Role Of Misrepresentation Of Women In Media

I really enjoyed watching the documentary, Miss Representation. It was very informative and eye opening. The film explores the impact that the media has on society and the misrepresentation of women. While the media can be a place to learn and stay up to date, there is also an ugly side to it. Our generation spends a huge amount of our time on our phones, computers, and watching tv so I feel like we are affected by the media the most. The media influences people at a young age impacting their views on themselves and the world around them. Girls especially get the message that their value is on how they look. The way media portrays women in movies and television over sexualizes women and dehumanizes them. This type of media can lead women to

When one thinks of media, one tends to relate media to television, news, magazines, newspaper articles, and so on. Many people do not think of media is something that portrays negative effects on young women. However, young women are more susceptible to lower self-esteem resulting in eating disorders or depression more today than ever before. The media projects negative and undermining images of women and one does not have to look very hard to realize this. The media projects images of unrealistic women who only look the way they do because of plastic surgery or airbrushing techniques. The media has much greater effects on young girls than anything else in our culture today. Our society has created an environment so obsessed with

“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.

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.

The portrayal of women in the media has drastically changed through the years. Those changes can be viewed as positive or negative, but many times they impose an influence on female viewers. Those influences often lead to damaging outcomes such as eating disorders and depression. The range of influences and effects caused by the portrayal of women is wide and also includes low self-esteem, body image issues and the need to be a sex symbol. The Social Learning Theory is important in understanding how women are affected by their presence in the media. The modeling process included within the theory is essential to identifying how women are overwhelmed with images of the “perfect” or “ideal” body. Those images are generally largely unrealistic. Many statistics show an increase of eating disorders and other mental health issues as women are subjected to images of societal and media perfection. This is an example of the modeling process. This paper will explain the effects and concerns that result from exposure to the media’s portrayal of women, what Social Learning is and how it applies to that exposure.

I have actually not put much thought about sexism in media because as the movie supported, we were raised that way. We (as teenage boys) did not really question the "why" women were portrayed that way in the media. We simply accepted and enjoyed them. Miss Representation made me realize that there is a gender bias in media. This gender bias creates further problem by inaccurately representing the general population (focusing too much on male's perspective where half of the population is females). I was surprised because I was not expecting gender bias would play such a big part on injustice, specifically on fair representation on female perspectives.

Media represents males and females by gendering them in different categories. According to a presentation, the author states, “Media perceives women in a very sexual manner whereas men are symbolized as powerful (Khan). Over and over again, the one thing that the media reveals is that women are very sexual beings. They show that they are only good for taking care of the home and the man is very powerful. For example, the author on the presentation shows a ad that a man is in a life guard outfit with him having muscles which portrays him to look like a hero. On the other side there is a picture of a woman who looks stressed with babies all around her crying with both her hands full. One side she is holding a math test with a F on it and the other side is holding a pot full of baby bottles (Khan). This shows that women are “supposed to be the only one taking care of the house” and because of that the women looks stressed. In the article, “Face it”, the author states,

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

To begin with, the media reinforces and creates the stereotype that women are portrayed as sexual objects in order to make money

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.

Women should be submissive and be ruled by Men, according to some people. It is a known fact that women have been oppressed greatly by the generally patriarchal structure of the society. However, it is also evident that women have fought for equality. However, the female portrayal in the media has halted this advancement and even reversed it in some ways. Additionally, the media has deteriorating effects on females. The media of today makes women seem less desirable while also objectifying, over sexualizing and stereotyping them on a great level. This, in turn, has a very negative influence on females of all ages and forces younger girls to conform to the media’s marketed female ideal. Ultimately, the female portrayal in the media has too

We are constantly surrounded by media in many forms, ones that which constantly tell us who we ought to be. Media has an influence on society’s way of thinking because every message you see or hear will have some impact on you. Since stereotypes are in everyday life many commercials will use the reality of that as one of the most popular techniques of persuasion. Genders roles is engrained in society and the media helps to reinforce institutional discrimination when they put media out there that is stereotyped. As a society we need to end the conflict between the inequality difference from men and

It has come to attention to mostly every female that there is this view of men being superior to women. There somehow is this concept that women do certain things than men, this isn’t the way society should view us as. It should be to see both sexes–males and females, to having equal rights. For instance, there has been assigned roles to women like being a stay at home mom or letting the men support us, basically depending on the men. Sexism is among us all and what Ashley found was interesting based on famous women getting asked these specific feminine questions, which is a completely different story when it comes to the male actors. The research that was found was that famous actresses get asked these sexists questions

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.