Social norms, fears, and ideals are continually constructed and reconstructed based upon circumstances and advocacy that gains public recognition and support. Social norms are always subject to change, but the probability of change decrease when trends and norms become part of gender identities. History shows that colors for boys and girls was once subjective, however overtime colors were assigned to gender. As color continually informed gender and was presented in media, wardrobe colors became an objective part of gender. So much so, we never see a male model in fully pink wardrobe, he may wear a pink colored dress shirt or even boxer briefs, but never a full outfit. Pink has grown synonymous with the female gender, just as blue has grown synonymous with the male gender. In this same vein, Jane Caputi in The Pornography of Everyday Life argues that pornographic sex has become gendered, Caputi critiques this normalized pornographic paradigm in its several forms and reveals how it produces domination and denigration. Caputi, “The Pornography of Everyday Life”, 311 Ross Haenfler’s analysis of virginity pledgers in Goths, Gamers, and Grrrls serves as a perfect counter balance to Caputi in helping us identify the legitimacy or reasoning of virginity pledger’s stand for abstinence. Both writings reveal power hierarchies in both cultures, as well as extremes, intersectionality, and contradictions. We also see how media representations satirize the notion of virginity and alienates those who practice abstinence. In essence, hypocrisy exist in main-stream media as well sexual subcultures, whether it be positive or negative deviance. Concepts and activities become normalized by majority consent, advocacy, and recognition, or through a slow and subtle evolution that continually becomes a part of our everyday lives. Pornography has been that slowly rising yeast-like subculture that has risen to mainstream prominence in America raking in billions per year. Jane Caputi argues that porn has not only rose to prominence privately, but has publicly redefined the social paradigm of sex. Caputi, “The Pornography of Everyday Life”, 311 Although we may still perceive porn to be a private activity, in truth it has infiltrated the fabric of our cultural existence and fed the flames of gender division and male dominance. Rape and violence porn, slavery and child porn are all contributing to further perpetuating power hierarchies in media production and real life. An interesting example is a Facebook photo, it has gained virtual recognition through shares and comments. The photo was initially posted by actor George Takei, who is gay and a very vocal gay rights activist. The photo showed a Pizza Hut marquee that read, “Big D inner Box” (big dick in her box) with the caption under the photo stressing, “spacing is everything.” Due to the pornographic paradigm this joke took off with thousands of shares and comments such as, “did someone order pizza, ‘with extra sausage?” Although it is satire, it reveals how pornographic language has grown common in social media and society. With pornography changing the mainstream definition of sex, and the increase of teenage pregnancies in the 90’s it is easy to see how the virginity pledge movement gained traction. Haenfler seeks to analyze virginity pledgers and their positive deviance toward mainstream norms. However, there are a couple of flaws in Haenfler’s analysis, one, his inability to distinguish virginity pledgers as a counter cultural rather than a subcultural, and two, his inability to conceptualize sexuality through the biblical context pledger’s adhere to. The first flaw can be overlooked, however the second is more detrimental to his analysis of virginity pledgers because it fails to capture core values of the group. Although Haenfler briefly mentions that pledgers “seek to minimize ambiguity and encourage young people to connect their sexual and religious identities”, he fails to adequate define the sexual and religious identity in context of the biblical framework they follow. Instead Haenfler analyzes virginity pledgers by socially constructed norms, which pledger’s don’t follow, rather than their fixed and universal standard, which gives us an incomplete evaluation of pledgers. Haenfler, “Goths, Gamers, & Grrrls”, 74 Nonetheless, while other subcultures are characterized by what they do to distinguish themselves, like wearing dark clothes, colorful hair, piercings, pledgers are identified by abstaining from sex. Virginity pledgers challenge the cultural norm of premarital sex by pledging to abstain from sex until they are married. While Haenfler analyzes virginity pledgers associated primarily with the church, I will expand the definition of pledgers to all who abstain from sex by choice or by cultural compulsion. As we have already discussed sexual norms of intercourse have expanded over the decades, in part to the traditional perceptions of gender also expanding to include homosexuals, bisexuals and transgendered. Although virginity pledgers gained recognition in the 90’s the movement has not done much to change the main stream sexual appetite from evolving, but their existence does gains legitimacy as the pornographic paradigm of society expands. The analysis of Jane Caputi could have been written by someone who adheres to the principles of the virginity pledgers, Caputi’s critique reveals the consequence of cultures sexual evolution. Virginity pledgers sought to brand themselves as the generation that could say no, although much of the rhetoric was actually controlled by adults. If the movement was evoked by adults as a means to control youth, it appears youth that participated cannot be deemed deviant or countercultural. However, if we pull the focus back to include virginity pledgers in society as a whole then they become countercultural despite the perception that they are following the rules of a powerful hierarchy (church and parents). Pledgers sought to jam culture through abstinence, just as other subcultures sought to jam culture by taking cultural norms to their extreme opposites. Objectification is the means to the pornographic paradigms end of erotic pleasure, usually the female is the object as our first example of the pizza hut sign displayed. Caputi states, “to objectify someone