Media Influence On American Women

It is no secret that today’s society defines beauty as thin, long-legged women with statuesque bodies. Examples are found everywhere just by glancing at the closest magazine ads or by scrolling down the latest fashion article online. Normal, everyday women are being forgotten and tossed aside to make room for the “Top-Model”-like women currently crowding up Hollywood. Media depicts women as an unattainable image. They pressure ladies to buy the products they’re advertising; luring them with false advertisements promising that with it, they too could be perfect. While the media portrays women in a certain way for advertising and marketing benefits, it has caused numerous negatives effects to women’s self-esteems nationwide, it contradicts

Under society’s customs for decades, young women have found themselves immersed in the pressure and anticipation to have exemplary bodies. Nearly every young woman prefers to be slim, have a perfectly shaped body, that is beautified by applying pounds of makeup to their face but does not appear ridiculously overdone. Who’s responsible for these measures imposed on young women? When a young girl picks up the model on the cover of Vogue being called flawless, naturally it’s easy for her to then aspire to be a real-life imitation of the that model. These companies produce magazine covers shown with girls’ images daily. As if keeping the perfect body wasn’t hard enough, our culture also forces girls into the forever expanding world of composition, however, body image is a surging subject for young girls. Advertisements and pictures of lean female models are all over. Young women are measured and perplexed by their physical appearances with attire intended to raise their physical structures; social media, magazines, the society, marketing campaigns, advertisements, and the fashion gurus add to a strand of excellence.

Throughout their lives, women of all ages are constantly being bombarded with advertisements convincing them they must meet an ideal of the perfect body image. This is all thanks to companies that share a common goal to influence the mainstream population into believing they need to purchase certain products in order to compare to the impossible standards set by the beauty industry. In Dave Barry’s “Beauty and the Beast” he displays that it is planted in young girls minds that they need to look, dress, feel, and even act a certain way. However, men aren’t as affected by these capitalistic marketing schemes. In short, the media has affected the way women think of themselves.

Considering the fact that the unrealistic images of women are continued to be used in advertisements for countless years, this tells media consumers that whenever this began, it began with a bang. Representations of women in the mass media dates all the way back to the

“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.

Under society’s norms for decades, young women have been put under the pressure and anticipation to have perfect bodies. That is, thin and curved, beautified by applying pounds of the makeup to their face but not appear ridiculously overdone. Who’s responsible for these standards imposed on young women? When a young girl picks up the model along the cover of Vogue being called flawless, it’s easy for her to then aspire to be a real-life imitation of the photocopy. These companies produce magazine covers shown with girls’ images daily. As if keeping the perfect body wasn’t hard enough our culture also forces girls into the forever expanding world of composition, however, body image is a pressing issue for young women. Advertisements and posters of skinny female models are all over. Young girls not only could be better but need to be more upright and feel driven to throw the perfect figure. Moreover, girls are evaluated and oppressed by their physical appearances. With supplements and apparel designed to enhance a facial expression; social media, magazines, and marketing campaigns and advertisements add to the burden of perfection. The fashion industry is a prime object of body image issues, as they believe clothes look better on tall and svelte women. Established on a survey participated by 13 to 17-year-old in the U.S., 90% “felt pressured by fashion and media industries to be skinny”, with more than 60% routinely compares themselves to models, while 46%

In this week’s lecture on culture and media, I learned to identify issues in our society that is usually overlooked. The TED talk, “Killing Us Softly,” by Jean Killbourne, taught us how advertisers began to change the public’s views as they began to overly sexualize women and objectify them in various advertisements. The difference in the way men and women were portrayed were extremely different and is now being continued into the present, while being accepted as a current norm.

Advertising executives argue that the images they flagrantly display are only to catch people’s attention, and there is no deep underlying message in them. However, studies done on the effects of sexual images in the media on young women prove otherwise. According to a study done by The University of Texas, “girls with higher levels of ‘interalized sexualiztion’ earned lower grades in school and scored lower on standardized tests than their peers.” Advertising executives claim to be “playing to their audience,” but are they conditioning their young audience to think that this sexulization is normal? In Women and Media: A Critical Introduction the authors claim that the media is “deliberately structured to produce a male gaze that makes voyeurs of us all.” Over sensationalizing womens bodies takes women’s power from them and gleefully

