Women in America: Underrepresented and Over-Sexualized

Media is the largest and most influential resource in the world. People learn more from media than any other resource. However media can be very dangerous. Media often degrades and misrepresents women. Girls get the message from early on that what is most important is how they look. No matter what a woman accomplishes, her self-worth and value will always rely on appearance. Media devalues women through music, video games, television/film, even women in politics are undermined. Most of the time, women are stereotyped into being perfect people with silky hair, perfect teeth, incredibly skinny bodies, etc. Media tends to reinforce these stereotypes as that is not a true representation of actual women.

One way women are misrepresented, and probably the most influential way, is through celebrities. Many of these famous figures provide very bad examples to younger women. Celebrities like Miley Cyrus, Nicki Minaj, Kim Kardashian and many others give young girls, and boys, false ideas of women and often times bad ideas. Huge celebrities like those act in a sexualized manner and dress in exhibiting attire. Young boys are given the impression that all females are supposed to look that way and young girls feel like something is wrong with them because they don’t look that way.

Not only do celebrities misrepresent women, but music adds to this problem. Specifically rap music, the vulgar lyrics and over sexualized music videos give people the wrong idea of American women. Rappers like ASAP Rocky, Lil’ Wayne, and Jay-Z use their lyrics to describe women in derogatory words that would devalue a woman’s self. Music videos also show women wearing extremely revealing clothing and dancing in provocative ways. Most of these rappers are male, and t...

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...dermined in all forms of media. They tend to be over sexualized and underrepresented. Most of my findings are stereotypes of women. The media misrepresents the average woman. A typical stereotype of a woman is that they are frigid, superficial, and dependent. Most young women in media are wearing suggestive clothing. Rap music tends to reinforce the stereotype that women are only good as accessories. I think it’s very sad to see what our society has made women to be. I chose to do this because I know a lot of girls who kill themselves at the gym or constantly go on diets to achieve this idea of perfection that doesn’t exist. Younger girls are becoming self-conscious of their weight because they believe something is wrong with them. I think this is a very serious issue that should be brought to everyone’s attention because every girl should be confident her own skin.