Mass media is especially harmful toward women because it constructs negative perceptions of women and reinforces a set of cultural norms for them to fit in society. This paper will address its focus on women and how the tools used by media shaped images of women, how they are represented and how their identity is perceived in society. Media influences their audiences in many ways, one of which is done through advertising. People prefer to believe that they are not being affected by advertisements however “advertising’s influence is quick, it’s cumulative, and for the most part, it’s subconscious” (Killing Us Softly). Advertisements are everywhere, found on televisions, buses, on the sides of buildings, on the Internet and in the magazines we read.
Much of the discrimination that women face is closely related to issues surrounding body image. What we cannot forget in the year 2014 is who control the ideas that we have about women and leadership: the media. The misrepresentation of women’s power and influence in the media cause many women to have low self-esteem about and can cause them to feel as though they do not deserve a spot at the decision-making tables. Sexism has been around since the beginning of America, in many different forms, but the impacts have increased with the power of the media. One of the ways the media has discriminated against women, is the way they portray women in the workplace.
Media’s Effect on Women Since the beginning of media history, it has been empowering and limiting woman in many ways. Some of these ways are how woman today view there own body image, what stereotypes the media puts on women, and how these things affect women’s health. The media has been altering the way everyone see themselves and each other. They can also change the way we dress, look, and even the way we act. The media is the largest source of stereotypical misinformation on earth, and this provokes others to stereotype as well.
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.
"Relationships amongst Body Dissatisfaction, Internalisation of the Media Body Ideal and Perceived Pressure from Media in Adolescent Girls and Boys." Body Image 4.4 (2007): 353-60. Print. Vandenberg, P., S. Paxton, H. Keery, M. Wall, J. Guo, and D. Neumarksztainer. "Body Dissatisfaction and Body Comparison with Media Images in Males and Females."
Everywhere you turn we are bombarded with unattainable images which models are manipulated in some cases.” (StudyMode.com). Through these quotations, it is shown how the media portrays how a girl should look, otherwise they are not considered to be beautiful. These constant pressures and ideas come from media sources such as; television shows, beauty commercials, and popular advertisements. According to Why Do ... ... middle of paper ... ...ly being exposed to the “ideal” body image. As a result, this leads to a negative outlook of a girl’s body image.
Conscious acknowledgement of harmful stereotypes such as judgments based on appearance, beauty, and size is the key to shifts in attitudes and actions. There is no denying that influential beauty stereotypes exist; whether they originate from a Western specification or a more deeply rooted cultural expectation, they fill the pages of magazines, television programs, and retail stores. More importantly, sociocultural standards of feminine beauty fill the hearts and minds of women, both young and old, all across our country. The media bombard women with images of what is considered to be the “ideal body.” These standards of beauty are virtually unachievable for most women. B... ... middle of paper ... ...o either squeeze ourselves into molds that don't fit, hating ourselves all the while, or we just give up entirely.
Beauty has become a word with a degrading value. Women in America are used by the word to create a new world of consumption. The beauty industry has been contradicting itself for years, sending mixed messages to women across the country. Western cultures have placed high-risk standards on the ideal image of beauty, creating unrealistic and unnecessary desires among women. Advertising attractiveness has become an outrageous competition within oneself and has destroyed the God-given self-purity that sets individuals apart; therefore the industry needs to create true, a more diverse image of beauty and stop limiting human elements.
A Distorted Perception of Beauty: Media’s Influence on Body Image In today’s society, young women are developing a distorted perception of beauty because of the affects of media: advertising, magazines, and television and movies. Almost every image in the media features a picture of a young woman who is edited almost beyond recognition. It seems that every image of a young woman is the media’s “perfect lie,” that is hardly any image is pure or untouched. This perfect lie negatively effects young women’s perception of their look, style, and body. These false images cause severe consequences in young women’s physical and emotional aspects, negatively effecting how they perceive themselves.
In “Female Body Image and the Mass Media: Perspectives on How Women Internalize the Ideal Beauty Standard,” Kasey Serdar writes, the standards of the woman’s body are visibly set through forms of media; furthermore, the pressures are high to achieve these unrealistic looks (1). A plethora of self-esteem issues result from the media’s portrayal of unrealistically thin models. In addition, today’s society places a significant amount of importance on what the eyes perceive, rather than what is on the inside, as the article “Factors That May Contribute to Eating Disorders” states (1). As a result, eating disorders now begin at a younger age, since girls grow up viewing the “ideal body” as skinny; furthermore, images in the media affect the self-esteem of women so immensely that many develop eating disorders after spending time viewing these unrealistic images. Women should not feel the need to cha... ... middle of paper ... ...tories, Inc., 2014.