Before they sell you their product, advertisers sell you the idea of how you should want to look and conversely, how looking otherwise is inherently a bad thing. No one wants to be the before picture, so we rush to purchase the product or book the procedure that can bring about the desired after. Women’s insecurity about their looks has made it easy to convince them that small breasts are a ‘disease’ that require surgical intervention. Fifty-three percent of American girls are "unhappy with their bodies" at age thirteen and this number increases to 78% at age seventeen. (Brumberg, 1997). It is easy to look at the people on TV and in magazines and find yourself lacking. (Hargreaves and Tiggeman 2002) found that teen girls who looked at ads using unrealistically models felt less confident, more angry and more dissatisfied with their weight and

The sexualization and beauty standards of women in media gives girls and women unrealistic body expectations. “The 2000s brought us the reign of the Victoria’s Secret Angel - tall, thin, and leggy models with big breasts, flowing hair, and toned bodies” (Huffingtonpost). Girls grow up seeing these flawless and beautiful women on T.v., commercials, and magazines.

Those media with tendentious views always lead to people deepen misconceptions. The media prefer to use hyper-sexualized images to sell products, ideas, and services keep people’s eyes. In fact, using hyper-sexualized images to sell products, ideas, and services is just good for enterprise, but it will change people’s idea, and keep women in an unfair state. In addition, the media catch people’s mentality, which are people are more interested in what did not know before, or they do not have. For men, the easiest way to realize female figure is from the Internet. Even the media will representation directly by advertising, music, and something else. Men will consider the fact thing is what they see. For women, when they see a woman with great figure, they will consider themselves, and also want to be like what they see. Therefor, they will think the important point is appearance for women. All things like values also depend on her appearance. Due to the media can change people mind little by little, for a woman, I think the most useful way to avoid change personal view by media is having women role models and mentors. Models will save women who are in adversity. When a woman lack of understanding, she can use the model’s experience to motivate herself. E4I have a role model whose name is Christine Lagarde. I known her was from once I do my assignment, and I searched lot of background information about her. I found her is really excellent. Based on International Monetary Fund,

It’s almost impossible to ignore the many images of thin beautiful women. When turning the pages of a popular magazine, women are being invited by the ads and spreads to look a certain way, thin. What girls don’t see is that the average size of women today is a size 16 not a 6. Models look beautiful for a reason. They have hair stylists, makeup artists, wardrobe people, and skin care specialists to make them look that way. Besides that they have the best photographers in the world. Beauty and fashion ads don’t just sell a product they sell a lifestyle. Many adolescents can be influenced to have a positive body image despite all of the negative media influences. Many magazines designed especially for adolescent girls, such as American Girl, focus on positive outlooks on the young girl’s lifestyle. American Girl Magazine says “Girls in this age group are more curious about the world than ever before. They’re beginning to consider the impact they can have on the people around them, on the environment, and on their future. All the while, they’re undergoing profound biological changes. Adolescent girls are entering one of the most challenging and complex phases of her life so far. Our advice titles include expert guidance on serious topics, such as The Care & Keeping of You and Staying Home Alone. In its eleventh

Despite improvements in the rights of women in the contemporary world, modernity has created systems in which women are prevented from achieving equality. One of the most popular influences in today’s society is the media. Female objectification in media has damagingly grown with the emergence of modernity. Unquestionably, this is an important sociological issue to address. Often in the modern world, the ideology of feminism is considered unnecessary. However, in spite of technological development, female objectification remains normalized in today’s culture. It is incorporated into our society so significantly, that we do not even notice the objectification that permeates the media (Cortese, 2008). Female objectification in advertising is

The roles of males and females in society have significantly changed, as opposed to the predominant roles in our history. In the modern culture of today, women have begun to break out of the mold that which society has placed her in. This much can’t be said when it comes to modern gender representation in mass media advertising. It can be safe to state that woman are seen as sexual, fragile, exotic—whereas men are portrayed as tough, in control, and aggressive. This trend can be one seen as an inhibitor to the advancement of our culture, because especially for women, it is hard to pull away from the stereotypes that are continuously represented. As examples of the given trend, the following

Contributing to society’s drastic turn towards vanity is the rise of social media. Hollywood promotes an impossible standard that many strive towards. Photoshopped magazine covers depict women as thin and fit, and men as muscular and overly masculine. Over the past few years, strives have been made to reverse this image, and become more body inclusive. However, the psychological effects of these lasting images can not be simply changed by a few more inclusive advertisements. People, especially young women who are exposed to negative body images