Mental Coercion of Women by Men in the Media
For thousands of years the women of this world have been considered
the weaker sex. They have been seen as not capable of doing many
things. The media often uses the theme of men overpowering women in
their story lines and programmes using poor helpless women victims.
The film and theatre make use of this well. The “lady” has always been
the helpless maiden in storylines of old films and is still portrayed
today in many with little more subtlety. A woman for example is easily
used as a person captured at gunpoint where as a man would be the one
pointing the gun at her head.
For my images I have chosen still images of women in a position of
terror at the hands of a man. Each of my three images shows the woman
being controlled against her will by a man in either a purely physical
way or mentally.
The first picture that I have chosen is of a military solider, due to
the race of the woman; I think most probably in the Korean or cold
war. The solider is crouched upon the floor pointing a gun at a
woman’s head. The best visual code for this picture in my opinion is
expression. Gesture and clothing also play a small part but expression
shows the feeling of the people in the picture therefore leading you
deeper into the true meaning of it.
The man has an angry expression that is shown by many features;
firstly his eyebrows have been raised. Therefore his eyes are wider
than that of a normal plain expression. They also seem to be watching
someone else as if his next actions depend on what an unknown person
does. His mouth is open but is clenched together. Both sets of teeth
are visi...
... middle of paper ...
... about to happen and his mouth partly open with no teeth showing ready
to kiss her. His right arm is wrapped about her body and her other
pulling her head closer to his.
The clothes in this picture are of an old-fashioned nature maybe
Victorian. She is wearing her undergarments, which also shows a kind
of vulnerability, whereas he wears normal clothes to show that he is
the power over her.
In conclusion in the media the woman is often shown as weaker by many
different types of visual codes. The clothing can say a lot where she
is wearing clothes that protect her less or maybe the camera is used
at different angles to look down on her and up on him. However it is
done, in many films today the helpless woman is terrorised at the
hands of different men and it will most probably stay this way for
years to come.
Media is all around us from television to billboards, making it difficult not to be influence by media in one way or another. Unfortunately, media has influence women to believe that in order for women to be considered beautiful, they must for fill the characteristics of what media considers beautiful. Hurting women both psychologically and physically.
women in powerful positions on television. If girls are not able to see themselves in such
Beginning before America was even a nation, women struggled to understand their roles in society along with what rights they are entitled to. America, being built on immigrants desire to live the American Dream, yet the American Dream can only be accomplished if one has a wife to stay at home and create a strong family. Men live the American Dream through restricting women’s rights to tending to their family and house so that a strong family will be established. Although, this excuse men create, which keep women inside to take care of their family was truly because men, see women as a threat to their profession and personal social status. Because men believe that their personal power is built upon family strength, they demand their wives to raise their future generations. This alone proves that men do not truly see their wives as idiotic considering they trust them to create a strong family and future generation. Men in the 1800’s would enable the rights of women, allowing them to only be good for to raise a family, by the way they treated their wives but as generations and years have progressed, women have continuously been brought down by men but also through the use of female roles in media.
As seen in films like Killing Us Softly 4 and Miss Representation, we can see how much media and advertisements affect everyone consciously and subconsciously. Through images and advertisements, women’s bodies are hacked apart to sell products. This has a negative effect body image and self-confidence in young girls and women all over the world. It is extremely important to understand the extent to which circulating images of women in media affect standards and expectations of women in our society in order to hopefully cease to create such degrading images. Our society hurts itself by producing the types of images we see in media and advertisements today, yet it has done very little to try to reverse the messages put out. For the sake of our
On February 1, 2004, millions of Americans sat down around their television sets with their family and friends to watch the biggest sports event of the year: Super Bowl XXXVIII. Inside the Reliant Stadium of Houston, Texas, the New England Patriots beat the Carolina Panthers 32-29 in one of the closest games in recent history; but this year it wasn’t the football game or even the commercials that had people talking. It was an incident that occurred during the halftime show that involved pop singers Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake that ended in millions of Americans having the privilege to see the left breast of Janet Jackson for a few moments. This single issue may not have been a huge ordeal in itself, but it brought to surface some very pertinent questions about how far was too far in the media, what the government should do to control it, and what effects sex and violence in the media were having on American culture.
On a daily basis we are subjected to a society that continuously uses stratification to divide members of the population into subgroups, such as; location, sexuality, disability, age, class, ethnicity, race and gender, and in which disadvantages, exclusions and privileges associated with such categories are unevenly distributed. Due to this, we are forced to question if gender stereotypes in the media have a negative impact in society?
