Hypersexualization And Objectification Of Women In The Media

If you turn on the television or flip through a fashion magazine, it is very likely you will presented with many displays of hypersexualization of girls and women in advertising images and in media. There are many components to sexualization. It occurs, according to the American Psychological Association, when “a person’s value comes only from his or her sexual appeal or behavior, to the exclusion of other characteristics.” This person is held to a standard that equates physical attractiveness with being sexy. “Sexualization” happens when a person is sexually objectified- that is, made into a thing for others’ sexual use, rather than being seen as a person with their own independent actions and abilities to make decisions. Oftentimes, sexuality is inappropriately imposed upon a person without their knowing it or consent. Sometimes, researchers use the word “hypersexualization” to describe roughly the same idea. In the article, “Media’s Growing Sexualization of Women”, hypersexualization is defined as, “The act of making something extremely sexual and erotic.”

Furthermore, media surrounds teenage girls in today’s culture. It is impossible to escape the sight of media. The media’s constant idealistic beauty is ever present to a vast amount of self-conscious girls. This image of beauty causes girls to have low self-esteem (Clay, Vignoles, and Dittmar). Media defining this perfect body image causes many adolescent girls to feel dissatisfied with their bodies and become depressed. “Viewing ultra-thin or average-size models led to decreases in both body satisfaction and self-esteem in adolescent girls aged eleven to sixteen, with changes in self-esteem fully mediated by changes in body satisfaction” (Clay, Vignoles, and Dittmar).

Teenage girls are at an impressionable time in their lives. Mass Media is a key idea in one of the factors of socialization that become important to teenagers. Teenagers look to the media for a sense of entertainment. Whether it is movies, magazines, or even some aspects of social media, teenagers get a lot of influence from the media’s message. The problem with this is the media has a specific way of doing things and can be negative to a susceptible teenage girl. Media’s way of portraying a woman can be skewed and unrealistic way from what reality is. Teenage girls then have a desire for this look or way. In this essay the three ways I will describe as to why the media can negatively affect a teenage girls body image is by showing

Movies, magazines, advertisements, television, music videos and even music lyrics are just a handful of media sources where I have noticed an increased focus on women being viewed as sexual objects, instead of women proposing an empowering message. Many people in our society are not aware of the extent in which sexualisation of women in the media is occurring every day of our lives; this is because we live in a culture where sexuality is more accepted; this is is having negative effects on the social aspect of our society. So, has the media and society pushed sexualisation too far? It is believed that women are hyper-sexualised in the media and this is changing the way women are looked at; but what are we actively doing as a society to reduce this issue?

The biggest example of media oversexualization in today’s media is pornography (Greenfield,742). The Internet, which was created less than 30 years ago, is one of the largest sources of pornography. Although the Internet is useful and can be used for positive purposes, Greenfield states that “"Many

The media is our source of constant information, and is presented in many forms such as, daily newscasts, social media like Facebook, and the magazines strategically placed in our doctor’s office. There is no surprise that it is also the dominant influence when it comes to society’s beauty standard either. Unfortunately media isn’t a positive influence all the time, and is the main force behind negative body image epidemic that plagues women, especially the 18-25 age group. In order to fully understand the severity of what some call a “Vanity” issue we must look into the facts of how exactly the media damages women’s perception of their own bodies, and then observe the extent of the damage done to the physical and mental states of these women

These sexualized ads can provide a constant reminder for these young girls on what they ‘should’ look like. This image that is placed in a young girl’s head can leave lasting impressions on self-esteem. These self-esteem issues are becoming more widespread due to the reach of the ads targeting them. Since most American families have access to TV and the internet, this sexual content is constantly pushed towards them often without them even realizing. Along with the hyper-sexualization, the ads can also give these young girls examples of body types that may be physically unobtainable for

Melt.” Kate Upton appears as sexy, thin, fit, and attractive. This common appearance of young women in the media encourages eating disorders among young girls to achieve this standard.

(Heubeck 2006) For many young people, especially girls, the ideal continues to chase them as they grow into young women. Young girls begin to internalize the stereotypes and judge themselves by media’s impossible standards. The power that the media holds in impacting the lives of young girls is detrimental and eventually affects their body image, their satisfaction of their own body, and portrayal of their body as an object.

Women throughout media are standing out as an object. As women we are attracting attention by dressing scandaless. In the book so sexy soon jean killbourne describes “when people are sexualized, their values comes primarily from their sexual appeal which is equated with physical attractiveness. Magazines become another electronic on how to view women as. For instance men are going through a magazine just to get their mind off few things but instead they come across a picture of a nice curvy woman who is laying on a new 2015 mustang being sexually attractive to men. The deep women dig for attention the more they are portrayed as an object. To change the media in today society will be improving a better way to investigate a better way on how

The influence of television can easily impact the social development of an adolescent; thus implicitly affecting their personality and how they dress and behave. Within this impact, young teenage girls appear to be especially vulnerable to media effects. In society, women are expected to value and attain a certain degree of beauty that is labeled as “ideal.” Within the media, images of the “perfect” woman further develop the pressures of attaining

The idea of the “feminist” woman has taken off in recent years. She is self-empowered, resourceful and only with a man if she so chooses. Many shows and advertisements still embrace the age old stereotypes and the younger, more impressionable generation is watching and absorbing these messages. The issue is that the media has not gotten the idea of empowered woman not meant for male enjoyment and changed accordingly. So instead of the next generation of sure, inventive, and capable women the media is cementing ideas such as value by attraction and sexuality, starting younger and younger in these unwanted lessons. This Literature Review was conducted with the following question in mind: What do we need to understand about sexualization of young girls in media? From this review, three themes emerged: the Cause, the Effects through Sexualization and Message behind it, lastly the Perception.

Objectification of women is a trend that is coming up in the entertainment industry especially in movies, music videos, music and television. This development seems to be affecting women more than men. The wave of women stereotypes is dangerous for the society because it is bound to affect how men and women relate to each other and promote unhealthy habits in the masses that are exposed to such incorrect media representation of women. This issue is especially tricky to handle because it is evident that the more the media depicts women as sexual objects, the more viewers seem to be entertained and buy into it. This viewership is not restricted to the men, but women also subscribe to such obscenities. By using incorrect and perverse representation of women, the media is able to shape the societies ideologies on dating, marriage and sex. It is also important to note that this problem falls across the demographic divide, young or old, black or white; they all seem to have fallen for this media craze. The actions of the media have been allowed because sex sells and the society has shown that it has approved the objectification of women.

In today's society media is a main part of everyone's lives. It is used in so many different ways and for so many different reasons but today I want to focus on the way that women are depicted in the media. You may not notice on a daily scroll down your facebook or instagram feed, your browsing on youtube or you're flicking through a trashy magazine but on a day to day basis women are objectified in media and represented in a way that should not be what women are known for. All of those ‘insta models’ you see everyday are not achievable goals, all of those ads showing women in revealing bikinis or sexualised mannurs are not what we should be seen as by the rest of the world. We as women need to begin to make a stand as to hnow we are depicted

Common female stereotypes found in the media have a powerful influence over how society views women and how women view themselves. What is the media portrayal of women today and how does this impact how young girls perceive themselves? With programs such as The Bachelor and Flavor of Love showing a dozen women competing for the attention of one man, often using their sexuality, magazine ads displaying a half-naked female body to sell a fragrance or cosmetic product, and television commercials highlighting a woman’s thigh and butt to sell sneakers, it may be difficult for society not to be influenced by the overwhelming message to objectify women.