Media 's Portrayal Of Women

Many of the things that we see in the media whether it’s seen in a song, a television commercial, a magazines, or a print advertisement we see that women are always portrayed in a negative stereotypical way. In almost everything that we see there is more women than men. Women are seen as sex objects that are only useful to serve and cater to men. We are also viewed as victims who are not supposed to protect ourselves and our duties are to play a female role such as cooking and cleaning. Now when men are seen in the media, they are viewed as being independent, strong, and aggressive they are taught to not have emotional attachments.

In a recent survey done by the National institute on Media and the Family, fifth graders, ten year old boys and girls told researchers they were dissatisfied with their own bodies after watching a music video by Britney Spears or a clip from the TV show “Friends.”(4) If this isn’t shocking enough, the research group reported that at the age of thirteen, fifty-three percent of American girls are “unhappy with their bodies.” This grows to seventy-eight percent by the time the girls reach seventeen. Also, eating disorders are beginning to start at an alarming young age. Statistics show that girls are developing eating disorders at the age of six.(1) Young girls that are exposed to appearance focused television programs, and magazine shows feel that they need to look like the models that they see. Most of these girls are not even have fully developed bodies yet and are already trying to perfect themselves. One girl had even shared how one of her best friends discovered that her fifth grade cousin was bulimic. Girls at that age should not even be concerned with their bodies yet and eating disorders being developed is a harsh wake up call as to how young girls everywhere are being effected by the media each and everyday.

Media such as televisions, radio, internet, and magazines represent slim women as the model and ideal to follow. Media portray thin women as happy and successful. Therefore, women who follow that ideal are more tented to put their selves in intense diet, to apply plastic surgery, and to have a low self-esteem if that ideal isn’t reach. Many women ignore that, the media portrays of female is a sort of advertisement that many companies do in order to sell their products. In addition, women ignore that those women portray as top model have stylist to make their clothes, hair, and make up. Therefore, in a real word, women have to face many obstacles, they have to work, to take care of their children, to study, to pay their bills and all of that require money and time.

When women are portrayed as weak and people who can just be pushed to the side to make way for men in different types of media they are just going to be constantly stereotyped as exactly those things when it isn’t true at all. Unless the way they’re portrayed changes women will also be associated with being a mother or to just be there for men’s attention. Relating back the what Barbara J. Berg said, when women are told that the most important thing about them is that they are appealing to men it’s really a slap to the face because all of a sudden all your aspirations and dreams become second in line next to a man’s. It’s sort of like when women are pulled from class because their shoulder is showing or some other dress code matter, which immediately

Socio Cultural morals of feminine beauty are put in all forms of favored media, battering women with images that portray what is advised to be the impeccable body.These morals of beauty are almost completely far-off for most women; a majority of the models advertised on television and in advertisements are below what is considered healthy body weight. Mass media 's use of unrealistic models says an implicit message that in order for a woman to be beautiful, she must be unhealthy.The media puts an image of beauty that is unattainable. They do this by showing very unhealthy stick-thin girls with “flawless” attributes. In the bad world of marketing, the companies that make an item to sell, like makeup, depend on the insecurities of females. The companies use skinny girls with a perfect complexion of the skin and a killer smile to flaunt around with the product they are willing to sell. When women see this, they think to themselves, “ I wish I can look like her.” or “Why can’t i look like that?.” Because we only display skinny girls in our media, they feel as if that is how they should be and look like. The media contradictorily influences girls’ perception of body image, which can cause eating disorders and low self-esteem. Dove surveyed 1,027 women with the ages of 18 and 64. The results showed that women are more than twice as likely to say that their conception of beauty is shaped by “women in the public domain” and social media (29 percent and 25 percent, respectively)

Mass media affects women’s body image in many ways. “Media images of ridiculously thin women are everywhere- television shows, movies, popular magazines” (Farrar). Starting at a very young age, girls are exposed to media suggestions about what the “ideal” female body image should be. “Concern over weight and appearance related issues often surface early in females’ development, and continues throughout the lifespan” (Serdar).

