Self Objectification In Miss Representation

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While they rarely admit as much, the main stream media often takes for granted the power they possess to shape our society. The advent of the internet has granted the media unfettered access to our children and young people. The images of women are more and more often extremely sexual in nature. This has created an environment where women have no value beyond appearance. In the documentary “Miss Representation” Dr. Kilbourne informs us, ‘Girls get the message from very early on that what's most important is how they look, that their value, their worth, depends on that. Boys get the message that this is what's important about girls.’ This is the frightening reality of how our young people are being taught to view the world. Considering, how much information is at our disposal, a controversial issue has been continually overlooked, the devaluation of women. …show more content…

This phenomenon is known as self-objectification. Technically defined self-objectification is when we choose to evaluate ourselves based on appearance because that is how we believe others adjudicate us. The American Psychological Association has found in recent years that self-objectification has become a national epidemic and an international problem. The more women and girls self-objectify, the more likely they are to be depressed, to have eating disorders. They have lower confidence, lower ambition, and lower cognitive function. Most also suffer from body dysmorphic disorder, in which a person becomes obsessed with imaginary defects in their appearance. The scariest incarnation of this, turning women into objects, are the increasing numbers of women who are raped each

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