Miss Representation By Jennifer Siebel Newson

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

The division of gender roles is deeply rooted in society. Throughout history men have taken upon the role of independent financial providers plus of course protectors, whereas women have been portrayed as loving wives and mothers, responsible for raising the children as well as housework. Although females and males are far from being equals, the differences between genders are incredibly smaller than in the past. Unfortunately, mass media still use gender stereotypes believing they are well known to their viewers and help them understand the content of the message they are trying to get across.

This is the thesis set out by "Miss Representation", a documentary directed and produced by actress, activist and documentary filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom. The documentary gives a good perspective on why the representation of women in the media is so important in our society. The message the film gets across to viewers is that the way women are often portrayed is damaging- to media consumers of all genders and ages. The way the media treats women is the cause of soaring numbers of women who develop eating disorders, the sexualisation of, and violence against women.

Females have been constantly shamed for generations if one does not act, dress or look a certain way. The media has been a major influence on women from a young age on how one is perceived in society. The media has created an impossible goal for women to achieve. The media will take multiple different parts of women that are seen as perfect and Photoshop them and put them on billboards (Kilbourne, 2010). This makes young girls lead a life where one will inevitably fail to what she has always been shown as the ideal women. This causes eating disorders, depression and low self-esteem in women, which leads to mass amounts of unnecessary cosmetic reconstruction surgeries (Kilbourne, 2010). This is just one negative issue with the way societal norms degrades women. Women are constantly portrayed as objects and to be viewed as lesser than a male. The way men are shown of needing a masculine side and cannot show femininity

Thesis: The media puts pressure on women of all ages to conform to their standards of what looks best, and this pressure results in women having a negative body image.

Women have been deprived since the beginning of time. The same image of women has been show in every source of media and entertainment. The ideal image of a woman is near impossible to achieve but somehow it's made to seem as a perfect body type. Media deliveries content that is shaping our society especially young girls minds. Girls get the message from very early on that what's most important is their beauty and how they look. It is made to seem that the only thing that makes a young woman worth something depends

“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.

Miss Representation conveys that media is derogative to the most powerful women in the United States. People learn more from the media than any other source because it is the message and messenger. Americans devote about 10 hours and 39 minutes daily to consuming media (Howard). The media’s misrepresentation of women in movies, television shows, and advertisements negatively shapes politics, our national discourse, children’s inquisitive minds, and ultimately society. The danger behind these stereotyped images of women is that their effect is subconscious, meaning we slowly become accustomed to a sexist portrayal of women without even immediately realizing it. To cease our unrealistic, prejudiced expectations of women, a culture change is necessary.

We portray women in the media by this lesser than male standard to not teach us "our place in society," but because they know we are capable of exceeding them. The media plays a role

Also, the media lowers women's self-esteem by making them believe that if they don't have the appearance of the young woman in the advertisement, their body is not classified as beautiful. Diana Vancura in her article, “The Media Focus Too Much on Looks” not only emphasizes the idea that the media ignores women's talents, but also the idea that they only “advertise a specific body type as beautiful” constantly. Once again we see how media puts down any beauty that

This chapter ties in with the film as they both agree that mass media undermines and misrepresents women and has deleterious effects for all. The only platforms women are given in media are the motherly, homemakers or those seeking love or pursuing a romantic interest. The narrative media has portrayed of women is narrow-minded. Even when there are women who are in the political/leadership arena, they are criticized for their physical appearance first and their policies secondary. Women who do not fit into the straight, beautiful, young, White female trope, then their stories are not told or they are ridiculed. The stereotypes media illustrates are one-sided even though women are getting more involved in the professional world. Women do not have as much footing in the media industry as men do, there are few networks geared towards women. These networks cater to the negative stereotypes of women—that they are competitive, vain, catty, followers, domestic

Sexism in the Media Surprise!! Women are STILL criticised heavily in the media. Ben I reports Spend some time watching YouTube videos, television shows and reading the newspaper and you’ll be astounded at the contrast between what is possible for women versus how women are actually represented in the media. In general, media focuses too much on the negative aspects of women, including extreme scrutiny on their appearance and a strong focus on how they juggle day-to-day life.

Our world is surrounded by media. Media plays an enormous role in affecting the way we perceive gender and gender roles. Media as well as communications are known to be the key elements of how people live their life in the modern age. The media can be a very inviting place, since it has so many things inside of it that appeals to people worldwide. At the same time, the media can be a cruel, judging and corrupt area that can be scary to involve yourself with. That being said, the mass media has had its history with harsh stereotyping, particularly when dealing with women. Many people within the media view women as a gender that is only allowed to be at home, whether it is cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, or being a slave to their male counterpart. Even with women who work inside of the media are usually overlooked, bashed by their appearance and do not get an equal opportunity as men do in order to succeed in life. This has been the case for hundreds of years, but there are still a myriad of problems that women face today, whether in the media or life in general.

Studies regarding gender roles in media show that the feminine essence tends to be depicted as inferior, with women often being marginalized, disempowered and humiliated through a status that is based on their youth and looks; whilst men tend to be portrayed as superior with higher and longer lasting careers

There has been a lot of research done on the influence media can have on society, in particular the degrading images of women that are often seen in media. Since the second wave of the women’s rights movements these images were the object of scrutiny and an easy example of how women were viewed. In modern society where women have made many strides towards equality why are there still instances in popular media were women are negatively depicted? Have women come as far as they think? The popular sitcom The Big Bang Theory negatively depicts the female characters by reverting to a binary view of gender, in which the female characters are lacking, they can be beautiful or smart however they cannot be both.