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Gender stereotype on women in media
Media representation of gender stereotypes
Media representation of gender stereotypes
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Have you ever flipped through a magazine or looked on social media and saw an article about how women should “embrace their curves” or “ be confident in their body”? Then flipped to the very next page and see before and after pictures of some makeup or diet product? Usually these models are thin,which leads to the perception of being thin will lead to success and beauty in most women’s minds. It does not take long after flipping through the first few pages of a magazine to start to wonder “ Why can’t I look like her?”. The depiction of the perfect body is always thrown out for audiences to view. For example, everyone knows of the childhood toy the Barbie. Young girls who played with Barbie dolls in their childhood have been found to have to
Beauty is a cruel mistress. Every day, Americans are bombarded by images of flawless women with perfect hair and smooth skin, tiny waists and generous busts. They are presented to us draped in designer clothing, looking sultry or perky or anywhere in between. And although the picture itself is alluring, the reality behind the visage is much more sinister. They are representations of beauty ideals, sirens that silently screech “this is what a woman is supposed to look like!” Through means of media distribution and physical alteration, technology has created unrealistic beauty ideals, resulting in distorted female body images.
Many modern women subject themselves to an intense day-to-day involvement in the pursuit of thinness demands. These demands resemble those behaviors commonly associated with cult hood. Three main “tools” are used in order to achieve this goal or ideal. The Cult of Thinness invests in thinness through primary rituals. The rituals are followed through by the obsession of a particular “ideal” body. There are also extremities or positions of higher authority with extreme involvement in cults, much like the level of devotion in The Cult of Thinness.
We hear sayings everyday such as “Looks don’t matter; beauty is only skin-deep”, yet we live in a decade that contradicts this very notion. If looks don’t matter, then why are so many women harming themselves because they are not satisfied with how they look? If looks don’t matter, then why is the media using airbrushing to hide any flaws that one has? This is because with the media establishing unattainable standards for body perfection, American Women have taken drastic measures to live up to these impractical societal expectations. “The ‘body image’ construct tends to comprise a mixture of self-perceptions, ideas and feelings about one’s physical attributes. It is linked to self-esteem and to the individual’s emotional stability” (Wykes 2). As portrayed throughout all aspects of our media, whether it is through the television, Internet, or social media, we are exploited to a look that we wish we could have; a toned body, long legs, and nicely delineated six-pack abs. Our society promotes a body image that is “beautiful” and a far cry from the average woman’s size 12, not 2. The effects are overwhelming and we need to make more suitable changes as a way to help women not feel the need to live up to these unrealistic standards that have been self-imposed throughout our society.
Body image has become a severe concern worldwide. More and more people fall victim to eating disorders every year. However, at the same time, rates of obesity are skyrocketing. In Sharlene Hesse-Biber’s book The Cult of Thinness, she analyzes how the societal encouragement of a ridiculously thin body shape negatively affects how people view themselves. Fifteen Million Merits, written by Charlie Brooker and Kanak Huq, is the second episode of the first season of Netflix’s hit series Black Mirror. The episode takes place in a society in which all power is generated by humans riding stationary bicycles placed in front of television screens, and are paid in “merit points”. The citizens of this population are constantly being bombarded with advertisements,
The short story Weight begins off with the main character making a statement that she is being held back and is feeling heaviness take over her energy and body. She recounts that some days she feels as though she will not make it through the day. These thoughts she has reoccur as she sits across the table from a man by the name of Charles. She describes him as being rich and remarks that if he hadn’t had money neither of them would be sitting across from one another at this restaurant (179). The main character is trying to raise money for a shelter named Molly’s Place. It is named after a lawyer who was murdered by her own husband. The main character knows nothing about this man, she only knows he is wealthy and that she wants him to donate to the good cause. The evening progresses and they
“My lips and fingers were blue because I was so thin that my heart was struggling to pump blood around my body”, said teen model fashion Georgina (Carroll 1). The new skinny has become excessively scrawny. Is it definitely not normal for today’s society models to walk around with blue fingers starving themselves until their organs start failing! As for the model agencies, they couldn’t care less of the pressure and dangerous practices they put the models through in order for them to stay thin for the runway. Even fashion Designers continue to produce the smallest couture sample sizes and scout for the slimiest bodies to wear the designs not aware of the consequences of the pressure they not only put on models, but on the society girls to look like these starving models. And when the models continue to get offers from the most important fashion industries like Prada, it motivates them to keep doing what they are doing to stay in the shape they are in (Carroll 1). But little did the outside world know what this pressure had on the models and what they were doing to their bodies to peruse their modeling careers.
The most fashionable, sought after magazines in any local store are saturated with beautiful, thin women acting as a sexy ornament on the cover. Commercials on TV feature lean, tall women promoting unlimited things, from new clothes to as simple as a toothbrush. The media presents an unrealistic body type for girls to look up to, not images we can relate to in everyday life. When walking around in the city, very few people look like the women in commercials, some thin, but nothing similar to the cat walk model. As often as we see these flawless images float across the TV screen or in magazines, it is hard to remember they are not real and hardly anyone really looks similar to them....
