Week 2: Women´s Amazing Bodies: How they work, and what happens when they don´t.
From body parts to body crisis: Where did body image problems come from?
It is very fascinating that many people did not even have a mirror a long time ago. This suggests that a perfect appearance was less important. With the emergence of the media, a regular beauty madness began. The cause is probably in our society, especially in media and advertising. All people around the world are reached, whether young or old. Society strongly influences our beauty ideals. I think it is very important that you should always be aware of this. Most women think seriously, for example, that their breasts must be the same size, symmetrical and should not hang. Then they are healthy and beautiful breasts. The reality is different. There are rarely such perfect breasts. It is natural that they are different. From an international perspective it can be seen that a new trend has been developed concerning the perfect body for several years. Since 2016 in Germany, the Curvey Supermodel is being sought instead of Germany's Next Topmodel. I have to say, it is very good that alternative beauty ideals are shown now, not just always: pretty slim, tall and sexy. Furthermore, Dove has broadcast an advertisement with curvy and old women, which clearly do not correspond to the perfect beauty ideals. Critical to see such advertisements, perhaps, from the point of view that they are just following a current trend, and advertising is, of course, always about profit.
In this lecture I noticed again how amazing and admirable the body of women is. It does not need the predetermined beauty of the media to be perfect and great. Babies grow up in female bodies and are then born. This is achieved by nature alone!
Finally, I discovered this interesting picture in a group of Brisbane at facebook. What is your honest answer?
Week 3: Women in Popular Culture, Advertising, and the Media – Implications for Social Inequalities and Women´s Health
In this lecture the slides 5 and 6 surprised me first. I had not realized that the woman was born out of the rib of the man and thus even then had a subordinate position in the Bible. This explains why we women today still have to fight for equal treatment and self-employment.
As late as the 1950s, we are expected by women to be supportive of our husbands, to keep them their back free, to be kind and pretty and to be solely responsible for making them happy. This mainly involves doing the household at home, taking care of the children, and having the meal ready when the man comes home hungry. This was shown in many commercials at that time. The woman is not seen there as an independent person, but is only the helper of the man. For me, that sounds like a bad horror movie at the present time. I think the basic role of the woman of that time is still today as a basis in the media, only with some extensions. Today women have to be super women. They are still expected to be pretty and friendly, but they can now work, study and go to the military.
Me as a very big Disney movie fan has also dealt with the question, how are we socialized as children with these films? I think these films have a big impact on us. I can still remember my childhood: I wanted to be such a pretty mermaid as Ariel and also marry a great prince. I believe that this plan of life will always be deeply rooted in us, sometimes more and sometimes less. Every girl dreams of her dream prince or the Mister Right. I believe that it is important to be aware of this in order to lessen this influence. But one recognizes also with Disney a change of the typical role pictures. In the latest production of Disney's Moana, for example, it's not about finding the perfect man or the love, but about a strong girl, who is replacing her father, trying to save their people and embarks on an adventurous journey. The same principle already existed in the film Mulan.
Week 4: The Right Time to Have a Child: Changes in Reproducitive Trends and Outcomes for Women
In this lecture we talked about abortion among other things. Many people condemn an abortion. In many countries it is illegal. Here in Australia, it is mostly allowed under certain conditions, although the legal situation is very different in the different states. For example, in QLD & NSW, abortion is a crime for the woman and the practitioner. It's only legal where the doctor has serious concerns about the physical and / or mental well-being of the woman. Social, economic and medical factors can therefore be considered in NSW. This link leads to a good overview of the legal situation of abortion in Australia:
The legal situation in Australia, especially in Queensland, surprised me a lot because I come from Germany and abortion in Germany has been legal and natural for a long time.
Many people argue that having an abortion is a killing of a baby and that something like that should not be allowed. They justify that every adult person knows when they have coitus and if you do not taky any preventative measures, the consequence is a pregnancy. This is one side. However, people are often forgotten who, for whatever reason, did not engage in sexual intercourse voluntarily. Furthermore, we are all just people and people make mistakes. Until some development of the fetus, every women should be able to decide for herself whether to have a baby or not. Everyone should be allowed to determine their own body. Not for all people a baby is a good thing. For some, it can have a huge negeative impact on their lives.
Basically, I think there is no perfect or right time to have a baby in today's society. A baby is always an additional task with additional responsibility. Every woman should be able to dedice for herselft when and how she is already for it.
