Relevant Source 1

http://everydayfeminism.com/2013/01/five-ways-rape-culture-exists-unnoticed/

This article written by Sarah Ogden explains how the media in society today plays a large part in the encouragement of rape culture. Rape culture is an environment where sexual violence and acts towards women are considered normal. The article talks about how the exposure of women in advertisements in order to entice male customers can cause the objectification of women in real life. The women’s consent for becoming a sexual object becomes insignificant because in the advertisements she never consents to being leered at or controlled by the men. It also explains how the objectification of women can make men believe that women are theirs to be had and controlled. This further encourages the idea that a women’s consent is not needed and men are able to sexually objectify women at their will. Sarah Ogden writes, “It’s easy to see why so many people objectify women’s bodies when it’s so normalised in our media.” In an article on link.springer.com called ‘Women and ‘Body-isms’ in Television Beer Commercials” the author discusses the impacts of these beer commercials and mentions the sexual harassment allegations made by female workers at Stroh Brewery. After further research an article on the Chicago Tribune website gave more detail. Four women, who were all workers at the Brewery, filed a lawsuit against Stroh Brewery on the grounds of sexual harassment in the workplace. The women believe that the cause of the harassment from male workers was a series of Old Milwaukee advertisements featuring the Swedish Bikini Team. The Stroh Company said that there was no connection between the advertisements and the alleged harassment and that they have a very strong policy against sexual harassment. However, Lori Peterson, the attorney of the four women believes that the Stroh Company cannot really care about ending sexism when they use it in all of their commercials. She says “You can’t tell me a company is interested in ending sexism in its plants when it spends millions of dollars a year promoting it.” Although her opinion could be obscured by her involvement with the case, Lori Peterson still has valid reasoning. These beer advertisements are obviously having an effect, not just on women in society but also on the workers who are making and bottling it.