is to deny them autonomy and to use them as a tool for your own purposes…to make them into a replaceable commodity.” Caputi, “The Pornography of Everyday Life”, 315 In pornography woman are the object to be dominated, hence the terms banged, nailed, screwed and fucked are used to describe the woman’s powerless and forceless role. Pledger’s positive deviance cause them to refuse to enter the dialog of objectification by abstaining from sex entirely, thus female pledgers retain their autonomy. Haenfler, “Goths, Gamers, & Grrrls”, 77 Yet, the contradiction is that even in Church culture women face forms of objectification, from this we can reason that virginity is an exercise of retaining ones autonomy. When we view virginity pledgers as individuals fighting to retain their sexual integrity and autonomy in a hyper sexualized world we begin to catch on to the spirit of the movement and how organization make abstinence appealing. Prospective pledgers are told “it’s not easy but so worth it”, in attempt to convince teens to favor prolonged satisfaction over delayed gratification. Silver Ring Thing Young men are encouraged to go to heroic heights to abstain from sex and young women are encouraged demand respect by being countercultural and resisting peer pressure and objectification by young men. Caputi reiterates this belief by quoting activist Bell Hooks who, “asks heterosexual women to cease sexualizing the dominating “hard man” and to eroticize instead, equal and respectful relationships.” Hooks (1993) in, “The Pornography of Everyday Life”, 318 In pledger culture beliefs are reinforced through social attachments and feeling locked into a legitimate society. Haenfler, “Goths, Gamers, & Grrrls”, 80 Although media depictions of teen pledgers are hard to find, media depictions of virgins and the porn paradigm is not. Just like geeks and nerds virgins are depicted as being socially awkward, inept, or unattractive. Virginity is usually presented in satire because the idea of abstinence in such a sex driven culture is preposterous. In the movie 40 Year Old Virgin the lead character Andy played by Steve Carrel is socially awkward, he collects toys and rides a bike, these attributes support him being a virgin. “40 Year Old Virgin” , 2005, DVD The truth comes out as him and his buddies sit around a card table and talk about their sexual experiences with women, this scene reinforces Caputi critique of male dominance and female denigration. Women are described as accessories in this male talk as being screwed, nailed, and talking dirty as they are banged. Andy’s friends ask him to describe what type of tits the girl he banged had. When Andy begins to describes grabbing a women’s breast similar to feeling a bag of sand they begin to question his masculinity, this shows how sex has become an expression of the male identity also. Andy is then questioned if he is gay, his black friend comments “if you’re gay that’s cool I have friend that like to fuck guys…in jail.” This dialogue is ripe with stereotypes against blacks, gays, and women, but mainly it revolves around Andy’s male friends hounding him for being a virgin, meaning he is less of a man, and something is wrong with him. In Media virginity is seen as such a rare quality, that it is viewed as abnormal and we assume the person’s individuality is suppressed. In actuality, a virgin could be resisting cultural norms and retaining their autonomy against a hyper sexualized culture. Females that abstain from sex are seen as virgins who tease and temp men and are ‘itching for it’ underneath. In Monty Python and the Holy Grail “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”, 1998 DVD, Sir Galahad who is called the chaste is lured into a castle full of virgins. Galahad is known as the chaste for his unwavering purity in the classical King Arthur tales, however in Monty Python’s satire he is between a rock and a hard place. Galahad is injured and surrounded by 150 virgins, Zout who deceives Galahad upon entry to the castle demands that he punish her for her deceit. She reasons that she needs to be tied down to the bed and spanked, and that they all need to be spanked, to which all of the women chant in joy, “yes spank us.” Zout declaims, “and after the spanking…oral sex” as the other girls echo “oral sex, oral sex” Galahad reasons, “why I guess I could stay”, yet he is rescued from the temptation but Galahad after he puts up a fight to stay. Although satire, we see how women are used as a means to further perpetuate their objective positions in the depictions of sex in media. There is no shortage of media examples that display the pornographic paradigm (American Pie, Scandal, Mad Men, House of Cards), as well as virgin satire and abnormality (Breaking Amish, Virgin Diaries). Haenfler argues that “sexual acts are separate from sexual identity” Haenfler, “Goths, Gamers, & Grrrls”, 74, but Caputi argues that sexual acts have actually become ingrained into gender identities. Caputi, “The Pornography of Everyday Life”, 311 The male penis is personified as a weapon once cocked and loaded must punish its weak and surrendered victim, which is usually a women, however gay men are also objectified in porn culture. Ibid, 313 It is important to note “porn enthusiast unhesitatingly recommend that porn stay “dirty” and stress that it must continually break new taboos to remain exciting.” Ibid., 314 Porn is consumer driven, therefore profit driven, as we know markets change and competition spurs innovation in a capitalist society, porn is set to continually reinvent itself in new ways as Caputi highlights. Porn in itself is a subculture that pushes the norm of society’s concept of sex and leeches to gender identities, only time with tell what it transforms into next. Works Cited 40 Year Old Virgin. Produced by Universal Studios, 2005. Jane Caputi, “The Pornography of Everyday Life”, in Gender, Race, and Class in Media: A Critical Reader. 4, ed. Gail Dines and Jean M. Humez et al. (California: Sage Publications Inc., 2011), 311 Ross Haenfler, “Goths, Gamers, & Grrrls: Deviance and Youth Subculture”, (New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 2010), 71-82 Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Produced by Python (Monty) Pictures, 1998. Travis Thomas COMM 455 Short Paper 4 7