HOW DOES THE MEDIA REPRESENT WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES
The media represents women as objects, in the news, music and in many other forms of social media. This happen more and more through time, judging women and their weight and also the way they look . In the 1950s commercials portrayed a certain kind of ideal woman, who was manipulated by their husband. The perfect woman homemaker persona represented what women should do. Everyone was pointed as being a perfect housewife, and how they should please their husband.
Other impacts of the media was targeted to children and how beauty is all that matters.The women's rights movement first happen in the 1800’s making a path for women who wanted to stand up for themselves. Throughout the years the media has changed and for the worse. The media has used women as objects to sell products, they have used a woman's sexuality and the image that they create to affect the average looking women. Women have rights and so do the children, little girls and boys take the influence of the media into their lives, and the start of a solution is the restriction of the television and social media to children, and the better management of feminine images and portrayals throughout the media.
Women at one point could not vote, but brave women in 1848 started to take the first steps to equality. Women were looked at as the lesser sex and men enjoyed their power and did not want Women to be treated equally. Many women themselves thought that this was the way it was supposed to be and that education was just for men. In 1920 the 19th Amendment of the Constitution granted women the right to vote. These brave women fought for their rights and now it seems the United States has taken ten steps back.
Women's bodies have been always targeted in every way possible with judging their appearance and the media has only made it worse, but before the media women were preferred to not be skinny and have big bodies and embrace them because these women were looked to for bearing children. This image of women changed and is now staying constant women are expected to be thin and still be beautiful, but the media never suggests healthy.
As early as 1890 women have been used to advertise products, from that time until now women are objects just nice bodies that promote a product in order to have better sales. “Shortly after World War II, women’s magazines started to promote the new look of Christian Dior. The new look required women to have a thin waist. To achieve this look of having a thin waist woman needed corsets, girdles, and diets. In the 1940s the look that was accepted was that of large breasts and thinner waist and to get this look push up bras were used. In 1960 a model named Twiggy was introduced. Twiggy was one of the skinniest model at the time, and other models followed. Many models like Gillian Bobroff trying to keep up with this new trend the skinnier the better.She stated “"It was dreadful.... [Twiggy] started a trend, and you had to be just the same. I ... started killing myself, taking a million slimming pills. I never ate. I had bulimia. It was a nightmare, trying to keep up."And now are photoshopped and forced to diet uncontrollable and unhealthy sending the viewers at home the wrong message.
In the last 30 years all that the media shows is dieting, exercise and cosmetics to make women feel younger. When older women begain to age, this suddenly becomes wrong in this society and they feel the need to change their appearance. There are many more affects the women may have because of the media’s ideal woman, for example many diseases in girls and women, such as mental illnesses like depression and anxiety and eating disorders because women compare themselves to celebrities and models, who have themselves been photoshopped.
Teenagers are becoming anorexic and bulimic because they want to be thin like the models they see on runways. Average American teens starve to have the perfect body and do not care about their health. According to the South Carolina Department of Mental Health, “About one in every 200 women in America suffers from anorexia. Even more women suffer from bulimia “(www.mirror-mirror.org). In this culture beauty is highly valued, it’s believed to be the only thing that is important. “The average fashion model today is 5’10” or 5’11” and weighs 120 to 125 pounds. That means they have a body mass index of about 17.4. Anything under 18.5 is considered underweight and unhealthy, but this is the picture we are made to believe is beautiful.” (www.mirror-mirror.org).
According to teenink.com “It’s estimated that 8 million people in the United States have an eating disorder, and only 10-15% of them are male. Which leaves the 85- 90% of them to be female. And 80% of those females are under the age of 20.“ Many of these became worried about their weight at four to six years of age. 4 year old should not be judged but their weight.
It’s not all about media even toys such as Barbies influence children, these kids grow up wanting to be like Barbie. Barbie is a doll but to children it is a role model. This doll affects children by giving a false image of what they should look like when they grow up.“Barbie’s body was never designed to be realistic. She was designed for girls to easily dress and undress.” Mattel Culmone (Head director of Barbies design ) said in reference to the popular doll. The average girl from ages 3-11 owns at least ten Barbie dolls and spends hours playing with them and dressing them up. In the 1960’s Mattel created and launched a new Barbie named “The slumber Party Barbie” this new doll came with a scale set for 110 pounds and it included a book on how to lose weight, inside it read “Don’t eat”. Is this what three year old little girls need to hear from their role models?.
