Despite the face that women and men both have a heavy presence in the popular culture we see today, and have seen in the past, there is a discernible difference as to what goes on behind the scenes in terms of how women are treated in comparison to their male counterpart. The effects of male dominance in many pop culture industries has created a tough environment for women to truly be successful without sacrificing their own morality. Consequently, this widely dispersed form of imperialism has made it much harder for women to be recognized for their creative work. From journalism, modelling, acting, and much more, it is evident that women are forced into taking a route that is not only inequitable but compromises their right to a fair human …show more content…
The first and most obvious example comes in the form of advertising. A common type of exploitation we see here is in the objectification of women to sell a product of service. To further this point, we can look at Sut Jhally’s statement on where advertising is truly derived from. He states how “It is not enough of course to only produce the "immense collection of commodities" they must also be sold, so that further investment in production is feasible. Once produced, commodities must go through the circuit of distribution, exchange and consumption, so that profit can be returned to the owners of capital and value can be "realized" again in a money form” (Jhally, 2010). I believe that in this context women represent the commodities that are being forced through this circuit of distribution whereby their physical appearances are being drastically altered through sexualization to meet the goal of monetary value. Many examples of this are shown in the film Killing Us Softly 4 where Jean Kilbourne presents a slew of images that demonstrate how women’s bodies are used as objects to commercialize products and …show more content…
In a book called “Women and Journalism” we see how this is related to female journalists. Chambers, Steiner and Fleming make a point on how maleness is rendered neutral and male journalists are treated largely as professionals while women journalists are signified as gendered: judged by their femininity (Chambers, Steiner, Fleming, 2005). The common verbiage “because she is a woman” is the stigma that female journalists face and their creative work is not regarded as highly or paid attention to as much because of this. Another aspect of occupational disparity that female journalists face more so than men is the pressure to look the part. “Women television news presenters and correspondents continue to be subject to regular comments and complaints about their appearance; their clothes, hair and voices and are scrutinized far more intensively by both management and viewers than those of their male counterparts” (Chambers, 2005). This demonstrates how this pressure not only comes from direct management and those in the media business but is an expectation that more strongly comes from our own society. It is common to hear people refer to female journalists as the “hot weather girl” as if their looks are the sole factor when considering the work that these women do. Women are further exploited when their “personal lives and bodies are
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
The Miss Representation documentary film by Jennifer Newsom explores how media contributes to the under-representation of women in influential positions. This message is portrayed by delivering content through media and technology as well as advertising partial and/or often degrading interpretations of women. The consequences are becoming more and more dreadful. In today’s world, composed of a million stations, people will tend to do more and more shocking things to break through the crowds. They resort to violent, sexually offensive, or demeaning images. Jean Kilbourne, EdD, filmmaker, Killing Us Softly Author and Senior Scholar Wellesley Center’s for Women states, that “it creates a climate in which
As society advances and the opinions of the general public change several press outlets work to stay up to date with the changing times. However, in an attempt to stay modernized journalists often times sacrifice their integrity to stay favorable in the public eye. These degrading actions, often times sacrifice the true news for more appealing news. Clare Boothe Luce, American journalist and politician, gives a controversial speech to the Women’s National Press Club condemning her female audience. Moreover, as a female addressing an audience of women she is able to give her true opinion and is able to honestly critique her colleagues. She persuades her audience by preparing them for the criticism by reiterating that she is the guest, by praising journalism, and by logically providing reasoning that the journalistic view must change for the good of the general public.
The paramount of social adversities facing the modern society is the divide between definitions of gender. Gender represents an abstract interpretation of sex and this notion is simply a societal construct. The establishment of gender has evolved into a tradition of humanity, however this tradition evolved into a social divide between masculinity and femininity. The pressure to conform to societal constructs of masculinity and femininity poisons society and branches off to toxic masculinity; such were nurtured from these figurative beliefs. Gender roles further stigmatize the victims who refuse to conform. However, gender roles has witnessed a revolution in modern times. The purpose of this collateral involves analyzing the evolution of gender roles present in media from mid 19th century to modern times. The period of time, or 1960’s, was chosen because of post World War II’s effects on stereotypes in society around the world. Post war not only challenged stereotypes but further kindled women’s role in the workforce and women began to fill in roles previously belonging to men. In later years, a radicalization of the feminist movement has spurred and our modern times is a witness to its ascension to the paramount of feminism. The media, since the 1960’s, has allowed society to be the primary witness. With the evolution of gender roles, the media must also adapt to the changes in societal views of gender roles and the entire feminist movement at large. This collateral seeks to
Popular culture is often a reflection of society; both literature and the media have the capacity to cement ideas in the minds of readers and viewers. In many cases, the notions and stories glorified by the media refrain from sharing a true depiction of society and are narrow-minded in their focus. Recently, the feminist movement has denounced popular culture for its ignorance, fighting for a more realistic portrait to be painted by those with the power to reach millions. Specifically, both Roxane Gay’s Bad Feminist and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “The Danger of a Single Story” share how the classic gender stereotypes seen in popular culture are unable to capture the full spectrum of stories that define society, and are limiting in their portrayals of women. Moreover, both authors share personal stories, reference prominent world figures, and cite relevant statistics in their works. Therefore, in both Bad Feminist and “The Danger of a Single Story”, Roxane Gay and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie appeal to readers pathos, logos, and ethos in order to construct the argument that the single story of women in popular culture is stereotypical and restrictive.
