A Brief History And Analysis Of Portrayal Of Women Essay

Throughout today’s society, media contributes to almost everyone’s daily life. From informative news channels to comical television shows, media proves to be effective in advertisement, releasing messages and informing the audience. Although media proves to be wildly effective in advertising, releasing messages and informing the audience, periodically destructive and misleading messages are provided to the audience and directly influencing women. Cultural critics widely agree that media tends to negatively influence women and all the critics point to research which supports the belief that women are portrayed as subordinate to men, having no

Throughout American Literature, women have been depicted in many different ways. The portrayal of women in American Literature is often influenced by an author's personal experience or a frequent societal stereotype of women and their position. Often times, male authors interpret society’s views of women in a completely different nature than a female author would. While F. Scott Fitzgerald may represent his main female character as a victim in the 1920’s, Zora Neale Hurston portrays hers as a strong, free-spirited, and independent woman only a decade later in the 1930’s.

The sexualisation of women in advertising has become a very prominent and controversial issue in today’s society. Many brands, products and campaigns we are presented with portray women as being available and willing sexual objects, who exist to cater to the male gender. Gucci is one such brand that does this, focusing on emphasizing the sexual appeal of the female gender in order to sell their products, because as advertisers know: ‘sex sells.’ This new cultural shift can however, be seen as politically regressive for women, as the ideology it brings negatively impacts how women are viewed by society and how they view themselves.

Over the years the United States has grown to love each other as the way people are, especially women. Women have proven to be even stronger than what people expected them to be. You can see the strength, the courage, and the confidence they have gained. It has been discussed many years that women shouldn’t be allowed in combat for not being “strong enough”. Men have shown that they can be “manly” enough to do women or girl things, so why can’t women do “manly” things? If women feel like they can handle being on the frontline then we should respect their decision and allow them to go.

The extended essay examines women’s roles in the United States during the 1950’s. It historically investigates the mass media and the various mediums that contributed to the creation of an idyllic, stereotypical woman. More specifically, the extended essay will discuss print and television as methods of developing this image of women, exploring the question: To what extent did the mass media’s creation of an image of the idealized woman contribute to the change in women’s roles in the United States during the 1950’s?

The paramount of social adversities facing the modern society is the divide between definitions of gender. Gender represents an abstract interpretation of sex and this notion is simply a societal construct. The establishment of gender has evolved into a tradition of humanity, however this tradition evolved into a social divide between masculinity and femininity. The pressure to conform to societal constructs of masculinity and femininity poisons society and branches off to toxic masculinity; such were nurtured from these figurative beliefs. Gender roles further stigmatize the victims who refuse to conform. However, gender roles has witnessed a revolution in modern times. The purpose of this collateral involves analyzing the evolution of gender roles present in media from mid 19th century to modern times. The period of time, or 1960’s, was chosen because of post World War II’s effects on stereotypes in society around the world. Post war not only challenged stereotypes but further kindled women’s role in the workforce and women began to fill in roles previously belonging to men. In later years, a radicalization of the feminist movement has spurred and our modern times is a witness to its ascension to the paramount of feminism. The media, since the 1960’s, has allowed society to be the primary witness. With the evolution of gender roles, the media must also adapt to the changes in societal views of gender roles and the entire feminist movement at large. This collateral seeks to

Women, have battled for respect, and have battled for equal opportunities just like men have certain opportunities in life. Women achieved greatness over the past years but the way the media shows it or how they do it tells society they want women to be portrayed a certain way, especially in magazines. Some magazines want women to be seen as strong, others want women to be seen as a sex symbol or feel bad about themselves. It depends on the magazine and the concept of it. For instance, Essence magazine, which is a magazine meant for African-American women and showing how they excel in certain areas of life. Then there is Sports Illustrated that instead of showing women

The first section of Gender and the Media addresses gender representations and the beginning of feminism. During the late 60’s and early 70’s, women’s rights movements were first introduced with the challenge of the media, prompting them monitor the way the media portrayed women. This portrayal starting in the late 1970’s has seen many transmissions since. Gil states: “I use the term feminism to signal a concern with enduring gender

Although the post war economy, the invention of the pill, and the civil rights movement precipitated great change for American women, feminism also failed to achieve change by not resolving tensions of raising a family and trying to hold a job and not stopping marriage from crumbling into divorce. Even though women had become pilots, Supreme Court justices and astronauts, they still failed to “have it all,” by not resolving the tension for women trying to raise a family and hold a job (Collins 393). Failing to resolve this crisis, feminism’s inability to achieve change, left millions of women struggling to “have it all,” when 1980’s television made it seem within reach with women like Clair Huxtable. In fact, women’s inability to make change

