Misrepresentation of Women in The Media

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Recommended: Critical analysis of depiction of women in mass media

“People learn more from media than any other single source of information” (Missrepresentation). This quote exemplifies how society learns and creates their standards about people, places, and things. All sources and mediums of media impact billions of lives every day. The media holds this power over society and it’s time to change that; especially when it comes to the media’s view of women. Women are constantly being misrepresented. This misrepresentation of women in the media is negatively impacting America by corrupting both the youth and adults. This is occurring because of the hyper-sexualization of women, wrongly portraying women in leadership positions, and creating stereotypes of women in movies and television.
“You can’t be what you can’t see” (Siebel). In today’s society one gets their many standards of how they should look, act, and talk from the media. The media is setting these standards and instead of putting out unrealistic ideals of beauty for children, they should be encouraging more positive and realistic ideals. If it’s not on television or in the magazines, young children especially, can’t attempt to copy it. The first form of media to look at is advertisements. “U.S. advertisers spent billions of dollars in 2009. 80% of countries in the world have GDP’s less than what was spent” (Missrepresentation). It’s obvious that consumerism is a large aspect of American culture. Advertisements consume Americans lives. No matter where one goes these ads follow. In magazines, on television, radios, billboards litter the highways. There’s always something screaming “Buy me” or “Be like me”. The problem at hand is not women being sexy. It’s okay for a woman to want to be or look sexy; it’s the hyper-sexualization of women ...

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..., a more equal place between genders.

Works Cited
Glavinic, Tonei. “Exclusion, Misrepresentation and Discrimination: Still Prevalent for Women in American Media and Politics.” Student Pulse. 2010. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.
Missrepresentation. 2014. The Representation Project. Web. 9 Jan. 2014.
The Representation Project. “How the Media Failed Women in 2013.” Online video clip. Youtube. 3 Dec. 2013. Web. 9 Jan. 2014.
Roberts, Darryl, dir. America the Beautiful. 2007. Film.
Samborn, Hope Viner. “Stuck in a Bygone Era.” Perspectives. 2011. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.
Sandberg, Sheryl. “Why we have too few women leaders.” Ted Talk. Dec. 2010. Web. 9 Jan. 2014.
Siebel, Jennifer, dir. Missrepresentation. 2011. Film.

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