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The role of the media in society
Effect of stereotypes on society
Stereotypes impact on society
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After going through the whole magazine and filling out the chart with the appropriate traits, I found similar results to what Kilbourne would have predicted, given her description that magazines create a mythical world where beauty is defined as white people that are rarely ugly, overweight, poor, struggling or disabled, either physically or mentally (1990). From going through the magazine looking for data and now studying my data chart of findings, it has been made apparent that the February edition of Vogue was a stereotypical American fashion magazine. This is made evident by the fact that it has an overwhelming amount of caucasians with bodies that are thin, attractive, and able-bodied. Specifically, with only looking at the models that
These visual representation are known as pin-ups and described as, “Prototypically blonde with large breasts, tiny waist, small buttocks, and long, slender legs, she is a specifically Caucasian archetype of erotic appeal” (Breazele 77). By only focusing on the female body in Esquire’s illustrations the magazine is taking away the idea that females have control of their body. Each woman featured in the magazine is pictured as described above, in doing so women are portrayed in an unrealistic sense and men expect real-life women to look like this skewed image of the female body. For this reason, women no longer feel confident in their body and feel the pressure of the male gaze to look like the images in magazines like Esquire. It was also said that these images were used to market to the straight-male consumer in order to reject any interest women might have in the magazine or any homosexual male. Esquire attempted to make all readers of their magazine think the same and this included making them all have the same idea of what made a female attractive. This meant that women would no longer see differences between each other as something positive, but instead all women would strive for the unrealistic perfection represented in Esquire’s visuals. Pin-ups become a staple of Esquire’s magazines because they truly showed the best features of a women all combined into one disproportionate sex
What modern society dictates women should look like has had a great impact on commonplace women and how they feel they should look and act. I have no doubt a huge problem exists in society as a result of this. I think it has resulted in women being put to the side in terms of advancement. It also evokes a sense of low self-esteem. Little girls everywhere are brought up in front of an image they can never achieve. A truly ideal woman is one who has the confidence in herself to know that she is beyond that image. The key word there is confidence. Unfortunately, the magazine cover industry breaks confidence with its portrayals of thin, tall women. The ideal magazine cover woman is an unattainable fallacy. However, there is no guilty party to be blamed for this fact. Faulting the companies putting that image to use is unjust.
The ideal female beauty in American culture is predominately white (Bankhead & Johnson, 2014). Throughout U.S history, women’s mainstream beauty ideal has been historically based on white standards such as having blonde hair, blue eyes, fair skin, a thin ideal body, straight hair, and thin lips (West, 1995; Yamamiya, Cash, Melynk, Posavac, & Posavac, 2005; Leslie, 1995). Therefore, the features of African American women tend to be viewed as undesirable and unattractive compared to the European standards of beauty (Awad, Norwood, Taylor, Martinez, McClain, Jones, Holman, & Hilliard, 2014). According to Ashe (1995), “African beauty, body and hair have been racialized, with slim/”keen” European features being the accepted standard of beauty since enslaved Africans was forcefully brought to the Americas.” The physical characteristics of Black women such as having broad noses, brown skin, full lips, large buttocks and course hair has been looked down upon throughout United States history (Byrd & Tharps, 2001). In effect, the standard of beauty of European features that were forced on slaves are internalized and currently seen in the standard of beauty of African Americans (A.A) (Chapman, 2007). These standards include African Americans perceiving light-skinned as being more favorable than dark-skinned (Maddox & Gray, 2002; Perdue, Young, Balam,
...ce in society. And the effects of the ideals behind these magazines are all the more powerful because of their subtlety." Women walk away from these magazines with an empty feeling and feelings of many inadequacies and they really don't know exactly why. The subtle undermining of women's intelligence and cause strips away their sense of worth ever so slowly and leaves them feeling depressed and in search of something that really can't exist together. Growing old while staying young takes many years of complete and internal happiness not many years of collagen injections and the added stress of having to stay unattainably perfect. While some consider these journalists for women's magazines talented writers, I consider them horrendous displays of talent in which they sell out the naturally beautiful women of the world for a quick buck and a popular magazine.
To start, the target audience of People magazine is women between the ages of eighteen and thirty-two because of the article topics and advertisements. The women would have a high-school education at the most because a lot of the advertisements are for items that are not really expensive. Those women would be of the white race and be located in the states of California or New York and this is because most of the women pictured are of the white race. The reason for California or New York is because the women in these areas hav...
