The problem is that they can get away with more because we have different standards on obscenity, but in the past sexism was more accepted as just the natural way of it. Now, they have to justify sexism by saying it's "ironic" or "edgy".

Even if it's considered or supposed to be considered "ironic" or "edgy", it's still sexist, plain and simple. Retro sexism shouldn't be favored or dismissed anymore than ads back in the past were.

It was bad back then, it SEEMS like worse cause it was out in the open, but now it's all hidden, and it makes me paranoid,and it makes everyone else think I'm crazy. I ask my sis about why does the girl in the beer commercial have to have such small tight clothes (to see what she says) and she goes all "what's wrong with you today?" Oh I'm sorry, is not listening to hiphop with sexist sayings and complaining about a beer commercial wrong?

The term 'sattire' can get people out of ANYTHING...

It's just the different type of wrong nowadays. 60 years ago we would get commercials about housewives who lived to serve their masters i.e. husbands, now we have commercials with dehumanized almost naked "hot chicks" who live to be sex objects. I really don't know which is worse.

If not worse, then at least different. It seems like America can't live on without including at least something misogynistic every once in a while, you know, to remind us of where we stand in society. :/

yeah! if it gets to the worst and the world goes back to the past, ill scream!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!­!!1

The only reason sexism in the media SEEMS to be getting worse is because the DEFINITION of sexism IS too broad. THE EFFECT OF FEMINISM IS NOT!

Wow, that's a tough one, actually.

I think more people are standing up against it nowadays, so that could be why it seems worse. That said, as more and more feminist people are trying to do something about it, you get more sexist people fighting against them.

It's also pretty awful considering we're now in the 21st century and that stuff still exists!

Here's something interesting I've noticed though: in children's media, there seems to be more gender equality (good male characters AND good female characters), more representation (not only more female characters, but also better representation in terms of race), and fewer stereotypes, in comparison to media aimed at teens and adults. It's great that there are a few nice things on TV for kids, but it's still quite dangerous that there's so much sexism and other problems in media for older people.

Maybe the people responsible are actually aware that sexism is dangerous and that's why they're more careful when writing for kids?

Something else probably worth mentioning: sometimes in media, overly-blatant sexism is used as a joke. For example, I've been seeing an advert recently where Charlie Sheen is playing a misogynistic character and a female character asks him, "how do you have casual sex and still be able to look at yourself in the mirror the next day?" and Charlie's character responds, "hmm, let me think... oh yeah, I'm a dude."

In this example, misogyny is being used as the punchline and is being laughed at. There doesn't seem to be any hint of him saying he's more entitled to casual sex than she is either, the joke seems to be based purely on him being shallow and conscious-free (though I've not seen the full episode, so I can't guarantee that).

Personally, I think it's not a bad thing that sometimes the media gets people to laugh at the gross immorality of a character. It's much better than when they try to make a mockery of feminism itself, especially as it always involves them heavily misrepresenting it! However, there's still something unsettling about the way this joke works; it relies on the audience being aware that misogyny is a common thing in society even today.

Basically, the media industry are well aware that misogyny is around. Their audience is well aware that misogyny is around. Despite all this, the industry continues to pretend that sexism and misogyny is okay, and in some cases even try to make it look like men have it worse. How many TV shows have you seen where characters talk about alimony, in comparison to TV shows where characters talk about the wage gap? (they probably don't even realise that feminism would help men having problems with alimony)