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How is media breaking stereotypes against women
How is media breaking stereotypes against women
White female stereotypes
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The study conducted in this article was done in order to show how Caucasian females are considered to be Earth’s “global mothers.” The essay emphasizes specifically on how close associations of race, gender, sexuality, and expansionism are assigned and then executed in the modern positions of the Caucasian women. Raka Shome, the author, examines the representational logics of global motherhood by zoning in on Princess Diana, Madonna, and Angelina Jolie. Mostly looking into Princess Diana because she was the first women in modern times to represent global motherhood, and is a role model for Madonna and Jolie. While looking into Princess Diana, Shome was interested in the way(s) white women are viewed as always loving and caring enough to be considered the global mothers. Through content analysis Shome addresses how white women are often shown in a soft light, making them glow angelically. White women are also usually incredibly beautiful, usually tall, fit, and middle or upper class when photographed for advertisement purposes. This research attempts to explain why white women are seen universally as global …show more content…
Shome’s entire investigation of white females being seen global mothers helps to validate her claim. She organized her essay almost perfect. To begin with, as usual, she started with an introduction. This introduction was a few paragraphs long but very helpful because it clearly states the reason for her study. Another thing that was stated is that there is little work written on the transnationalism of white femininity before she conducted this study. She defines minimal terms in the introduction, such as ethical imperialism and transnational intimacies, to ensure her readers feel informed about the topic before moving on. I do feel that there are a couple other terms Shome should have defined, but not necessarily in the introduction, in order to further educate her
Beauty is often described as being in the eye of the beholder. However in modern western culture, the old adage really should be beauty is in the eye of the white makeup artist, hair stylist, photographer, photo shop editor, and advertiser. Beauty and body ideals are packaged and sold to the average American so that we can achieve vocational, financial, social, and recreational successes. Mass media and advertising has affected the way that women perceive and treat their own bodies as well as their self-concept. Women are constantly bombarded with unrealistic images and hold themselves to the impossible beauty standards. First, we will explore the role of media in the lives of women and then the biggest body image issue from a diversity stand point, media whitewashing.
On September 5, 1995, Hillary Clinton delivered an influential speech at The Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. Clinton expresses general concern over escalating violence toward women, in other word’s gendercide. “Gendercide refers to the systematic elimination of a specific gender group, normally female. It’s most common in India, China, and other regions in Southeast Asia” (GirlsKind Foundation). Crimes, such as bride trafficking, infanticide, abandonment, and dowry related murder; often take place within private households, going unnoticed and not even acknowledged. “Tragically, women are most often the ones whose human rights are violated. Even now, in the late 20th century, the rape of women continues to be used as an instrument of armed conflict Women and children make up a large majority of the world’s refugees” (Clinton 3). By addressing her speech in Beijing, where gendercide is prevalent, Hillary expressed her objective effectively not just the United Nations, but to audiences across the world. Clinton effectively delivered her speech by portraying her purpose for women to achieve equality and better opportunities, with ethical appeals, emotional appeals, and logical appeals.
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...
Images in media, television especially, are a direct projection of the people who control and project them, which often tends to be white people. “‘We face the problems of images projected by people not of us,’ she said. ‘The media is the most powerful mind-manipulating tool on the earth.’”(Ruby, 18) The perception of black women in the media today can be damaging to the self-image of the young black women of today. During the Black Arts Movement, many artists and poets spoke of how white influence in our lives has created skewed beauty ideals in the African-American community. This white influence tends to harm black women’s images of themselves. Most female images seen in mainstream media are white, thin, tall and just plain gorgeous, making it hard for the average African American woman to relate to. Black television has done well with having different shapes and sizes for women of color to relate to, but that only includes one or two channels on all of television. For example, even though BET was founded by Robert Johnson, a black man, BET is now predominantly owned by white people. “"Day after day, in all forms of media -- print, radio, and television -- we see, hear, and read the perspectives of non-Black women and women of color who are not actively involved in the struggles of Black women -- especially on so-called 'women's issues'.”(Women’s Health Weekly, 546) Large television networks must choose to show things that will not only keep ratings up but also keep people interested in watching their shows. Unfortunately in today’s age and day drama and negativity is what most Americans look to watch. Even though many people feel that these negative things are wrong, we still find ourselves watching and reading about it. The...
