Media's Image Of Women In Popular Culture

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.”

Miley Cyrus made media headline around the world, during and after her performance on one of America’s biggest award shows, MTV video music awards (VMAs). Miley Cyrus was accompanied by Robin Thicke a popular R&b musician, who also performed a song, however it seemed Miley Cyrus received the most backlash for her behavior and performance at the awards. Instantaneously a still shot from the performance went viral and immediately created a bad representation of women in the media.

The misrepresentation of women in the media has been at its highest. Reality shows such as Love and Hip Hop, have degraded and exploited women where they are only seen as objects who compete over men. They are not able to have a identity that is positive. I wanted to create a platform where you can see the true side of women. Having them tell their stories and accomplishments. Where they are seen past their physical features and given a voice. The issues discussed through the interviews are also expressed through my poetry. As women they are taking their identities back and showing who they really are, regardless of how they are depicted through the media.

Media influence causes 69 percent of girls, in one study, to state that magazine models impact their idea of the perfect body shape. This drastic affect on a young person 's life creates a reality that women need to alter the way they look to be ‘perfect.’ Media also portrays women as helpless beings, needing a man by their side to complete easy tasks in which they can do on their own. There is also the aspect of strong women being sexy, and not the intelligent, intellectual women that they are. Throughout many girls lives, growing up, there are self esteem issues that will resonate with them for years to come. Commercials and advertisements feed on the implication that females believe they will never be flawless or beautiful, so they will do anything to get there. These impacts from media have catastrophic results. This is critical today because there are more eating disorders, health issues, and suicides than ever before. Women should be represented as strong, fearless individuals as opposed to the stereotypical ‘damsel in distress’ media pins them as today. Media limits girls and women from discovering possibilities they could have as leaders through objectificatoin and sexualazation.

In the mass-market tabloids, women are overtly categorized as either victims or sexualised objects, which contributes to our understanding of gender representation in the media today, as this is a common reoccurring theme in tabloids. However, even in the elite press, female celebrities still make an appearance solely to attract a reader’s visual attention. Our national press use women as ‘news-candy’ to please the eye (Wykes & Gunter 2005). Page 3 is the main way of sexualising women in the news, and began being a regular feature in 1969 when Larry Lamb was editor. “The Sun was no longer feminised, but sexualised. Central to its appeal was the provocative image of a woman’s body. Breasts were added to the smile. Instantly this implied a readership

Nowadays, the media becomes an essential and necessary part of a modern society. The media has a huge impact on how people admit the world on many levels, such as how they socialize, gain knowledge, and access information. However, the media participate how the people are portrayed on television screen. For example, children are portrayed as victims and related to negative topics, such as abuse or disasters. Moreover, women, who are half the world’s population, are also portrayed in the media. From the year 1890s until the present, the women have been portrayed differently. In past, it was not difficult to see the women dressed up well. Their hair was done, and their clothes and accessories presented their classes

Language is a system of communication which consists of a set of sounds and written symbols which are used by the people of a particular country or region for talking or writing. It is considered as an art because when used it able to help a person develop or create a certain picture in the mind. Language being an artifact of culture means that it is an interesting thing that is created by the people. It is an aspect of their way of life of the people. It also helps in development of the people as writers and intellects. As a culture it is a people’s way of life and therefore the impact it has to human beings cannot be under looked.

Commercial advertising may produce the sense of low-esteem, humiliation and even inferiority in those women and men who do not look or act like the people represented in the media as having the ideal body.This negatively affects how people view how they look compared to how other people look in the media. This causes many people to have low self-esteem about their own body images which can make people do extreme dieting or go into depression because they don't look like what the media showcases. Representations of women in the media tend to highlight beauty, size and relationships. These stereotypes carry on in commercials and negatively impact women’s outlook on what’s important. This can be seen in the Inspire Her Mind by Verizon Wireless.

Through critical analysis of the media in relation to how they perceive women such as Theresa May, Angela Merkel and Hillary Clinton, I will determine whether the media creates an environment in which women are stereotyped beyond no more than how they dress or act in public. The language that is used to describe these women will be compared to the language used to describe their male equivalents to ascertain whether women are discussed with misogynistic or sexist undertones. While there hasn’t been much academic study into this subject there have been numerous accounts of female politicians being undermined by the tabloids which have painted them as self-centred and vain. Due to there being little research in the area it is vital that this is studied and investigated as the media affects the public’s perceptions of not only female politicians, but on a wider scale, women in general.

The construction of gender stereotyping of females in the media is based on outdated and unfounded beliefs. Therefore it has had, and continues to have, a detrimental impact on our society.

In Visual media, women are commonly portrayed as sexual objects, victims, and in stereotypical gender roles. In visual media has been criticized for presenting a non realistic view of women and their actual roles in society, as it generally uses stereotypical gender roles. Women are moving their way up in society. Women have earned advanced degrees and have infiltrated careers traditionally dominated by men, because of this society has demanded that women become servants to popular images of beauty and sexuality. There is criticism against women’s increasing power in society that may serve as an explanation for the sexualization of women in media.

Ultimately, Buzzfeed, along with some other alternative media outlets, discovered that the show’s producers had met these women before they went on camera; this whole program was staged. In fact, the producers paid the husband of one of these women to pose as her pimp and walk around the hotel in a menacing manner. In the end, these women decided to expose this charade because they felt that they had been exploited -- not by some pimps, but at the hands of the show’s producers! These women weren’t granted the basic courtesy of having their faces blurred out and that subsequently led to a first time prostitution arrest for one of the cast members. Due to the negative publicity surrounding the show, “8 Minutes” was cancelled after a few episodes.

The way the media depicts women also categorizes which sports are female friendly and which are not. The more the media portrays women as delicate and skinny the more people will associate them with certain sports. Likewise for men, the more physical contact and tough a sport is then it is more associated with men. The way these sports are covered in the media, the language used when reporting it and the visual aspects of how it is displayed subconsciously causes people to assign genders to the sport.

Nowadays the world without media is unimaginable; the media have controlled the population and it is more likely to get worse. Since children and adolescents are particularly more vulnerable to messages and images, they have been the easiest and the most affected targets. Girls are more likely to do so because of their natural instinct of vanity, Approximately 90-95% of anorexia nervosa sufferers are girls and women (“anorexia nervosa”). According to surveys, around 83% of adolescent girls read fashion magazines for an average of 4.3 hours per week, and this number is growing abruptly (Spettigue, Wendy, and Katherine A. Henderson). Magazine articles present in the society, mainly to young people, what they consider beauty and requirements to

Female Stereotypes In The Media In the media the most common female stereotypes, are the housewife and the blonde bimbo. The Housewife.