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Tom Leykis's 'Busing Out': What Is Biological Determinism?

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Tom Leykis's 'Busing Out': What Is Biological Determinism?
In the video “Busting Out”, talk show host Tom Leykis is shown promoting his special talk show segment that happens weekly – Flash Friday. During this segment, Leykis encourages women to flash their breasts while driving to “display” that they are listeners of the Tom Leykis Show. This kind of behavior towards women has vast cultural implications for our society.
While it may seem innocent to some, many cite the Tom Leykis show as one of the many reasons why feminism is so culturally important for society. Feminism is a consciousness-raising movement to get people to understand that gender is an organizing principle of life. The underlying belief of feminism is that women and men should be accorded equal opportunities and respect. Hence, sex, …show more content…
Essentialism is a line of thought that explains social phenomena in terms of natural ones. Essentialists may argue that men are natural leaders, which results in men being the “dominant” sex. Some may cite this belief as one of reasons why in America there seems to be a disproportional number of male CEOs to female CEOs. A Similar theory to essentialism is biological determinism. Biological determinism is a line of thought that explains social behavior in terms of who you are in the natural world. For example, someone who agrees with the idea of biological determinism may argue that biology dictates behavior. An example of this is the belief that males can’t help but to feel attracted to breasts. It’s in their blood. While these ideas may seem absurd to some, many people support certain aspects of these theories. For example, in “Busting Out” Tom Leykis states that, “In this society women feel sexually repressed.” Here, Leykis is displaying his belief that since women feel sexually repressed (biology), they are willing to flash their breasts to male viewers (behavior). Some may support this statement claiming that often women are told to “keep their legs shut”, implying that sexual expression is only acceptable for men. Hence, Flash Friday is a way to allow women to feel empowered. Others may disregard Leykis’ comment stating that women may only flash their breasts because they believe it is the only way to feel
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