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Sexual Objectification of Women in the Media
Sexual objectification, or “the process of representing or treating a person like a sex object, one that serves another’s sexual pleasure (Heldman, 2013),” overtime has become extremely exaggerated. In addition, sexual objectification of women in the media has resulted in several impairments in psychological and social functioning, which is harmful to both men and women in today’s society. Due to globalization, females that have availability to Western media are affected by the negative portrayals of women in the media and advertisements everyday. Furthermore, sexual objectification of women also negatively influences males, considering that they, too, are socialized to objectify women, which affects their ability to make a healthy connection between a standard woman and the ideal woman that is misrepresented by the media.
In the article, “Seeing Women as Objects: The Sexual Body Part Recognition Bias,” the authors, Gervais et al. (2012), affirm findings from a research study in regards to how the majority of individuals perceive images of men and women. The study also indicates that both global and local cognitive processes are associated to our physical perceptions of men and women. Per the research article, individuals depend more on global cognitive processing, or perceiving one as a whole, while presented with images of males. However, individuals depend more on local cognitive processing (the processing we use to identify objects, such as, houses and cars), or perceiving one as a cluster of its assorted portions, while presented with images of females.
Furthermore, the authors tested and were also able to confirm “the sexual body part cognition bias hypothesis that women’s (ve...
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...its way into our society’s music, morals, and values.
In conclusion, breaking the cycle of objectification is extremely important because human connection, which is threatened by the false reality that is being created by sexual objectification, is vital to our existence. Although some individuals have become numb to objectification, some are still subconsciously consuming it. The topic of objectification of women in the media has severe side effects, especially to women, such as, depression, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, decreased self-esteem, and other physiological and psychological illnesses. Hence, intervening in this social issue through educating our youth and redefining what “beautiful” and “sexy” means will not only help end the sexual objectification of women in the media, but also other social issues, such as, the toleration of rape culture.
In recent years, sociologists, psychologists, and medical experts have gone to great lengths about the growing problem of body image. This literature review examines the sociological impact of media-induced body image on women, specifically women under the age of 18. Although most individuals make light of the ideal body image most will agree that today’s pop-culture is inherently hurting the youth by representing false images and unhealthy habits. The paper compares the media-induced ideal body image with significant role models of today’s youth and the surrounding historical icons of pop-culture while exploring various sociological perspectives surrounding this issue.
The documentary Miss Representation identifies the numerous ways women are misrepresented in the media, including in news, advertisements, movies, and television. The title Miss Representation emphasizes that the way we portray women in the media is a misrepresentation, as in it does not do women justice and oftentimes, has a negative impact on the perception of women. Frequently in the media, women lack leading roles and complexity, are held to an unrealistic standard of beauty, and are subject to objectification and beautification (Newsom, 2011). These misrepresentations lay the groundwork for gender socialization, and therefore, shape how women perceive themselves and are perceived by others.
Topics which relate to the subjects in the article can be found in chapter 5 of textbook Social Psychology, Second Canadian Edition (Kassin, Fein, Markus & Burke, 2013). This chapter contains information on ambivalent sexism and effects on media on gender. These topics help to gain an advanced understanding on the effects of hypersexualizing or of objectifying the female body
The media is a fascinating tool; it can deliver entertainment, self-help, intellectual knowledge, information, and a variety of other positive influences; however, despite its advances for the good of our society is has a particular blemish in its physique that targets young women. This blemish is seen in the unrealistic body images that it presents, and the inconsiderate method of delivery that forces its audience into interest and attendance. Women are bombarded with messages from every media source to change their bodies, buy specific products and redefine their opinion of beauty to the point where it becomes not only a psychological disease, but a physical one as well.
While they rarely admit as much, the main stream media often takes for granted the power they possess to shape our society. The advent of the internet has granted the media unfettered access to our children and young people. The images of women are more and more often extremely sexual in nature. This has created an environment where women have no value beyond appearance. In the documentary “Miss Representation” Dr. Kilbourne informs us, ‘Girls get the message from very early on that what's most important is how they look, that their value, their worth, depends on that. Boys get the message that this is what's important about girls.’ This is the frightening reality of how our young people are being taught to view the world. Considering, how much information is at our disposal, a controversial issue has been continually overlooked, the devaluation of women.
