Media is an important component of American culture, from the music people listen to the movies they watch, the media people consume can and does consistently affect their views of the world, other people, and themselves. Women can be hurt by the media, and closing in even more, women of color. Representation in media is still quite low, despite how far America has come in terms of equality. This leaves the levels of exposure to races other than white relatively low and when there is representation of other ethnicities, they are often caricatures of demeaning stereotypes. No matter if someone identifies as European American or as another ethnic identity, the European American ideals and norms affect everyone who is exposed to them (Iijima-Hall …show more content…
The Hollywood depictions of Asian women are limited in number, categorized by Iijima-Hall as either the Dragon Lady or the “perfect woman.” An Asian woman in Hollywood can either be sexy or she can be “docile, gentle, and obedient” (Iijima-Hall 1995:6). The long-standing stereotype in American culture that says Asian women are passive and lack emotion contributes heavily to such depictions. In the San Francisco Bay area, a study was conducted to find why there was a sudden influx of Asian-American women undergoing cosmetic surgery (Kaw 1993:74). Many of the women were having procedures done such as having their eyelids restructured, nose bridges heightened, and their nose tips altered. The results were features that were described as more passive and dull. 80% of white women were found to apply for procedures such as liposuction, breast augmentation, or wrinkle-removal procedures. These surgeries have no relationship to conventional markers of racial identity, but the procedures desired by the Asian-American women had strong correspondence to the conventional racial markers, such as trying to attain smaller, narrower eyes or a flat nose. 40-46% of the procedures done of Asian-American women were eyelid surgery and 15-23% were nasal implants or nasal tip refinements (Iijima-Hall 1995:13). The Asian American women referred to the surgeries as “fixing” their appearance and considered it “an investment for their …show more content…
There is also the problem of eating disorders. Jefferson and Stake (2009:396) noted that eating disorders have been becoming more and more common since the 1970’s, particularly among teenage girls. While eating disorders are substantially less common among African American females (Jefferson and Stake 2009:398) (Parker et al 1995:103), they are hardly unheard of. It was found that white and Hispanic girls are the most likely of any ethnic group to consider themselves overweight despite being in what is considered a normal weight range while African-American females are more likely to consider themselves healthy when they are overweight (Parker et al 1995:103). Iijima-Hall made it a point to talk about how in China, saying to someone “You have put on weight” is considered a compliment and that this caused many researchers to assumes that there would be less Asian women desiring to be thin and developing eating disorders (1995:9). Despite this, Iijima-Hall continued on to say that the Asian American women sometimes will try to “correct the negative images of their culture in the United States,” and this can lead to more eating disorders (1995:10). Another idea was that there will be women who will reject their country of origin, and try to fit in by conforming to the beauty ideals as set by European American standards. Earlier research has found that American women of Asian descent are becoming more and more likely
The media, through its many outlets, has a lasting effect on the values and social structure evident in modern day society. Television, in particular, has the ability to influence the social structure of society with its subjective content. As Dwight E. Brooks and Lisa P. Hébert write in their article, “GENDER, RACE, AND MEDIA REPRESENTATION”, the basis of our accepted social identities is heavily controlled by the media we consume. One of the social identities that is heavily influenced is gender: Brooks and Hébert conclude, “While sex differences are rooted in biology, how we come to understand and perform gender is based on culture” (Brooks, Hébert 297). With gender being shaped so profusely by our culture, it is important to be aware of how social identities, such as gender, are being constructed in the media.
According to Poverty & Prejudice: Media and Race, co-authored by Yurii Horton, Raagen Price, and Eric Brown, the media sets the tone for the morals, values and images of our culture. Many whites in American society, some of whom have never encoun...
Race has no biological meaning. There is only one human race; there are no subspecies, no single defining characteristic, traits, or even gene, separates one “race” from another. Instead of being a biological concept, race is a social construct, and a relatively modern one at that. It was created to give light-skinned Europeans an advantage by making the white race superior and all others inferior. Throughout its history, the concept of race has served this purpose well.
Race, in the common understanding, draws upon differences not only of skin color and physical attributes but also of language, nationality, and religion. Race categories are often used as ethnic intensifiers, with the aim of justifying the exploitation of one group by another. Race is an idea that has become so fixed in American society that there is no room for open-mindedness when challenging the idea of racial categories. Over the years there has been a drastic change with the way the term "race" is used by scientists. Essentially, there is a major difference between the biological and sociological views of race.