For children Disney princesses are their heroes and many want to be just like the princess they see in movies, many may not notice that more than half of the princess have a prince that comes and rescues them from the villain. In the mind of the child they think that a prince will come and rescue “them” when in fact they do not need a man to be happy. All of the Disney princess are thin with beautiful long hair, perfect eyes everything that the Disney princesses have is perfect. The week.com wrote an article about Merida of the movie Brave. In the movie brave Merida did not have a prince and the movie had nothing to do about having to wait for her prince to come and rescue her. Little girls looked up to Merida for her bravery and wanted to be strong and independent like she was. “Disney's redesign of the character tamed her unruly hair, expanded her breasts, shrank her waist, enlarged her eyes, plastered on makeup, pulled her (now-glittering) dress off her shoulders, and morphed her defiant posture into a come-hither pose.”. The success of this new animated movie did not stop Disney from taking apart this heroic image of the children and making it just like every other princess.
When these little girls grow up, the influence of the media changes into low self esteem and how they see themselves,they are not pretty enough, skinny enough or perfect enough. After media exposure they spend all their time trying to be like the people on tv but at what cost?. “Perfection” is something that can not be reach.
In the United States the media is very powerful because it influences our decision in almost everything. From who we vote for to who is the most beautiful Woman in the world. Sadly this is what happens in this country. Twenty percent of teens have had sex before the age of 14, not only is media influencing people but it is molding children through pre pressure to do things that affect them and their bodies. Female superheros should be consider strong or intimidating, but instead they are considered sexy. This is because our their outfits. This form of advertising is also for teen boys, that demand teens girl act, look and dress how like women in television do. “Magazines continue to portray the airbrushed goddesses young girls believe they should look like and are filled with little more than beauty and sex advice forcing teenager girls to play dual roles in society.”(http://www.eagleboysranch.com). According to a study films from 1990 to 2006 have 73% of characters that were male, this has not changed in 16 years. On television are fewer less women than men, and most women in movies have a storyline surrounding men and their affection.
Teenagers are the ones who have more problems because of the media and social media. As stated in everydaylife.globalpost.com “A landmark study published by the Rand Corporation in 2004 found that watching television shows with sexual content is associated with earlier teen engagement in sexual activity.” Sex is seen in all of the shows teenagers watch and much of everything 13 to 18 years old see in social media is sex. Teens themselves say that they learn about sex in the media.“Between 1998 and 2005, the number of sexual scenes on TV nearly doubled.” Sadly, “A study done by the RAND Corporation shows that teens are twice as likely to have sex or engage in sexual acts if they see similar sexual behavior in the media.”(.pamf.org)
In the website greatschools.org. “ In 2005, out of 68% of TV shows that showed steamy sexual content, only 15% discussed risk and responsibility”. Not only can the media affect tenagers but so can music videos “On average, music videos contain 93 sexual situations per hour, including 11 hard-core scenes depicting behavior like intercourse and oral sex.” Music videos of rappers or bands all have some sexual content. This is the music that young people listen to. These songs are degrading women making them an object, a thing you can easily get with money. They are also making the body of women seem as a prize. Men can be rich and successful but women can not. Teen girls are expose to the media and they began to think in order to get a man you need a pretty face and body. The media gives teen girl low self esteem and pressures girl to have sex in a early age.
The consequences of having sex are many, STDs are proven to be one of the worst.The media shows teens how to have sex and fails to teach how to protect themselves. Some STD’s can affect the life of young people and can even cause death.“15-to 24-year-olds account for nearly half of all STD diagnoses each year.”
The facts are there. The media targets women in a bad light, now what is the solution. What needs to be done. The way people parent is what could resolve this issue by. Teaching boys to respect women and teaching girls to love themselves more. The media will never change because there are people that like watching it and enjoy spending their money to make themselves the perfect ideal woman. All that can be done is to change yourself, and change the way we judge people especially women. Raising kids that will be the future of this country need to look at this differently.
