Handouts

Study questions on Wolf's article

1. What does Wolf mean by "beauty pornography?" What is sadomasochism? (446-7)
2. What does she mean when she says: "Sexual 'explicitness' is not the issue?" (447)
3. List some double standards in mass culture that foster inequality? Explain how the dominant and target group is being treated differently and how that difference causes disadvantages for the target group and advantages for the dominant group. (see 448)
4. What does Wolf mean when she says: "Images that turn women into objects or eroticize the degradation of women have arisen to couterbalance women's recent self-assertion." (448) Do you agree with her? Why or why not?
5. What is consumer culture? How do you see yourself, your friends and your family participating in it?
6. Here is a representation of one key argument from Wolf:
   1. Ads often portray women as sex objects.
   2. This objectification provokes anxiety in women who see these ads.
   3. Consumer culture suggests the anxiety can be alleviated by buying the advertised products.
   4. Purchasing these products increases profits for big business.
   5. Profit is the motivation of capitalist industry.
   6. Therefore, the driving force behind the objectification of women in ads is the capitalist market.

   Discuss Wolf's argument step by step and put it in your own words. You can use other readings from class material to help explain her philosophy.

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Created by Kathryn Russell
SUNY Cortland - Philosophy
Last modified on 8-10-99