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essays on portrayals of women on media
The effect of media on a women's self image
essays on portrayals of women on media
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The Effect of the Media on The Female Body
In today's society it seems that a woman's body is the main focal point in the media. We see the female body being portrayed as one of a model with unattainable measurements such as 36-24-36. All of this can be attributed to how our TV shows, movies, music videos, magazines, etc. portray the perfect female body. America and its' media need to begin portraying women with all types of figures. This would help greatly to widen our thoughts and definition of what beauty really is, not to mention greatly lesson the different types of health problems American citizens have as a result of today's unattainable beauty standards.
The first such example can be taken from the video Dreamworlds II. In this particular source, it explained the media's effect, particularly in music videos, on the way society views how the female body should look and be treated. Deamworlds II continuously displayed many different types of music videos throughout the video to give the viewer a harsh look at reality. The video made the viewer take a look at how these music videos are normally the creation of males and will most always show the female as being the weaker sex that is around for only one reason, which is to satisfy the man. By showing the music videos continuously throughout the video, it made viewers take a harsh look at how we portray women and often never think twice about it when we are watching the music video on TV.
In our modern society, in almost every form of advertisement we use provocative sexual imagery to get the audiences attention. This idea often carries over to music videos in hopes that the sexual themes will get the viewers attention, which will attract them to the artist and their music. According to Dreamworlds II, men today direct ninety percent of the music videos. This results in videos with sexual dreamlands where men can make women do or be however they please. When this happens, it can be very dangerous for women and girls. They are no longer being seen as an actual person with subjectivity but instead they are shown as just body parts waiting for men to use or watch them. In these videos, the women's stories are no longer being told because they are only seen in certain roles such as exotic dancers, teachers, nurses, housewives, or prostitutes.
Body image is the perception, both thoughts, and feelings concerning an individual’s physical appearance. Research has suggested that exposure to an ideal standard of what it may mean to be beautiful is the norm for the media to expose a woman to. The results of an idea of feminine beauty can be disastrous for women, leading to depression, and an unrealistic body image. According to Posavac & Posavac in the article titled Reducing the Impact of Media Images on Women at Risk for Body Image Disturbance: Three Targeted Interventions...
For example, “men often feel that they are supposed to be tough, aggressive, [and] competitive” [in the workplace…]. Women, on the other hand, are ‘unsexed by success’” (Kimmel 2013, 250). At the same time, we have seen these gender roles played a vital role in the family. According to Jhally, “the women of the dream world are fragmented and presented as a number of simple and disconnected body parts” (Jhally 2007). Therefore, “the media helps to maintain a status quo in which certain groups in our society routinely have access to power and privilege while others do not” (Mulvaney 2016). Therefore, “these images and stories have worked their way into the inner identities of young women who view their own sexuality through the eyes of the male authors of that culture” (Jhally
Media is a wide term that covers many information sources including, television, movies, advertisement, books, magazines, and the internet. It is from this wide variety of information that women receive cues about how they should look. The accepted body shape and has been an issue affecting the population probably since the invention of mirrors but the invention of mass media spread it even further. Advertisements have been a particularly potent media influence on women’s body image, which is the subjective idea of one's own physical appearance established by observation and by noting the reactions of others. In the case of media, it acts as a super peer that reflects the ideals of a whole society. Think of all the corsets, girdles, cosmetics, hair straighteners, hair curlers, weight gain pills, and diet pills that have been marketed over the years. The attack on the female form is a marketing technique for certain industries. According to Sharlene Nag...
Kasey Serdar (2005) argues that only a small number of women can actually fulfill the characteristics of what media defines beautiful. Yet, women are constantly being exposed to the ideal women image. Serdar (2005) illustrates that “models shown on television, advertisement, and in other forms of popular media are approximately 20% below ideal body weight, thus meeting the dia...
We hear sayings everyday such as “Looks don’t matter; beauty is only skin-deep”, yet we live in a decade that contradicts this very notion. If looks don’t matter, then why are so many women harming themselves because they are not satisfied with how they look? If looks don’t matter, then why is the media using airbrushing to hide any flaws that one has? This is because with the media establishing unattainable standards for body perfection, American Women have taken drastic measures to live up to these impractical societal expectations. “The ‘body image’ construct tends to comprise a mixture of self-perceptions, ideas and feelings about one’s physical attributes. It is linked to self-esteem and to the individual’s emotional stability” (Wykes 2). As portrayed throughout all aspects of our media, whether it is through the television, Internet, or social media, we are exploited to a look that we wish we could have; a toned body, long legs, and nicely delineated six-pack abs. Our society promotes a body image that is “beautiful” and a far cry from the average woman’s size 12, not 2. The effects are overwhelming and we need to make more suitable changes as a way to help women not feel the need to live up to these unrealistic standards that have been self-imposed throughout our society.
