The Media And The Stereotypes Of Women In The Media

Gender Stereotypes are everywhere in the world. This paper will focus on the formation of Gender stereotypes through different media sources. The media sources that will be used include television shows, movies and magazines. Thus the paper will also explore the effect that gender stereotyping may have on development of a person’s social and individual identity.

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.

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

Media enforces the social-cultural standards, which women are required to follow in order to look and behave in a manner that society considers acceptable. Newspapers, commercials, posters, magazines, fliers, reality shows, and cartoons only name a few of our everyday interaction with the media (Scholar, C.2011). However, these standards presented by media send a false perception of women, thus portraying women in a negative and disrespectful manner. Society views woman as mentally, morally, and physically inferior to men, and media is only highlighting this idea (Scholar, C.2011). In fact, media represents women in a stereotypical form of beauty, they display women as sexual objects, and create the illusion that women are ignorant.

Under society’s norms for decades, young women have been put under the pressure and anticipation to have perfect bodies. That is, thin and curved, beautified by applying pounds of the makeup to their face but not appear ridiculously overdone. Who’s responsible for these standards imposed on young women? When a young girl picks up the model along the cover of Vogue being called flawless, it’s easy for her to then aspire to be a real-life imitation of the photocopy. These companies produce magazine covers shown with girls’ images daily. As if keeping the perfect body wasn’t hard enough our culture also forces girls into the forever expanding world of composition, however, body image is a pressing issue for young women. Advertisements and posters of skinny female models are all over. Young girls not only could be better but need to be more upright and feel driven to throw the perfect figure. Moreover, girls are evaluated and oppressed by their physical appearances. With supplements and apparel designed to enhance a facial expression; social media, magazines, and marketing campaigns and advertisements add to the burden of perfection. The fashion industry is a prime object of body image issues, as they believe clothes look better on tall and svelte women. Established on a survey participated by 13 to 17-year-old in the U.S., 90% “felt pressured by fashion and media industries to be skinny”, with more than 60% routinely compares themselves to models, while 46%

Gender stereotypes are everywhere. Even before we can understand what this means, people are constantly exposed to them through advertisements, toys, clothes, and the media including television shows and movies. To evaluate the prevalence of gender stereotypes in television programs targeted towards young children, I chose to watch four different shows called Phineas and Ferb, Little Einsteins, Horrid Henry, and Sofia the First. When picking what shows to watch, I intentionally selected at least one that looked targeted towards boys, another that appeared to be targeted towards girls, and finally one that seemed gender neutral. I also made sure to watch at least two episodes of each program to determine whether the themes I observed were

Media is one the most influential and powerful things we have today. Media is use a source of entertainment and even more important as a source of information. For most us media is a constant presence in our lives. Media power is so big that it can influence the way that we behave the way that we think, and that is when media can become extremely problematic. The way the media portrays women can be extremely damaging psychological and the physical well being of women.

Gender roles influence every characteristic and aspect of our life, from how we feel about ourselves to the degree of our contribution in social life. From a ripe young age, children become exposed to this type of gender bias right away, which can negatively affect and shape their whole outlook on life. Consequently, as these young boys and girls mature both physically and emotionally and move on into adulthood, they are, in essence, shoved into a world that impacts their attitudes and behaviors towards gender roles and stereotypes. These specific attitudes and behaviors first cultivate in the private doors of their parent’s house. Afterwards, these same biases become reinforced by the child’s peers, school experience (education), television viewing, and, of course, advertisements in the realm of print and television media. From the looks of it, it is near impossible, for children to not become subject to some degree of gender bias at an early age. As a child grows and develops, the stereotypes follow them into the next phases of their lives (i.e. adolescence) and then on into adulthood. Not only are these gender stereotypes destroying girls, they are also killing boys. The components of this essay will attempt to illustrate how advertising in print and television helps to perpetuate gender stereotypes in our world. Along with that, one must ask the question of how much harm these negative biases in gender roles truly affects the minds of men, women, and young children.

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.

Advertisements, movies, TV shows, and other such things that consumers and viewers look at set a certain standard for society. They tell society to look a certain way and act a certain way. People don’t see a problem with messages that the media puts out, but it is a problem, especially when it affects people's self-esteems, labels people, and creates stereotypes about class and gender. Jean Kilbourne talks about one of these standards in her text “Two ways a woman can get hurt”: Advertising and Violence. Kilbourne focuses on gender norms in society, and how advertisements portray them. bell hooks a cultural critic, scholar, and prolific writer, author of Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor has similar views but she focuses on class, and how society represents the different classes in media, such as in movies and tv shows. These points can be seen in many tv shows and movies. Gossip Girl, for example, is a tv drama that attracts young adults, that shows the division between classes. Gossip Girl is about a group of teenagers who live in the upper East side of Manhattan, New York. The main characters Serena, Blair, Nate, and Chuck are all very rich. Then there is Dan who is also a main character and Jenny his little sister, that are considered to be poor. It is very obvious from the beginning how different they are from their classmates from the beginning of the show. It is seen in the way they dress, do their hair, their hobbies, where they live, and how they

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.

There has been a growing trend of hypersexualization of women over the span of all forms of media. The women within these images are made to look perfectly flawless. They are extremely thin without a trace of fat or cellulite to be found. The people who consume this media are exposed to the idea that the women they are observing are models for true physical beauty. These standards are accompanied by an alternate message from the media that pushes the idea that women’s value comes from their beauty. While some women may understand that the messages about the ideal woman are unrealistic and false, it is found that adolescent girls are vulnerable to the media’s strategies due to their lack of media literacy as well as the search for their own identity during this developmental stage in their lives. The exposure to these standards of beauty can have several negative effects on the girls such as lower self-esteem, higher body dissatisfaction, depression, and eating disorders. SPARK and 4 Every Girl are two of a growing number of campaigns that are working to fight against the sexualized images of women in the media and the negative effects it can have on the viewers.

Researchers have discovered that “ongoing exposure to certain ideas can shape and distort our perceptions on reality.” (Mintz 2007) Because young girls are subjected to a constant display of beautiful people in the media, they have developed a negative body image of themselves. Those who have a negative body image perceive their body as being unattractive or even hideous compared to others, while those with a positive body image will see themselves as attractive, or will at least accept themselves and be comfortable in their own skin. During adolescence, negative body image is especially harmful because of the quick changes both physically and mentally occurring during puberty. Also, young girls are becoming more and more exposed to the media and the media keeps getting more and more provocative. Young girls are looking to women with unrealistic body shapes as role models. It’s hard to find, in today’s media, a “normal” looking

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.

As a Communication major, I spend a lot of time studying the human communication process, which is the exchange of verbal and nonverbal messages between a receiver and sender. This communication process does not only apply to face-to-face interactions but also includes mass media, rhetorical, and technological communication. Through these various forms of communication, the sender not only expresses his/her message but also expresses power hierarchies about race, gender, and sexuality that are present in society. Mass media has a significant impact on socializing gender roles and perpetuating gender stereotypes, and to prove that, I am analyzing mass media messages, such as television shows, movies, and advertisements.