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Sexual Objectification of Women in the Media
Sexual objectification, or “the process of representing or treating a person like a sex object, one that serves another’s sexual pleasure (Heldman, 2013),” overtime has become extremely exaggerated. In addition, sexual objectification of women in the media has resulted in several impairments in psychological and social functioning, which is harmful to both men and women in today’s society. Due to globalization, females that have availability to Western media are affected by the negative portrayals of women in the media and advertisements everyday. Furthermore, sexual objectification of women also negatively influences males, considering that they, too, are socialized to objectify women, which affects their ability to make a healthy connection between a standard woman and the ideal woman that is misrepresented by the media.
In the article, “Seeing Women as Objects: The Sexual Body Part Recognition Bias,” the authors, Gervais et al. (2012), affirm findings from a research study in regards to how the majority of individuals perceive images of men and women. The study also indicates that both global and local cognitive processes are associated to our physical perceptions of men and women. Per the research article, individuals depend more on global cognitive processing, or perceiving one as a whole, while presented with images of males. However, individuals depend more on local cognitive processing (the processing we use to identify objects, such as, houses and cars), or perceiving one as a cluster of its assorted portions, while presented with images of females.
Furthermore, the authors tested and were also able to confirm “the sexual body part cognition bias hypothesis that women’s (ve...
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...its way into our society’s music, morals, and values.
In conclusion, breaking the cycle of objectification is extremely important because human connection, which is threatened by the false reality that is being created by sexual objectification, is vital to our existence. Although some individuals have become numb to objectification, some are still subconsciously consuming it. The topic of objectification of women in the media has severe side effects, especially to women, such as, depression, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, decreased self-esteem, and other physiological and psychological illnesses. Hence, intervening in this social issue through educating our youth and redefining what “beautiful” and “sexy” means will not only help end the sexual objectification of women in the media, but also other social issues, such as, the toleration of rape culture.
Topics which relate to the subjects in the article can be found in chapter 5 of textbook Social Psychology, Second Canadian Edition (Kassin, Fein, Markus & Burke, 2013). This chapter contains information on ambivalent sexism and effects on media on gender. These topics help to gain an advanced understanding on the effects of hypersexualizing or of objectifying the female body
Dickerson, Rachel. “America Objectified: An Analysis of the Self-Objectification of Women in America and Some Detrimental Effects of Media Images.” Stanislaus State University. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
While they rarely admit as much, the main stream media often takes for granted the power they possess to shape our society. The advent of the internet has granted the media unfettered access to our children and young people. The images of women are more and more often extremely sexual in nature. This has created an environment where women have no value beyond appearance. In the documentary “Miss Representation” Dr. Kilbourne informs us, ‘Girls get the message from very early on that what's most important is how they look, that their value, their worth, depends on that. Boys get the message that this is what's important about girls.’ This is the frightening reality of how our young people are being taught to view the world. Considering, how much information is at our disposal, a controversial issue has been continually overlooked, the devaluation of women.
Throughout the century, the ideal image of a woman has changed drastically, which can be directly attributed to the powerful persuasion of media. This ideal image has transformed from a voluptuous, size 14, 1950’s Marilyn Monroe to a 5’9, 100 pound, 1990’s Kate Moss. The most shocking aspect is specifically what young girls are now doing to achieve this “Kate Moss” image. Through the utilization of advertisements and stars on the big screen, this female portrayal directly targets the physical and mental well-being of females in cultures across the globe.
Sexualization of women is taught to the public from an early age through the media. This is not a new phenomena, however. As Roberts and Zurbriggen (2012) address, the problem exponentially compounds over time, as evolving mass communication technology creates more opportunities for the press to teach sexualization. New technology is not entirely negative though, as it allows the public to more easily engage in discussions regarding the expression of
What is body image? A two-dimensional model of body image incorporates both perceptual and emotional components. It focuses on both how we feel about the size and shape of our bodies and how accurately we perceive our body size as well. A more recent cognitive approach suggests that body image is a complex set of cognitive schema. A schema is a grouped body of knowledge. Groups of schema are readily available for important tasks such as guiding behavior, circumstantial scripts (or dialogue), and evoking the appropriate emotional, somatic, visual, and auditory responses in certain situations. The cognitive schema for body image is an organized domain of knowledge about oneself and others. Different situations evoke different schema. For example, watching a runway show or looking at a women’s magazine filled with page after page of waifs may evoke the "I’m fat" schema, while being complimented for how good your body looks in a certain dress may evoke the "I’m sexy" schema. We begin constructing schema from a young age; thus, by the time we are adults we have been through many experiences and established very elaborate schema. Such elaborate constructs are resistant to change. These schema influence our perception of the world and ourselves, our feelings, and our behaviors.
