Thesis:
Why did standards of beauty for the female body begin reflecting the narrow, Eurocentric image that is prevalent in both Western and Eastern cultures today?
Source 1: Cvajner, Martina. “Hyper-Femininity as Decency: Beauty, Womanhood and Respect in Emigration.” Ethnography, vol. 12, no. 3, 2011, pp. 356–374. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24048143.
In this research account, the author relates her experience with a certain group of outcasted USSR immigrant, working class women in a conservative small town in Northern Italy. She includes observations as to their daily lives and how they draw social boundaries. She draws conclusions from her personal account as well as from surrounding areas as to why females who are oppressed for a specific reason rail against the stereotypes imposed upon them by further perpetuating them. From her experience, she concludes that the women break away from their oppressed environment by actively and blatantly engaging in this “hyper
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“Educating the Eye of the Beholder: American Cosmetics Abroad.” Daedalus, vol. 131, no. 4, 2002, pp. 101–109. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20027809.
Professor of American history from the University of Pennsylvania explores the marketing of American cosmetics abroad and the influence of Western, “modern” ideals on the women of these cultures. She uses the Afghanistan War as a starting point to relate the importing process of American beauty idols and images across the Atlantic and into foreign land. The author reflects on the now hyper sexualized images that are imported now almost without thought across global markets.Overall, the paper examines the export of American beauty ideals through politics and war time media.
Source 4:
Basil G. Englis et al. “Beauty before the Eyes of Beholders: The Cultural Encoding of Beauty Types in Magazine Advertising and Music Television.” Journal of Advertising, vol. 23, no. 2, 1994, pp. 49–64.
As of recently, the media has been flooded with positive interpretations of beauty standards all over the world. According to various sources, beauty ideals, in women especially, are socially constructed in order to judge a person’s value based on physical attractiveness; therefore, it is highly encouraged that people pay attention to their looks and take care of themselves, in order for others to create a positive first impression of one’s character. It is no secret that beauty standards vary from one culture to the next and it is difficult to establish a universal principle of what is considered beautiful. Many countries’ ideals contrast one another and, as a result, allow for stereotypes to emerge. This is the case between American
Beauty is hard to define and is said to be in the eye of the beholder, but desire for women to be beautiful and stay beautiful is a goal in our culture today. Though our society and loved ones emphasize that beauty lies within one’s character, our society also contradicts this idea because they tend to focus on physical appearance more. Beauty perception has evolved from embracing natural qualities in earlier decades to promoting superficiality in today’s society due to cultural changes such as the discovery of new beauty products and procedures and depictions made through mass and social media. The evolution of beauty from previous decades is drastic. Tracing back to the 1900’s up until the 1940’s, ideal beauty involved natural qualities
Beauty standards had completely shifted in the time of the 1920s, as women were attempting to achieve anything opposite than the previous “Victorian” standards. This change was a kind of movement, and resulted in products that would draw attention their new looks. The cosmetics business advanced and was prevalent in enhancing one's beauty. The purpose was to resemble movie stars, actresses with their “beautiful eyebrows and eyelashes.” Women considered to be “average” would used makeup to draw attention to their face as they strived to look in resemblance to movie
Historically, societies have divided the sexes into male and female and assigned specific gender roles for each group to ‘perform’. Alternative sexual practices outside of the norm were considered unacceptable and abnormal. These ideologies of heteronormativity have been reinforced throughout various social institutions including media where heteronormative portrayals have been considered standards. Furthermore, as Rogers mentioned, “Commonly intertwined with such heterocentrism are values celebrating heterosexuality as normal and natural while condemning or at least rejecting lesbigay sexualities.” (Rogers 72). Heteronormativity is largely depicted in the media and reinforce dominant norms of society, which portray heterosexual romantic relationships
A major modern problem with the media is the sublimation of, and reaffirmation of, stereotypical female gender roles. “The media treats women like shit” (Cho). Which is a serious issue because of Marshall McLuhan’s famous words, “The Medium is the Message” (Warwick). The medium up for discussion is the media, which can be fundamentally defined as the most significant “single source of information that people have today (Katz). Therefore, in order to understand “what’s going on in our society” (Katz) it is “absolutely imperative to “understand media” (Katz). Media and technology are “shaping our politics, our national discourse and most of all, they’re shaping our children’s brains, lives and emotions” (Steyer). Caroline Heldman, PhD, and
In my EPQ I shall be discussing ‘How gender is portrayed in the media and its effects’. I will explore the effects on all genders and also how gender stereotypes are portrayed predominantly within plays and films. I chose to research and explore this topic as the portrayal of gender has dramatically changed over the years slowly due to the gender spectrum being more openly discussed. This progression widens the understanding of the definition of gender, and what gender fluidity is .For a long time gender has been a limited topic of discussion since many other genders were seen us unnatural because of this media tended to focus on only men and women due to other genders being unaccepted and unacknowledged. I will also be looking into the patriarchal point of view and its influence on the media and how it has progressed and its effects on the portrayal of certain genders overtime. I will then be looking at ‘The nuclear family’ and how that was considered ‘the norm’, the effects of not fitting into this category and how some genders upset this category. Then my focus will be how people’s lives are shaped when they don’t conform to the typical gender roles and how the media has impacted them. My final point will be to reflect on the changes were seeing in the media that are tackling these issues and furthering our understanding of genders.