While in a lecture hall of about one hundred students – realize that three out of those one hundred students are struggling with either Bulimia or Anorexia-Nervosa, the most dangerous eating disorder in the world. The documentary, “Dying To Be Thin,” first airing in 2000 and created by NOVA, dig deeper into the world of what the concept “having an eating disorder” is truly about. With the ages fifteen to twenty-four being the most vulnerable ages to form an eating disorder, the documentary explores women like “Heidi,” who died at the age of twenty-two, and a woman named “Katy,” who overcame her Anorexia and found new passions in life.
I use the word “beautiful” carefully because beautiful is not what is on the outside, but the inside is where it counts. Yes, some girls are naturally pretty and smart, but what some people don’t realize is that some of those girls are not eating and not exercising to get the body that they would like. This paper will focus on the young girls that are coming unhealthy to supposedly get the body they would like to have.
The bandwagon effect persuades individuals to follow what important others are doing. Mass media supports the bandwagon effect by emphasizing thinness as a beauty ideal. In “The Influence of Presumed Media Influence on Women’s Desire to Be Thin”, Park argues that “reading beauty and fashion magazines increase[s] the drive for thinness both directly and indirectly” (Park, 2005, p. 594). Park comments on previous research and declares that individuals feel pressured to conform to the thin ideal if they believe that others are influenced by it. “This investigation examines… [to examine] the influence of media on women through their perceptions of media effects on others” (Park, 2005, p. 595).
Unfortunately, this has led to a powerful influence on how many women and teenagers view their bodies today and this has contributed to social issues such as eating disorders, the high rise of sales for over-priced diet supplements that promises to make women consumers at home look as good as the model. Society has made some women dislike themselves. Over the years, the average female body has grown larger and curvier but the media standards of the female body have remained thinner with less curves. Most models being displayed in the media are below the ideal body weight listed among the National BMI chart, thus meeting the diagnostic criteria for what is called anorexia nervosa disorder. Today’s magazines and advertisements are one of the prominent sources of idealizing these unrealistic images. This is a disturbing trend because many women and teenagers read these magazines, hoping that following the advice given, they will be more acceptable and attractive to many. These magazines and ads are marketed to help women better themselves by providing information and products that are supposed to make them look and feel better about themselves. The marketers will do anything to sell their product and make a profit, and anything can be sold if it appeals to today’s society
The article “Why it was easier to be skinny in the 1980s”, was written by Olga Khazan in 2015. In this article, the argument raised by Khazan is that even after following the same amount of exercise and diet, why the weight of the current population is more than those of the people in the 1980s. She also discusses the biasing taking place against people with obesity. Khazan has a master's in online journalism from the University of Southern California and a bachelor’s in political science from American University (International Reporting project, N.D.). Currently, she is an associate editor at The Atlantic, covering health and gender issues.
Society’s version of a “perfect body” has driven this generation wild. It has corrupted the minds of everyone making the people think they have to be skinny and fit, but not too skinny and not too fit; this is especially true for women. Women and men have had to hear how their bodies need to look all their lives for example, how they need to have curves but not too many curves, and if you are flat chested, you need more. Society has contradicted how all generations appearances need to reflect their opinions of a right or wrong body, and it has caused many issues for the people themselves, such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa.
It is kind of hard to believe that some of our wants and needs are based on images, the Barbie doll look. According to Olds, 69% of woman said that magazine models influence their idea of the perfect body shape (Olds, 1999). The media send messages that if you are thin and beautiful then you will get whatever you want. According to a study by Health and Welfare Canada (1992), they documented that 37% of females age 11, 42% of females age 13, and 48% of female’s age 15 say they need to lose weight (National Eating Disorders Information Centre, 2000). Most women do not realize this but the media sends woman subliminal messages through television. The average woman sees about 400 to 600 advertisements per day (Dittrich), and by the time she is 17 years old, she has received over 250,000 commercial messages through the media (LaVoie). These messages from the media tells woman in order to be successful you must be attractive and thin, which is not really true. Today beautiful young and thin woman sees everything. They sell products from alcohol to shoes, you see them everywhere. These messages tell woman that appearance is more important than character and personality. According to the Health Canada (1997), “In the western culture slim is promoted not only as beautiful, healthy, and sexy but self-disciplined and good. Attractive people are perceived to be kind, interesting, outgoing, and to have a variety of socially desirable character traits.
Susan Bordo states in her article “Never Just Pictures”, that children grow up knowing that they can never be thin enough. They are thought that being fat is the worst thing ever. The ones responsible for this are the media, celebrities, models, and fashion designers. All of these factors play a big role on the development of the standard and how people view themselves. Everyone at one dreams about being the best they can in any aspect. But to achieve that most believe that one of the big factors is outer beauty. So people look at celebrities and fashion designers, and believe that to be accepted they have to look like them. That’s when they take drastic measures to change their appearance because they’ve been influenced by the Medias idea of “beautiful.” This feeling mostly happens in women but in recent years the gender gap has become smaller. Now men also feel the need to look good because of the media. On the TV, instead of having infomercials ...