First, listening is a key component of having a transnational perspective. If we want to actually contribute help, then it’s crucial to listen to those who are being helped. It’s important to not have a colonialism approach, or any other approach that is not considering other cultures ways of life. Another important insight to have on a transnational perspective is to not have a “savior” mindset, not only does it create problems, but it isn’t helpful for the Third World countries if our mindset is clouded and we don’t take into account their culture and way of life. With the topic of “white savior”, I took this class because I’m going to participate in the Global Feminisms immersion trip in New Delhi, and my privilege of being white, is something I have pondered about and hope to be conscious while studying
Instead of looking at a country, region or civilization of a people under colonial rule, this framing looks at women as the colonized natives. It is first necessary to understand what colonization is and how women fit into the role of being colonized. Colonization occurs when another people decide that they either want the “land” and “resources” or they feel that it is their duty to help the natives who are less than them. At this point, it’s pertinent to know that the role of the colonizers is played by the men of the world. Under this idea that they are colonizing women because, “it’s for their own good,” Michelle Lelwica argues, “Women’s dissatisfaction with their bodies is rooted not primarily in biological or psychological imbalances, but in oppressive gender norms many women internalize,” (21).
For example, “men often feel that they are supposed to be tough, aggressive, [and] competitive” [in the workplace…]. Women, on the other hand, are ‘unsexed by success’” (Kimmel 2013, 250). At the same time, we have seen these gender roles played a vital role in the family. According to Jhally, “the women of the dream world are fragmented and presented as a number of simple and disconnected body parts” (Jhally 2007). Therefore, “the media helps to maintain a status quo in which certain groups in our society routinely have access to power and privilege while others do not” (Mulvaney 2016). Therefore, “these images and stories have worked their way into the inner identities of young women who view their own sexuality through the eyes of the male authors of that culture” (Jhally
The media intents on trying at times not to be bias or favorable but when prompted to in accordance to time figure, “…gender and race often interact in how people are portrayed in the media” (Hazell and Clarke 9). With time it has been shown that the implications of mediated ideologies have improved but can still be portrayed as one ideal if one happens to take a closer look. In the early 1900’s, “Colfax and Sternberg found that in 54% of the magazine ads, Black people were portrayed in lower status occupations, ...
...present powerful characters, while females represent unimportant characters. Unaware of the influence of society’s perception of the importance of sexes, literature and culture go unchanged. Although fairytales such as Sleeping Beauty produce charming entertainment for children, their remains a didactic message that lays hidden beneath the surface; teaching future generations to be submissive to the inequalities of their gender. Feminist critic the works of former literature, highlighting sexual discriminations, and broadcasting their own versions of former works, that paints a composite image of women’s oppression (Feminist Theory and Criticism). Women of the twenty-first century serge forward investigating, and highlighting the inequalities of their race in effort to organize a better social life for women of the future (Feminist Theory and Criticism).
I have examined and analyzed the COVERGIRL™ NatureLuxe advertisement that uses common feminine stereotypes. In this advertisement, COVERGIRL™, which runs in Seventeen magazines, targets women through their choices of colors, fonts, and images used. Certain stereotypes are used; such as, those who are more feminine tend to prefer lighter, happier colors, such as pink. Also, the use of a celebrity, who many young women look to as an icon, assists in the advertisement of the COVERGIRL™ product. COVERGIRL™, more than likely, is able to successfully market their lip-gloss product in the United States by using common gender stereotypes to show femininity and how those, mainly women, should be presented in today’s society.
