Media Stereotypes : The Media And The Media

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

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.

If society has been paying any attention to media as it has changed over the years, people would likely realize that it has transformed from a means of educating to entertainment. The demand for high ratings has become more necessary than valid information. As a result, media produces a lot of bias in both individual stories and opinions. Whether it’s because of (dis)abilities, privileges, or identities, one is likely to see that a single story could vary from source to source in both whom the writers agree with and what the right or wrong actions were. Therefore, the media’s professional display decreases with the usage of personal opinions which sways their viewer’s opinions instead of allowing them to form their own.

I agree with Jean Kilbourne’s perspective which argues that women are misrepresented by the media because they have to live up to standards of body image that the media creates, which is a significant aspect of a consumer’s self-concept. Women are perceived to be skinny and light complexion. Even though that is not the case, the media continues to impact people. This leads to social comparison, which has an impact one’s self esteem because one then tries to evaluate her appearance by comparing it to the women depicted in these ads. There are however, some limitations to her arguments. For example, if women are as free as she implies then they are free to reject the messages of advertisements. Her argument can only go so far because it is not

The media plays a big role in how one gets and stays informed about all the local, national, and international events. Media can be local and national news channels, newspapers, social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Even though all media reports on the same event that does not mean that all the information is the same, the way it is reported, the same or the way people perceived the information. Most often the way media may report an event affects the way one looks at the event, how one remembers it and the way one creates, and justify any racial bias or stereotypes that one may have. Some prime example of this is the how media portrays Eric Garner, Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin compared to White male shooters.

The media group that retouches images skews the “normal” body image of people through many of its outlets, including models in advertising and magazines, and actors in TV and movie productions. “The average model portrayed in the media is approximately 5’11” and 120 pounds. By contrast, the average American woman is 5’4” and 140 pounds” (Holmstrom, 2004). This statistic shows how the media manipulates consumers into believing that because they are not what the average model looks like, they are not living up to a certain standard which implies that they need to look like that to be beautiful. Another research fact that shows a similar concept is that, “In the United States, 94% of female characters in television programs are thinner than the average American woman, with whom the media frequently associate happiness, desirability, and success in life” (Yamamiya et al., 2005). This association of female thinness and happiness, desirability and success makes consumers believe they must achieve this unrealistic thinness to achieve more ultimate goals and fulfillment in life. “The media also explicitly instruct how to attain thin bodies by dieting, exercising, and body-contouring surgery, encouraging female consumers to believe that they can and should be thin” (Yamamiya et al., 2005). This idealization of thinness in the media is seen so much, and is extremely harmful to women’s self confidence and is often associated with body image dissatisfaction, which can be a precursor to social anxiety, depression, eating disturbances, and poor self-esteem (Yamamiya et al.,

The media does portray Latinos and other underrepresented groups in ways that lead to stereotypes. These stereotypes are portrayed in the news, films, and multiple television shows. These stereotypes are often damaging to the underrepresented group because of literal meaning people will take the stereotype. Television shows like Family Guy uses stereotypes or offensive terms in a joking matter, but these joking matters are viewed by various amount of people. For example, in Family guy there is a very popular Mexican maid by the name of Consuela. Consuela does not know proper English, demands cleaning supplies, has a son in jail, and steals. Do not worry for those who are not Mexican and feel left out; Family Guy harshly portrays basically

Today's media and the members of society set a standard for physical appearance that people compare themselves to, which oftentimes, these standards are physically unreachable. If people think that they do not look like the picture in the magazines then they feel as though something is wrong with them. If bans were placed on Photoshop and underweight models it would stop the glorification of unhealthy weights, habits, and unrealistic comparisons. When people look at the media, they are usually looking at accounts that Photoshop their models. In these images the models are thin, have zero imperfections, they are in shape, and they perfectly proportionate. People, mostly young adults, looking at these models believe that what they are looking

Images of female bodies are everywhere. Women, and their bodies, sell everything from food to cars. Women's magazines are full of articles urging women to fit a certain mold. While standing in a grocery store line you can see all different magazines promoting fashion, weight loss, and the latest diet. Although the magazines differ, they all seemingly convey the same idea: if you have the perfect body image you can have it all…the perfect marriage, loving children, great sex, and a rewarding career. The media, whether TV, print, or Internet advertising, seems to play a huge role in influencing women of all ages; from adolescence and teens, to women in their twenties and thirties, as well as

We are currently living in a time period were seeking truth became one of the toughest things you can ever get. Imagine you knew nothing about a certain culture or country, and all you knew about it were few biased opinions delivered from your local media. This is the media today. I was a lucky guy when I had the opportunity to work in that field and experience how certain ideas wanted to be carried to the people. I originally come from Kuwait, but I was born in New York. I worked in Ministry of Information when I was 17 year old and became a public figure because I was one of the youngest individuals to work in the Ministries history. One thing I learned was, media can convince the overall population with the ideas and perspectives that they desire.

A lot of things can be said about food such as they cause cancer, obesity and it can be addicting (Liebman, 2016). These kinds of claims are put in our heads almost every day, whether we realize it or not. The fact that we are exposed to claims of negative context raises a concern that the source of health information comes from is presented with adverse ideas (Nagler, 2014). The role of the media plays a major role in how an individual receives and processes health claims regarding nutrition. Previous studies have shown that, “16.4% of news coverage provides contrasting views and that coverage with conflicting viewpoints has increased in recent decades” (Chang, 2013). These conflicting viewpoints presented to individuals can cause many effects and will make the individual question the claim they are processing. This contradicting and unpredictable information regarding research increasingly means that a certain media that covers one perspective can be taken out context and will almost always be biased (Chang, 2013).

Women are only beautiful if they are young, tall, and thin. This is what the media has led society to think. Women in advertising are usually altered and sculpted until they no longer reflect reality. The idealized version of both men and women are unrealistic and may cause an array of psychological problems and eating disorders. To address these negative side effects society could add diversity to media, teach people to love who they are, and wait for beauty standards to change.

A person’s image is presented by the media, and causes other human beings to stereotype against different minority groups. The media plays a big part in manipulating human beings and making them feel insecure about themselves. Since the dawn of media, there has always been a separate on people lives. Human beings have been put into categories based on race or socioeconomic standing. The media becomes a biased angle that will only focus on one small portion of an event to cause stereotyping, and other racial issues to arise.

When researchers asked one hundred eighteen female, college-aged students to look at twenty pictures in ads from women's magazines, they felt a sudden change in mood after the pictures were observed. There was notable depression in the women, a depression that has seemed to hit many women after leafing through women's magazines (Key and Lindgren 11). This depression is due to the fact there are so many negative messages being conveyed in advertisements that are published in women's magazines. But who can blame the women for their depression anyway? When the majority of the ads in women's magazines show super-skinny models advertising nice clothes, makeup, jewelry, etc., one might find themselves to be a little down. Skinny models portray their figures to be the cultural norm in Western society today. How often does one find a model in a woman's magazine that is over a size six that is not shown advertising plus size merchandise? The answer is not very often, or sometimes never at all. If women do not see their body type being depicted in

he United States has claimed for years to be a melting pot, where race or various preferences do not define our role in society. Most everyday people do not even realize or notice the amount of stereotyping that occurs in mass media. It is important to understand the different types of discrimination marginalized groups face. Stereotypes can affect everyone, whether it is based on their race, gender, or sexual preference. Media makers could easily find ways to not discriminate against people, but perhaps this would make that specific media outlet less popularly attended to.