The Media's False Image Of Women

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.

Every day, millions of Americans view the front covers of magazines like Vogue, Cosmopolitan, and more. They see them while at grocery stores, on the television, and even in the waiting room at a doctor's office. The media offer advertisements with models that are seemingly slim with perfect skin, hair, and teeth. American propaganda leaves most young, adolescent girls between the ages of 5-18 to consider that the complexity of beauty is strict to be thin and perfect, though it is targeted to young adolescents, it does aim towards older female and male age ranges as well. An article states, “While the media attempt to target every person, the level of exposure is dictated by gender, and the majority of harmful messages is focused more toward women. For instance, in media such as magazines where a person relies on an image to relate a feeling, girls are often made to look inferior” (Chapman). When it comes to the media, specifically in the American culture, the popularity has massively increased over the years, turning to new weekly issues, becoming common to the society and civilization. This causes issues associated with eating disorders, depression and suicide, and self-esteem/confidence young girls.

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 media is our source of constant information, and is presented in many forms such as, daily newscasts, social media like Facebook, and the magazines strategically placed in our doctor’s office. There is no surprise that it is also the dominant influence when it comes to society’s beauty standard either. Unfortunately media isn’t a positive influence all the time, and is the main force behind negative body image epidemic that plagues women, especially the 18-25 age group. In order to fully understand the severity of what some call a “Vanity” issue we must look into the facts of how exactly the media damages women’s perception of their own bodies, and then observe the extent of the damage done to the physical and mental states of these women

Realistic representations of women in the media will teach women to strive to achieve attainable goals that have positive outcomes. Furthermore, the media’s definition of “beautiful” is not healthy.

After examining multiple sources, the damaging effects on women that is influenced through media involves many different aspects as it includes body dissatisfaction and body shaming, mental disorders including eating disorders, depression, and low self-esteem, and impacts on sexuality based on how women are portrayed in media. It can be concluded that they hypothesis was correct in the sense that the media is influencing the sexualization of girls and causing these negative effects to occur.

Many women today struggle to be what society and the media deem perfect. Soft and shiny hair is what most women work so hard every day to obtain. Taking care of their hair is not a difficult task; but, when they compare it to the fake photographs in advertisements they have started an endless journey.

My depiction of women in some of the stories showed them as weak and powerless. The women only existed to please people. The characters in the stories portrayed women as tools to use for their own convenience. The stories portray women as sexualized and used by many people. The women never speak out against any rule or regulation; instead, they nod and agree with whatever someone says. Like puppets, the women in these stories only existed for someone to enjoy physically or for them to help someone else gain status or rewards. Many of the women become abused, mentally or physically in some scenarios. I will give some examples of how women get portrayed poorly.

To young college aged women: The stereotypical portrayal of women in media is a problem that needs to be understood and solved. This problem is often overlooked because it is encompassing a lot to deal with. Women are used as sexual objects in the media everywhere, and we need to understand how to deal with the issue. A large source of media that is used are advertisements, which are everywhere in our daily lives. These advertisements can make women feel degraded and objectified. Young women see media of models portraying these “beautiful” standards that are unrealistic and lead to eating disorders and negative implications. Girls grow up seeing media all over and learning the stereotypical roles of women which are considered the norm. No father wants to see his little girl grow up feeling like she has to conform to the roles of women. In the article, “Two Ways a Woman can get Hurt,” Jean Kilbourne states, “sex in advertising is pornographic because it dehumanizes and objectifies people, especially women… (420)” Jean Kilbourne compares advertisements to pornography which makes us realize it’s a large problem going on that needs to be solved. In the media women are also shown as typical house moms who clean, cook and stay home. This is a stereotype of women that has been around for a long time but is not true in all cases. There are some women who are stay-at-home mothers but there are also many who are in the working force. As college aged women, we can feel the pressure

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.

The media has become an essential part of men and women’s lives for years, dating all the way back to before World War II in the late 1930’s. It was said to be that the media during this time injected “values and morals into society” (Jade). In today’s society, there are several different types of social groups. Some of the social groups may be effected by the media and how they portray the perfect woman and some may not be effected because they may “reject the messages that are not consistent with the values of that group” (Jade). There are also several different types of people in this world, some of whom have very low self-esteem or confidence and are therefore affected more by what the media says than others with a higher self-esteem.

Every individual has their own ideas on what is considered beautiful. Beauty can be on the inside or on the outside because it varies to each individual’s preference. However, pressure from society causes people to believe that they must adapt and conform to society’s apocryphal image of beauty. Today, society’s image of beauty has been manufactured on a distorted perception of unrealistic perfection that has been asserted by the media and implemented through its advertisements to proclaim that women need to appease this standard in order to be considered beautiful in society. Media’s pessimistic views of beauty influence the way women portray themselves in daily life. Media has a negative impact on women and the way they

The female body image is highly influenced by the mass media and the media’s portrayal of women, ‘70% of college women say they feel worse about their own looks after reading women’s magazines’ (University of Massachusetts & Stanford University, 2006), the portrayal of women in the media has an unrealistic approach and brings out body dissatisfactions and this results in eating problems and disorders.

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.