Media Violence Against Women Essay

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

These representations of women most often cause society to believe it is ok to perceive and treat women as lesser citizens only used for stereotypical tasks and sexual pleasure. My strongest opinion on visual images such as these is that they can cause men to have offensive and unethical attitudes towards women, and can even influence sexual assault.

Women are sexually exploited in the media. In today’s society if people watch television programs such as Chingy featuring Snoop & Ludacris – Holidae; Charlie's Angels; the Z100 commercial with Britney Spears; or Baywatch they will see that the feminine image is presented differently than the masculine. In these programs men are typically placed in sexual situations fully clothed, while women are presented in provocative clothing or less. The camera will frequently zoom in on body parts to focus on the woman’s buttocks, midriff, and legs. Society is still dominated by men who control what people see. As a result women are increasingly portrayed as sex symbols as a way for a media company to turn

The consequences of these constant beat down on women are becoming very real in our society. For instance, a 12- year old girl has reported that she was raped by a group of 14- year old boys at a recreational center and it was reported just this morning. I believe that media is very influential in these sorts of behavior from teenage boys. Media encourages these things through vulgar music, degrading advertisements, and it promotes violence and abuse towards women and now, even little girls.

According to Newman, sexism refers to “a system of beliefs that asserts the inferiority of one sex and that justifies discrimination based on gender.” This sexism has a large impact on the daily life of a women through things like social interactions, power differentials, and violence against women. Institutional sexism refers to the “subordination of “women that is part of the everyday workings of economics, law, politics, and other social institutions.” The media is one institution that communicates gender norms both directly and indirectly. Understanding gender role expectations and how they are reinforced through social institutions like the media is necessary in order to explain things such as the wage gap, segregation in the workplace, and how women are devalued on a global scale.

The Miss Representation documentary film by Jennifer Newsom explores how media contributes to the under-representation of women in influential positions. This message is portrayed by delivering content through media and technology as well as advertising partial and/or often degrading interpretations of women. The consequences are becoming more and more dreadful. In today’s world, composed of a million stations, people will tend to do more and more shocking things to break through the crowds. They resort to violent, sexually offensive, or demeaning images. Jean Kilbourne, EdD, filmmaker, Killing Us Softly Author and Senior Scholar Wellesley Center’s for Women states, that “it creates a climate in which

Another social institution that reinforces gender inequality is the media. The media is a significant factor in

Society is okay with the mistreatment of women in the media because it has been seen as an accepted form of communication within the past. Whether it is through sexualizing a female in a Karl’s Junior commercial, or calling Taylor Swift a “slut” for dating men, there is a lack of understanding of why the media is problematic. As society becomes more progressive, it should be expected that the perceptions of females should also change as well. It is completely unfair to criticize someone is such a powerful position because she may have messed up in the past, human beings are not perfect, and they are flawed. Except in this culture, we accept the flaws that males make but make a huge scene whenever a female does something that might not be inherently right. Donald Trump, another contender in the 2016 Election, is seen on multiple instances mocking women for their appearance and completely stripping all females’ attributions when he sexualizes them. If Clinton were too make such crude comments about males to the media, she would be torn apart but because Trump is a white rich male, he holds himself as if nothing can affect him. These double standards are not only problematic because they continue to objectify women, but they are problematic because the feed into the systematic oppression that the United States holds so closely. Of course, I acknowledge

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

Sexual assault and violence is increasing due to advertisements misinforming people into believing that such behavior is acceptable. “In the 1960’s Kilbourne found that she received more recognition for her looks rather than her intelligence” (Grean and Lidinisky, 490). Perhaps this is why Kilbourne wrote her book, Deadly Persuasion, analyzing this problem. Kilbourne found herself in the environment bubble the media is creating where the objective analysis of people is acceptable. Kilbourne’s book is an attempt to bring awareness towards how much harm the media’s portrayal of people is generating. Kilbourne’s book is mainly targeted towards women, and is trying to spur them towards action in an attempt to change the world and, more

Society has a way of creating standards and expectations for the roles of men and women. The two videos Killing Us Softly and Tough Guise showed how society truly portrays men and women. The overall media system defines men. It is where they learn it what it means to be a “man”. In the video, Tough Guise, dominance, power, and control were the most commonly used adjectives to describe men. (1) Media not only gives men a certain role but it stereotypes certain races of men. Latinos are seen as boxers or criminals, Asian’s are seen as martial artists of sneaky criminals, and African Americans are seen as thugs or murderers. (1) Media directly associates violence with men. Violence has become an acepted part of masculinity. Young boys learn that if they don't want be be a “wimp” then they have to act out in violent ways. On the contrary, in the

“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.

Along with television shows, news stations are accused of trivializing rape aswell. How many times have you heard, “She asked for it.” or any other type of victim blaming, or a derivative of,“Boys will be boys.” to make rape seem like not such a big deal (1a)? News channels will even go as far as scrutinizing a victim’s dress, mental state, motives and history to make the victim seem in the wrong about their rape (1a). Some channels will inflate the fake rape statistics to make rape seem like a less

From a young age, we are exposed to gender stereotypes. Television, the Internet, and books define what is “feminine” and “masculine” for a child. Feminine is defined as “having qualities or appearance traditionally associated with women, especially delicacy and prettiness”. Masculine is defined as “having qualities or appearance traditionally associated with men, especially strength and aggressiveness”. Media takes this a step further and dictates exactly what girls and boys can and cannot do. In television and movies, women are mainly portrayed as homemakers and damsels who need a man to reach their full potential. They are often uneducated or seen as less intelligent than their male counterparts. Oppositely, men are portrayed as breadwinners and authoritative figures. They control most aspects of their lives and have more opportunities. According to Common Sense Media, these depictions cause “false assumptions and harmful conclusions”. Little girls learn that are worth less without a man and little boys boys learn that they are above women. The media also feeds into rape culture. Rape culture is the normalization of rape in societies. Rape culture is taught to young girls and boys. Girls are taught tactics to avoid rape and boys are taught that

Skinny, blond, ditzy, annoying, un-educated, easy, and considered a typical women. If you’re a women and you hear these words, does it make you think of who you are, or your mother or sisters? I think not…but I do think about the people I see on television and in magazines or in movies. What I want to know is who is writing the scripts for some of the television shows that I watch. I would like to hope that it’s not women putting these stereotypes on their fellow “sisters”.