With the media becoming the main source from which the current society gets their daily information concerning products, news stories, and entertainment, it is wise to think critically about the messages they are conveying to us. These corporations spend large sums of money every day in order to grasp our attention. The question as to whether or not they have their customer’s best interest in mind arises and leaves the public no answer but to look to the advertisements they have produced. Consider the pistachio industry using a woman with a whip to grasp the viewers’ attention. In reality, is a provocative image what it takes to sell us a simple bag of pistachios? With advertising decisions like these come negative consequences such as the common practice of objectifying and degrading women, along with influences on the cognitive growth of young girls.
The use of overly suggestive women in advertising has led to emotional and cognitive issues in the population of young women. Over the past few decades, the use of sexualization in advertising has become more common. Whether conscious or subconscious, the images and roles that are being portrayed send implied messages to the impressionable minds of children. Roughly 50% of teen girls in the U.S. read teen or adult fashion magazines, and a high percentage of those are exposed to commercials and billboards with sexual images on them (What’s the Problem). Because many of these advertisements shape women to be beautiful with thin waists, even skin, and large breasts, that becomes the standard for what other women should look like, whether attainable or not. The American Psychological Association conducted research in 2007, which proved that the “sexualization” in media has a negative...
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... positions (in various ways) send subconscious messages to all of the viewers, and perpetuate the ideal image of beauty and gender roles. Because this is such a rampant issue spread over various areas of media, no one action will solve the problem. Instead, resistance towards these companies paired with education within the household is the easiest and most successful way of altering the effects of sexualization.
Works Cited
“American Psychological Association Commends House Bill Aimed at Promoting More Positive Images for Girls”. Apa.org. American Psychological Association, 24 March 2010. Web. 19 June 2011.
“What’s the Problem? Facts about Girls, Media, and Women”. Mediaandwomen.org. Girls, Women + Media Project, 2007. Web. 19 June 2011.
Zurbriggen, Eileen, et al. “Sexualization of Girls”. Apa.org. American Psychological Association, 2007. Web. 19 June 2011.
In a brilliant update of the Killing Us Softly series, Jean Kilbourne explains the dangers of advertisements and how they objectify women. Advertisements intelligently portray women in a sexual and distorted way in order to attract the consumers’ attention. Media sets a standard on how young women view themselves and puts them at risk for developing an eating disorder. Kilbourne’s research has led her to educate those who have fallen victim to achieving the “ideal beauty” that has evolved in today’s society.
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I really liked this source. I used this source to gain a perspective that involves me and everyone around me. I specifically picked this source to discuss how mass media and propaganda influences young girls to think that there is a certain image every girl should look up too. I will use this source to prove my argument.
First, the film is associated with the concept of gender, which emphasizes the physical, behavioral, and personality traits that are considered to be appropriate for men or women. Males are expected to be strong, aggressive, and competitive while females should be beautiful, emotional, and especially sexually attractive. Many girls and women feel deeply depressed when comparing their bodies to the unrealistic models’ bodies on advertising which is edited by Photoshop in many hours or even in many days. Those female characteristics presented in daily TV shows, movies, advertising, video games have become normal and widely acceptable. Also, the film associates with the concept of patriarchy which believe in male dominance. According to the misrepresentation of female role on mass media, women often see themselves in the roles of mothers, workers, models, or gold diggers. Women are valuated via their beauty and sexuality rather than their capability. Conversely, the appearance of males in heroes, executives, or political leaders in mass media makes men more powerful than women. The media generates the gender stereotypes and makes people believe in their gender roles. Finally, the sociological relevance of Miss Representation is that the media plays an important role in shaping male and female’s belief in their role and value. As the result, it is understandable for gender behaviors and gender inequality in the
A major modern problem with the media is the sublimation of, and reaffirmation of, stereotypical female gender roles. “The media treats women like shit” (Cho). Which is a serious issue because of Marshall McLuhan’s famous words, “The Medium is the Message” (Warwick). The medium up for discussion is the media, which can be fundamentally defined as the most significant “single source of information that people have today (Katz). Therefore, in order to understand “what’s going on in our society” (Katz) it is “absolutely imperative to “understand media” (Katz). Media and technology are “shaping our politics, our national discourse and most of all, they’re shaping our children’s brains, lives and emotions” (Steyer). Caroline Heldman, PhD, and specialist in presidency, media, gender and race in the American context, stated that of seven year old boys and girls, an equal number “want to be president of the united states when they grow up” (Heldman). However, she notes that once this same question is asked at the age of fifteen, a “massive gap” (Heldman) between males and females is apparent (Heldman). Girls seem to be receiving the message from the media that their value and their worth depends on solely on how they look. Conversely, boys receive a similar message, namely, that this is what’s important about girls (Kilbourne). The purpose of this essay is to explore how the North American media’s projection of a female value system is superficial and “derogatory” (Popner), and how the media does so effectively. This exploration will focus on two different kinds of media: visual advertisement, and video games.