There has been a growing trend of hypersexualization of women over the span of all forms of media. The women within these images are made to look perfectly flawless. They are extremely thin without a trace of fat or cellulite to be found. The people who consume this media are exposed to the idea that the women they are observing are models for true physical beauty. These standards are accompanied by an alternate message from the media that pushes the idea that women’s value comes from their beauty. While some women may understand that the messages about the ideal woman are unrealistic and false, it is found that adolescent girls are vulnerable to the media’s strategies due to their lack of media literacy as well as the search for their own identity during this developmental stage in their lives. The exposure to these standards of beauty can have several negative effects on the girls such as lower self-esteem, higher body dissatisfaction, depression, and eating disorders. SPARK and 4 Every Girl are two of a growing number of campaigns that are working to fight against the sexualized images of women in the media and the negative effects it can have on the viewers.
women. Due to this traditional revolution, fine lines between social classes are drawn, and the
One thousand years go by and an abundant amount of people still view women in a stereotypical type of way. On the opposing view, if women did not overstretch the slightest of things, this wouldn’t be such an enormous issue. Women may be overreacting to what the media has to say about them. It is not affecting everybody but a vast majority of successful women from continuing to moving forward said Marianne Schnall. Important to realize, women are capable of doing jobs men can do. Such jobs as being an engineer, physician, mechanic, lawyer and even top notch business women! Up to the present time there is an ongoing public debate on women suffering from double standards. If it makes a female feel threatened or belittled than it may be
Media portrays femininity on a daily, in our lives. Femininity are the qualities that traditionally associate with females. In movies femininity are strongly showed. People of all ages are exposed to the expectations of femininity which affects our views on female. In the media such as movies like “Cinderella” the portrayal reinforces gender stereotypes to their audience.
Redbook magazine are devoted to selling products ranging from shoes to shampoo. The entire magazine only has only 210 pages. Approximately 6-8 min of every half hour television show is produced by ad agencies. Americans are bombarded with advertisements. We see them everyday in many different forms and through different mediums. Advertisers study America’s population through a systematic breakdown and analysis of our likes and dislikes in relation to our differences. These differences include gender, sexual orientation, economic status, location, race, ethnicity, and more. Advertisers have substantial knowledge of what appeals to each of these demographics and how these demographics will respond to
During and after World War II, lipstick was advertised in the United States as a symbol of feminism (Schaffer). Whether women were waiting for their men to come home from the war or took part in the war themselves, they could always look better with a new shade of lipstick. Under Hitler’s law in Germany, German women were not allowed to wear any face make up. This inspired advertisements across the US claiming that German women lost their glow due to their inability to wear make up (Delano pg. 49). The United States was advertised as being the superior country because women maintained their glow simply by wearing lipstick. Other featured articles described how women overseas and in Europe had to wait until the war was over to get an adequate
Many females who live in the twenty first century now often take for granted of their rights and freedoms that permit them to pursue their own interests and desires. However, this starkly contrasts with how women were treated in the past due to their submissive, powerless position that prohibited them from being able to truly embrace their own identity. This is particularly illustrated with female immigrants into which constrictive gender roles created a constraint upon each person’s freedom, resulting in feelings of unhomeliness in a completely different environment. However, while some women decide to passively accept the strict boundaries that society has imposed upon them, others will rebel against this confinement and confront against
“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.
Female Stereotypes In The Media In the media the most common female stereotypes, are the housewife and the blonde bimbo. The Housewife.