What Is The Portrayal Of Women In The Media

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 first section of Gender and the Media addresses gender representations and the beginning of feminism. During the late 60’s and early 70’s, women’s rights movements were first introduced with the challenge of the media, prompting them monitor the way the media portrayed women. This portrayal starting in the late 1970’s has seen many transmissions since. Gil states: “I use the term feminism to signal a concern with enduring gender

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.

“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 documentary “Miss Representation” deals with and discusses the sexualization of women within the media. It showcases everyone from movie stars to political leaders, and broadcasters to fifth graders. With such a wide range of women being showcased in the documentary, it goes on to prove that all women (and men), are affected in some way by this major problem within our media. The documentary showcases the sexualization of women in the media, the lack of powerful and independent women role models in the media, and the constant advertisements of sexual women throughout the world.

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 highlight on the latter raises a larger question about the radicalized sexual images of women today. It is most likely the society that is bombarded by the media’s usage of advertisements, television, billboards, magazines and internet. We are surrounded by the images that most people don’t have. Reality shows and entertainment are emulated and are the common choices for teens today. They may seem like harmless amusing entertainment but take a closer look, and you’ll see that the way women are portrayed is far from the truth. This may seems to be a successful marketing tool for several sources but its ways of showing malicious actions.

Women have been misrepresented in the media for many years. Stereotypes have been around forever in media, but were portrayed more visibly in the earlier years. Although this misrepresentation of women is less subtle, the outcome of this issue is extensively impacting consumers and women in general. The impact of these stereotypes discourage women to pursue their goals, cause self-esteem issues, and hurt their chances at bigger roles in the business and political world. This also gives others false ideas and expectations. Some primary examples of concern include the value of women and girl’s looks over their personalities, the false imagery of the LGBT community, and society not taking women in politics and news seriously.

Over the past couple of months, there has been debate over the Caitlyn Jenner story, a media icon that has recently transitioned from being male to female. Although she is, in fact, the most famous trans person of our time, the media’s portrayal of her as a naturally glamorous trans woman, distorts the image of what it actually is like to be transgender. The trans community have expressed their opinion on the topic stating Jenner is not an accurate example of the lifestyle experienced by most trans women. The National LGBTQ Task Force states that transgender people are twice as likely to be unemployed and four times more likely to live in poverty compared to the general population and even more so for trans women of colour.

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.

Women in the media have come so far in terms of representation since fifty years ago, yet many female character still fall into the same tired stereotypes. The “strong female character” stereotype is just as limiting as the role of the damsel in distress. It degrades female attributes by making women redeemable and interesting through masculine traits like physical prowess and emotional suppression. These limiting stereotypes are unfair to women around the world who do not deserve to be defined by a pretty face or a sexy body. I want to be the one to change that.

In the end the media stereotypes women as beginning a certain size to become excepted into society but as we learn and grow we can come to the realization that it’s our attitude that gets us were we are today. There are many people in the world that think they have to look a certain way to become famous but they don't they have to just have confidence in us to become who we want to be. I know that if the teenagers of this generation just have confidence in themselves and do not let the stereotypes of women and others effect what they think that someday that women will not be stereotyped as they show be a certain size to be accepted into the society. Also when we look at the way that women are viewed we can see how that it can effect what they

Gender representation in the media has sparked a lot of arguments amongst many scholars regarding the way females are depicted (Broude & Garrard, 1995: Thornham, 2007). Over the last few years many female emancipation campaigns targeted at correcting the current representation of females in the media have emerged (Carson, Dittmar & Welsch, 1994: Miller, 2003). But is the media really representing women as sexual objects? This is a question that lingers in the minds of many people whenever this argument is brought up. Various scholars have delved into this issue and come up with various perceptions about this issue. However, none of the studies however takes an argumentative perspective to clear up the air about whether females are represented as sexual objects. This research paper is therefore prompt to cover this that seems to be a gap in research.

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.