Week 5: Changing Gender Roles in Families: Paid Work, House Work, and Child-Raising
In this lecture our topic was gender roles in families and what stereotypes still exist. The nuclear family model is still very much represented in our society today. This model consists of a man and a woman who are married to each other and their own children. The man is still responsible for earning money.Unpaid work at home, especially child rearing and housework, is still largely the responsibility of the woman. I think there are some changes today. In Germany, I made the experience that in many families both parents have to work in the present time, otherwise the income for the family is not enough. Thus, the household is split somewhat, although the main part probably still has to do the woman. Women must be super women in our time. Ultimately, this means that the women have to be able to do many and more extensive things than men, which can negatively affect women´s health.
Then there is still a gender dimension in careers with a greater number of women in terms of nursing functions such as nursing and teaching and male dominance in finance and business management. One change that has happened lately is that more women have tertiary education, which is great. However, this is not reflected in the fact that there is still a pay gap between men and women. In 2011, women still earned 17% less, which really amazed me. I thought that the difference would be much smaller by now.
After this lecture one wonders, when we women will finally get a complete equality, especially in families and work. I think it will be a long way to go.
Week 6: Woman and Domestic Violence
This lecture was one of the most interesting and difficult for me. I liked best the video in which a woman reports on her own experience of violince in a past relationship with reference to the cyc-le / spiral of abuse theory.I have never heard about that before. This theory illustrates very well why women find it hard to leave their husband who beats them. I keep seeing people who can not understand why women do not abandon their violent men. I also had such a situation in my circle of friends. I can still remember an old relationship from a pretty good friend of mine. At that time she became herself a victim of violence in a relationship. There were many parallels between her story and the story in the video. With her, the violence took place mainly psychologically. It was a difficult time for her an me as well. I knew she was feeling bad, but I could do nothing except be there for her. Because you should know one thing, if a friend gets into such a situation: The victim must make the decision to go. Nobody can take that decision. I still remember that I wanted to drag my friend out of the house and to include her in my house. But that does not solve the problem and the resulting dependency. She was little by little isolated from her friends by her boyfriend. She has been silent about it for a long time.
If we could meet, I took a lot of time to talk to her about it. In the end, fortunately, she managed to make that difficult decision and broke up. The absurd thing about it was, as with the woman in the video, at first glance she was not at all the type of woman who got into such a relationship. My friend is a strong woman who does not let anything stifle her. She had never understood herself why women go back to their violent men. After that experience, she had an answer to that.
This is now about 6 years ago and she had new good relationships. Nevertheless, this experience of that time still influence on her. These two experiences of strong women shows once more that everyone can get into such a situation and it is no shame to get help from outside.
Week 7: Women´s Health in Same-Sex Relationships
This topic immediately reminded me of the current vote here in Australia about same sex marriage. Before I coming here to study, I assumed that this was already allowed here. This was not the case. In Germany, the same sex marriage is finally allowed since July this year. In my opinion, this is long overdue, as in Australia. In other European countries like Denmark, for example, it has been allowed for a long time. I do not understand how some people are against a same-sex-marriage or relationship. What reasons are there to prohibit this? It does not hurt anyone. I'm very happy that in the past 10 years in the media has changed a lot in this regard. For example, in television programs in which men seek the big love, a gay man is always portrayed looking for his dream man. Series now also deals with the relationships and problems of homosexuals. Even a politician from Germany has publicly acknowledged that he is gay. This is a great development, even though the proportion of homosexual people is still small in the media. To be honest, I do not think that's so bad, since the majority of society is still heterosexual, as long as it is not a taboo topic in society and the public and you have the freedom of choice to live it out without discrimination.
Personally, in recent years, I've got some lesbian friends in my circle of friends, and meanwhile I live in a shared flat with a lesbian friend and I am heterosexual. The reactions at the beginning of some acquaintances and work colleagues (no friends of mine) was very interesting. By this one could see that unfortunately still many prejudices exist in the society against homosexuals and increased education in this area still must be operated.
I think it is very important that it is allowed throughout the world!
Week 8: Mental Health and Substance Abuse in Women Across the Ages
It is shocking that suicide is the leading cause of death among Australian women between 18 and 36 years of age. Mental health is a health problem. I am glad that I was born at a time when much is known about mental illness and various treatment options. Both men and women are confronted with enormous mental stress. Honestly, I'm not surprised that women have more mental illnesses than men. As noted in the past few weeks, in our society is expected a very high performance by the women. They must be super women. They are under enormous pressure day after day. Furthermore, women put pressure on each other, especially through the media. Nevertheless, I believe that not a few men have mental health problems and that the number of unreported cases of men with mental illness is much higher, because men usually do not look for help.
