What Is The Portrayal Of Women In Entertainment

The media is such a large part of the United States, and the world in general. The media and all of its components can be a rewarding part of society, like entertainment and staying well-informed, but it can also paint a stereotypical and degrading image of women. In the early 1900's, around the 1920's to be more precise, women in movies and on television did not have the creative boundaries they have today. Women were able to control their own sexuality, but in the mid-1900's Hollywood set up two major roles women could portray; the “innocent ingenue or the threateningly sexual vamp (pg 18).” Although media has changed over the years since 1950, the limits still remain. By today's standards, women typically play the love interest of the protagonist who can be used by the antagonist as leverage.

That status of women in television programs is grossly misrepresented. Female sexuality on broadcast television is, in most cases, exaggerated and has set an unrealistic standard that real women are attempting to reach. Not only this, but it has created new expectations for men. With my personal project, I wrote letters to television executives—Robert Greenblatt, chairman of NBC Entertainment; Paul Lee, president of ABC Entertainment Group; Nina Tassler, president of CBS Entertainment; Dana Walden and Gary Newman, co-chairpersons of FOX Broadcasting—demanding that promote a better representation of female sexuality. As well as have a better representation of all sexualities, meaning more accurate depictions of lesbian women, bisexual women, and trans women.

However, it can be observed and said that they have always lived up to the image of “housewife” material or as a constant collaborator of a male role, instead of being the main character. According to Elasmar, M., Hasegawa, K., & Brain, M, on their essay the portrayal of women in the US prime television, “TV has portrayed females in many ways, studies have shown that women have been underrepresented and stereotyped in TV programs.” Women have been living under that invisible stereotype that has cornered them and does not allow them to grow professionally or socially. TV has been the master-mind behind a stereotype that has left women without the chance of demanding equality or credibility on shows, a stereotype that will always be mentioned and enforce if TV shows do not start producing real-world programs based on true stories or true qualities of

Television networks are continually expanding their programming slates, and many in the past have switched to a year-round programming schedule that makes the phrase “summer return” basically absolute. On every channel, in every magazine, every darken theater, we see the way pop culture limits women’s role- girlfriends, victims, hookers, corpses, sex bombs, and “teases,” but why? Television, for most women, was the first place where they were able to visually see themselves represented. And for quite a while, they didn’t see much besides the loving wife, the dutiful daughter, gossiping girlfriends, fashion models, and the occasional maid, granny, or nanny. In Where the Girls Are: Growing Up

“We tend not to write women as human beings. It’s cartoons we’re making.” - Paul Haggis. This is a quote that was explored in Miss Representation that especially impacts me. The impact of media on women and men is immense. Media shapes the way the genders view each other and themselves and therefore has the power to dictate how humans act, how they feel, and tell them what they want. I feel that with the constant, unregulated bombardment of media demonstrating the unrealistic and unfair treatment of the women, it’s not crazy to think that young women are harming themselves to fit these roles. The media being uncensored leads to harmful consequences including women being discouraged from positions of power and changing their body.

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.

In Miss Representation, many female actresses, news anchors, politicians, directors and producers talk about how females suffer a lot of social, political and economic inequalities in today’s society. There are double standards against women in magazines, on TV, in movies, the news, politics, and the workplace. The media is an influential part of modern culture. When women are portrayed as objects for men to use -- never as the protagonist or president -- and when female news anchors are objectified, this will cause girls of all ages to begin viewing themselves as objects. Girls grow up in a world where their voice does not count; where our culture does not embrace them in all of their diversities, where

Another guilty party in the effort to maintain women to lower status is American pop culture, which predominantly portrays women as being nothing more than sex objects. This is only relevant in that it illustrates how "backlash" does not only apply on a government level, but also in entertainment. The younger generations (children through 18 years old, mostly) are far more influenced by pop culture than they are by the government. The messages conveyed by the industry hit at a rather impressionable age. Faludi only touched on this aspect, noting that the television and films generally portray career women as being high-strung and unwed. Furthermore, popular novels show these women as being bitter spinsters whom practically beg for marriage. In this all-too subtle way, the media mocks the independent woman. Rarely are happily married, working women featured. The film industry fails to equally represent females at all. In 2002, 77% of protagonists were males in their 30s and 40s. The mere 16% of characters whom are female are portrayed primarily in their 20s and 30s. Women over 40 accounted for 9% of all

Women are deemed as a “minority” yet make up 51% of the world population and in 2014 made up only 12% of protagonists in films. And that is just on-screen, the percentage decreases as you go farther and farther into behind-the-scenes positions such as directors, cinematographers, and writers. Add race and ethnicity and those characters' percentages decline even more (Lauzen, 2015.) Women in film and television are often portrayed with emphasis based on their body type and in advertisement are largely objectified. The large objectification and misrepresentation of women in the media has led to an offset psychological view of women from growing up to adulthood.

The documentary “Miss Representation” delves into how the media and society. The viewer is exposed to how the media builds an expectation of how women should look and act. When the media portrays women as the perfect weight, height, and behavior for the target audience, it lowers the self-esteem of the females watching that cannot hope to compare to a fictional character. Men exposed to these types of advertisement and entertainment are taught to objectify women. It distorts societies and male expectations of how real women should look and behave. The documentary also discusses the lack of female protagonists in television and movies. There is a distinct lack of female heroines in our world today. This shortage further diminishes the hopes

Television, since its inception, has had a knack at being a mirror for the current state of society. Through this medium, one is easily able to spot the changes our culture has gone through since TV was first created. One example of this social shift, is that of the woman's role in television starting from the 50’s to the present. In 1950’s

For instance, a series on tv that showcased a women with authoritative power was canceled after the first season. This demonstrates how women with authoritative does not receive enough attention to even make a second season. Additionally, there was an actress who was told to remove her educational degree and achievements. This suggestion highlights how society does not want women to achieve higher than men. These portrayals of women on tv is a bad influence on the new generation of young boys because they grow up thinking that this is how women are weak and used only to produce babies in real

Gender representations in television bear immense weight within society as they either: reproduce or critique societal values, address injustice or uphold mainstream beliefs, and perpetuate stereotypes or initiate change. Today, the problem with gender representations in the television medium is not a lack of visibility of women, as multiple genres include women characters, but rather the problem lies in the portrayal of women. Are the images of women displayed in a positive manner? Does the television medium accurately represent women? Although questions of accuracy and positivity in representations seem minor, these questions have major implications as people use television shows as windows for broader cultural practices. We must realize that the people we see on television programs

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

The key research question of ‘Gender Roles in Media’ is to analyze gender roles to determine how women are represented in an array of media and how they are portrayed in a sexualized manner. The study was published in 2010 and 2011 by Rudy et al in two issues of Sex Roles. The research suggests that an increase in representing women in media can be worthy provided they bear in mind that the way women are depicted is positive in order to alleviate negative connotations. The research queries if media can affect the mindset of viewers in a negative or positive manner.