Women In Mainstream Media

No one expects to hear “used” when they ask a little girl what do you want to be when you grow up? Yet that is the exact expectations society places on them. Jessie Reyez expresses this in her short film and music video “Gatekeeper”. The artifact opposes the societal expectation that women must use their bodies and sexuality to be successful and instead teaches that they must not succumb to the ever present male dominance and can achieve success without dishing away their morals. Exploring the music video and film with a feminist and narrative perspective allows for a deeper look into the role of women and the moral of the story. Her message defying the status quo allows for positive implications where both men and women do not feel forced

There’s a peculiar trend that is beginning to appear in recent popular culture, and it has to deal with one word: “girl.” Take, for example, this small list of contemporary, popular titles, including Cecily von Ziegesar’s Gossip Girl, Amy Sherman Palladino’s Gilmore Girls, Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train, Lena Dunham’s Girls, Disney Channel’s Girl Meets World, Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Fox Network’s New Girl, CBS’s 2 Broke Girls, The CW’s Supergirl, Tina Fey’s Mean Girls… The list goes on. These popular books, television shows, and movies all feature middle to upper class white girls and women in their late teens and early twenties. The “girls” tend to be surrounded by drama

Using symbolic convergence theory and fantasy theme analysis, the researcher identified four fantasy types. The fantasy types include: 1) I am a survivor, 2) I am a dreamer, 3) I am an activist, and 4) I can do anything. Through these types and teenage-created content, this research used symbolic convergence theory to assess how photos and stories created an accurate reality for its readers to relate to. The study mentions how one of its competitors, Seventeen magazine, had stories that showcased girls insecurities, focused on putting fashion as a priority of a career, and how males are superior (with its gendered messages about employment). Based from this time era as well, the study describes that Teen Voice was emerging at a time in the 1990's in which females were concerned of feminist, gender, and beauty issues that targeted the 12 to 19 year old female demographic.

Intersectionality is one of the most integral aspects of modern feminism because it recognizes that multiple factors - such as race, age, gender, class, religion, sexual orientation, etc. - contribute to one’s personal experience with sexism. Thus, one solution may not be the solution for everyone woman. One example that portrayed how important of a concept intersectionality is in modern feminism was, The Purity Myth by Jessica Valenti, because it showed how the sexual lives of younger women are held at different standards compared to that of older women. Jessica Valenti shown a light on how many young women are raised to believe that their “virginity” is the most important quality a young woman can have. Valenti also showed that even if young women aren’t directly told that their

“The power of the media lies not only in their ability to reflect the dominant racial ideology, but in their capacity to shape that ideology in the first place” (Omi, Winant). The media holds power in the way it shapes society. The media influences the way society views race, class, and gender to make it favor a particular group, or class. Race, class and gender are portrayed through various outlets of media including music, television and magazines. In the popular women’s fashion magazine, Instyle, these three elements are shown. Yet, Instyle magazine does not openly represent all races, classes, and genders. There are certain races, classes, and genders that are focused on more heavily than others, leading this magazine to have a narrow-minded

Writers and journalists like Mahler and, later, Haskins and Roberts explore the aspects that attract the preteen/teenage group

Stories of teenage years and coming-of-age have always enrapt children, teens, and adults alike. But why do they? These groups share virtually none of the same interests, and reside in very different emotional levels of life. In every other form of media, these groups can scarcely coexist—the prospect of watching Power Rangers for the six hundredth time would make any parent blanch, and the thought of their four year old asking to borrow his parents’ copy of The Canterbury Tales is laughable. And surely no other age group would condemn themselves so deeply to internet culture than teens. Coming of age stories, however, are the exception. Nadine Gordimer beautifully explains this phenomenon in her short story “A Company of Laughing Faces”.

"What is on the minds of America's youth today?" was the prompt for an essay contest. The top of the page hosted two images; one of the youth of 1968 protesting racism, and one of teenagers on Spring Break in 2004. The magazine claimed that 30 years ago, young people were so focused on sit-ins, protests, and what was happening in the world around them and today, teens are content solely with "watching their MTV, and following the love lives of Brad, Jen, Jessica, and Paris." I was intrigued by the article. I let the prompt linger in my mind.

