Hipster Sexism (Article Sample)

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Hipster Sexism
In October 2012, Obama's campaign team released an advertisement featuring Lena Dunham. The target of the ad was the young female voters. During the clip, she made a comparison between voting for the first time and a lady losing her virginity. The ad was quite clever and winning. The Republican immediately attacked the ad for its weirdly paternalistic undertone. A huge majority of the ladies liked the ad, but the attacks by the Republicans were not off base. Bloshmi admits that in the modern day, there is a long list of television shows, T-shirts, photographs, ads, and films that depict women albeit ironically with a nod or a wink (6). In other terms, women are represented by their bodies or sexuality. The objectification of women in a trend that uses paradox or mockery of their bodies or sexuality is called hipster sexism.
The Presence of Hipster Sexism in Our Culture
As funny as Dunham’s ad was, it was based on hipster sexism. Dunham’s Girls is quite hilarious. However, it also makes use of hipster sexism. A good example is one episode where Adam, the male protagonist, says "You skank, where you at? Getting that pussy pounded" (Quart 1). Hipster sexism has influenced most people to find the words, pussy pounding, funny rather than appearing offensive or gross to the viewers. Very many people laugh at the notion that young women have become so obsessed with intercourse that they would relate voting with sex and at the same time feel outré or cool for understanding the meaning of Dunham’s double meaning.
Ironic sexism in Dunham's ad was almost excellent, but hipster sexism is very offensive. A good example was Playboy’s October cover in 2012. The cover had "classic baby-blue image of a retro, coy-eyed model" (Quart 1). The model had posed wearing a football helmet and panties while being surrounded by hand inked text. However, it still resembled the old Playboy. Hipster sexism has also become very common in real life because men and women refer to each other as "bitch" (Kleinman, Ezzel and Frost 47).
Hipster sexism is similar to hipster racism because they offer a distancing gesture, a sense of belief that by applying quotations, questionable, uncool and offensive information concerning women is not wrong. Furthermore, most people assume that sexism is a vice that has been buried, but women earn less income and face discrimination at a higher rate compared to men. Klempay insists that people under the age of thirty have been worst affected by hipster sexism (9).
Hipster sexism has influenced us to giggle at the film, The Lesbian, which is related to the story of a Hong Kong billionaire who promised $65 million to any man who could woo and marry his gay daughter. Hipster sexism assumes that we have a reached a modern stage of urbanity and equality where trying to force a gay lady to sleep with a man is funny. Classic sexists may even assume that pregnancies that occur due to rape are acts of God. Murphy explains that hipster sexists, on the other hand, assume that fashion exploitation and female Self-contempt appears funny (1).
Another way in which hipster sexism has been promoted is through hip hop music. It has become quite easy to blame artists for the widespread sexism in music. A large majority of hip hop videos and songs are produced in such a way that an image of hyper sexuality is used for marketing. Alim states that "whether it is manifested in unequal pay, domestic violence, glass ceilings, rape, or violent pornography, sexism is prolific in America" (22). He goes ahead and argues that "women find it difficult to affirm with their sexuality within the society" (Alim 23). Men are portrayed to possess hyper-masculinity while ladies in such videos and songs are believed to have embraced hyper sexuality. It has left both genders as a commodity that is used as a marketing tool. However, women are more affected by such scenes as compared to men.
Glick argues that sexism in any form undermines women’s performance (6). He goes further and explains that in a male dominated environment where women face hipster sexism or any other form of discrimination, their performance diminishes. Glick also comments on a study that was conducted on female job seekers (6). The study revealed that women who were more exposed to sexist comments had a lower work rate as compared to those who worked in an environment where there were little or no sexist comments (Glick 6). There is strong evidence that proves that discrimination in any form such as hipster sexism hinders women from achieving better results in their day to day activities. Also, it inflicts self-doubt because they are portrayed as a sexual tool.
Hipster sexism may also sap the career ambitions of a woman (Glick 7). At times, hipster sexism may appear funny or widely accepted a majority but it "creates a powerful push and pull toward embracing more feminine roles" (Glick 7). Sexism, in general, portrays ladies as a sexual tool rather than a gender that can bring change at the workplace. In addition, a study conducted in various colleges revealed that who viewed men as a protector or provider had lower career ambitions compared to ladies who did not want to depend on men in the future (Glick 7). It also revealed that were exposed to hipster sexism had lower academic aspirations because they expect a male provider in the future. Also, college aged-women that were more exposed to sexism, in general, portrayed lesser ambitions of becoming financially independent. They confirmed some of Malcolm X remarks when he said "women are attracted to the male in whom ...