How the Representations of Women Differ in Men's Magazines Compared to Women's Magazines Hypothesis; Due to the changing roles of women, the media should reflect this in their representations. My intention is to find if there is a difference in the way women are portrayed in men’s magazines and women’s magazines. I would expect that men’s magazines would be more stereotypical of women (sex objects, domestic, vulnerable) whereas woman’s magazines would be more feminist (women power, independence). My first concept is Angela McRobbie’s pluralist idea of target audience demands (advertisement attraction due to audience demands). My second concept is Marjorie Ferguson’s cult of femininity (instructing women in values and behaviour of being a woman).
Kasey Serdar (2005) argues that only a small number of women can actually fulfill the characteristics of what media defines beautiful. Yet, women are constantly being exposed to the ideal women image. Serdar (2005) illustrates that “models shown on television, advertisement, and in other forms of popular media are approximately 20% below ideal body weight, thus meeting the dia... ... middle of paper ... ...6/Former-Cosmo-editor-LEAH-HARDY-airbrushing-skinny-models-look-healthy-big-fat-dangerous-lie.html#ixzz2tDGn12k7 Harro, B. (2010). The cycle of socialization.
Results showed that a heightened idea of body resentment was prevalent in girls who had exposure to more than 8 hours of television in a week as compared to those who watched lesser television ("The Developmental Psychopathology of Eating Disorders" n. pag.). Other than television, exposure to other forms of media contribute to negative perceptions of body image on females. A study was done on a group of 37 female college students, they were shown 24 magazine advertisements that consisted half of body-related advertisements and the other half on non-body related advertisements. Results both before and after the test were recorded.
I will explain many perspectives that demonstrate why woman internalize the thin ideal promoted by advertisements such as social comparison theory, cultivation, resonance and self-schema theory. These perspectives help explain why women translate media images into their perceptions as well as why some women are more vulnerable than others. I will explain how advertisements including television, magazines, and other sources have affected the attitudes and self-esteems of adolescent girls and women today. If the media continues to create unrealistic images of women to the general public, body dissatisfaction will only continue to become a problem. Two writers for the Academic Psychiatry Journal, Derenne and Bersin claim that society has always placed pressures on women to have the ideal body type, but with television, magazines, and movies today the pressure is far more than ever before.
In conclusion, magazines are important artifacts in popular culture. The publications are objectifying women while reflecting, reinforcing and dominating systems in gender in society. The way that women are shown in mass media has caused social tension. Feminists have many opinions on the many forms of mass media. I hope that one day women will not be sexualized in the media and instead be shown as successful and strong women that are equal to men.
Even though women continue to dominate in many professional fields such as teaching, nursing and human welfare, they are underrepresented in areas of study such as engineering and Information Technology. There are many factors that can be attributed to this such as gender bias and stereotyping, the role of women in society, and perceived ability and skills. Girls are being discouraged from undertaking science subjects. In August 2013, Linda Kristjanson, vice-chancellor of Swinburne University of Technology, addressed staff and students at Camberwell Girls Grammar School. She stated that there was "a systematic bias is redirecting girls away from science."
The era of mass media is flooded with all kinds of advertisements, and this ubiquitous industry(beauty advertisements especially) has gained higher public awareness these days, since it has been accused of creating unreal ideals of beauty which pose pressure on females to become slimmer and more facially attractive, forcing them to damage their health at the expense. However, criticisms against advertisements are basically focused on the negative effect on women’s health, behind which there is in fact something we ignore. In brief, what should be noticed is that on acceptance of the reasonability of beauty advertisements, women are by osmosis admitting the inferiority of their social status compared with men. In the ancient times, women were controlloed both physically and mentally by stale social moralities and traditions, whereas in this nowadays society which seemingly emphasizes freedom, advertisements may be a new form a restriction to females. This rest of essay is going to argue that advertisements and media affect women’s social status in a negative way.
health concerns for women arise with the increasing impact of the beauty industry. Writer Lauren McKeon claims that “by the time we’re 17, we’ve seen 250,000 commercial images—and many of those are heavily retouched or carefully curated” (online). This artificial portrayal creates a sense of reality that is far from real. As a result of these manipulated images, young women are being more self-conscious about their bodies and appearance, at an age where there are other, far more important milestones to experience. Furthermore, an image retrieved from the Tribune Content Agency asserts that “80% say that women in the media media make them feel insecure” (“Body Image and…” online).
According to Cate Berring, a feminist journalist, “There has been a progression towards thinner and thinner models in ads and magazines: twenty years ago, the average model weighed 8 per cent less than the average woman – but today’s models weigh 23 per cent less.”(Berring) Many of the photos people see in magazines of models are altered or photo-shopped before they are displayed to the public. Businesses use this technique of photo alteration to create insecurity decencies for women. In her article, Jamie Sommer states that “advertising is so strongly associated with creating insecurities that when women are shown images of products such as shoes, perfume or deodorant in the context of fictional ads, they are mor... ... middle of paper ... ...and create their own unique image. The media has damaged the lives of women; women should want to fight back. The day that women obtain their true identity, history will be made.
TechMedia Network, 30 Jan. 2013. Web. 2 Mar. 2014. Serdar, Kasey L.. "Female Body Image and the Mass Media: Perspectives on How Women Internalize the Ideal Beauty Standard."