From the moment the first American settlers stepped off their musty ship and laid foot on the fertile soil which makes up our great nation, women in America have almost always been seen as inferior when compared to their male counterparts. What’s more, Americans have a rich history in oppressing those we deem to be “lesser.” In terms of women, this oppression has taken on many forms throughout the years. From not being able to go to school to receive a proper education, to being denied suffrage, to being criticized for how they look or what they wear, women have encountered obstacles that men can sometimes only imagine. We as a nation have a defining past in which women were, and sometimes still are, expected to look or act in a manner defined as appropriate by men and even by each other. Nowadays, it seems as though we are attempting to compensate for the years of mistreatment by sending positive messages of acceptance to young girls and women alike. However, while one-half of the population is being praised for their uniqueness, there is still another half who are being left to fend for themselves in the shadows. Men and boys, though always perceived as the strong and indestructible members of society, are not given the same encouraging spotlight as women and girls. We live in a world where problems related to self-image and self-worth are gender-neutral; they do not merely seek to harm a single sex. Why then, does society typically only remind women how truly special they

“People learn more from media than any other single source of information” (Missrepresentation). This quote exemplifies how society learns and creates their standards about people, places, and things. All sources and mediums of media impact billions of lives every day. The media holds this power over society and it’s time to change that; especially when it comes to the media’s view of women. Women are constantly being misrepresented. This misrepresentation of women in the media is negatively impacting America by corrupting both the youth and adults. This is occurring because of the hyper-sexualization of women, wrongly portraying women in leadership positions, and creating stereotypes of women in movies and television.

This source is about the gender roles in America. It discusses the different ways that the media influences gender stereotypes in women. It compares the present to the future. According to this paper, women are often sexualized and put in proactive clothing. Women are portrayed as nonprofessionals, homemakers, wives, and parents. This benefits my paper because this shows how the media has a negative effect on the stereotypes of women. It supports the theory that the media is one of the main causes of the negative stereotype and traditional gender roles.

Throughout history and today, we women are constant victims of stereotyping from our society. Certain “rules” have to be followed and certain “ideal” women images have to be kept. We are raised in a way to fill certain position where the society wants us to be and as a result, the opportunities are always limited for us and ideas of our importance in the society are diminishing. Even though women gained some independence, where women can work and take various position in society, the society’s idea of typical role of women never seem to change.

Representations of what is believed to be female characters holding weapons have been previously observed on the fragments of the Oseberg tapestry. The textile fragments show human-esque figures that appear to be either standing in front of spears or holding them and who wear clothing that is closely representative of long dresses which were worn by Viking Age women. Some apparently female figures are also holding swords. The Oseberg tapestry is difficult to interpret, but it has been suggested that its imagery may represent a procession of some sort, perhaps one that occurred as part of a funeral. Jesch has also speculated whether the female figures on the tapestry might be valkyrjur “choosing the slain for the honour of Valhall” . Jesch notes the variety of places that female Scandinavian graves can be found, from Iceland to Russia, yet she is hesitant about presenting this as evidence of female participation in Viking raids. She says, “In spite of the archaeological evidence that women from Scandinavia accompanied the men who went trading and adventuring in the east, we are never told this in the written sources.”

Throughout Spain’s history, the role and image of women have been shaped by the ideals set forth by the traditional and devout Catholic political authority. After the changes that followed the death of dictator Francisco Franco, the female role in Spain has been just as much in transition as the nation’s political system. This time of transition would serve as an opportunity where Spanish women could reclaim their identity and show that they were just as deserving of their individual rights as men. This change would go beyond the political sphere and mainstream pop culture would also begin to show clear depictions of Spanish women transitioning into their new, independent role in society. Carmen Maura is a Spanish actress that was heavily involved in portraying the transitioning Spanish woman during the later stages of the transitional period and beyond. Particularly, her roles as Pepa in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988) and Julia in Common Wealth (2000) would prove to be two of her most acclaimed performances while also being two performances that portray the idea of the transitioning Spanish woman on the viewers. The two movies were made twelve years apart from each other, which is a considerable amount of time where the Spanish women continued to change. So, the two characters that Carmen Maura portrays can be interpreted as visual examples of a transforming Spain, where its women faced radical changes in two different, post-Franco time periods.