Five Interrelated Concepts

This paper is going to look in to the role mass media plays in how women of color and adolescents see themselves. My sources will give insight to how black women are directly and indirectly affected by the media. Stereotypes of black women shape how they see themselves but also how others see and treat them. Although mass media affects black women, ethnic media is shown to play a much bigger role in determining our self- image. Ethnic media can have a negative or positive affect based off how strong your ethnic identiy is. Others tend to have their standards on what being black and beautiful means. This leads to colorism in the black community. Women of color have had stereotypical images that demonized and dehumanized them throughout history.

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

Why as white people have we been lulled into thinking its safe to be around other white people. Why have we been taught since birth that it’s the people of that other color we need to fear? They’re the ones that will slit your throat (Moore 57). The mass media has played and will continue to play a crucial role in the way white Americans perceive African-Americans. As a result of the overwhelming media focus on crime, drug use, gang violence, and other forms of anti-social behavior among African-Americans, the media is fostering a distorted public perception of African-Americans. Looking at past examples of African Americans treatment

The stereotypical misrepresentations of African-American women and men in popular culture have influenced societal views of Blacks for centuries. The typical stereotypes about Black women range from the smiling, asexual and often obese Mammy to the promiscuous Jezebel who lures men with her sexual charms. However, the loud, smart mouthed, neck-rolling Black welfare mother is the popular image on reality television. The typical stereotype about Black men is the violent, misogynistic thug, and the ever-enduring pimp. These images portrayed in media and popular culture createpowerful ideology about race and gender, which affects daily experiences of Black women in America. With few healthy relationships portrayed in the media, Black women

Over time, the perfect body image has changed in many ways. This is very evident in the female sex, especially through media. “Americans spend about 68 hours per week exposed to various forms of media” (US Census Bureau 2009). This media exposure through outlets such as t.v., radio, music videos, movies, and the internet, all influence the way people think about gender. The media influence is very evident in the way people view women and think about women in different cultures. Media influence on women creates negative viewpoints with how women view themselves and even how men view themselves, in turn making it hard to break certain beliefs and stereotypes instilled on society.

“We tend not to write women as human beings. It’s cartoons we’re making.” - Paul Haggis. This is a quote that was explored in Miss Representation that especially impacts me. The impact of media on women and men is immense. Media shapes the way the genders view each other and themselves and therefore has the power to dictate how humans act, how they feel, and tell them what they want. I feel that with the constant, unregulated bombardment of media demonstrating the unrealistic and unfair treatment of the women, it’s not crazy to think that young women are harming themselves to fit these roles. The media being uncensored leads to harmful consequences including women being discouraged from positions of power and changing their body.

Women are largely represented in the media through blogging, which can be one form of media that can be used specifically to target women by reinforcing patriarchal gender roles. Many blogs enforce the idea that only one kind of lifestyle - that of exercising and cleaning house - can make you happy, and that women should always be happy (Source C). This type of forced stereotypes can be damaging to women, insisting that women need to fall in line with oppression. As far as movie and show portrayals, women are often simplistic, one-sided characters cast as the potential love interest, and black male characters tend to be depicted as frightening and wild (Source D). Both of these ideas reinforce stigmas that can and do affect how people think about

Images in media, television especially, are a direct projection of the people who control and project them, which often tends to be white people. “‘We face the problems of images projected by people not of us,’ she said. ‘The media is the most powerful mind-manipulating tool on the earth.’”(Ruby, 18) The perception of black women in the media today can be damaging to the self-image of the young black women of today. During the Black Arts Movement, many artists and poets spoke of how white influence in our lives has created skewed beauty ideals in the African-American community. This white influence tends to harm black women’s images of themselves. Most female images seen in mainstream media are white, thin, tall and just plain gorgeous,

