Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Consequences of gender stereotypes in mass media
How magazines portray the role of women in society
Consequences of gender stereotypes in mass media
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Consequences of gender stereotypes in mass media
The Positive Role of Magazine Images
Most controversy over magazines is about the images they portray. According to the writers, Amy Malkin, Kimberlie Wornian, and Joan Chrisler, "Women and Weight: Gendered Messages on Magazines Covers," women's magazines insist on dieting, exercise, and cosmetic surgery to achieve the ideal body. This is in no way true. Yes, magazines show pictures of beautiful women and have articles that relate to dieting, exercise and surgery. However, magazines have no other purpose than to inform. Also, magazines do not cause women to feel inadequate; they are useful tools in which women can find informative articles on the issues at hand.
America has become a society of relatively sedentary people that do not exercise or worry about their health. Magazines that show pictures of healthy models are simply saying that women can achieve this look if they practice healthy and beneficial lifestyles. The opposition might argue that magazine covers, and articles, force women to feel inadequate an in turn they diet, exercise, and use cosmetic surgery in an attempt to enhance their looks. The issues on dieting stem from women being health conscious rather than, being self-conscious. Articles on dieting and exercise give information on ways to help improve health and to still maintain active family and business lives, and because it is only suggestive information it is not harmful to ones self image. Cosmetic surgery is an approach that both men and women consider to improve their self-image. Articles that discuss information on these procedures are not only informative, but necessary. For instance, those that are uninformed settle for cheap renditions of surgery and are left scarred and mutilated. ...
... middle of paper ...
...my Malkin, Kimbrlie Wornian, and Joan Chrisler, argues that women magazines more than men magazines makes the individual feel inadequate due to the appearance of articles relating to diet, exercise, and cosmetic surgery. Conversely, today's women are health conscious and are looking for ways to balance their health, beauty, and their everyday lives. In conclusion magazines just simply play the role of giving the individual the option of being informed. Also, magazines that appeal to men do not always appeal to women and that is why content differs.
Work Cited
Malkin, Amy R., Kimberlie Wornian, and Joan Chrisler. "Women and Weight: Gendered Messages on Magazine Covers." Sex Roles: A Journal of Research. Plenum Publishing Co. Rpt. in Writing Arguments. 5thed. Eds. John D. Ramage, John C. Bean, and June Johnson. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2001. 514-21.
Wykes, Maggie, and Barrie Gunter. The Media and Body Image: If Looks Could Kill. London: SAGE, 2005. Print.
The 2004 movie, Crash, involves stories about Caucasians, African Americans, Koreans, Iranians, Hispanics, rich, poor, criminals, cops, powerless, and powerful, and the actions and effects of racism. Funny thing is, all the characters are both victims and guilty of racism. These feelings of resentment and prejudice causes the characters to “crash” against each other, and the consequences are observed all throughout the movie. In the beginning, a black male, who is a detective, talks about how people need to “crash” into each other in Los Angeles to feel the sense of touch from people. The first scene involves Ria, a Latina woman, who gets hit from behind in a car accident, by an Asian woman. Both of them blame and makes racial
Throughout this class, we learned that leadership can be defined in many ways by different authors. The definitions depend on many things and different variables. One way of we can attempt to define is through characteristics of the leader, the followers, and the situation (Yukl, 2013). Yukl, 2013 defines leadership as being “the process of influencing others to understand and agree about what needs to be done and how to do it, and the process of facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives” (Yukl, 2013 p.7). The character of the leader influences situations and followers in different ways. The characteristics of the followers also call for a different type of leadership style
Fashion and lifestyle magazines are also large contributors to the self-destruction of women. Magazines, such as lifestyle, are intentionally aimed to give people an idea of how they’re supposed to live their life: hence the name “lifestyle magazine.” We are told how we should dress, where we should eat and the kinds of people we should associate with. We’re constantly reading about the amount people drink, smoke, take drugs, have affairs, and party, which doesn’t seem to affect people the way it should because in their opinion, they’re not doing anything wrong if everyone else is doing it as well.
...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.
According to Beverly Ballaro, the combination of two trends, the technology-enabled media saturation of the American public, and the promotion by this media of highly unattainable body types, is largely responsible for an epidemic of body image pathologies afflicting American girls and women, as well as an increasing number of boys and men. She also mentions that the media has given certain images for each gender. Generally, for females the body image is extremely thin, and there is an emphasis on large breasts and for males, tall, slender, muscular and toned. For both genders, the most valued and appreciated appearance i...