Many young girls are being bullied because of their appearance and this is wrong. It need to stop. Instead of judging and making someone feel bad because they aren’t a superficial ideal beauty, parents should teach their children to love every person, and more importantly themselves. Women are seen as piggy banks to these million dollar companies that make profits from our insecurities. “The average teen girl gets about 180 minutes of media exposure daily and only about 10 minutes of parental interaction a day”
Schools need to start teaching Media literacy just like they teach sex education because, girls are being targeted and their self esteem is low. The media exploitation can affect them throughout their life with insecurities.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://theweek.com/article/index/244284/girls-on-film-the-real-problem-with-the-disney-princess-brand
http://depts.washington.edu/thmedia/news.cgi?section=bodyimage
https://sites.google.com/site/mediasportrayalonwomen/
http://www.mirror-mirror.org/the-media-and-body-image.htm4-02-14
http://www.greatschools.org/students/media-kids/510-sexual-behavior-teens-learn-from-media.gs 5-01-14
http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/media-negatively-affect-teenagers-10909.html 5-01-14
http://voices.yahoo.com/the-unrealistic-portrayal-women-media-beauty-4665231.html?cat=9 5-5-14
http://www.webmd.com/beauty/style/helping-girls-with-body-image?page=3 5-06-14
http://www.teenink.com/opinion/pop_culture_trends/article/175098/The-Barbie-Effect/ 5-06-14
http://antisocialbehavioringirls.blogspot.com/ 5-07-14
Denise Huerta
05-05-13
Half The Sky
In the movie half the sky they talk about women all over the world and their struggles. women in other countries have to deal with forced prostitution, gender based violence and sex trafficking. many women are not treated fairly by society, I believe the big issue is that we do not help one another as women to pursue a better life and get back on their feet. Hal the sky has showed me the other side that nobody talks about. The story of these women and what they had to live with has given me a different look at what I have in my life.
I the world one out of three women suffer from domestic violence. In Somalia women are raped or beaten because they seen as only women . 30 to 60 percent of women are sexually violated. woman from the age 15 to 45 are more likely to die from male violence than any other natural or accidental cause combined. Genetal mutulation is also growing rappidlly affecting many children to be “cut” or mutilated than can later affect them giving birth and can cause death while child labor.
Forced prostitution happens in many 3rd world countries affecting young women and children. many victims are children from ages 3 to 14 that are sold into brothels even by their own mother. 2 million to 3 MIllion are forced to be protected in india. 89% want to escaped but are beaten if they do no accepted customers. women have treated like animal and forced to be sold to men that beat and raped them, the worst part of this is that women accepted this as fate that because they we born into it or were sold to a brothel at a very young age they have to live with this for the rest of their life. Every year the age that children are sold to the bother get younger every year.
Education in third world countries is very important for women there and girls. Schools are really expensive and some families cannot afford to send their children to school, and some don’t believe education is need. 75 million kids are not in school. Girls in these countries have the highest dropout rates. People believe that girls should stay home and clean and look after the house instead of going to school.
This movie was really interesting to watch because I did not know that they treated women with such discriminated because of their gender, But i think with educating the families that they can get out of poverty if their girls go to school and get a good job. I also think people in the other side of the world should donate money so schools can be free and the boys and girls could go to school and not have to worry about the cost. In the United States we as women have the chance to have a better life because we are equal to men and that should be in every country of the world.
05-05-13
Half The Sky
In the movie half the sky they talk about women all over the world and their struggles. women in other countries have to deal with forced prostitution, gender based violence and sex trafficking. many women are not treated fairly by society, I believe the big issue is that we do not help one another as women to pursue a better life and get back on their feet. Hal the sky has showed me the other side that nobody talks about. The story of these women and what they had to live with has given me a different look at what I have in my life.
I the world one out of three women suffer from domestic violence. In Somalia women are raped or beaten because they seen as only women . 30 to 60 percent of women are sexually violated. woman from the age 15 to 45 are more likely to die from male violence than any other natural or accidental cause combined. Genetal mutulation is also growing rappidlly affecting many children to be “cut” or mutilated than can later affect them giving birth and can cause death while child labor.
Forced prostitution happens in many 3rd world countries affecting young women and children. many victims are children from ages 3 to 14 that are sold into brothels even by their own mother. 2 million to 3 MIllion are forced to be protected in india. 89% want to escaped but are beaten if they do no accepted customers. women have treated like animal and forced to be sold to men that beat and raped them, the worst part of this is that women accepted this as fate that because they we born into it or were sold to a brothel at a very young age they have to live with this for the rest of their life. Every year the age that children are sold to the bother get younger every year.
Education in third world countries is very important for women there and girls. Schools are really expensive and some families cannot afford to send their children to school, and some don’t believe education is need. 75 million kids are not in school. Girls in these countries have the highest dropout rates. People believe that girls should stay home and clean and look after the house instead of going to school.
This movie was really interesting to watch because I did not know that they treated women with such discriminated because of their gender, But i think with educating the families that they can get out of poverty if their girls go to school and get a good job. I also think people in the other side of the world should donate money so schools can be free and the boys and girls could go to school and not have to worry about the cost. In the United States we as women have the chance to have a better life because we are equal to men and that should be in every country of the world.