Perception of Women in the Media

Throughout today’s society, media contributes to almost everyone’s daily life. From informative news channels to comical television shows, media proves to be effective in advertisement, releasing messages and informing the audience. Although media proves to be wildly effective in advertising, releasing messages and informing the audience, periodically destructive and misleading messages are provided to the audience and directly influencing women. Cultural critics widely agree that media tends to negatively influence women and all the critics point to research which supports the belief that women are portrayed as subordinate to men, having no

I really enjoyed watching the documentary, Miss Representation. It was very informative and eye opening. The film explores the impact that the media has on society and the misrepresentation of women. While the media can be a place to learn and stay up to date, there is also an ugly side to it. Our generation spends a huge amount of our time on our phones, computers, and watching tv so I feel like we are affected by the media the most. The media influences people at a young age impacting their views on themselves and the world around them. Girls especially get the message that their value is on how they look. The way media portrays women in movies and television over sexualizes women and dehumanizes them. This type of media can lead women to

Ultimately, Buzzfeed, along with some other alternative media outlets, discovered that the show’s producers had met these women before they went on camera; this whole program was staged. In fact, the producers paid the husband of one of these women to pose as her pimp and walk around the hotel in a menacing manner. In the end, these women decided to expose this charade because they felt that they had been exploited -- not by some pimps, but at the hands of the show’s producers! These women weren’t granted the basic courtesy of having their faces blurred out and that subsequently led to a first time prostitution arrest for one of the cast members. Due to the negative publicity surrounding the show, “8 Minutes” was cancelled after a few episodes.

Many of the things that we see in the media whether it’s seen in a song, a television commercial, a magazines, or a print advertisement we see that women are always portrayed in a negative stereotypical way. In almost everything that we see there is more women than men. Women are seen as sex objects that are only useful to serve and cater to men. We are also viewed as victims who are not supposed to protect ourselves and our duties are to play a female role such as cooking and cleaning. Now when men are seen in the media, they are viewed as being independent, strong, and aggressive they are taught to not have emotional attachments.

Every day, millions of Americans view the front covers of magazines like Vogue, Cosmopolitan, and more. They see them while at grocery stores, on the television, and even in the waiting room at a doctor's office. The media offer advertisements with models that are seemingly slim with perfect skin, hair, and teeth. American propaganda leaves most young, adolescent girls between the ages of 5-18 to consider that the complexity of beauty is strict to be thin and perfect, though it is targeted to young adolescents, it does aim towards older female and male age ranges as well. An article states, “While the media attempt to target every person, the level of exposure is dictated by gender, and the majority of harmful messages is focused more toward women. For instance, in media such as magazines where a person relies on an image to relate a feeling, girls are often made to look inferior” (Chapman). When it comes to the media, specifically in the American culture, the popularity has massively increased over the years, turning to new weekly issues, becoming common to the society and civilization. This causes issues associated with eating disorders, depression and suicide, and self-esteem/confidence young girls.

Theme on media of many influences on how we view men and women, media are the

Media, one of the most influential reflections of culture, under represents women and displays them in stereotypical positions. Paula Lobo and Rosa Cabecinhas, Professors of Communication at University of Minho, highlight sex-discrimination within the media in

media within today’s society. That society is given false and misleading accounts of women and

Gender and the Media by Rosalind Gill addresses gender stereotypes that are brought onto women and men through the media resulting in objectification and subjectification. Gill discusses how the representation of gender is altered as a result of the media in Western societies. Gender and the Media is aimed to address the rapid transmission of media and how those changes affect the construction of feminine and masculine gender roles in society. Gill uses her interest in the contradictions of gender construction by society, to analyze gender and the media. Using feminism as a backbone for her research, Gill and many commentators support the idea that feminist ideas are common and may even affect the media. Gender and the Media addresses multiple forms of media: postfeminism in advertising, gender in the news and journalism, and gender in magazines. Gild aims to address the construction of gender representations, elements for gender analysis, and feminist culture with Gender and the Media.

Media is one the most influential and powerful things we have today. Media is use a source of entertainment and even more important as a source of information. For most us media is a constant presence in our lives. Media power is so big that it can influence the way that we behave the way that we think, and that is when media can become extremely problematic. The way the media portrays women can be extremely damaging psychological and the physical well being of women.

Miss Representation conveys that media is derogative to the most powerful women in the United States. People learn more from the media than any other source because it is the message and messenger. Americans devote about 10 hours and 39 minutes daily to consuming media (Howard). The media’s misrepresentation of women in movies, television shows, and advertisements negatively shapes politics, our national discourse, children’s inquisitive minds, and ultimately society. The danger behind these stereotyped images of women is that their effect is subconscious, meaning we slowly become accustomed to a sexist portrayal of women without even immediately realizing it. To cease our unrealistic, prejudiced expectations of women, a culture change is necessary.

The misrepresentation of women in the media has been at its highest. Reality shows such as Love and Hip Hop, have degraded and exploited women where they are only seen as objects who compete over men. They are not able to have a identity that is positive. I wanted to create a platform where you can see the true side of women. Having them tell their stories and accomplishments. Where they are seen past their physical features and given a voice. The issues discussed through the interviews are also expressed through my poetry. As women they are taking their identities back and showing who they really are, regardless of how they are depicted through the media.

In delivering the key message of widespread misrepresentation of women in the media, cutting together a range of cultural evidence taken from music videos, celebrity magazines, news reports and written articles was an effective strategy. Also important was the use of editing within interviews to underline the points being made. This was deployed on various occasions where interviewees would make a statement about general maltreatment of women in culture before it being reinforced by cuts to various forms of negative media representation of women. !

This chapter ties in with the film as they both agree that mass media undermines and misrepresents women and has deleterious effects for all. The only platforms women are given in media are the motherly, homemakers or those seeking love or pursuing a romantic interest. The narrative media has portrayed of women is narrow-minded. Even when there are women who are in the political/leadership arena, they are criticized for their physical appearance first and their policies secondary. Women who do not fit into the straight, beautiful, young, White female trope, then their stories are not told or they are ridiculed. The stereotypes media illustrates are one-sided even though women are getting more involved in the professional world. Women do not have as much footing in the media industry as men do, there are few networks geared towards women. These networks cater to the negative stereotypes of women—that they are competitive, vain, catty, followers, domestic

The key research question of ‘Gender Roles in Media’ is to analyze gender roles to determine how women are represented in an array of media and how they are portrayed in a sexualized manner. The study was published in 2010 and 2011 by Rudy et al in two issues of Sex Roles. The research suggests that an increase in representing women in media can be worthy provided they bear in mind that the way women are depicted is positive in order to alleviate negative connotations. The research queries if media can affect the mindset of viewers in a negative or positive manner.