Gender in mass media has a stereotypical yet influential role towards teens. Teenagers use social media diverse methods depending on their gender. Males and females not only use the media for networking, but also for reasons that aren’t so stereotypical. Girls and boys compared by underrepresentation and overrepresentation regarding media. A primary way in which media distort reality is in underrepresenting women. As said by Julia T. Wood, “this constant distortion tempts us to believe that there really are more men than women and, further, that men are the cultural standard. In general, media continue to present both women and men in stereotyped ways that limit our perceptions of human possibilities.” As media change our lives, the ways they misrepresent genders may distort how we see ourselves and what we perceive as normal and desirable for men and women.
Throughout society, men and women have been expected to live by guidelines consisting of media generated ideas and ways of living out life. Both men and women’s thinking process are being altered the negative effects of society’s mass media. For both sexes, this repeating negative exposure causes a constant downfall in self-image and creates media influenced decisions that lead to unhealthy lifestyles. The media effects the thinking process of both men and women in negative ways therefore media needs to be heavily regulated.
“Rape Culture is an environment in which rape is prevalent and in which sexual violence against women is normalized and excused in the media and popular culture” (1a) Today you can't turn the television on without hearing references to rape culture. Jokes about sexual abuse plague every sitcom and news channels question rape victim’s every move. Even entire shows are dedicated to the topic such as Law and Order SVU. The media trivializes rape leading to a rape culture in America.
The Representation of Men and Women in the Media Men and women are both represented differently in the media these days. Then the sand was sunk. Ironically it was even represented differently in the title of this essay. Men came before women! I am writing an essay to explain how men and women are represented in the media.
It's clear to see the media focuses on various reports, television shows, and even sitcoms regarding all forms of psychology. While watching television one can say media basically relies on psychology. The media of psychology views psychology through means of common sense versus an actual science. Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processed. Behavior is anything you do that can be observed. In the media we can observe people through the television screen. Through our observations we learn from their behavior. For example in a famous experiment conducted by Albert Bandura called, "Bobo Doll Experiment," a preschool child is working on a drawing. An adult in another part of the room is building with Tinkertoys. The child is watching this adult through a television screen and watches as the adult gets up and for nearly ten minutes pounds, kicks, and throws around the room a large inflated Bobo doll, while yelling hurtful sayings such as, "Sock him in the nose" or "Hit him down" and even "Kick him". After the adult was done, the child was taken to another room and demonstrated the same actions as they have seen through the television screen to the Bobo Doll. It's clear to see from the experiment the media teaches society many aspects of psychology. From a psychological aspect we see a child observing violent behavior from what the media has presented. Humans learn through observation and in a world where technology is advancing, the media plays a large role.
Socialization of people has been occurring through family, public education and peer groups. However in recent years, the mass-media has become the biggest contributor to the socialization process, especially in the ‘gender’ sector. The mass-media culture, as influential as it has become, plays the most significant role in the reproduction process of gender role stereotypes and patriarchal values. It is true that a family model of nowadays is based rather on equality than on patriarchal values and women have more rights and possibilities on the labor market. However, mass-media still reflect, maintain, or even ‘create’ gender stereotypes in order to promote themselves.
Since, the 1960s’ women in the United States have made significant progress in many diverse fields. Today, women can be found having significant positions in business, politics, sports, etc. The ability for women to choose which position they would like and in what field, was an option not always available to them, this right was won through much struggle. The fight for equality is not over however, because women still trail men in the amount each gender gets paid, with women being paid on average less than men. Another issue with gender in this country is the way women are portrayed in the media. I had an opportunity to read five different articles and each article was able to show that differences still exist between men and women with regards to the media and how each gender is portrayed.
The mass media over the years has had such a profound role in creating an image on how women should be viewed. From their appearance to what their duties are in everyday life, the media has made sure to depict unrealistic images of women. These images have caused not only the male public but women themselves to believe that they must attain a certain kind of body or occupation to fit into society. Women often feel obligated and pressured to comply to this praised image of perfection.
Portrayal of Women in the Media Gender is the psychological characteristics and social categories that are created by human culture. Gender is the concept that humans express their gender when they interact with one another. Messages about how a male or female is supposed to act come from many different places. Schools, parents, and friends can influence a person.