Oct Prowler

PROWLER 16 Feature The majority of America’s public would say that gender bias died out a long time ago. However, this is not entirely true. If you take a look at the media and celebrities of today, bias against females is still alive. Gender bias is evident in the recent leak of over a hundred celebrities’ nude photos, including Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, Victoria Justice, and many others. Many people have been tweeting that it’s “disgraceful” that these women ever took nude pictures of themselves in the first place. Basi- cally, instead of shaming the per- son who leaked the nudes, they are saying that the celebrities should not be permitted a private life. Slut shaming has become a huge issue in our society. If a wom- an wears a skirt that others may think is “too short,” she becomes the victim of name-calling. She is called excessively rude things and persecuted just because other people think the length of her skirt is too provocative. She will more than likely be told to have some self respect, as if respecting your- self means wearing what other people think you should. We Women are told to cover our bodies, otherwise we are indecent. Yet, if you look at a magazine, the women on the cover are almost always wearing reveal- ing clothing and being made into sex objects. This makes for quite the double standard. Women in porn and on TV are allowed to show their bodies, but women in the regular world are not. Take other celebrities like Marilyn Monroe. When she was 23, she was desperate for a job, so she posed nude for a photogra- pher in order to get some money. These photos were shared with the public and Monroe was bombarded with insults. She was told that it was vulgar and obscene to share her body. Sounds similar to what was said to some of the celebrities whose nudes were leaked a couple of weeks ago. This, among many other things, is proof that we still shame women for being proud of their bodies. And it doesn’t just apply to women’s sexuality, it extends to other areas of society including media and the classroom. Accord- ing to a study by womensmedia- center.com, only seven percent of stories at NBC are anchored by women, and only five percent at CBS. Clearly, men have control in news reporting. As for schools Slut-Shamed Celebrities and Gender Bias By Eli Roberts erobertsprowler@gmail.com and classrooms, the most obvious example would be to look at the unfair dress codes in schools across the country, but a little deeper than that, it can be seen from elementary school that boys and girls are treated differently. Girls are driven toward a stereotypically feminine ideal, and boys toward a stereotypically masculine ideal. Girls are more commonly expected to be neat, organized, and intel- ligent, while boys are stereotyped to be unorganized, less academi- cally successful, and rowdy. From a young age, girls are classified as either a “girly girl” or a “tomboy,” and they are judged by their peers and teachers accordingly. Though bias against fe- males in society has lessened in the past few decades, the recent nude scandal and even a look into our own classrooms can let us know that it still is not a thing of the past. Though many people think woman have full equality, this is not the case, as shown by the percentage of women and men anchors on major networks. Photos courte- sy of sporkforge.com and brodskyblog.com

Oct Prowler

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