In recent years, sociologists, psychologists, and medical experts have gone to great lengths about the growing problem of body image. This literature review examines the sociological impact of media-induced body image on women, specifically women under the age of 18. Although most individuals make light of the ideal body image most will agree that today’s pop-culture is inherently hurting the youth by representing false images and unhealthy habits. The paper compares the media-induced ideal body image with significant role models of today’s youth and the surrounding historical icons of pop-culture while exploring various sociological perspectives surrounding this issue.
You can see in the media in almost all occasions women being sexualized. From beer to burger commercials women in the media are portrayed as sexual beings. If they are thin and meet society’s standards of beautiful they are considered marketable. Over the...
The media is a fascinating tool; it can deliver entertainment, self-help, intellectual knowledge, information, and a variety of other positive influences; however, despite its advances for the good of our society is has a particular blemish in its physique that targets young women. This blemish is seen in the unrealistic body images that it presents, and the inconsiderate method of delivery that forces its audience into interest and attendance. Women are bombarded with messages from every media source to change their bodies, buy specific products and redefine their opinion of beauty to the point where it becomes not only a psychological disease, but a physical one as well.
(Cohan, 2012 p3). In popular culture for example there has been a rise of sexualised images of men in advertisement (Rohlinger. 2002, p61). In the trailer of Fifty Shades of Darker for instance the camera focused on Christian Grey’s body in proportion to the plot. The image of the male body has been designed in way which appeals to women as well as men, men aspire to have the body as it is represented as coming with a certain lifestyle, particularly in because Fifty Shades of Darker the movie shows his lavish lifestyle as well as representing him as a successful entrepreneur. One could deduce therefore, that in popular culture the physical presentation of the body empathises power and control.
The documentary Miss Representation identifies the numerous ways women are misrepresented in the media, including in news, advertisements, movies, and television. The title Miss Representation emphasizes that the way we portray women in the media is a misrepresentation, as in it does not do women justice and oftentimes, has a negative impact on the perception of women. Frequently in the media, women lack leading roles and complexity, are held to an unrealistic standard of beauty, and are subject to objectification and beautification (Newsom, 2011). These misrepresentations lay the groundwork for gender socialization, and therefore, shape how women perceive themselves and are perceived by others.
Recently, a lot of controversy has been in the news about the increase in negative body image among women. This negative body image can lead to a number of different problems in individuals including low self-esteem, eating disorders, and depression. Some factors that can influence this increase in negative body image include age, gender peer influence, and family influence. One of the main factors that has been an influence on the way people view themselves is the media. According to Aubrey (2006), “a primary way that an objectifying culture is propagated is through the media” (p. 159). Everything from magazines, television, and celebrities can have an affect on the way people view themselves. The population that is most affected by this problem in our society is young women. Social comparison, which is when someone compares their own body to other’s bodies, is a common factor for thin-ideal internalization and dissatisfaction of their body (Bessenoff, 2006, p. 239).
My exploration has educated others on the effect media has on women by focusing in on the exploitative images of women. Women in media are more attractive than males, shows more nudity, and wears sexy clothing “These sexualization findings are troubling for two reasons. Theory suggests and research supports that exposure to objectifying content may contribute to and/or reinforce negative effects such as self objectification, body shame, and/or appearance anxiety among some female viewers.15 The results also suggest that with a higher prevalence of females on screen a higher incidence of sexualization follows”(Smith 2016). Women are exposed to so many mainstream images
One constant lies within American popular culture: sexuality. Nearly all media outlets contain the sexuality in one form or another. Sometimes it’s explicitly conveyed, whereas other times it’s just casual. In particular, within the media, the objectification of women has become an increasing issue and has resulted in many controversies. This objectification is not exclusively towards women, but women are often expected to convey their sexuality in popular media in very particular ways.
Human beings have been, and always will be, dichotomized into either male or female. When determining a person’s sex we often look for differences in facial features, body shape or mannerism’s, but another promising way to determine a persons sex and one that is most often used today, is through gender roles. Gender roles are behaviors that portray masculinity or femininity. The theory behind gender roles through multidisciplinary viewpoints is the focus of this paper. Throughout history and in every culture these roles have shifted and transformed into what society says is expectable. In this analysis, gender roles will be examined through a sociological, biological and evolutionary scope.