Gloria Anzaldúa writes in her essay ‘Speaking in Tongues: A Letter To 3rd World Women’s Writers’ that the “woman of colour is invisible both in the white male mainstream world and in the white women’s feminist word”. Anzaldúa refers to the other International feminist writers and thinkers as her “dear Hermanas”; it speaks to other International feminists thinkers as a collective branch of sisters, fighting the male patriarchy and female racism. Anzaldúa does not advocate for women of colour to stay complacent in the name of preserving the sanctity of the Feminism with a capital F. Instead her essay makes clear that “we cannot allow ourselves to be tokenized”, and as a result should use writing, in and out of academia to make ‘our’ points heard. Anzaldúa is an International Feminist, specifically as she refers to it, as a 3rd World feminist despite living and writing in the US. She is an International Feminist as she is writing in a language that is not her native Spanish. Similarly, bell hooks advocates too for what Anzaldúa is emphasising. hooks states that it is with contradiction that “white females have structured a woman’s liberation movement that is racist and excludes many non-white women” but insists that this contradiction should not “lead any woman to ignore feminist issues”. Both hooks and Anzaldúa are agreed in the continuous marginalisation of non-white female voice in Western feminism, but insist that non-white feminists must “re-appropriate the term “feminism” to focus on […] the authentic sense of the term”. What we can take from this then, is that the relationship between Western Feminism and International Feminism is virtually non-existent due to the rampant diminishing of non-white female voices and the
In the essay “Beauty (Re)discovers the Male Body,” author and philosopher Susan Bordo discusses the history and current state of male representation in advertisements. While using her feminist background, Bordo compares and contrasts the aspects of how men and women are portrayed in the public eye. She claims that there has been a paradigm shift the media with the theory that not just women are being objectified in the public eye, but also men too. Since the mid-1970s, with the introduction of Calvin Klein commercials, men have started to become more dehumanized and regarded as sex symbols. In a similar fashion to how Bordo describes gender, race plays a similar role in the media. People of all different ethnicities and cultures are being categorized into an oversimplified and usually unfair image by the media over basic characteristics.
A lady is an object, one which men attempt to dominate. A man craves to get a hold of this being beneath his command, and forever have her at his disposal. In her piece “Size Six: The Western Women’s Harem,” published in 2002, Fatema Mernissi illustrates how Eastern and Western women are subjugated by the control of men. Mernissi argues that though she may have derived from a society where a woman has to cover her face, a Western woman has to face daily atrocities far worse then ones an Eastern woman will encounter. Moreover, Mernissi’s core dogma in “Size 6: The Western Women's Harem” is that Western women are not more fortunate than women raised into harems in other societies. Additionally, she asserts that though women in the Western world are given liberties, they coincide with the unattainable ideals of what is aesthetically pleasing. Furthermore, to strengthen her argument towards her wavering audience, Mernissi’s main approach in her paper is to get the reader to relate with her issue by means of an emotional appeal, while also utilizing both the ethical and logical appeal to support her thesis.
In her blog posting “ ‘Noting to Say’: ‘Black Skin, White Masks’ and Gender,” Emma Jeremie Mould discusses the double bind women of color find themselves in. First, they are overdetermined by the racist discourse of the Whites. Second, black women find themselves codified within the discourse of native men. In addition, she contends that some Western feminists analyze the plight of black women from the top down, through an approach that reinforces a racialized hierarchy among women.
Cohan overall leaves a strong impression on the reader that change in women’s advertising is very important and necessary. He effectively shows that women’s advertising is often unethical and ultimately needs to stop degrading women and move to more positive ways of advertising. Although, upon digging deeper in to Cohan’s specific claims on idealized imagery advertising, a gap emerges. Cohan calls the women in the ads who have been idealized “perfect” “ideal”, women that the “average women” will never be able to look like/be (327), but in all actuality, how can advertisements, or anyone for that matter, define what is “perfect”, “average”, “pretty”, “ugly”? Cohan overlooks this phenomenon, of the ever evolving, never definable term: beauty, therefore creating a need for deeper analysis.