1. The Steubenville Rape Case Trial Coverage
2. Nash Grier’s “What Guys Look For In Girls” Video
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This video is a blatant representation of male entitlement in today’s society on multiple levels. Beginning with the fact that Nash Grier and his friends felt compelled to make a nearly 10 minute video specifically discussing all the requirements young girls (who comprise the majority of their fans) must meet in order to be deemed “attractive” by these young men. This video highlights how male entitlement has become engraved so deeply into our society, as these young men believe that young women should conform their personalities and physical bodies in order to meet their requirements. The boys comment on how a girl must "entertain them", be hairless from the eyebrows down, dress up whenever they leave the house, and conform their personalities and bodies in other ways for these "famous youtubers" to find them romantically and aesthetically pleasing. This video sends the message to the young women watching them and idolizing these boys that they aren't good enough the way they are, as well as serves as a reflection of today's society. Self hate and body shaming have become national epidemics in the United States, and is a large part contributed (whether intentionally or not) to male-emposed standards of beauty and approval that women have been conditioned to adhere to. In a study done by Rachel Calogero, "results demonstrated that anticipating a male gaze produced significantly greater body shame and social physique anxiety than anticipating a female gaze" (Calogero), highlighting the social norms and conditions that women have been psychologically victimized by. Calegro goes on to note that today's social practice of male supremacy facilitates men by allowing them to verbalize their standards of beauty and make them the "cultural norm", while pressuring women into conforming to these standards, which can lead to many mental illnesses such as body dismorphia, eating disorders, anxiety, and self hate. This gender-biased practice traps women inside the cage of male acceptance and approval, and the obvious internalization of this practice by today's male youth (including youtuber Nash Grier and his friends) shows the patriarchy's firm intention on keeping women there.
3. UCSB Killer Elliot Roger
Elliot Roger is the infamous UCSB shooter who went on a killing spree- murdering 6 people- after being "fed up" with being rejected by women all his life. What's important to note about the case is that even though Roger posted a manifesto video on youtube prior to the shooting explaining that he was going to commit the crime because he hates women because they've constantly rejected his sexual advances (that he deserves), Roger's act was blamed on mental instability. Whether this is true or not isn't relevant compared to the necessity for society to realize that his reason for committing this crime was because he believed he deserved to have sex with whatever women he pleased. This feeling of sexual entitlement is reinforced through popular media messages centralized around the theme of "nerdy guy gets the hot chick". Journalist Arthur Chu compared Elliot Roger's reasoning behind getting his "revenge on women" to messages portrayed in popular tv show The Big Bang Theory. Chu highlights how men are essentially taught to go for women who are "out of their league", and even though they will be initially rejected, to power on and simply irritate and harass the woman until they "wear them down" and she falls for him. This enforces male entitlement into our culture because it teaches men that if they try their hardest and refuse to leave a women alone until they wear her down, they deserve her affection and sexual consent. Researchers Grubbs, Exline, and Twenge studied the correlation between male entitlement and narcissism and found "the relationship between narcissism and sexism may be indicative of a more specific relationship between sexist attitudes and psychological entitlement" (Grubbs, Exline, and Twenge, 209). This asserts that male entitlement (particularly sexual entitlement) can be strongly correlated with narcissism, which is what fueled Elliot Roger to commit his "revenge on women". Their study found strong relationships between men who were classified as "entitled" and feelings of sexism (both hostile and ambivalent), as well as willingness to dismiss violence against women. This research highlights the need for mainstream medical practices and media coverage to work to understand the problems with male entitlement in US culture, rather than blaming the products of this entitlement on mental health issues.
