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More handpicked essays just for you.
Female stereotypes in media
Mass media effects on children
The effect of the media on a woman's self-image
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Recommended: Female stereotypes in media
Concerning about the women’s rights, Jennifer Newsom, a filmmaker, made a documentary film of the representation of women in this society, which contains the stories of many women and herself, as well as analysis statements of many scholars. In this movie, “Miss Representation”, Jennifer effectively convinces the audience that the women were objectified and degraded in the media through the use of statements of experts from different fields, the analysis by these authorities with statistical data, and the touching testimonies of different women about their own stories. Firstly, Jennifer use the reputation of some famous people and the experts, includes the filmmakers, lawyer, authors, associate professor of a university, the president and …show more content…
Starting with her own story, Jennifer Newsom narrates her experience of her childhood and the concern for her daughter’s future life in a warm tone, which gives the audience the feel of familiar and sincere. Besides, the stories of some high school girls, especially their experiences of being discriminated and hurt, touch the audience heart and get the sympathy. As the example, when Angelina, a high school student, saying with grievance that she was asked to vomit and take a hamburger because she was small and people thought that she had anorexia, which forced her to eat a lot to prove to them that she didn't have eating disorder, and Alexis, another high school girl, saying that she had to straight her hair to fit in with the others, while she could not do with curly hair, the film presents the audience with a regrettable fact that the girls in this society are under great pressure because of the misrepresentation of females conveyed by the media. Besides, the video clips of some movies and advertisements also present that the value in the media degraded women and objectified
The documentary, “Miss Representation,” is a film about how women are perceived in the media. It is written, directed, and produced by Jennifer Siebel Newsom. She is an actress and a film maker who advocates for women. In the beginning of the documentary, Newsom discusses her struggles as a young woman surrounded by the pressures of looking a certain way. This film is targeting mainly women of all age that has experienced her struggles. Jennifer Siebel Newsom effectively convinces the audience of “Miss Representation” that the media has molded women in a negative way through statistics, celebrities’ and younger generation’s testimonies, and clips from the media.
The movie Shock Doctrine revolves around the concept of the same name. The film begins by discussing psychological research on the effects of shock therapy. It is evident that a person under extreme stress and anxiety commonly experienced during a crisis functions and performs inadequately. It is noted that the studies are conducted by a man by the name of Milton Friedman, from the University of Chicago; the studies took place in the past, and some of the subjects are still recovering in the aftermath. From this research, interrogation techniques were learned and the concept of the shock doctrine was formed. Essentially through causing a crisis, the population of a country can be shocked into complying with accepting laws that favors the United States and capitalism. This theory coexists with Friedman’s belief in that government regulation is bad, and through a crisis a country would better itself with deregulation. The video uses Chile as an example and shows how America allowed a crisis to occur in Chile, through coups, interrogations and subterfuge. In the end a new government is formed that allows capitalism. Unfortunately afterwards violence and riots occur, as the rich gain most of the wealth and poverty rises. In addition to Chile, Argentina, Russia and even Iraq underwent the shock doctrine. Almost in every account, poverty rises and violence ends up erupting. The movie ends by showing how the US was in the process of the shock doctrine, and still is but the population has taken notice. Protests such as Occupy Wall Street are some of the initiatives necessary to bring awareness to the problems of class inequalities in order to prevent capitalism from benefitting the rich and increasing the wealth gap among the classes.
The case is made that woman are more noticed by men when they have the big butts and fake hair. The female actors in the movie do not make much attempt to discredit this accusation, furthermore accepting the rhetoric that all males like the fake girls they see in the magazine and that’s the reason all women do this. This is a seamless example of how popular culture has continued to view woman and how woman continue to fall victim to the stereotypes of popular culture. During the exchange of ideas about the female stereotypes there are references made about famous Hollywood elites such as Beyoncé which places more light on the fact that popular culture plays a huge role in female
Miss Representation, a documentary film produced by Jennifer Siebel Newsom released in 2011, presents a contemporary issue which is the misrepresentation of women’s portrayal in mass media. The media is powerful in shaping audience’s belief in how to be feminine. Women are expected to be beautiful, attractive, and even sexual on the media to attract audience’s attention. Also, the film points out the existence of social system in which men are considered more powerful and dominant than women. Finally, the film tries to increase the awareness of female real value including capability, educational achievement, and leadership. Consuming the media wisely to eliminate gendered stereotypes can help young women build their confidence and be successful.
The title Miss Representation emphasizes that the way we portray women in the media is a
In the documentary “Fed Up,” sugar is responsible for Americas rising obesity rate, which is happening even with the great stress that is set on exercise and portion control for those who are overweight. Fed Up is a film directed by Stephanie Soechtig, with Executive Producers Katie Couric and Laurie David. The filmmaker’s intent is mainly to inform people of the dangers of too much sugar, but it also talks about the fat’s in our diets and the food corporation shadiness. The filmmaker wants to educate the country on the effects of a poor diet and to open eyes to the obesity catastrophe in the United States. The main debate used is that sugar is the direct matter of obesity. Overall, I don’t believe the filmmaker’s debate was successful.