The image of female sexuality in our society has been corrupted in Levy’s opinion, tainted by the countless industries profiting off of the sexualization of women, who are the main driving force behind our current day raunch culture. Take Girls Gone Wild (GGW from henceforth), GGW is a perfect example of how the younger generation of women is effected by our current day raunch culture. GGW often targets women whom they see as the average looking girl, “the girl next door” so to speak. They are often college students ...
In modern society there is more and more digital editing without the knowledge of consumers. Currently there are various reasons for why women develop negative body image, low-self-esteem and eating disorders. According to Naomi Wolf in her novel “Beauty Myth”, one of the many reasons women obtain concerns with their bodies is due to the universal images of young female bodies presented through advertisements in fashion magazines. Advertisements in magazines are altering and shaping the desires of men and women. Magazines sell viewers images of beautiful, skinny, flawless confident young women. When people are constantly antagonized with the magazine industry’s ideal of “perfect beauty” the viewer’s then, subconsciously believe these images to be true and begin to form biases about what they themselves should look like and what other people must also look like. People who view magazines get mislead by advertisers because they are unaware that all the images displayed are digitally altered through Photoshop and airbrushing. Today’s magazines are formed completely on false ideals of flawless beauty and unattainable body images, to prevent women and men from falling victim to the magazine’s deceitful images we as a society need to become aware and educate ourselves.
The sexualization of women in the American mass media has contributed to a relapse and neglection of women's independence and created corruption within our youth. Distorted media is creating classes of men and women, influencing concealing stereotypes enabling women to be individuals. The generations to come will be exposed to aspiring role models resembling as sex dolls, the youth and future absorb multiple forms of sexist media presenting the viewers with unattainable or objectified images of femininity. Modern media's current obsession with sex has resulted in an advancing society based off of profanity. The media’s and corporations greed for money is distorting one's morals while publicizing the degradation of women and influencing sex to make profit. Our youth will lose its innocence followed by a constricting society filled with social norms and distorted perceptions of modern women. This paper dissects two popular media artifacts uncovering its covert rhetoric.
Americans are exposed to an estimated total of 4,000 to 10,000 advertisements each day, therefore; the media play a significant role in our lives on a daily basis (Marshall 2015). Music videos, movies, television shows, advertisements, and video games are just a few of the ways that we are exposed to sex and sexuality through the media. Sexually explicit images are dominating media and our society is becoming more and more sex-obsessed. Mainstream media portrays sex in a way that greatly affects our conceptions of sexuality. It is no secret though that when it comes to the media, men and women face very different realities. Whether it be in their portrayal, expectations or even careers within the media. Clear double standards can be seen
The documentary Killing Us Softly 4 discusses and examines the role of women in advertisements and the effects of the ads throughout history. The film begins by inspecting a variety of old ads. The speaker, Jean Kilbourne, then discusses and dissects each ad describing the messages of the advertisements and the subliminal meanings they evoke. The commercials from the past and now differ in some respects but they still suggest the same messages. These messages include but are not limited to the following: women are sexual objects, physical appearance is everything, and women are naturally inferior then men. Kilbourne discusses that because individuals are surrounded by media and advertisements everywhere they go, that these messages become real attitudes and mindsets in men and women. Women believe they must achieve a level of beauty similar to models they see in magazines and television commercials. On the other hand, men expect real women to have the same characteristics and look as beautiful as the women pictured in ads. However, even though women may diet and exercise, the reality...
The over-sexualization of women is apparent in all aspects of media. We turn on the computer, ride the bus, watch tv, walk down the street-- We are bombarded with images of women in sexually suggestive poses, revealing clothing, or involved in some sort of sexual act. Women and their bodies are often critiqued by people in their lives, and it's largely due to the way the media portrays females and the female body. A woman's sexual attractiveness is constantly valued in media and real life over any other characteristic she may have, and this teaches men that it is okay for them to also value a woman's sexual attractiveness over anything else. This sexualization of women in media leads to an upward trend
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.
To sum up, it is often said that advertising is shaping women gender identity, and some have been argued that the statement is true, because of the higher amount of sexual references of women that advertisement show and the damages that occur on women’s personality and the public negative opinions of those women. As well, the negative effects that those kinds of advertisements cause to young generations and make them feel like they should simulate such things and are proud of what they are doing because famous actors are posting their pictures that way. Others deem this case as a personal freedom and absolutely unrelated to shaping women gender identity. On the contrast, they believe that, those sorts of advertisements are seriously teaching women how to stay healthy and be attractive, so they might have self-satisfaction after all.
For example, In 2011, the Commission of the image of women in the media(Commission sur l’image des femmes dans les medias) in France, published an annual report. The commission was organized in 2009, in the social context that the women are not well represented in the media. The report tried to figure out the percentage of female ‘experts’ in the media including radio and TV. According to the report, 80% of the experts who appeared in the media were male. Considering the fact that the casting process is totally dependent on the decision of the production and their idea of ‘who is more likely to appear as serious and trustful person’, the result is quite shocking. It shows that the image of female in the media is rather a testifier or a victim, than an expert. The social position of women has been significantly improved in last hundred years, but how media treat them has not been pulled out from the traditional-patriarchal view point. This could be very dangerous because mass-media is accessible for people of all social classes and age groups, and for the most of t...
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...