4. The "Friendzone"
5. Sexualization of Lesbians and Bisexuals By Men Despite Their Lack Of Heterosexual Male-Involvement
While it is true that female bodies are sexualized in heterosexual relationships, the same is even true in lesbian and girl-girl bisexual relationships and encounters. As reflected through the porn industry, as well as current male testimony, men view bisexuality and lesbianism as sexually appealing for men to watch and has become fetishized. This warped view of lesbianism reaffirms the male psyche in that it reinforces male entitlement because it creates the idea that women engage in girl-girl sexual encounters (especially publicly) in order to attract or please men. This message is most commonly presented in the media, where lesbian relationships are contorted and sexualized in order to attract and please male viewers, as opposed to represent a meaningful romantic relationship between two characters. This also has real effects in the real world, as lesbian women are subjected to various forms of harassment such as violence, catcalling, and having their sexuality completely ignored by heterosexual men, who will instead deem it their responsibility to "straighten them out", all of which are highlighted and explained in Anya Joseph's article on the subject. The sexualization of girl-girl relationships are also investigated in Alarie and Gaudet's "'I Don't Know If She Is Bisexual or If She Just Wants to Get Attention': Analyzing the Various Mechanisms Through Which Emerging Adults Invisibilize Bisexuality". The study concluded that a female bisexual is often assumed to actually be heterosexual, just performing a lesbian act (such as kissing a girl) to get a man's attention. This then fetishizes lesbianism for men as they find it appealing, and reaffirms male entitlement and privilege because even though a woman may be clearly performing an act of lesbian sexuality, a man will refuse to see her as anything but heterosexual and still expects her to come home with him at the end of the night. As Alarie and Gaudet explain, "This sends a clear message to women: Either choose a man for a sexual partner, or choose a woman with a man's approval". (Alarie and Gaudet, 195). This social scheme perpetuates male entitlement as it implies that lesbianism and bisexuality are not valid sexual identities, but rather tricks to please men, which therefor reaffirms their sense of entitlement and social privilege over these women, leading one to wonder what must be done to allow lesbian women the freedom to express their sexuality without it being publicly fetishized by heterosexual men.
6. Men See Women As Sex Objects
Women have become so sexualized and objectified in today's main-stream media that men have internalized this concept and have translated it into real life. As a consequence, women have become victims to self-objectification and are stuck in a continuum of being expected to "perform" their gender and serve as sexual objects for men. This mindset is dangerous to women, but also to society as a whole. With the continual objectification of the female body in media, we as a society are subjected to cultural superficiality as this objectification slowly but surely becomes internalized, resulting in the loss of the ability to appreciate good art, maintain realistic expectations, and respect for women. As researchers Puvia and Vaes investigated, the objectification of women in the media has detrimental effects on women in society. These include both physical and cognitive effects, as well as the dehumanization of other women- therefor pitting women against each other and perpetuating male privilege. Their results showed that when women are sexualized and objectified, other women are more likely to simultaneously perceive them as the ideal of what they should look like, and also dehumanize them. This highlights the problem male privilege presents to society because the bulk of today's media corporations are controlled by men- meaning that the images the public are presented with are primarily designed by men, aimed at men, and pleasing to men. And because of this, women are misrepresented in the media because men only understand them as sexual objects, which in turn completes the objectification cycle when women internalize those images and are confined to second class citizens under men due to the fact that they have been conditioned to center their lives around existing to please men. In order to begin the break down of male privilege and entitlement in society, the sexual objectification of women must come to an end in order to force men to accept that women don't exist to serve them, and that they deserve the same equality that has always been presented to men.
7. Robin Thicke’s “Get Her Back”
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Robin Thicke has become notorious for his misogynistic music after his song “Blurred Lines” exploded onto the pop-culture scene and was picked apart by outraged feminists. In alignment with “Blurred Lines”, his other single “Get Her Back” (which is considerably less popular, perhaps to Robin Thicke being written off by many music-listeners as a shallow misogynist) portrays a dark, and intimidating, image to females. Thicke’s lyrics mimic those of a stalker ex-boyfriend who is willing to do anything, especially resort to violence, to intimidate his girlfriend back into the relationship. This message in mainstream media highlights the horrors women in abusive relationships face, and normalizes and romanticizes it for listeners. In the video, images of Thicke with blood on his face transition with those of a woman who appears to be drowning in water, as well as messages representing conversations between the woman and Thicke portray her as the villain, the last image on the screen in the video being a chilling message to the woman from Thicke saying "This is just the beginning..." This blatant portrayal of common tactics used by abusive men in their relationships highlights the ignorance Thicke is conveying to society. Abusive men commonly resort to victim blaming, violence, guilting the woman back into the relationship, promising that things will be different this time, and dramatizations to gain sympathy (all of which are represented in Thicke's video). This message normalizes these tactics for men and contributes greatly to male privilege and male entitlement in society, as reflected in "The Validation of the Checklist of Controlling Behaviors (CCB): Assessing Coercive Control in Abusive Relationships" by Lehmann, Simmons, and Pillai. As proven through their research on women seeking refuse from abusive relationships, male entitlement is heightened in abusive situations. Once men realize they can use threats and-or violence to achieve their needs and goals, they then feel entitled to them because they have instilled fear in their partner. This feeling is then extended towards all women. As the researchers explain in their study, male entitlement is one of the main driving forces behind abusive relationships as the man feels he deserves the right to terrorize and control his partner. Abusive relationships are a devastating side effect of male entitlement, and are one of the many reasons that large-scale cultural male entitlement and privilege need to be abandoned in order to achieve a truly equal and free society.