Miss Representation is a documentary based on women in the media and how the media has affected women today. “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” This quote is from Alice Walker, a female, who realized that they e...
Hidden Figures is a movie based on the true story of three pioneering African American women whose calculations for NASA were helpful to several historic space missions, including John Glenn’s successful orbit of the Earth. The Movie was set in 1960, where a lot of historical events were happening, such as the Space race between two initial rivals of the Cold War (The United States, and Russia). Also, Women and African-Americans were discriminated Against during the 60’s, but that did not stop Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughan from advancing and accomplishing what they accomplished. After all they did not only help themselves advance, they helped America advance. Hidden Figures was a very accurate film of how it was in the 1960 and how these three women went with their intelligence rather than their ego.
I chose these four journal writings because I believe they are the strongest pieces I have written from the second half of the semester. The main focus of these journals was based on readings under the women as objects topic. The oppression of women has led to females being objectified and used as gratification for men. A woman’s body and appearance have become a commodity, especially in the media. Films, television shows, music and advertisements use women’s bodies to attract their audience and sell products. The movie watched in class “Killing Us Softly 4,” highlights this fact while presenting how women are represented throughout the media. The media has set and perpetuated a particular standard of beauty that is restrictive, but for some many women completely unattainable. The women represented in the media are young, thin and have western or European characteristics. Where does that leave the majority of women that do not fall under this category? This leads to women developing eating disorders to achieve an ideal body image that is manufactured through Photoshop and other picture editing systems. Women of color, women with disabilities or any woman that does not follow this standard is not represented within the media. When a few women do break this mold and become famous, they are set at a different standard. These women’s differences become the highlighted feature of their fame. However, the one constant in the media when it comes to women is the objectification and sexualization of women. This sexualization can lead to aggression or violence against women and the perpetuation of rape culture. The images viewed in the media directly impact how women view themselves and how others view women. By examining the issues women f...
Women who did not feel as if their representation in film was just, rejected film entirely. This brings about the feeling of exclusion for women of the
Also, the film revealed women empowerment and how superior they can be compared to men. While demonstrating sexual objectification, empowerment, there was also sexual exploitation of the women, shown through the film. Throughout this essay, gender based issues that were associated with the film character will be demonstrated while connecting to the real world and popular culture.
The film Missrepresentation, by Jennifer Newsom, is about the underrepresentation of women by the media (2011). The film challenges the viewpoints of media that are constantly depicting females as to being dependent on males. Furthermore, even when females are displayed as lead characters, the plot will ensure that their life’s will surround the life of a male. Examples of these include, a lead female falling in love with her “prince charming” as he saved her from great dangers. We rarely see a female character saving a male in the media (2011). According to the film the media continues to encourage the ideology that a women’s power is associated with her youth, beauty and sexuality, instead of her knowledge and intelligence (2011). The film also provides starling statistics, for instance by the age to 18 78% of females are unhappy with how the look. Also of the 8 million people with eating disord...
Feminism is a movement that supports women equality within society. In relation to film, feminism is what pushes the equal representation of females in mainstream films. Laura Mulvey is a feminist theorist that is famous for touching on this particular issue of how men and women are represented in movies. Through her studies, she discovered that many films were portraying men and women very differently from reality. She came up with a theory that best described why there is such as huge misrepresentation of the social status quos of male and female characters. She believed that mainstream film is used to maintain the status quo and prevent the realization of gender equality. This is why films are continuously following the old tradition that males are dominant and females are submissive. This is the ideology that is always present when we watch a movie. This is evident in the films from the past but also currently. It is as if the film industry is still catering to the male viewers of each generation in the same way. Laura Mulvey points out that women are constantly being seen as sexual objects, whether it is the outfits they wear or do not wear or the way they behave, or secondary characters with no symbolic cause. She states that, “in traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote it-be-looked-at-ness.”(Mulvey pg. 715). Thus, women are nevertheless displayed as nothing more than passive objects for the viewing pleasure of the audience. Mulvey also points out through her research that in every mainstream movie, there is ...
An empowering tool today, both to promote feminism and give a voice to women, are media outlets, especially the arts such as literature and cinema. These can be used to educate or raise awareness discreetly, without a political
It could be representation in terms of interpretation of women, reporting of women’s issues, empowerment in the place of work and the existence of women in important reported issues. When we talk of portrayal of women, we refer to the extent to which media describe women (Govender, 2010:11). The stereotypical perceptions are able in our society and issues of masculinity and femininity are created by our society. According to Trans Media International- TMI (2009), representation refers to the creation in any medium, especially the mass media aspects of reality such as people, events and cultural identities etc.