Eating disorders are a very scary and widespread mental health problem that has been proven to be compounded by the media. I really think that the statistics of 2% of the population suffering from an eating disorder are underestimated. This percentage surprised me a lot in the lecture. I think eating disorders exist much more often than expected. Mental health is often associated with other unhealthy behaviors such as smoking and drug use. Women with mental illnesses smoke more than twice as often as the general population. As a result, the fight against drugs and narcotics is being reduced by targeting mental illness, so I believe that mental illness should be a priority for health professionals.
Furthermore, in the field of mental illness should be done much earlier and more frequent education, maybe even in schools.
Week 9: The Fashion Industry and Body Image: Impact on Women´s Health
The pressure of perfection that young girls are exposed to by society is enormous. In society and in the media, there are so many unrealistic expectations of practicing the "perfect body": super-slim, with a flat stomach, tiny waist, high-set breasts and long legs. Over the years, the "perfect body" has become one of the most controversial topics in social media and television. During my research for the essay, I found studies proving that the media has a direct impact on women's body dissatisfaction, reinforcing this dissatisfaction and even making women undergo surgical operations. Furthermore, there are studies that show that eating disorders are developed by the media. Women literally go hungry. Unfortunately, there are also many social media groups and chats nowadays that can affect young girls rather negatively in their eating habits. The groups regularly exchange advice and unhealthy practices to lose weight, which can be very dangerous.
I think the hunt for the perfect body is in vain. Because there is no perfect body for everyone. For some slim women are beautiful, for other cultures fat women are pretty. You may be the most perfect and beautiful peach in the world and yet you will find someone who does not like peaches.
The secret of the whole is to love yourself as you are and to stay healthy. We all look different and have our problem areas. That's good!
What would a world look like when we all look exactly the same?
I think that would cause the opposite again. Then all women would try to look different from the ideal. This means that nobody will ever win the hunt for the perfect body.
Week 10: The Health of Australian Indigenous Women: What are the Key Challenges?
In this lecture I learned something about the history of Australia.It was about the indigenous women. It is unfortunately a very terrible story, which reminded something of the terrible history of Germany. At the time of the Second World War in which Adolf Hitler was in power and millions of Jews were gassed. Australia has a shameful history of mistreatment of indigenous and Torres Strait Islander people who originally lived on land before colonization. By 1970, an estimated 50,000 children were taken from their families and communities and forcibly assimilated into white society. These children are referred to as the "stolen generation". The continuing suffering, including isolation, lack of identity, no family or community links, goes very far. The negative psychological effects have continued over generations. Sure there are two completely different histories, but it astonishes me how many small parallels there is to the German horror story.
The assimilation policy focused on the removal of children who were considered more "adaptable" to the white society.Semi-caste (Aboriginal children with lighter skin color) were particularly vulnerable, as they were considered easier to "mix". After these children were removed, they were adopted by white families, but many were housed in facilities with very poor living conditions. There was high neglect and abuse of children. Is not it ridiculous to believe that these poor children were removed from fully capable and loving families and taught to reject their inheritance on the basis of their skin color alone?
Assimilation and the stolen generation contributed to the social determinants of health for the indigenous people. These determinants include loss of connection to the land, loss of language, loss of family, loss of identity, loss of community and racism. Racism is still widespread today.Mostly it is used to enforce own interests and to have a responsible for problems.
Week 11: The Social Construction of Sexual Relationships: Impact on Women´s Health
Today's lecture focused on social constructions of women's sexuality and how women are often sexualized. Once again, I realized that women are often reduced to looks, which is very disgusting. In the lecture we should answer questions using examples. One example was whether it is more credible for a woman to claim that she has been raped or that a man claims to have been raped by a woman. We realized that most would rather believe the woman. Society is prepared to believe that women are not as sexual as men, and that men always want sex regardless of the situation and therefore can not be "raped" because they are socially constructed so they are always the persecutors. In addition, women are vulnerable while men are strong. While these assumptions by no means coincide with reality, they are largely cultural constructs.