8. “Neighbors”
The new blockbuster "Neighbors" features popular frat-boys continuously surrounded by "slutty" women who serve virtually no purpose to the plot that to provide alcohol, drugs, and sex to the male leads. This representation of women in college in such a popular movie highlights the lack of depth to female characters in media, which is reinforced by a patriarchal and male-privilege media society we live in, where most of it is controlled by men, therefor appealing to men, continuing the objectification of women as "sluts" while men are praised for their sexuality. What's interesting to note is how these messages have become completely internalized by men in today's society, as proven in this article that showcases how actor Seth Rogan (who was in Neighbors) reacted to columnist Ann Hornaday's feminist critique of the film. Hornaday highlighted the sexist undertones of the film and highlighted how they are then internalized by society, which in turn promotes male entitlement as they are taught to expect half-naked women to adhere to their every whim as long at they're "cool". Instead of recognizing the bigger picture, Rogan went on a twitter rant, eager to soothe his ego as opposed to recognize the misogyny and sexism in today's film industry. "Neighbors" also greatly promotes the sexual double-standard in today's pop culture in which males are praised for sex, while women are degraded for it. As researchers Kraegar and Staff highlight in "The Sexual Double Standard and Adolescent Peer Acceptance", men tend to view women as sexual objects for conquest, while women fear being labeled as a "slut" after engaging in sexual behaviors. There was also a positive correlation between a male's sexual permissiveness and peer acceptance, which is reinforced through media images presented in movies such as "Neighbors". The study highlights how sexual objectification and misogyny in movies promotes male privilege in real life because once these images are internalized, men then begin to expect and think they deserve to be surrounded by half-naked girls providing them with drugs and alcohol in college because that's what they've been taught is "cool". This concept underscores how media shapes societal norms, and the information it provides gives media producers the opportunity to shift these images to ones that promote gender equality and respect, therefor undermining male privilege.
9. The Hobby-Lobby Supreme Court Ruling
The Hobby Lobby supreme court ruling is interesting in that all the members who approved it- and got it passed- were male. Meanwhile, all the justices who were firmly against allowing corporations to decline to provide access to certain types of birth control under health care were women. This highlights how the sexist ruling was a blatant show of misinterpreting and stretching the law of the constitution in order to continue male-privilege even when it comes to female bodies. Hidden under a thin veil of "religious freedom" (which is a law that permits freedom of religion of all people, NOT corporations, or allows people to impose their religion on others), the Hobby Lobby ruling had legalized denying female employees of major corporations access to certain forms of birth control through their health insurance. This economically and psychologically cripples women who work for these corporations because now they will be responsible for paying for these forms of birth control and are also essentially being told that the (secular) law recognizes the religious desires of corporations above their own needs as citizens of the United States. As David Savran asserts in "The sadomasochist in the closet: White masculinity and the culture of victimization", white male backlash that has manifested within the last half-century in characterized by "white supremacy, antifeminism, homophobia, and potentially catastrophic social legislation" (Savran, 128). The Hobby Lobby ruling exemplifies three of the four, as it attacks a female's right to govern her own body, conforms her options of doing so by the law, and privileges men (both the Supreme Justices and the men running these companies) over the female workers who are the most heavily impacted by the ruling. In order to achieve the "progressive society" status that America likes to believe it is, male privilege must be cut out completely from the justice system. But one is left with the question: How?
10. #NotAllMen
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