Intersectionality, especially when pertaining to womanhood, is a topic that is often times looked over and ignored. This is especially true when analyzing feminist thought, viewpoints, and theory on subject matters such as politics, culture, and identity. Although women partake largely in these issues and are often times just as affected and contributing to them they are frequently left out of the conversation and their point of view trivialized. Repeatedly, instead of referring to women as the free thinking, socially influential beings that they are the media often times chooses to portray women as sexualized objects capable of only extreme emotions, illogical thinking, and weakness. The novels and short stories explored throughout the entirety of this course go into great depth proving the power of intersectionality and the various attributes women provide for society. These interconnected relationships are explored from the viewpoints of the characters within the novels and the authors themselves who are dealing with intersectionality in their everyday lives.

We are not asserting here that male rappers are not in charge of their behavior and treatment to women, just that they are compelled by an industry they don't control. The meek parts gone up against by the women in these recordings enable teenage girls who watch these videos to trust that it is adequate to act passive. These hip-hop music videos indicate men in a more intense position than ladies and partaking in savage activities, which can impact the activities of teenage boys also. These music recordings impact will their contemplation and activities over the long haul deliberately or not. The nearness of these music recordings is ending up plainly more famous ordinary and it is ending up noticeably more adequate to the general population for women and men to be respected in these ways. This prevalence is molding the ordinary native’s perspective of ladies and men and their parts in the public

The form I have chosen to use in order to depict my satirical piece about teenage pregnancy is that of a Teen Vogue magazine. I chose this form due to the fact that it is a well-known magazine for teenagers. I also chose this due to the fact that Teen Vogue and many other women’s magazines comprise of stereotypical, unrealistic, naïve and irrational content aimed towards female that can be, in a sense, highly demeaning.

“She wears short skirts I wear t-shirts…” “...she wears high heels I wear sneakers.” These lines from Taylor Swift’s song You Belong With Me promote the notion that girls who wear short skirts and high heels are lesser than those who wear t-shirts and sneakers, pitting women against each other. Many girls strive to distance themselves from being like “most girls” to stand out from the crowd. Girls are taught by society that acting quirky or unique makes them better than other females. Society trains girls to compete against each other; it teaches girls they need to be different in order to be valued. Once I realized how much society pushes girls to be unique, I worked to disregard the harmful stereotypes the entertainment industry taught me

The Popular Culture Formula and Funhouse Mirror are mainly associated today with teenagers. “Teenagers are one of the biggest marketers in our society because of their vulnerability,” states MTV. This is because teenagers follow trends and want to have the latest items. For example, in “Merchants of Cool,” Popular Culture is shown that teenagers all have something in common. They want to be a part of today’s trends and look up to the most attractive people. In one scene it shows an artist called Limp Bizket. This group is known to be reckless, which can promote violence and cause antisocial behaviors to teenagers. Currently, most of teenage music revolves around sex, drugs, and alcohol. This illustration shows that young teens

“Virgins,” a short story by Danielle Evans is a coming of age tale that details the arduous journey of upcoming womanhood taken by a young girl and her friend. This young girl is named Erica and her friend is named Jasmine they are both black teenaged girls living in a lower income neighborhood. As one reads, the question emerges of how Evans presents a commentary on the issues that girls on the verge of womanhood must overcome, appears. What aspects must be portrayed to fully paint a picture into this world? Danielle Evans uses teenage ideals of self worth, themes of maturity, and a common disregard of morals to present a commentary on the issues girls on the verge of womanhood must overcome to fully prosper.

Today’s youth grew up in the digital revolution when the Internet first became a public space. This (relatively) new and ever-expanding medium resulted in an explosion of the availability of information and new ideas. These ideas would serve as a catalyst to mold many aspects of present-day society. They established and cemented new ideas as real norms that further challenged societies’ perception of ideal norms. From this ideological explosion and conglomeration of contemporary conceptions of a nationally connected society came both the constructive and the controversial. The later included such groups as: otherkin, headmates, the never-ending stream of new gender identities, and the phenomenon of self-diagnosis of mental illness.