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.
Our world is surrounded by media. Media plays an enormous role in affecting the way we perceive gender and gender roles. Media as well as communications are known to be the key elements of how people live their life in the modern age. The media can be a very inviting place, since it has so many things inside of it that appeals to people worldwide. At the same time, the media can be a cruel, judging and corrupt area that can be scary to involve yourself with. That being said, the mass media has had its history with harsh stereotyping, particularly when dealing with women. Many people within the media view women as a gender that is only allowed to be at home, whether it is cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, or being a slave to their male counterpart. Even with women who work inside of the media are usually overlooked, bashed by their appearance and do not get an equal opportunity as men do in order to succeed in life. This has been the case for hundreds of years, but there are still a myriad of problems that women face today, whether in the media or life in general.
In the today’s society, it may appear that women’s rights have been propelled forward by equal opportunity sanctions. However, taking a more concise look at different spectrums, such as the art world, it appears that many women are still being snubbed despite their artistic abilities. In
Women within the western culture reflect the hypersexualization of those images within the context of a global market in which the mainstream of sexual objects of women has increasingly been accepted as the norm. In the book Women in Popular Culture: Representation and Meaning, Marian Meyers’ states, hypersexualization is the representation of women as highly sexual objects (p. 6). Hypersexualization among women in the media has affected the way society represents women by portraying them as fragile, passive, vulnerable, less intelligent, and powerless figures, compared to men. This paper will focus on the way women are stereotypically portrayed and will emphasize the pornogrification of women as sexual objects in advertising; and bad effect in reality. Hence, women in the media are represented as hypersexual objects that differ from women in reality. However, people in the society are strongly advocating abolishing the society phenomena that promotes hypersexualization of women. There is scholarly evidence to support the thesis in addition to class discussions on Wesleyan College and Charles University will stand as sources, which includes: the women in popular culture by Marian Meyers, Philosophy
Gender and the Media by Rosalind Gill addresses gender stereotypes that are brought onto women and men through the media resulting in objectification and subjectification. Gill discusses how the representation of gender is altered as a result of the media in Western societies. Gender and the Media is aimed to address the rapid transmission of media and how those changes affect the construction of feminine and masculine gender roles in society. Gill uses her interest in the contradictions of gender construction by society, to analyze gender and the media. Using feminism as a backbone for her research, Gill and many commentators support the idea that feminist ideas are common and may even affect the media. Gender and the Media addresses multiple forms of media: postfeminism in advertising, gender in the news and journalism, and gender in magazines. Gild aims to address the construction of gender representations, elements for gender analysis, and feminist culture with Gender and the Media.
Media portrays femininity on a daily, in our lives. Femininity are the qualities that traditionally associate with females. In movies femininity are strongly showed. People of all ages are exposed to the expectations of femininity which affects our views on female. In the media such as movies like “Cinderella” the portrayal reinforces gender stereotypes to their audience.
Women, culture, and society! How do culture and society reflect upon women’s creativity in different eras? More importantly, how does women’s creativity contribute to their society and culture as well as today's society? Western society has shaped women’s lives and creativity for decades; many women were able to contribute to society and change cultural norms through their creative abilities, despite gender roles, race, privilege and power; allowing these women to deconstruct dominant male patterns while reconstructing female experience for generations to come.
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
Throughout history many artistic works have been deemed "great" and many individuals have been labeled "masters" of the discipline. The question of who creates art and how is it to be classified as great or greater than another has commonly been addressed by scholars and historians. The last quarter of the 20th century has reexamined these questions based on the assertions that no women artists have ever created or been appreciated to the level of "greatness" that perpetually befalls their male counterparts. The position that society has institutionalized on women as unable to be anything but subordinate and unexpressive is a major contributor to this claim. Giving a brief history of gender discrimination in the art
Media is not a new concept and has been in existence since spoken word. The evolution of media has changed greatly and is currently in the golden age of televised, printed, and internet based consumer interaction. These new forms of media allow near instant interaction with a channel’s staff of actors, anchors, journalists, meteorologists, news experts, and models. Recently, news stations have been under intense scrutiny for their continued inadequate role in the advancement of women in the workforce and their disregard for how women are over-sexualized. Televised news has been traditionally a male dominated career in the United States since the introduction of radio news casts in August of 1920. While women worked as small stories journalists, editors, receptionists, and clerks for these media companies women had very limited opportunities for advancement in their careers while working for a fraction of the salary and hourly pay as their male counterparts. The struggle for the progression of women has been a constant topic in the field of news media as women have traditionally been locked out of leadership positions in companies. This thought process is now referred to as the glass ceiling, which still remains an issue for the progressive movements of women advancement today in 2015.