Much of the media reveals gender differences in power based on discriminatory and sexualized views. Powerful men are portrayed with high intellect, strong personality and excessive money, regardless of their physical attractiveness. An attractive woman with a good figure in a matching short dress, however, is portrayed as a window dressing for the mighty man. Conversely, a powerful woman is usually portrayed as less appealing, middle-aged and in a male suit. Some studies have shown that women value the success of men, while men value attractiveness in women. In addition, women are bombarded with advertising that leads them to spend money changing their appearance, which is why 90% of cosmetic surgeries are performed on women, which I think is very disturbing.
Week 2: Women´s Amazing Bodies: How they work, and what happens when they don´t.
From body parts to body crisis: Where did body image problems come from?
It is very fascinating that many people did not even have a mirror a long time ago. This suggests that a perfect appearance was less important. With the emergence of the media, a regular beauty madness began. The cause is probably in our society, especially in media and advertising. All people around the world are reached, whether young or old. Society strongly influences our beauty ideals. I think it is very important that you should always be aware of this. Most women think seriously, for example, that their breasts must be the same size, symmetrical and should not hang. Then they are healthy and beautiful breasts. The reality is different. There are rarely such perfect breasts. It is natural that they are different. From an international perspective it can be seen that a new trend has been developed concerning the perfect body for several years. Since 2016 in Germany, the Curvey Supermodel is being sought instead of Germany's Next Topmodel. I have to say, it is very good that alternative beauty ideals are shown now, not just always: pretty slim, tall and sexy. Furthermore, Dove has broadcast an advertisement with curvy and old women, which clearly do not correspond to the perfect beauty ideals. Critical to see such advertisements, perhaps, from the point of view that they are just following a current trend, and advertising is, of course, always about profit.
In this lecture I noticed again how amazing and admirable the body of women is. It does not need the predetermined beauty of the media to be perfect and great. Babies grow up in female bodies and are then born. This is achieved by nature alone!
Finally, I discovered this interesting picture in a group of Brisbane at facebook. What is your honest answer?
Week 3: Women in Popular Culture, Advertising, and the Media – Implications for Social Inequalities and Women´s Health
In this lecture the slides 5 and 6 surprised me first. I had not realized that the woman was born out of the rib of the man and thus even then had a subordinate position in the Bible. This explains why we women today still have to fight for equal treatment and self-employment.
As late as the 1950s, we are expected by women to be supportive of our husbands, to keep them their back free, to be kind and pretty and to be solely responsible for making them happy. This mainly involves doing the household at home, taking care of the children, and having the meal ready when the man comes home hungry. This was shown in many commercials at that time. The woman is not seen there as an independent person, but is only the helper of the man. For me, that sounds like a bad horror movie at the present time. I think the basic role of the woman of that time is still today as a basis in the media, only with some extensions. Today women have to be super women. They are still expected to be pretty and friendly, but they can now work, study and go to the military.
Me as a very big Disney movie fan has also dealt with the question, how are we
socialized as children with these films? I think these films have a big impact on us. I can still remember my childhood: I wanted to be such a pretty mermaid as Ariel and also marry a great prince. I believe that this plan of life will always be deeply rooted in us, sometimes more and sometimes less. Every girl dreams of her dream prince or the Mister Right. I believe that it is important to be aware of this in order to lessen this influence. But one recognizes also with Disney a change of the typical role pictures. In the latest production of Disney's Moana, for example, it's not about finding the perfect man or the love, but about a strong girl, who is replacing her father, trying to save their people and embarks on an adventurous journey. The same principle already existed in the film Mulan.
Week 4: The Right Time to Have a Child: Changes in Reproducitive Trends and Outcomes for Women
In this lecture we talked about abortion among other things. Many people condemn an abortion. In many countries it is illegal. Here in Australia, it is mostly allowed under certain conditions, although the legal situation is very different in the different states. For example, in QLD & NSW, abortion is a crime for the woman and the practitioner. It's only legal where the doctor has serious concerns about the physical and / or mental well-being of the woman. Social, economic and medical factors can therefore be considered in NSW. This link leads to a good overview of the legal situation of abortion in Australia:
https://www.childrenbychoice.org.au/factsandfigures/australianabortionlawandpractice
The legal situation in Australia, especially in Queensland, surprised me a lot because I come from Germany and abortion in Germany has been legal and natural for a long time.
Many people argue that having an abortion is a killing of a baby and that something like that should not be allowed. They justify that every adult person knows when they have coitus and if you do not taky any preventative measures, the consequence is a pregnancy. This is one side. However, people are often forgotten who, for whatever reason, did not engage in sexual intercourse voluntarily. Furthermore, we are all just people and people make mistakes. Until some development of the fetus, every women should be able to decide for herself whether to have a baby or not. Everyone should be allowed to determine their own body. Not for all people a baby is a good thing. For some, it can have a huge negeative impact on their lives.