African American women have been purposefully written out of visual history with the exception of scripted roles that have been predetermined by stereotypical scripts that are imbedded in the collective psyche of American audiences beginning in the 1890s. Dorothy Dandridge was a sensational performer that commanded attention and left her audiences awestruck on screen and in life. At the age of eleven, I recall sitting in front of the television for a special televised movie, called “Introducing Dorothy Dandridge.” The film opens with a somber score and voiceover of Dorothy (Halle Berry) asking the audience, “Have you ever caught sight of yourself by accident… And, you see yourself from the outside… That’s who you really are… That question captured my wondering eleven-year-old mind and immediately pulled me into the world of a woman who was familiar to me. She was familiar in her storytelling and questioning even before an image broke the continuity of credits on flashing on the screen. My mother has always loved mirrors. In one room there would be at least two mirrors suspended on the walls. I have caught many glimpses of myself over the years, so I knew exactly what she meant in asking the question. It’s a question that continues to be answered by Hollywood of black women, but without their input or consent. The question is why?

“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.

The range of “acceptable” images was narrow and the depictions of women were particularly debased: a maid or housekeeper. If in print, she represented the woman selling feminine hygiene products. Not until later in history did the Eurocentric vision of Black beauty infiltrate America media. During the late 60’s Diane Carroll an African American model and actress was portrayed as a middle-class widowed single mother with one child. The Diane Carroll Show portrayed a slim fair skinned, docile nurse typifying the American ‘ideal’ of African American ‘family’, that of the single mother, beautiful which equaled lighter skin and assimilated. During the 60s and 70s there were very few African American leading males or females. The 80s and 90s saw a few more leading men come along. After Bill Cosby’s The Cosby Show – more Black women were seen in commercials – yet, for Black women, the roles were as predictable--the housewife, the overweight cleaning expert, sweet grandma, and soda-drinking teenagers-as they were few. This visual disparagement is not an oversight. What we see or don’t see affects how we think and feel about others and ourselves. Stroman (1984) investigated the role of television representations of African Americans and how these representations affect attitudes and social habits. America’s lack of investment in minority consumerism only reinforces the view that minorities are seen as second-rate citizens. As a matter of practice, African Americans were

Our world is surrounded by media. Media plays an enormous role in affecting the way we perceive gender and gender roles. Media as well as communications are known to be the key elements of how people live their life in the modern age. The media can be a very inviting place, since it has so many things inside of it that appeals to people worldwide. At the same time, the media can be a cruel, judging and corrupt area that can be scary to involve yourself with. That being said, the mass media has had its history with harsh stereotyping, particularly when dealing with women. Many people within the media view women as a gender that is only allowed to be at home, whether it is cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, or being a slave to their male counterpart. Even with women who work inside of the media are usually overlooked, bashed by their appearance and do not get an equal opportunity as men do in order to succeed in life. This has been the case for hundreds of years, but there are still a myriad of problems that women face today, whether in the media or life in general.

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.

Gender stereotypes are everywhere. ‘Both masculinities and femininities come into existence at specific times and places and are always subject to change.’ (Connell, 1995: 185 cited in Wharton, 2012: 6). The term gender is a ‘doing’ word. It is a constant, active process. A role, is the expected behaviour which is associated with a status. Roles are performed according to social norms, shared rules that guide people’s behaviour in specific situations.’ (The sociology of gender). The media play a huge role, it is argued, in acculturating men and women into separate gender roles based on their sex. Implying the idea that gender is learned and not ‘human nature’ (Jaggar, 1983) (Ross, Karen 2011).

As a Communication major, I spend a lot of time studying the human communication process, which is the exchange of verbal and nonverbal messages between a receiver and sender. This communication process does not only apply to face-to-face interactions but also includes mass media, rhetorical, and technological communication. Through these various forms of communication, the sender not only expresses his/her message but also expresses power hierarchies about race, gender, and sexuality that are present in society. Mass media has a significant impact on socializing gender roles and perpetuating gender stereotypes, and to prove that, I am analyzing mass media messages, such as television shows, movies, and advertisements.