How should I look like to have the ideal body? An increasing number of women ask themselves this question many times in their lives. Deborah Sullivan’s essay, “Social Bodies: Tightening the Bonds of Beauty”, discloses the different cultural traditions that require various methods of body modifications. Women should undergo such modifications to obtain social acceptance. Similarly, “Pressures to Conform” by Celia Milne discusses the effects of media and society on women, and how women view their physical appearance. The media gives women a plethora of choices for the perfect body and even provides ways on how to achieve them. There is no escaping. There is no excuse of not getting the ideal body that ranges from that of a stick-thin ramp model’s to the buff and chiseled outline of a body builder’s. Still, the struggle doesn’t end here. Women also desire smooth, wrinkle-free skin, hairless faces, and ample busts. “Stencil” women are celebrities, models, actresses - women whose coveted looks are seen through discriminating TV screens, posters, and magazines. The steady demand for these forms of media is mainly due to women who are looking for body images to pattern from. These women are on the constant lookout in updating their appearance and considering the bulk of information that the media presents to them, the media is a source of considerable amount of physical and psychological stress. In their fight for their roles in society, women undergo various body modifications to suit the taste of the present-day culture.
Over the past century, women aesthetic appearance has dramatically changed in western civilization. In the beginning of the 19th century the ideal woman was 5’4 tall and weighed approximately 140 pounds. The Roaring Twenties brought along a more boyish looking woman referred to as a flapper. During the 1930’s, women having larger breasts and fuller waists was the image to achieve. The 1940’s and 50’s presented contraptions such as corsets and push- up bra’s for woman to accentuate thier bust lines. A transformation was brought about in the 1960’s that has swept across the nations of the world with thinner models and a brand new doll modeled after these women: Barbie. Twiggy, a British teen model, took the media by storm. She was the skinniest model ever weighting 89 pounds, standing (“The Perfect Woman”). In the 21st century this craze of being excessively thin has dominated the media and ...
Media contributes in a way we see our body such as in an attractive or unattractive way such as Rebecca J.Donatelle in “ Enhancing your Body Image” explains. The way we assume about our physical appearance can lead to health problems and other side effects we can come across throughout our lifestyle. For instance the body image myths that the author states in the paragraph shows some effects on how our society feels today. And the changes one can make to become better to be better therefore changing our life for the better can combat in a lifetime experience.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. In our society today, people would rather see what celebrities are up to than what is going on with our health plan. Watching the news makes us aware of the latest trend, new gadget, who’s in rehab, or who has an eating disorder. In the eyes of society, women like Eva Longoria, Kim Kardashian, and Megan Fox are the epitome of perfection. What girl wouldn’t want to look like them? Unfortunately, this includes most of the girls in the US. Through TV shows, commercials, magazines or any form of advertising, the media enforces a certain body type which women emulate. The media has created a puissant social system where everyone must obtain a thin waist and large breasts. As a society, we are so image obsessed with the approval of being thin and disapproval of being overweight, that it is affecting the health of most women. Women much rather try to fit the social acceptance of being thin by focusing on unrealistic body images which causes them to have lower self esteem and are more likely to fall prey to eating disorders, The media has a dangerous influence on the women’s health in the United States.
Throughout time, the most controversial subject among female’s health has been body image. Society and our culture molds females’s brains into believing that being thin is what will fulfill complete happiness. Being thin means you are more successful, loved, attractive, and overall truly beautiful. Thin women are seen as having an altogether perfect life. However, there is another female figure that is seen as undesirable, hopeless, mainly disliked by most. This type of woman is the curvy or larger female. If one were to go out on the street and gather a group of men and women and show them the thin vs. large female and which one is more attractive, most would say the thinner is. Thus, we deny the larger women because they do not fit societies norms. Thin women are timid to turn into this other that is not widely accepted. To this extent, society and our culture have constructed a monster.
Due to the portrayal of specific beauty standards in the media, women have re-imagined true beauty, causing drastic impacts that affect the lives of women both physically and psychologically. In order to reach the societal standard of this “ideal body”, women of all ages go to drastic measures to achieve it (extreme dieting and plastic surgery). However, having come so far in gaining more freedom and rights women should fight for more representative images of real women celebrating things other than physical appearance, so that women can have substantial and legitimate models to which they can aspire. Hopefully one day, all women will be able to look at a photograph in a magazine and then at their own image in a mirror and not experience a moment of disgust but rather a moment of self-assurance and self-confidence.
... way media portrays the female body, we could help women to become media literate so they can recognize those images and not really and have been manipulated. Sands said, “If women can be taught not to internalize the sociocultural ideal, they may be able to counter the negative effects of the ultra-thin images that are almost inescapable” (Sands & Wardle, 2003).
In this age, media is more pervasive than ever, with people constantly processing some form of entertainment, advertisement or information. In each of these outlets there exists an idealized standard of beauty, statistically shown to effect the consumer’s reflection of themselves. The common portrayal of women’s bodies in the media has shown to have a negative impact on women and girls. As the audience sees these images, an expectation is made of what is normal. This norm does not correspond to the realistic average of the audience. Failing to achieve this isolates the individual, and is particularly psychologically harmful to women. Though men are also shown to also be effected negatively by low self-esteem from the media, there remains a gap as the value of appearance is seen of greater significance to women, with a booming cosmetic industry, majority of the fashion world, and the marketing of diet products and programs specifically targeting women.
Women and girls seem to be more affected by the mass media than do men and boys. Females frequently compare themselves to others, finding the negative rather than looking at the positive aspects of their own body. The media’s portrayal of the ideal body type impacts the female population far more than males, however, it is not only the mass media that affects women, but also influence of male population has on the female silhouette too.
The media negatively influences the way women are portrayed in modern society and culture. This can severely impact the way a woman views her self worth and beauty.