Media is an important component of American culture, from the music people listen to the movies they watch, the media people consume can and does consistently affect their views of the world, other people, and themselves. Women can be hurt by the media, and closing in even more, women of color. Representation in media is still quite low, despite how far America has come in terms of equality. This leaves the levels of exposure to races other than white relatively low and when there is representation of other ethnicities, they are often caricatures of demeaning stereotypes. No matter if someone identifies as European American or as another ethnic identity, the European American ideals and norms affect everyone who is exposed to them (Iijima-Hall …show more content…
The Hollywood depictions of Asian women are limited in number, categorized by Iijima-Hall as either the Dragon Lady or the “perfect woman.” An Asian woman in Hollywood can either be sexy or she can be “docile, gentle, and obedient” (Iijima-Hall 1995:6). The long-standing stereotype in American culture that says Asian women are passive and lack emotion contributes heavily to such depictions. In the San Francisco Bay area, a study was conducted to find why there was a sudden influx of Asian-American women undergoing cosmetic surgery (Kaw 1993:74). Many of the women were having procedures done such as having their eyelids restructured, nose bridges heightened, and their nose tips altered. The results were features that were described as more passive and dull. 80% of white women were found to apply for procedures such as liposuction, breast augmentation, or wrinkle-removal procedures. These surgeries have no relationship to conventional markers of racial identity, but the procedures desired by the Asian-American women had strong correspondence to the conventional racial markers, such as trying to attain smaller, narrower eyes or a flat nose. 40-46% of the procedures done of Asian-American women were eyelid surgery and 15-23% were nasal implants or nasal tip refinements (Iijima-Hall 1995:13). The Asian American women referred to the surgeries as “fixing” their appearance and considered it “an investment for their …show more content…
There is also the problem of eating disorders. Jefferson and Stake (2009:396) noted that eating disorders have been becoming more and more common since the 1970’s, particularly among teenage girls. While eating disorders are substantially less common among African American females (Jefferson and Stake 2009:398) (Parker et al 1995:103), they are hardly unheard of. It was found that white and Hispanic girls are the most likely of any ethnic group to consider themselves overweight despite being in what is considered a normal weight range while African-American females are more likely to consider themselves healthy when they are overweight (Parker et al 1995:103). Iijima-Hall made it a point to talk about how in China, saying to someone “You have put on weight” is considered a compliment and that this caused many researchers to assumes that there would be less Asian women desiring to be thin and developing eating disorders (1995:9). Despite this, Iijima-Hall continued on to say that the Asian American women sometimes will try to “correct the negative images of their culture in the United States,” and this can lead to more eating disorders (1995:10). Another idea was that there will be women who will reject their country of origin, and try to fit in by conforming to the beauty ideals as set by European American standards. Earlier research has found that American women of Asian descent are becoming more and more likely
There are many, many forces — physical, historical, cultural, and political — that shape and constrict the life chances of black males in the U.S. Some of these are longstanding legacies that may take generations to shift. But in other ways, the social, economic, and symbolic place of African-American men and boys is recreated and reinforced every day. In particular, public perceptions and attitudes toward black males not only help to create barriers to advancement within this society, but also make that position seem natural or inevitable. Among the most important mechanisms for maintaining (or changing) these perceptions are the mass media with their significant power to shape popular ideas and attitudes.
Instead, women are being discriminated and treated as inferior due to the stereotypes that are portrayed in the media. The media creates and reproduces ways of seeing that at a minimum reflect and shape our culture. We can look at the media to understand more about a culture’s values and norms, if we realize the limitations of looking at the media. For example, one may ask, does the news based in the United Sates represent what the American culture is like, or only what stands out from everyday American culture? The answer to that is no. Instead, the media represents what it thinks it will be able to sell and is supported by advertisements. This includes violent acts, the sensationally and inappropriate. Jhally reminds us that “it is this male, heterosexual, pornographic imagination based on the degradation and control of women that has colonized commercial culture in general, although it is more clearly articulated in music videos” (Jhally 2007). Therefore, “media content is a symbolic rather than a literal representation of society and that to be represented in the media is in itself a form of power—social groups that are powerless can be relatively easily ignored, allowing the media to focus on the social groups that ‘really matter’” (Gerbner,
Beauty is often described as being in the eye of the beholder. However in modern western culture, the old adage really should be beauty is in the eye of the white makeup artist, hair stylist, photographer, photo shop editor, and advertiser. Beauty and body ideals are packaged and sold to the average American so that we can achieve vocational, financial, social, and recreational successes. Mass media and advertising has affected the way that women perceive and treat their own bodies as well as their self-concept. Women are constantly bombarded with unrealistic images and hold themselves to the impossible beauty standards. First, we will explore the role of media in the lives of women and then the biggest body image issue from a diversity stand point, media whitewashing.
According to Poverty & Prejudice: Media and Race, co-authored by Yurii Horton, Raagen Price, and Eric Brown, the media sets the tone for the morals, values and images of our culture. Many whites in American society, some of whom have never encoun...
The biological understanding of race in the United States is that people from different places have different genetics and genes in their body, accounting for different traits in each people. These people could be grouped together by their biological traits because their similarities in genes would make them look alike. People wanted to believe that there actually were true biological differences between people. Race in the past and present (somewhat) has been categorized based on continental origin, skin color, nose structures, and hair type. To define a person’s race, someone could ask questions like: “what type of hair do they have, curly or straight? Is their skin dark or light? Are their eyes blue, brown, or black?” Based off of these
Race, in the common understanding, draws upon differences not only of skin color and physical attributes but also of language, nationality, and religion. Race categories are often used as ethnic intensifiers, with the aim of justifying the exploitation of one group by another. Race is an idea that has become so fixed in American society that there is no room for open-mindedness when challenging the idea of racial categories. Over the years there has been a drastic change with the way the term "race" is used by scientists. Essentially, there is a major difference between the biological and sociological views of race.