Basically, I think there is no perfect or right time to have a baby in today's society. A baby is always an additional task with additional responsibility. Every woman should be able to dedice for herselft when and how she is already for it.
Week 5: Changing Gender Roles in Families: Paid Work, House Work, and Child-Raising
In this lecture our topic was gender roles in families and what stereotypes still exist. The nuclear family model is still very much represented in our society today. This model consists of a man and a woman who are married to each other and their own children. The man is still responsible for earning money.Unpaid work at home, especially child rearing and housework, is still largely the responsibility of the woman. I think there are some changes today. In Germany, I made the experience that in many families both parents have to work in the present time, otherwise the income for the family is not enough. Thus, the household is split somewhat, although the main part probably still has to do the woman. Women must be super women in our time. Ultimately, this means that the women have to be able to do many and more extensive things than men, which can negatively affect women´s health.
After this lecture one wonders, when we women will finally
get a complete equality, especially in families and work.
I think it will be a long way to go.
Week 6: Woman and Domestic Violence
This lecture was one of the most interesting and difficult for me. I liked best the video in which a woman reports on her own experience of violince in a past relationship with reference to the cyc-le / spiral of abuse theory.I have never heard about that before. This theory illustrates very well why women find it hard to leave their husband who beats them. I keep seeing people who can not understand why women do not abandon their violent men. I also had such a situation in my circle of friends. I can still remember an old relationship from a pretty good friend of mine. At that time she became herself a victim of violence in a relationship. There were many parallels between her story and the story in the video. With her, the violence took place mainly psychologically. It was a difficult time for her an me as well. I knew she was feeling bad, but I could do nothing except be there for her. Because you should know one thing, if a friend gets into such a situation: The victim must make the decision to go. Nobody can take that decision. I still remember that I wanted to drag my friend out of the house and to include her in my house. But that does not solve the problem and the resulting dependency. She was little by little isolated from her friends by her boyfriend. She has been silent about it for a long time.
If we could meet, I took a lot of time to talk to her about it. In the end, fortunately, she managed to make that difficult decision and broke up. The absurd thing about it was, as with the woman in the video, at first glance she was not at all the type of woman who got into such a relationship. My friend is a strong woman who does not let anything stifle her. She had never understood herself why women go back to their violent men. After that experience, she had an answer to that.
This is now about 6 years ago and she had new good relationships. Nevertheless, this experience of that time still influence on her. These two experiences of strong women shows once more that everyone can get into such a situation and it is no shame to get help from outside.
Week 7: Women´s Health in Same-Sex Relationships
This topic immediately reminded me of the current vote here in Australia about same sex marriage. Before I coming here to study, I assumed that this was already allowed here. This was not the case. In Germany, the same sex marriage is finally allowed since July this year. In my opinion, this is long overdue, as in Australia. In other European countries like Denmark, for example, it has been allowed for a long time. I do not understand how some people are against a same-sex-marriage or relationship. What reasons are there to prohibit this? It does not hurt anyone. I'm very happy that in the past 10 years in the media has changed a lot in this regard. For example, in television programs in which men seek the big love, a gay man is always portrayed looking for his dream man. Series now also deals with the relationships and problems of homosexuals. Even a politician from Germany has publicly acknowledged that he is gay. This is a great development, even though the proportion of homosexual people is still small in the media. To be honest, I do not think that's so bad, since the majority of society is still heterosexual, as long as it is not a taboo topic in society and the public and you have the freedom of choice to live it out without discrimination.
Personally, in recent years, I've got some lesbian friends in my circle of friends, and meanwhile I live in a shared flat with a lesbian friend and I am heterosexual. The reactions at the beginning of some acquaintances and work colleagues (no friends of mine) was very interesting. By this one could see that unfortunately still many prejudices exist in the society against homosexuals and increased education in this area still must be operated.
I think it is very important that it is allowed throughout the world!