Media has an influence on society like no other. In the world today media basically controls everything and informs people of all that is going on. Media does, however, create stereotypes in society in many different ways which makes people believe and think about cultures or a certain groups of people and how they act differently. Jennifer Pozner the author of “Ghetto Bitches, China Dolls and Cha Cha Divas” talks about the harmful ways of stereotyping in reality television. In Pozner’s essay she focuses on how badly the society is taking its course. The course in the show being that changing a person to look a certain way against their will is good but in reality to viewers it seems like a horrible thing to do. Media has been most of the the
These stereotypes differ depending on the race, but all follow the theme of demeaning a whole race to a cookie cutter stigma that has been formed due to lack of experience involving the people of color they are trying to portray. This leads to Hispanic/Latino (especially women) to be overlysexualized on television (Smith, S. L., PhD, Choueiti, M., & Pieper, K., PhD. 2016, February 22). Along with authors such as Julia Boyd, who graduated from Elon University with a degree in Cinema, who points out how in film Native Americans are shown as bloodthirsty or noble savages (Boyd, J. 2015, Spring). Another article explains how African Americans are given the role of drug dealers and criminals, along with Asian Americans being portrayed as weak and invaders of business in America (Tung, L. L. 2006, January) Therefore showing how these races have been given a set way of being that is the normal to be seen on television, and since, as the previous argument has explained, people are quick to believe that these poor and inaccurate portrayals to be true, affecting the way they perceive these minorities. Along with the minorities view on themselves, as shown in an article written by Alison Denzer-King, who holds a degree in psychology, that there is a negative correlation between hours spent watching television and the viewers elf-esteem, mainly concerning women and people of color. (Denzer-King, A. M. 2016, April), Another example of people of colors self esteem being impacted by television is shown in an experiment called the “Black Doll” experiment. This test involved two dolls, one of lighter skin tone and one of darker skin tone, that were given to children who overwhelmingly chose the white doll when discussing positive qualities concerning looks and behavior. This
“The media serve as a tool that people use to define, measure, and understand American society” (Deo et al., 149). Thinking of the media as a tool for the American people also extends into the realm of race and ethnicity. The United States has had a long and difficult history pertaining to the racial and ethnic identities of the many different people that reside within and outside of it’s borders. That history is still being created and this country still struggles with many of the same problems that have plagued this area since before the founding of the U.S. As stated above, the popular media has a large impact on the way that race and ethnicity are understood by people, especially when considering the prevalence of segregation in the U.S.
Instead, women are being discriminated and treated as inferior due to the stereotypes that are portrayed in the media. The media creates and reproduces ways of seeing that at a minimum reflect and shape our culture. We can look at the media to understand more about a culture’s values and norms, if we realize the limitations of looking at the media. For example, one may ask, does the news based in the United Sates represent what the American culture is like, or only what stands out from everyday American culture? The answer to that is no. Instead, the media represents what it thinks it will be able to sell and is supported by advertisements. This includes violent acts, the sensationally and inappropriate. Jhally reminds us that “it is this male, heterosexual, pornographic imagination based on the degradation and control of women that has colonized commercial culture in general, although it is more clearly articulated in music videos” (Jhally 2007). Therefore, “media content is a symbolic rather than a literal representation of society and that to be represented in the media is in itself a form of power—social groups that are powerless can be relatively easily ignored, allowing the media to focus on the social groups that ‘really matter’” (Gerbner,
To conclude, African Americans are underrepresented in the media. It was 22.8% of African-American serial killers out in the sample given which is still a big number. In the end it is still concluded that White males will be the favorite stereotypes of serial killers allow it to show that African-Americans do not have the brilliance to create such crime. On the other hand, it will lead to law enforcement not wanting to protect victims in the African-American community. A food for thought about how many lives were lost due to these
The biological understanding of race in the United States is that people from different places have different genetics and genes in their body, accounting for different traits in each people. These people could be grouped together by their biological traits because their similarities in genes would make them look alike. People wanted to believe that there actually were true biological differences between people. Race in the past and present (somewhat) has been categorized based on continental origin, skin color, nose structures, and hair type. To define a person’s race, someone could ask questions like: “what type of hair do they have, curly or straight? Is their skin dark or light? Are their eyes blue, brown, or black?” Based off of these
When we see women on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or even magazine ads, what do we see them as? What does the media usually depict women to be like? Most of the times when I see women on these forms of media, I do not see them as being much of a positive figure. I also do not see these women demonstrating positive behavior. With all of the negativity of women in the media, the perception of women has changed tremendously. The media often makes women out to be depreciated as well as being seen as inferior. The media does not make women out to be smart women who are eligible to accomplish things on their own. Since the beginning of media, women have been portrayed as being submissive, dependent, as well as sexually misrepresented.
In general, Media can be defined as a broad range of mass communication which includes internet, television, radio, and other mediums that have plausible influences to the audience. Nowadays, as the urbanization takes place; the consumption of mass media has become apparent as current trends. Certainly, media plays a profound role in shaping our perspective, attitude, and idea as we are exposed to the media very significantly in variety of forms. According to the “Miss Representation”, American teenager in average are exposed to media approximately about 10 hours and 45 minutes per day. Thus, it is often the role of the media to shape our perception and emphasized the expectations of societal norms in the context of representation. Based on Oxford dictionaries representation is “the description or portrayal of someone or something in a particular way or as being of a certain nature”. Briefly, the paper will discusses “I Luh Ya Papi” a music video by Jennifer Lopez to further exemplify the gender norms or gender binaries in society, the effects of music video on gendered violence, portrayal of heterosexism in media, cultural and racial stereotypes depiction, and the consequences of the male patriarchal system.
In conclusion, media produces certain stereotypes both in behaviour and in style; it isolates audience from the true reality, the problem needs attention.
Race is a term that references on differences such as, facial characteristics, skin color, and other related characteristics. Race is not in reference to genetic make up. A feature of race as a social construct is that it down plays the extent to which sectors of population may form a discrete ethnic group. Based on specific characteristics race makes up a person and differs within groups. In other words race is a large group of people distinguished from others on the basic of a common heritage or physical trait.
Portrayal of Women in the Media Gender is the psychological characteristics and social categories that are created by human culture. Gender is the concept that humans express their gender when they interact with one another. Messages about how a male or female is supposed to act come from many different places. Schools, parents, and friends can influence a person.