Images Of Women In The Media Essay

835 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: How are women portrayed in media

Images of Women in the Media
Images in the media today is unrealistic and has dangerous standards of feminine beauty that has a powerful influence on the way women see themselves. From the perspective of the mass media, skinny is idealized and women considered that to be "attractive." Images in television, advertisements, magazines usually portrays the "ideal woman" as tall, white, and thin, with a "tubular" body, and blonde hair (Dittmar & Howard, 2004). The media is overflow with photos of females who fulfill these unrealistic standards, making it normal for women to live up to this ideal thing. Dittmar and Howard (2004) made this statement regarding the prevalence of unrealistic media images:
Ultra-thin models are so prominent that exposure to them becomes unavoidable and 'chronic', constantly reinforcing a discrepancy for most women and girls between their actual size and the ideal body (p. 478).
Only a very small percentage of women in Western countries meet the criteria the media use to define "beautiful" (Dittmar & Howard, 2004) yet so many women are repeatedly exposed to media images that send the …show more content…

Women read these magazines with the hope that if they follow the advice given, they will be more attractive and acceptable. Marketing strategies lure women into purchasing these things, and most have the potential to be an influence on women's sense of self and satisfaction with their iamge. Tiggemann (2004) found that frequent magazine reading was consistently correlated with higher levels of body dissatisfaction and disturbed eating. In addition to weight dissatisfaction and eating sickness, studies have shown that women who view photos of women in many advertisements and magazines show a rapid increased levels of depression, guilt, stress, insecurity, and shame (Tiggemann,

Show More
Related

  • White Washed World

    767 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Media Portrayal of Female and Male Body Image

    3532 Words  | 8 Pages

    Body image is a hot topic in the media. Unrealistic and unattainable are words that can be used to describe images in the media. Skinny, waif-like women and muscular, Rambo-like men are the idolized body images portrayed. In the media female models keep getting thinner and thinner while men keep getting more muscular. Many say the media and its depictions of the ideal body weight created the problems of low self-esteem, eating disorders, poor body concepts, and sexism through spotlighting unattainable body image icons.

    Read More

  • Mexican Women In The Media Essay

    1252 Words  | 3 Pages

    Times have changed throughout the generations and the portrayal of women in the media has definitely changed over the years. Unfortunately, there is still a stereotypical appearance and social role in the media that women need to achieve in order to be socially desired. Even though it has improved, there is such a stigma towards being too fat, too skinny, too tall, or too short and the list of imperfections go on and on. Aside from body image, social roles are a big issue in the media today. When you look at any advertisement in the media, you can notice the appearance, gender, and race of the model. The media’s idea of the “perfect” body is having the unflawed and women are typically skewed for this by society.

    Read More

  • Gender Inequality and Media Objectification: A Feminist Perspective

    1856 Words  | 4 Pages

    In today 's society, women have been getting more attention on important issues that affect their lives. Feminism is becoming more popular and people are starting to realize the inequality that woman face is more than just a small scale issue. The sexism and oppression that are the result of living in a patriarchal society, play a large role in how women in our culture are treated. The effects that living in this society have had on the individuals that take part in these societies, are very commonly highlighted by the media. The objectification of women in the media has become a very serious issue. Although at first glance this may not seem to be such a problem, but these constant objectifications in the media subliminally become an acceptable reality for men and women alike. “Conflict theorists argue that gender inequality

    Read More

  • Media's Negative Influence On Women

    2560 Words  | 6 Pages

    As seen in films like Killing Us Softly 4 and Miss Representation, we can see how much media and advertisements affect everyone consciously and subconsciously. Through images and advertisements, women’s bodies are hacked apart to sell products. This has a negative effect body image and self-confidence in young girls and women all over the world. It is extremely important to understand the extent to which circulating images of women in media affect standards and expectations of women in our society in order to hopefully cease to create such degrading images. Our society hurts itself by producing the types of images we see in media and advertisements today, yet it has done very little to try to reverse the messages put out. For the sake of our

    Read More

  • The Media's Effect on Women

    1110 Words  | 3 Pages

    The media negatively influences the way women are portrayed in modern society and culture. This can severely impact the way a woman views her self worth and beauty.

    Read More

  • Because The Media Told Us: The Negative Effects Of Media On Women

    1036 Words  | 3 Pages

    Media is all around us from television to billboards, making it difficult not to be influence by media in one way or another. Unfortunately, media has influence women to believe that in order for women to be considered beautiful, they must for fill the characteristics of what media considers beautiful. Hurting women both psychologically and physically.

