Media and digital practices on the contemporal ideas of bodies and sexuality

Media and internet platforms are 21st-century creations of human innovation that have had a significant effect on a variety of social aspects, including sexuality and human anatomy. They have either made data collection methods more effective or have resulted in data distortion to match a certain story or agenda. Social networking (Internet, Facebook, and Twitter, for example) and mass media are examples of the two (i.e., Cable News Network -CNN or British Broadcasting Corporation - BBC). This paper will demonstrate how the two (media and digital platforms) have impacted the contemporary ideas revolving around matters of sexuality and the human anatomy. They have either made the processes of data acquisition efficient or lead to the manipulation of it to fit a given narrative or ideology. The two include elements such as social media for instance (Internet, Facebook, and Twitter) and mainstream media (i.e., Cable News Network -CNN or British Broadcasting Corporation - BBC). This paper will demonstrate how the two (media and digital platforms) have impacted on the contemporary ideas revolving matters sexuality and the human body anatomy.

Primarily, media and digital networking are the global interlinking platforms that continuously evolve; they are those features that take what is localized at a given place on the globe and broadcasts or shares it with the entire world. However, in their wake, the two impact gravely on the opinions of individual people and revolutionalize their ideologies mental concepts. One of the significant successes that the two have managed to impact is the idea of an appeal. What the media gives life by casting more attention on it takes prestige, and the vice versa is valid. The media in the effort to advertise itself has craftily incorporated the use of pertinent humane issues as mentioned (sexuality) to advance its advertisements both in verbal or non-verbal expressions. By such doing they have interpolated on the very essence of this concept (sexuality) and created their concept attune to the fact that; what has more sexual appeal is better than the one with less.

Secondly, in the functionality of the media and digital platforms, continuous adaptation (as mentioned) to current trends prevalent in the society must be endeared to. One of the relevant contemporary issues is the human body and its relation to sex appeal. The media and digital platforms have played a significant role in revolutionizing the modern views and opinions of how the two are applied in the materialistic world. In this context, the role of the two (media and digital platforms) is giving rise to fashion. Fashion is a dynamic trend that is ignited or extinguished by the element of media. According to ethnographers, every community has a set of popular culture or fashion that they subscribe. Therefore; considering the human person globally as a single entity, there are the aspects of popular culture and fashion that touches on matters sexuality and the human body. The indirect effect of fashion as driven by the media is; digital platforms provide the necessary technological skills to place a trending genre, for instance, a certain body deodorant and the mainstream media provides the platform to broadcast it by advertisement. In advertising, the media relies on what is susceptible to attract attention, in most cases they tend to attach some level of sex appeal to any fashionable object or trend to capture the attention of many.

Thirdly, media and digital platforms have had quite a significant impact on the rise of contemporary trends such as feminism the latter has participated in shaping the views of the human anatomy and sexuality. Feminism is the ideology that tends to give pre-eminence of matters related to women. It is via the media that such trends have been created and through which they can thrive. It is the media that devises new ways of promoting such patterns, and in doing so, they highlight the feminine issues that are bound to attract attention. Sexuality has been one of the tools craftily manipulated by the media; women have been idolized as the symbols of pleasure and ecstasy. They have cunningly shifted the place of a woman from a productive person to a more of sex toys.It (media) has not shied to put to limelight the fact that success has to connect with the issue of appeal, the more a woman is beautiful, the more she sells or is compatible and relevant in the modern community.

Media and digital networking have also led to the birth of the idolization of nudity which in turn has impacted on the general view of the human body. According to ethnographic studies, more people are likely to read an article with a cover of a nude person on top than that without. Nudity is an aspect that the media has successfully elevated from its taboo notion to fame. To capture crowds media incorporate the use of associated nude pictures that are bound to do the trick. Moreover, its interactive platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have also preyed on this phenomenon to further the idolization of nudity. Sociological statistics note that profile platforms with nude pictures are bound to have more likes and views than those without. Emphasis has been created on the perfect body shapes and skin tones all tuned to evoke a particular appeal within the audience. The phrases; Tall, dark and Handsome' for men ‘sexy faces and bodies ‘for women are all creations of the media. Within the media and social interactive spaces and internet sites, what is more, favorite is not a journal on some world discovery but on pornographic content and the Do(s) and Don't(s) to having a sexy body, attractive figure or face.