Dickerson, Rachel. “America Objectified: An Analysis of the Self-Objectification of Women in America and Some Detrimental Effects of Media Images.” Stanislaus State University. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Sexualization of women is taught to the public from an early age through the media. This is not a new phenomena, however. As Roberts and Zurbriggen (2012) address, the problem exponentially compounds over time, as evolving mass communication technology creates more opportunities for the press to teach sexualization. New technology is not entirely negative though, as it allows the public to more easily engage in discussions regarding the expression of
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...
Objectification theory has been proposed as a standard for understanding the effects of living in a culture that sexually objectifies women (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). Objectification occurs when a person’s body is treated like a separate entity and is evaluated on its own merit, without consideration for the rest of the person. When an individual is sexually objectified, they are treated like an object that exists only for the pleasure of others and objectification theory asserts that women are uniquely subject to these types of experiences, especially in Western culture. Self-objectification (SO) leads the individual to create a third person perspective in their minds that they use to compare their physical selves to and in turn causes them to see themselves as an object instead of a whole person. SO also creates a form of self-consciousness, causing a habitual and vigilant self-monitoring of outward appearance.
A common trend in the entertainment industry today is the objectification of women in society. Sexualizing women are seen in media such as; movies, advertisement, television show and music video, where their main focus is providing the audience with an image of women as sexual objects rather than a human. This is detrimental to society since the media is producing social stereotypes for both genders, which can further result in corrupted social habits. Objectification in media are more focused on females than male, these false images of women leave individuals with the wrong idea of the opposite sex. As media continuously use sexual contents regarding women, the audience starts underestimating women. Specifically movies, it allows media to shape the culture’s idea of romance, sex and what seems
(Cohan, 2012 p3). In popular culture for example there has been a rise of sexualised images of men in advertisement (Rohlinger. 2002, p61). In the trailer of Fifty Shades of Darker for instance the camera focused on Christian Grey’s body in proportion to the plot. The image of the male body has been designed in way which appeals to women as well as men, men aspire to have the body as it is represented as coming with a certain lifestyle, particularly in because Fifty Shades of Darker the movie shows his lavish lifestyle as well as representing him as a successful entrepreneur. One could deduce therefore, that in popular culture the physical presentation of the body empathises power and control.
My exploration has educated others on the effect media has on women by focusing in on the exploitative images of women. Women in media are more attractive than males, shows more nudity, and wears sexy clothing “These sexualization findings are troubling for two reasons. Theory suggests and research supports that exposure to objectifying content may contribute to and/or reinforce negative effects such as self objectification, body shame, and/or appearance anxiety among some female viewers.15 The results also suggest that with a higher prevalence of females on screen a higher incidence of sexualization follows”(Smith 2016). Women are exposed to so many mainstream images
You can see in the media in almost all occasions women being sexualized. From beer to burger commercials women in the media are portrayed as sexual beings. If they are thin and meet society’s standards of beautiful they are considered marketable. Over the...
Human beings have been, and always will be, dichotomized into either male or female. When determining a person’s sex we often look for differences in facial features, body shape or mannerism’s, but another promising way to determine a persons sex and one that is most often used today, is through gender roles. Gender roles are behaviors that portray masculinity or femininity. The theory behind gender roles through multidisciplinary viewpoints is the focus of this paper. Throughout history and in every culture these roles have shifted and transformed into what society says is expectable. In this analysis, gender roles will be examined through a sociological, biological and evolutionary scope.
One constant lies within American popular culture: sexuality. Nearly all media outlets contain the sexuality in one form or another. Sometimes it’s explicitly conveyed, whereas other times it’s just casual. In particular, within the media, the objectification of women has become an increasing issue and has resulted in many controversies. This objectification is not exclusively towards women, but women are often expected to convey their sexuality in popular media in very particular ways.