Because idealistic standards of beauty are raised, kids may grow up thinking that they have to look a certain way to be accepted. In their article, “Concurrent And Prospective Analyses Of Peer, Television And Social Media Influences On Body Dissatisfaction, Eating Disorder Symptoms And Life Satisfaction In Adolescent Girls,” Christopher Ferguson et al. mention that “increased incidence of eating disorders across the early and mid-twentieth century seem to coincide with trends in the media toward emphasizing thinness in women,” (2). Additionally, children are constantly exposed to unrealistic body ideals on television, film, and magazines. In fact, “the extent of exposure to magazines that feature and glamorize the thin ideal is positively correlated with disordered eating, even when controlling for the young woman’s level of personal interest in fitness and dieting,” (Levine and Murnen 17). If kids are always being exposed to unhealthy behaviors and ideas, it can make them feel pressured to look like the people they see in mass

Social media has become more close to our lives rather than the people around us. The media’s image of women is problematic and servers as a model for those who view such images. Women in popular culture which are a pattern of cultural experiences and attitudes that exist in the mainstream society have been reduced to passive bodies and are dehumanized constantly in the music, movie and advertising industries. The fashion industry uses frail looking models and sells violence as a desirable commodity. Advertisement portray violence and rape as trivial in order into sell their products. These messages portray that rape is a norm and not as deviant which is socialization the process wherein people come to understand societal norms and expectations,

The theory coined by Mulvey claims that a womens identity is taken away and that women are praised for their appearance resulting in objectification. They have become an object. The male gaze is only applicable for example if a shot is slow and revealing the womans body. This allows the audience visual pleasure.

Blonde hair, skinny waist and thighs, large chest, and beautiful. Barbie. The way the media portrays women is very similar to the plastic and commercialized character of this fictional archetype toy. She is shown as the 'perfect' girl, what women are supposed to look like. Not showing diversity, self-love or acceptance, Barbie is societies definition of what it means to be pretty, perfect and loved. This instigates a negative connotation of what society believes is beauty. This disgraceful message of what beauty looks like is shown throughout the modern mass media, the most influential medium in the current era. It is a way of life, consuming and engulfing every young girl in the world. It surrounds children as they grow and evolve into the adults they will soon become, altering their opinions and morals with misogyny, developing their own manipulated stereotypes of society and body image.

Media in today’s society is constantly degrading women and sending negative messages about the ways in which women should be treated; women are becoming objectified in the sense that they are seen as objects with little value. The media, which seems to endlessly show women as sexual objects, limits their potential and damages their sense of self worth.

Throughout the century, the ideal image of a woman has changed drastically, which can be directly attributed to the powerful persuasion of media. This ideal image has transformed from a voluptuous, size 14, 1950’s Marilyn Monroe to a 5’9, 100 pound, 1990’s Kate Moss. The most shocking aspect is specifically what young girls are now doing to achieve this “Kate Moss” image. Through the utilization of advertisements and stars on the big screen, this female portrayal directly targets the physical and mental well-being of females in cultures across the globe.

Not only my primary sources, also in all my secondary sources indicated how the media play a deviant role in women’s physically and mentally health. In the report by Bloom, Gitter, Kogel , and Zaphiropoulos in 1999 not only proved that women are influenced by the media false image, they starve to death, wear excessive makeup and follow the media ideal and standards beauty. Women never can be satisfied with their appearance and their looks since the media definition of beauty changes during the time.

Media’s example of perfection has been drilled into the minds’ of youth. More than half of young girls in America are dissatisfied with their appearance. (Media’s Effect on Body Image1) Instead of worrying about the monster underneath the bed, girls believe their body is their own personal monster. Media has portrayed an unrealistic representation of “perfection.” The issue exists because perfection is impossible, but young naïve girls do not know that. An unhealthy look on body image at such a young age comes from being constantly surrounded by the images of an ideal women. Eight year old girls should not have to be worrying about their weight or looks, but it is realistic because that is what they are surrounded by. Young girls are already manipulated by media’s standards of the definition of beautiful, and the manipulation will only grow as they age. The betrayal that media put on the unrealistic goal to be thin increases the chance

Media promotes a never-ending emphasis on physical appearance. Because of this, American culture has produced a standard of female beauty that is unrealistic and unattainable (Derenne, Eugene, and Beresin, 2006). The media tells us that perfection is achievable and they prove it by parading the images of models and actresses on every magazine cover, billboard, beauty product and television commercial. Young girls are constantly bombarded with the message that their personal value is dependent on their physical appearance. Sure, we can raise our children to know that their worth isn’t dependent on arbitrary things such as physical appearance, but what influence can we really have when media’s influence is reaching them through computers, magazines, television, and even their cellphones? Media’s control in society is undeniable and it is easily seen by its’ ability to persuade women to buy beauty products, have surgeries, trying rapid weight loss diets, or even starving themselves if it means they will finally meet the