For decades now, popular culture has been tainted by the perpetual use of racial stereotypes that come to us through music, television, and film. These reactionary stereotypes are often unaddressed and often permeate the minds of those too young to understand what a stereotype is. Therefore the effects of these conventionalized ideas continue to prevail throughout our society as they are repeatedly swept under the rug. However, although seemingly less common, there are also forms of media with goals of bringing attention to toxic stereotypes while still entertaining their audiences. African-Americans, Arabs, and Latin@’s are three of the most prevalent minority groups represented in the media and by analyzing the films Aladdin, Django Unchained, and the television show Devious Maids, one can become much more aware of the racial stereotypes that they are calling attention to.
Currently there is a long-standing debate dealing with the effects of media. Some believe that the media is just something to indulge or watch and that it has no significant affect on people while others say that has a powerful pull on society as a whole. Research indicates that bias in media articles leads to minorities and women being portrayed in a stereotypical or harsh manner (Hazell and Clarke 3). This leads to African Americans being seen as individuals fit for “lower status occupations,” (Hazel and Clark 7). Black men were also seen as hostile, intimidating figures mainly working as athletes or musicians while women were portrayed as domineering, overly expressive people (Hazel and Clark 9).
One of the greatest exports of American culture is American media. American media is one of the most widely distributed and consumed cultural forms from the United States. This means that not only do Americans consume large quantities of their own media, but many other countries in the world consume American media, too. People in other countries will not interpret or understand the media in precisely the same ways that Americans will and do, nonetheless, many aspects of American culture and American reality are communicated to numerous viewers as part of the content in the media. The media is an important tool in the discussion of race, class, and gender in America. It takes a savvy viewer to discriminate between and understand what media accurately represents reality, what media does not, or which aspects of experience are fictionalized, and which elements ...
In general, Media can be defined as a broad range of mass communication which includes internet, television, radio, and other mediums that have plausible influences to the audience. Nowadays, as the urbanization takes place; the consumption of mass media has become apparent as current trends. Certainly, media plays a profound role in shaping our perspective, attitude, and idea as we are exposed to the media very significantly in variety of forms. According to the “Miss Representation”, American teenager in average are exposed to media approximately about 10 hours and 45 minutes per day. Thus, it is often the role of the media to shape our perception and emphasized the expectations of societal norms in the context of representation. Based on Oxford dictionaries representation is “the description or portrayal of someone or something in a particular way or as being of a certain nature”. Briefly, the paper will discusses “I Luh Ya Papi” a music video by Jennifer Lopez to further exemplify the gender norms or gender binaries in society, the effects of music video on gendered violence, portrayal of heterosexism in media, cultural and racial stereotypes depiction, and the consequences of the male patriarchal system.
Nowadays, it has been difficult to notice the harm media is doing to society. It has become too normal that we are already used to deny the reality. I have read several readings that have opened my eyes to the reality of media; A Crash Course on Hollywood’s Latino Imagery by Charles Ramirez Berg, (Re)presenting: Muslims on North American television by Amir Hussain, True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie and The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu. These readings include an important message about minority races, which I believe society should be aware of. All of the readings that I previously mentioned have something in common, they all examine the way race is portrayed in media. Moreover, they also include how media can potentially shape our perceptions of who we are and who others are. Our young community are the ones that are being most affected by media. Children receive messages in T.V shows, cartoons, movies and books of how different races supposedly are, and they immediately start assuming that those messages are true and continue growing up with that ideology.
According to a report by ZenithOptimedia, people spend more than an average of 490 minutes of their day consuming some form of media or text (Karaian). In a society that’s driven primarily by the media, we as consumers have been constantly exposed, yet desensitized, to the various perspectives and theoretical frameworks that media has historically illustrated and produced. The most common concepts that are explored involve ideas of race, heteronormativity, whiteness and white privilege, female objectification, class identity, and gender. Each perception is complex and is seen differently in media depending on who you are and the way that you see the world through the lenses created by your own beliefs and culture.
The media, through its many outlets, has a lasting effect on the values and social structure evident in modern day society. Television, in particular, has the ability to influence the social structure of society with its subjective content. As Dwight E. Brooks and Lisa P. Hébert write in their article, “GENDER, RACE, AND MEDIA REPRESENTATION”, the basis of our accepted social identities is heavily controlled by the media we consume. One of the social identities that is heavily influenced is gender: Brooks and Hébert conclude, “While sex differences are rooted in biology, how we come to understand and perform gender is based on culture” (Brooks, Hébert 297). With gender being shaped so profusely by our culture, it is important to be aware of how social identities, such as gender, are being constructed in the media.
Race is a term that references on differences such as, facial characteristics, skin color, and other related characteristics. Race is not in reference to genetic make up. A feature of race as a social construct is that it down plays the extent to which sectors of population may form a discrete ethnic group. Based on specific characteristics race makes up a person and differs within groups. In other words race is a large group of people distinguished from others on the basic of a common heritage or physical trait.
As a result it can be concluded that the general effect of the illustrations of women in the media to strengthen rather than condense injustice and stereotypes. The mass media in the United States has not made sufficient efforts to argue serious issues regarding women and arrange the women to play their correct and equivalent role in society. To alter this situation, it is required to observe the media and point out the qualities and faults constantly.