Gordon, M. K. (2008). Media contributions to African American girls' focus on beauty and appearance: Exploring the consequences of sexual objectification. Psychology Of Women Quarterly, 32(3), 245-256. doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.2008.00433.x
"You know you're from Kentucky if your house is mobile and your three cars aren't" This is a joke my younger brother recited to me when I returned to my Yankee home from the University of Kentucky for Thanksgiving break. He went on to ask, "If a Kentucky couple gets divorced are they still brother and sister?" The lists of redneck jokes surrounding Kentucky stereotypes are endless. Many people get a good laugh out of the jokes, but they don't realize that they are portraying a crude message about all Kentucky folk. More so than any other state, Kentucky is labeled and illustrated as redneck and poor. Much of this may stem from many of the small towns in Kentucky and in the Appalachian area. However, Appalachia has been misunderstood and misrepresented: "Appalachia has long been characterized as a region of feuds, moonshine stills, mine wars, environmental destruction, joblessness and hopelessness" (Billings cover). Although Appalachia tends to be a very poor region, they are very rich in family values and respect for life.
The concept of beauty and racism in modern western society is held to the highest of standards for all of it’s members; including celebrities. The perfect woman is described by Odette (2013), as solely for men’s pleasure and domination. If we look on the cover of any popular magazine, the women are usually: light skinned, slender, and tall. Men on the other hand must be tall and powerfully built. Our culture is valued on the basis of how men and women are perceived by their image, making it impossible for the average man or women to achieve the high beauty standard expected in society. Celebrities play an influential role in the way people view themselves, making the need to look like our favourite celebrities all the more desired. A person's
The models and celebrities in the media that set the standard for what women should look like are thinner than 90-95 percent of the American female population (Seid p.6). This is an unrealistic portrayal of what the human body should look like when compared to most women’s genetic makeup. Women’s self-image, their social and economic success, and even their survival can still be determined largely by their beauty (Seid p.5). Men on the other hand seem to have it a little easier when it comes to looks. Their self-image is largely determined by what they accomplish in life and not by whether or not they meet the social standard for looks. Modern clothing and fashion require women to show off their bodies more in tight clothes and by showing more skin than in the past. According to Roberta Seid ...
In her novel “Beauty Myth”, Naomi Wolf argues that the beauty and fashion industry are to blame for using false images to portray what beautiful woman is. She believes the magazines are to blame for women hating their bodies. Wolf states, “When they discuss [their bodies], women lean forward, their voices lower. They tell their terrible secret. It’s my breast, they say. My hips. It’s my thighs. I hate my stomach.” (Wolf, 451) She is focusing on how w...
In Nio’s dissertation, she states, “today, we are living in an era and culture that place much emphasis on the physical attractiveness of both genders” (3). Early research on body image started around the 1930s (Nio, 18). Originally, the research on body images focused on women and men feeling fat, dieting, weighting themselves, and eating disorders (Reed,1). In a more recent research study, done by Fallon and Rosen, they dived body images into four categories; current, ideal, attractive, and other attractive. Current is the way subjects perceive their bodies now, whereas ideal is the image they would prefer to have. Attractive is an image that subjects believe is the most attractive to the opposite sex, conversely other attractive is the body image that subjects prefer in the opposite sex. Through this research it is concluded that women have a distorted view on the body images that mean find attractive (Reed, 4). This is because “researchers have found that images of women in the media have been getting thinner over the past four decades” (Nio, 5). This is what Nio calls the Thin-Ideal Syndrome caused by an unconscientious internalized sociocultural of the ideal standard of beauty. This creates the idea of beauty being almost synonymous with being thin
In this section I will discuss racial standards of beauty and how they are constructed and represented in the media. I will talk about the toys I played with as a child and what type of television I watched as an adolescent. For this paper, I will draw on the social concept definition of race. The social concept definition of race rejects the biological traits that are associated with race and is based on "specific social relations and historical contexts" that are associated with racial categories (Omi and Winant, 12-13).
Bissell, K. L., & Chung, J. (2009). Americanized beauty? Predictors of perceived attractiveness from US and South Korean participants based on media exposure, ethnicity, and socio-cultural attitudes toward ideal beauty. Asian Journal Of Communication, 19(2), 227-247. doi:10.1080/01292980902827144
If so many people are claiming that looks do not matter and beauty only runs skin-deep, then why does the media spend hours distorting a picture of a single person’s face to present to the world as a flawless skinned supermodel? With all of the perfecting and masking of the true appearance of these models, writers and editors make it seem as if being so glamorous and perfect is easy and attainable. While the readers believe that it is possible to reach these impossible goals, they find themselves developing the same disorders and low self-esteems that the editors are disguising (Crisell).
In many cultures the word "beauty" is plastered across tabloids and televisions with little thought given to the true nature of the