Role Models Not Supermodels

As girls grow into their teenage years, the media continues to play a significant role in their development.The role sexism plays in young girls lives affects them in many ways. When sexism is mentioned, which gender comes to mind first? Society seems to have attached the sexism issue on females exclusively.The topic of sexism occurs in indirect and direct ways in all types of media. Sexual discrimination will continue to exist l if nobody attempts to end it. Sexism leads to downgrading women and men’s capability. Insecurities and violence are a leading result of sexism. Sexism continues to exist as evidenced by advertisements, social media, and in relationships.

Media: Now-a-days right from children to elders, all are greatly persuaded by each and every kind of media. Especially, they are easily influenced by television, mobile, computer and internet allowing them to imbibe all that is shown without segregating as good and

Teenage girls are at an impressionable time in their lives. Mass Media is a key idea in one of the factors of socialization that become important to teenagers. Teenagers look to the media for a sense of entertainment. Whether it is movies, magazines, or even some aspects of social media, teenagers get a lot of influence from the media’s message. The problem with this is the media has a specific way of doing things and can be negative to a susceptible teenage girl. Media’s way of portraying a woman can be skewed and unrealistic way from what reality is. Teenage girls then have a desire for this look or way. In this essay the three ways I will describe as to why the media can negatively affect a teenage girls body image is by showing

The documentary Miss Representation shines a light on the overwhelming impact the male dominated media has on the development of females. Women cannot grow up emotionally happy in our culture due to the overwhelming pressure they are given. As girls grow up and become women they are constantly being judged by those around them and are given a high standard compared to their male counterparts because of the media. Being strong, smart, and accomplished isn’t important as being beautiful and skinny. Today in America you are seen physically and not intellectually. With the media portrayal of women as sexual objects has come with severe consequences. According to the video fifty-three percent of 13-year-old girls are unhappy with their bodies

The sexualization of young girls and women in society is a prevalent theme in mass media. Presently, the sexualization of females is commonly seen in various consumer items like clothes, dolls, and even in Disney movies, according to “The Sexualization of Girls Is Harmful” article. The author says that sexualization occurs when “a person’s value comes only from his or her sexual appeal or behavior; a person is held to a standard that equates physical attractiveness with being sexy; a person is sexually objectified- made into a thing for others’ sexual use; and sexuality is inappropriately imposed upon a person (AboutKidsHealth).” Furthermore, the author provides statistics on how girls are being sexualized by the products they see and use

Media in regards to tv social media, news broadcasts, magazines, and all other forms in which are presented on a widespread coverage to society. The documentary explains how from an early age girls get the message that their value, their worth, and their potential for success depends on their looks. On the flipside boys are getting the message from an early age that looks and how a girl dresses is what important. They bring up the idea of how when one considers the “ideal women” their capacity of education, knowledge, life experiences, strength, and who they are as a person are often left out. The ideal women is typical in regards to her looks alone in regards to weight, height, hair color, skin color, and the way in which she dresses”. As mainstream media grows larger and wider, girls are becoming increasingly self-conscious at younger and younger ages and the shelter in which we try to protect young children is become harder to maintain. A group of young high school women were interviewed about the challenges they have faced as a result of mainstream media and their peers and the results were shocking. Every flaw one could bring up from being told they were ‘too skinny’. 'too fat’, their natural hair was ‘too nappy’, their skin was ‘too pale and so forth’. Society is teaching women all the things that are wrong with themselves and not paying any attention to how it is effecting women of this generation and already playing such a

With the invention of the printing press, during the middle ages, media has become the driving force of our society. With the printing press, books and newspapers became readily available to the common folk. Although, many people were not able to read Latin during the time, the printing press soon paved the way to translated version of texts into common language. This was a huge factor in the enlightenment period, where people moved away from the church and began to use science in their lives. Today the media has grown to such an extent that it controls almost every aspect our lives.

These sexualized ads can provide a constant reminder for these young girls on what they ‘should’ look like. This image that is placed in a young girl’s head can leave lasting impressions on self-esteem. These self-esteem issues are becoming more widespread due to the reach of the ads targeting them. Since most American families have access to TV and the internet, this sexual content is constantly pushed towards them often without them even realizing. Along with the hyper-sexualization, the ads can also give these young girls examples of body types that may be physically unobtainable for

The portrayal of women in the media is destroying positive body image in young girls. According to Sarah Grogan, body image is “a person’s perceptions, thoughts and feelings about his or her body”. The media sends the message, from very early on, that what is most important is the way women look to the heterosexual male gaze, and that their value and their worth depends on that. It is easy to understand that the media perpetuates an unattainable beauty standard, but what is more difficult is realising how that affects our adolescents.

(Heubeck 2006) For many young people, especially girls, the ideal continues to chase them as they grow into young women. Young girls begin to internalize the stereotypes and judge themselves by media’s impossible standards. The power that the media holds in impacting the lives of young girls is detrimental and eventually affects their body image, their satisfaction of their own body, and portrayal of their body as an object.

Today’s society demands that the media plays an active part. With the invention of the smart phone and internet, people have ready access to

In “Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect,” Stephanie Hanes argues that the portrayal of women in media has proliferated the premature sexualization of young women. The author analyzes the effect of media’s portrayal of women on young girls to raise awareness about over-sexualization and to hopefully convince parents of young women to pay attention to not only the media that their daughters consume but the media they consume as well. Hanes uses various rhetorical strategies to legitimize her argument and address the corruption of girlhood caused by the relentless coverage of sexuality in media.

Sexualization in girls is sadly alive and well, especially when it comes to the influence of pop culture on a young child’s confidence. The reason pop culture is so effective in the line of manipulating a young woman’s mind negatively is the media and all that it portrays. In general, the media can wreak havoc on a young woman’s self-esteem by showing overly processed, and photo shopped women on the cover of magazines and social media.

On all platforms of media, women and even young girls are oversexualized; thus leading to men viewing women as no more than breasts, vaginas, legs, or any other body part they prefer. Even in current television shows, movies, comic books, and advertisements, women are still depicted as sexual objects, which can damage a woman’s confidence. The oversexualization of women 's bodies can degrade a young woman’s confidence, and when girls try to boost confidence by dressing or acting like the women they see in the media, they are reprimanded for it. Girls cannot be blamed for their sexualization; they are just emulating what they see in the media.

Media has become a powerful source of knowledge, and a great breakthrough in human history. Who can regret that media is a daily need in our lives. Media has the ability and control to adjust to all levels of knowledge in people. Media helps us to escape from our daily lives and our problems in times of stress. Thou Media as proved to be beneficial by educating, entertaining and informing us, it has also have its downfall, to cause many bad influences to the younger audience. Media has influenced us to conduct bad behavior, breed violence among teens and fear to the public, thus causing a lot of negative conflicts among ourselves. Television, Music, Internet, and more, are just some of the media exposure that needs to be censored and