    Read More

  • Female Body Image and the Mass Media

    947 Words  | 2 Pages

    The media is a fascinating tool; it can deliver entertainment, self-help, intellectual knowledge, information, and a variety of other positive influences; however, despite its advances for the good of our society is has a particular blemish in its physique that targets young women. This blemish is seen in the unrealistic body images that it presents, and the inconsiderate method of delivery that forces its audience into interest and attendance. Women are bombarded with messages from every media source to change their bodies, buy specific products and redefine their opinion of beauty to the point where it becomes not only a psychological disease, but a physical one as well.

    Read More

  • Body Image Standards

    1255 Words  | 3 Pages

    The importance of physical appearance is emphasized and reinforced early in most girl’s development; studies have found that nearly half of females ages 6-8 have said they want to have a slimmer body image (Serdar). Body image is a complicated aspect of the self-concept that concerns an individual’s perceptions and feelings about their body and physical appearance (Serdar). Images in the media today project an unrealistic and even dangerous standard of feminine beauty that can have a powerful influence on the way women view themselves (Serdar). This ‘ideal’ body image is present in mainstream media, and mainstream media are a sources for women to turn to for women with how they should look. (Hendriks, 2002). Images in advertisements, television, and music usually portray the ideal woman as tall, white, thin, no curves, and have blonde hair. Women who are active viewers of media may develop the attitude that thinness is desirable, experience greater body dissatisfaction, and may even partake in weight loos behaviors in attempt to mirror the models and actresses they observe in the media. (Hesse-Biber, Leavy, Quinn, & Zoino, 2006). In recent years, women’s body sizes have grown larger, while societal standards of body shape have become much thinner (Serdar). Only a very small percentage of women in Western countries

    Read More

  • Social Media And Body Image Essay

    1685 Words  | 4 Pages

    From social media, television, magazines and billboards, there is never a lot of diversification among the faces that grace the media on a daily basis. As a community, many people have become conditioned to believe that these women are what society has normalized as “beautiful.” Their body’s and faces are “perfect” and people have begun to try to emulate these women to become what society believes as “beautiful” too. According researchers at various universities, “Media also explicitly instruct how to attain thin bodies by dieting, exercising, and body contouring surgery, encouraging female consumers to believe that they can and should be thin (Yamamiya, 2004). Although, even thought this women think that by altering their bodies to societies standards, they are actually contributing to the fact that “an idealization of thinness is positively correlated with body image dissatisfaction” (Yamamiya, 2004). In this study, one hundred and twenty-three white women at Old Dominion University were exposed to media featuring women who were considered to be “beautiful.” They were first told to fill out Thompson’s questionnaire and then they the women were spilt into two groups where there were shown the pieces of media. The study should that individuals in the control group had higher internalization of the media than the individuals in the alternate group. Ultimately, researchers found that the only what to alter the way the way that

    Read More

  • Media And Negative Body Image

    1134 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Teenage Girls and Body Image

    1282 Words  | 3 Pages

    The pattern is similar for the portrayal of women on television, magazines, and other parts of the media. The way media represents women are for them to be thin-like models and other women on television to be the high standard of “attractiveness” to others. The advertising involved targets young teenage women and feature these models that are portraying desirable items, and the “norm” is for these women to be slender and beautiful (Vonderen & Kinnally, 2012). Research has been done to prove that media’s pressure on being thin causes women to be depressive and negative feelings about themselves . Women’s view are skewed and perceived incorrectly of what the typical female body should be (Haas, Pawlow, Pettibone & Segrist, 2012).

    Read More

  • The Importance of Image in the Modern World

    693 Words  | 2 Pages

    Thus, the mass media promotes an ideal image of what a beautiful and desirable woman should look like, influencing women around the world to model after. An example is the Glamour magazine survey: 75% of women aged 18-35 were reported to feel that they were too fat; 45% of underweight women felt they were too fat; almost 50% o... ... middle of paper ... ... ay’s context is pursuing the best of everything. Desperate times that make image no longer important do not prevail in the modern day.

    Read More

  • Portrayal of Women in the Media

    3135 Words  | 7 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Image of Women in Mass-Media

    1093 Words  | 3 Pages

    Socialization of people has been occurring through family, public education and peer groups. However in recent years, the mass-media has become the biggest contributor to the socialization process, especially in the ‘gender’ sector. The mass-media culture, as influential as it has become, plays the most significant role in the reproduction process of gender role stereotypes and patriarchal values. It is true that a family model of nowadays is based rather on equality than on patriarchal values and women have more rights and possibilities on the labor market. However, mass-media still reflect, maintain, or even ‘create’ gender stereotypes in order to promote themselves.

    Read More

More about Images Of Women In The Media Essay

Open Document