Moreover riding on this nudity ideology the rise of technological skills that can manipulate pictures to yield a perfect body is also a substantial effort that has transformed the ideological opinions of many people. With the aid of Photoshop and cropping, one can at the comfort of his or her house amalgamate picture parts to constitute a figure that it is idealistically perfect. More emphasis is placed on enhancement of reproductive parts and on the masculinity tone and frame for men and the feminine aspects of a woman. Such is the rise of the perfect body ideology and these platforms with the efficiency of a faster internet service can post such photos on the web and have then gone viral in seconds. The objective in mind is always the sexier, the better; such mind concepts are a consequence of what the media has created as sexy and what is as not. Nudity has further been revolutionalize from an intimate idea to a contemporary public concept that seeks to embrace one's true identity and character. Though the media much emphasis has been placed on nudity as an aspect of one true self and the shame and sacredness that one’s rode with it thrown out of the window.

Connected with the idolization of nudity, there has also courtesy of the media arisen the issues of medical body parts replacement and surgical procedures that have sort to reshape a person's biometrics to mirror a perfect image. With the media's insistence that certain body parts are more popular or sexually preferable when they assume specific dimensions, then medical procedures to enhance or reduce these dimensions have been on the rise. Methods such as Liposuction, Breast enlargement, Botox, Penile enlargement amidst others are indicatives of how eroded the sacredness of the human body has been affected. The mere fact that an individual can incur life-threatening procedures that are expensive to comply with the popular perfect figure, then there indeed is a negative impact on the contemporary ideas of bodies and sexuality.

As the saying goes the greatest colonialism is that of the mind. Media and digital platforms have not only shaped the ideas revolving the idealism of the human bodies and sexuality for good but also for the worse. Media is one of the platforms through which a lot of adult content both legal and illegal has been transacted. Pornography has become a site readily available on the internet and had its insinuation even in the mainstream media. So advanced has the Pornographic content developed right form live sessions to recorded ones, with varying choices ranging from heterosexual material to same sex. These sights have substantially corrupted young minds into living in a fantasy world of ecstasy and pleasure. The objective sexual reasons of procreation and marital pleasure have had the latter emphasized without attachment to anything marital. Sexuality no longer is an aspect of the human propagation system but one of achieving happiness or attaining certain favors.

Further, the media has portrayed the use of human sexuality as a tool of trade or leverage. More emphasis has in the contemporary world, with the rise of the film industry, adult content has also managed to chart its way and in most cases being used positively or negatively. More films tend to showcase actors engaging in the trade of sex as an act to unlawfully gain some physical advantage or leverage against some other within the plot of a movie. Statistics indicate that more of television content including adult unrated content is more popular than those without. Genres such as soap operas are likely to have more viewers than regular television content. It is somewhat saddening that some of the reasons people are attracted to this kind of materials are to explore how sex has been applied as a tool of deceit, betrayal, and love. The multiplicity of utility in matters sexuality is pervasive within the film industry. To add more, even the selection of the cast within a particular film with a specific parental advisory limit is also deliberate. Actors and actresses with what would be referred to as sexy bodies are enrolled to play scenes that contain sexual notions, whereas the less sexy is relegated the evil attached roles (such as witches or murderers). That done in an extended period tends to slowly erode the concept of human sexuality from its objectives to be a tool available for economic if not leverage purposes.

Conclusion

Having analyzed the place of mainstream media and digital networking in impacting the contemporary ideas on human sexuality and bodies, the following findings are arrived at; social media has led to the rise of the idealistic perfect man and woman with perfect bodies for greater sexual appeal. Media is a dominant platform that has transformed the concepts about human sexuality positively or negatively by focusing on some aspects of it and not others thus idolizing some and mot others. With the media’s continued efforts to influence the trends that shape human thinking and ideas about sex, the community is bound to change, since the transformation of the society is linked to the transformation of the mindset.

















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