As a teenager I was addicted to seventeen magazine. I always had to see who the new ‘it" girl was and how I could look like her. While I didn't know it at the time, this magazine lowered my self-esteem. I would look at all these beautiful women like Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato and try my hardest to achieve their look, but that's impossible. Selena Gomez doesn't even look like the Selena Gomez in seventeen magazine. That's the problem this these magazines. They
The media can impact people’s lives in many ways, whether it’s fashion, movies, literature, or hobbies. One of the impacts is how women view their bodies. Movie stars and models feel pressured to catch attention and to look good in order to have a good career in their respective field. People tend to judge how someone looks based on their body composition. The result of this “judgment” is that Hollywood is getting skinny. Since models and actresses serve as role models for people, people tend to want to look like them. The result of this seemingly harmless model of behavior is in an increase in eating disorders.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. In our society today, people would rather see what celebrities are up to than what is going on with our health plan. Watching the news makes us aware of the latest trend, new gadget, who’s in rehab, or who has an eating disorder. In the eyes of society, women like Eva Longoria, Kim Kardashian, and Megan Fox are the epitome of perfection. What girl wouldn’t want to look like them? Unfortunately, this includes most of the girls in the US. Through TV shows, commercials, magazines or any form of advertising, the media enforces a certain body type which women emulate. The media has created a puissant social system where everyone must obtain a thin waist and large breasts. As a society, we are so image obsessed with the approval of being thin and disapproval of being overweight, that it is affecting the health of most women. Women much rather try to fit the social acceptance of being thin by focusing on unrealistic body images which causes them to have lower self esteem and are more likely to fall prey to eating disorders, The media has a dangerous influence on the women’s health in the United States.
Conventional women’s magazines including fitness magazines have traditionally fallen short of providing empowering images of women in articles and advertisements. In the 1980s, fitness magazines catering to females were launched for fitness oriented women (Hardin et al 105). Magazines that were targeted at women’s fitness were analyzed regarding how they portray women in not only articles but advertisements as well. Oxygen, Self and Shape are all fitness magazines that provide articles and images of women regarding fitness and health. All three mainly depicted Caucasian women as having the perfect body consisting of being fit, muscular and healthy. However, in achieving these characteristics the magazines are depicting these individuals as sexual objects making them wear minimal clothing and are proving unrealistic goals that are unattainable by majority of the women. According to Flegal et al the prevalence of obesity amongst women in 2007-2008 was 35.5% compared to men who were at 32.2% (235). This indicates that there is a need for women to become more active in order to sustain healthy weight maintenance, however in doing so they are portraying women in a more negative than positive manner. Women in fitness magazines are depicted as having a healthy weight and being the perfect individual but, their images in articles and advertisements are depicting them as being sexual objects mainly to the benefit of men.
Unlike roman type, italic type is set at an angle, and is generally slanting to the right from bottom to top. Italics isn’t a standard typeface and are specifically developed for a font which means that letters may be significantly different from its roman counterpart in order to improve its appearance and readability. Italics are not to be confused with oblique type, which is the roman type, slanted at an angle without altering the font.
Advertising is one of the world’s oldest industries and most effective industries. Advertising shows consumers what they want by using clever deception and nifty tricks. These ploys leave everyday people running to the store to pick up the latest and trendiest products. Advertisements work in part because marketers spend millions (possibly beyond millions) of dollars researching the population to find a clientele. This research helps find a target audience, aka demographic. This allows marketers to create an advertisement that caters to its demographic and sells their product. A company who embodies effective advertisements is Nike. Many people have the Nike logo and slogan engrained in their head. Nike is a company that
The magazine I have chosen for analysis is an issue of Men’s Magazine for March 2010. The magazine conveys health tips and suggestions on one cover and on the other cover has tips for men’s style. 33 pages of the magazine cover style and 136 pages cover health, sex, relationships, fitness, and nutrition with about half the magazine having advertisements for a variety of products including cars, cologne, clothes, alcohol, and healthy foods. The audience that Men’s Health portrays to is straight men above 18 years old who can afford to purchase the products advertised and have enough free time to try the health and fitness tips given. The purpose of Men’s Health is to be a well rounded men’s magazine that covers what most women’s magazines are expected to cover like health, relationships, sex, and lifestyle. Men’s Health may be the best of the men’s magazines but it still has some hidden complexities including sexism and bias.
Rost, Joseph C., Leadership for the Twenty-First Century, pp. 107-109, reprinted with permission of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc., Westport, CT. Copyright 1991 by Joseph C. Rost.
Why do girls strive to be what they see in fashion magazines? Magazines send unhealthy signals towards young females by using money, bodies and clothes. In America, magazines send bad signals because it drops young girls self confidence.