpenter, C. & Edison, A. (2004). Taking It Off All Over Again: The Portrayal of Women in Advertising Over the Past Forty Years, University of Alabama

• Castillo, J.J. (2009). Research Population. Retrieved from http://explorable.com/research¬population

• Christian Keulder (2006). Media usage and political knowledge in Namibia: a research experiment among students, Windhoek, Institute for Public Policy Research.

• BBC News Magazine (2012, December 3). Five Things About Women in the Press. Retrieved from http://www .bbc.co. uk/news/magazine-20554942.

• S.M. Noll & B. L Fredrickson (2011) A Mediational model linking self objectification, model shame and disordering eating. Retrieved from http://psy.haifa.ac.il/~ep/Students_Post/Projects/Project_1/2010-11/nollfredrickson1998.pdf

• D. M. Szymanski & L. B. Moffitt (2011). Sexual Objectification of Women: Advances to Theory and Research. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/education/ce/sexual-objectification.pdf

• Gunter, B. (2002). Media Sex: What are the Issues? Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Publishers.

• James, B (2005). Media and Good Governance. Paris, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.

• Lewins, A., Taylor, C & Gibbs, G.R. (2005). What is Qualitative Data Analysis?' Online QDA: Learning Qualitative Data Analysis on the Web. Retrieved from http://onlinegda.hud.ac.uk/Intro QDA/whatis gda.php.

• Rabinowitz, P. & Fawcett, S. (2013). Collecting and Analyzing Data. Retrieved from http://ctb.ku.edu/en/tablecontents/chapter3 7 /section5 .aspx.

• Redwin, B. (2009). Media Portrayal of Women. Retrieved from http://suitel 01.com/article/media-portrayal-of-women-a189870.

• Research Methodology: An Introduction. Retrieved from http://www.newagepublishers.com/samplechapter/000896 . pdf.

• R.L. Seema (n.d). Research Design. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/gaurav22/research-design.

• E. Shamoo & B.R. Resnik (2003). Responsible Conduct of Research. Oxford University Press.

• J. Stankiewiez & F. Rosselli (2008). Women as Sex Objects and Victims in Print Advertisements-Sex Roles. Retrieved from http://www.skidmore.edu/classics/courses/2011spring/gw101/Women%20As%20Sex%20Objects%20and%20Victims%20in%20Print%20Advertisements.pdf.

• Zimmerman, A. & Dahlberg, J. (2008). The Sexual Objectification of Women in Advertising: Retrieved from http://www.skidmore.edu/classics/courses/2011spring/gw101/Women%20As%20Sex%20Objects%20and%20Victims%20in%20Print%20Advertisements.pdf.

• Deborah Walter (2007). The tabloid explosion, Gender and media diversity Journal. Cape Town, Gender Links.

• Malamuth, N., & Impett, E. A. (2000). Research on sex in the media: What do we know about effects on children and adolescents? In D. Singer & J. Singer (Eds.), Handbook of Children and the Media. (pp. 269-287). Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.

• Kilbourne, J. (2002). Beauty and the Beast of Advertising. Retrieved March 12, 2005 from http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/article40.html

Downloads

Published

2015-02-15

How to Cite

Wyk, C. W., & Mwilima, F. (2015). The Objectificaion and Sexualisation of Women in the Namibian Mainstream Print Media. Asian Journal of Humanities and Social Studies, 3(1). Retrieved from https://ajouronline.com/index.php/AJHSS/article/view/1798

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 1 (2015): February 2015

Section

Articles

License

  • Papers must be submitted on the understanding that they have not been published elsewhere (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture, review, or thesis) and are not currently under consideration by another journal published by any other publisher.
  • It is also the authors responsibility to ensure that the articles emanating from a particular source are submitted with the necessary approval.
  • The authors warrant that the paper is original and that he/she is the author of the paper, except for material that is clearly identified as to its original source, with permission notices from the copyright owners where required.
  • The authors ensure that all the references carefully and they are accurate in the text as well as in the list of references (and vice versa).
  • Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  • Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  • Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
  • The journal/publisher is not responsible for subsequent uses of the work. It is the author's responsibility to bring an infringement action if so desired by the author.