Week 8: Mental Health and Substance Abuse in Women Across the Ages
It is shocking that suicide is the leading cause of death among Australian women between 18 and 36 years of age. Mental health is a health problem. I am glad that I was born at a time when much is known about mental illness and various treatment options. Both men and women are confronted with enormous mental stress. Honestly, I'm not surprised that women have more mental illnesses than men. As noted in the past few weeks, in our society is expected a very high performance by the women. They must be super women. They are under enormous pressure day after day. Furthermore, women put pressure on each other, especially through the media. Nevertheless, I believe that not a few men have mental health problems and that the number of unreported cases of men with mental illness is much higher, because men usually do not look for help.
Furthermore, in the field of mental illness should be done much earlier and more frequent education, maybe even in schools.
Week 9: The Fashion Industry and Body Image: Impact on Women´s Health
The pressure of perfection that young girls are exposed to by society is enormous. In society and in the media, there are so many unrealistic expectations of practicing the "perfect body": super-slim, with a flat stomach, tiny waist, high-set breasts and long legs. Over the years, the "perfect body" has become one of the most controversial topics in social media and television. During my research for the essay, I found studies proving that the media has a direct impact on women's body dissatisfaction, reinforcing this dissatisfaction and even making women undergo surgical operations. Furthermore, there are studies that show that eating disorders are developed by the media. Women literally go hungry. Unfortunately, there are also many social media groups and chats nowadays that can affect young girls rather negatively in their eating habits. The groups regularly exchange advice and unhealthy practices to lose weight, which can be very dangerous.
I think the hunt for the perfect body is in vain. Because there is no perfect body for everyone. For some slim women are beautiful, for other cultures fat women are pretty. You may be the most perfect and beautiful peach in the world and yet you will find someone who does not like peaches.
The secret of the whole is to love yourself as you are and to stay healthy. We all look different and have our problem areas. That's good!
What would a world look like when we all look exactly the same?
I think that would cause the opposite again. Then all women would try to look different from the ideal. This means that nobody will ever win the hunt for the perfect body.
Week 10: The Health of Australian Indigenous Women: What are the Key Challenges?
In this lecture I learned something about the history of Australia.It was about the indigenous women. It is unfortunately a very terrible story, which reminded something of the terrible history of Germany. At the time of the Second World War in which Adolf Hitler was in power and millions of Jews were gassed. Australia has a shameful history of mistreatment of indigenous and Torres Strait Islander people who originally lived on land before colonization. By 1970, an estimated 50,000 children were taken from their families and communities and forcibly assimilated into white society. These children are referred to as the "stolen generation". The continuing suffering, including isolation, lack of identity, no family or community links, goes very far. The negative psychological effects have continued over generations. Sure there are two completely different histories, but it astonishes me how many small parallels there is to the German horror story.
The assimilation policy focused on the removal of children who were considered more "adaptable" to the white society.Semi-caste (Aboriginal children with lighter skin color) were particularly vulnerable, as they were considered easier to "mix". After these children were removed, they were adopted by white families, but many were housed in facilities with very poor living conditions. There was high neglect and abuse of children. Is not it ridiculous to believe that these poor children were removed from fully capable and loving families and taught to reject their inheritance on the basis of their skin color alone?
Assimilation and the stolen generation contributed to the social determinants of health for the indigenous people. These determinants include loss of connection to the land, loss of language, loss of family, loss of identity, loss of community and racism. Racism is still widespread today.Mostly it is used to enforce own interests and to have a responsible for problems.
Week 11: The Social Construction of Sexual Relationships: Impact on Women´s Health
Today's lecture focused on social constructions of women's sexuality and how women are often sexualized. Once again, I realized that women are often reduced to looks, which is very disgusting.
In the lecture we should answer questions using examples. One example was whether it is more credible for a woman to claim that she has been raped or that a man claims to have been raped by a woman. We realized that most would rather believe the woman. Society is prepared to believe that women are not as sexual as men, and that men always want sex regardless of the situation and therefore can not be "raped" because they are socially constructed so they are always the persecutors. In addition, women are vulnerable while men are strong. While these assumptions by no means coincide with reality, they are largely cultural constructs.
Much of the media reveals gender differences in power based on discriminatory and sexualized views. Powerful men are portrayed with high intellect, strong personality and excessive money, regardless of their physical attractiveness. An attractive woman with a good figure in a matching short dress, however, is portrayed as a window dressing for the mighty man. Conversely, a powerful woman is usually portrayed as less appealing, middle-aged and in a male suit. Some studies have shown that women value the success of men, while men value attractiveness in women. In addition, women are bombarded with advertising that leads them to spend money changing their appearance, which is why 90% of cosmetic surgeries are performed on women, which I think is very disturbing.