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Positive and negative effects of popular standards of beauty
Media perception of women
Negative female stereotypes in media
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What price do individuals pay to become perfect, and who sets these standards for individuals? The media is responsible for putting these standards amongst individuals across the United States and the world. Men and women are always being critiqued on how they act, how they look, et cetera. Over the past decade, women have recently caught the attention of the media more than men have on how they structure themselves. The media has forced women to become an ugly truth. Women in the media have become objectified in advertisements, video games, TV, entertainment, movies, magazines, and websites. These different media outlets play a major role in shaping how women compare themselves to a beauty that is unattainable, and men begin to compare women in their own lives to these images that the media provides of women. This allows men to begin to see themselves as a higher power over women, and they become blind to the true meaning of what a woman is. The media uses visual-digital culture to provide society with social representations and constructions of women and gender differences. Video games provide a prime example of how women are portrayed in a negative view. This is seen in many video game cultures, and one might argue, how do video games provide individuals with a new facet where individuals may be able to explore new windows and aspects of one’s self?
On March 7, 2012, Sony Corporation and Quantic Dream teamed to together to create a new trailer for a video game that shows the social representations and constructions of women in our society today. The video game, “Heavy Rain”, begins to show the viewer the making of an android. The android is shaped liked a woman and becomes a humanistic woman. The man creating her begins to as...
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...re with dissatisfaction with their own bodies and even their own ideas. Video games, like “Heavy Rain”, provide viewers with negative views and standards of how women should act and be treated. As a society and as individuals, we must stand up to these views and standards the media bestows upon women and begin to move towards unbiased standards for women to feel accepted and respected in our society. If society can allow these unbiased standards to shape and become the norm, then there is hope that societies across the world can improve on the way women are portrayed. With media being present on our streets, TVs, advertisements, social media sites, and technologies the battle for unbiased standards will be a long time coming. Men and women must take the responsibility to allow change in themselves before they can change the environment that surrounds them everyday.
Grand Theft Auto IV promotes hetronormative hierarchical distinctions between feminity and masculinity through its framing of female and male bodies, its presentation of females as objects of the male gaze and its encouragement of players to adopt and act out a hypermasculine role. It is of vital importance that we do not exclude race, gender or sexuality from discussions of videogames, because as Leonard (2006, pp. 84) asserts, doing so ‘contributes to problematic, if not faulty, understandings of video games and their significant role in contemporary social, political, economic, and cultural organization.’ Instead as players we must engage in discussion regarding videogames and, as Jenkins writes, we must ‘find a way to move beyond our existing categories and to once again invent new kinds of virtual play spaces’ (1999, pp.
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.
Video game playing has become an increasingly popular interest for many people. Every video game is unique in its own way and how it is shaped to the audience at hand. With all the video game playing, this gives rise to possible concerns as to how the media portrays such aspects in a game. One debate about video games that is an increasingly popular subject to talk about is how gender is portrayed in video games for both men and women. In many video games, women are shown as having a passive role, while men hold a more dominant role. In the video game Tomb Raider, Lara Croft is a character this is being talked about because she is the main character and is a female. Previous video games have created the media representation that females are
Reinhard, Carrie L. "Hypersexualized Females in Digital Games: Do Men Want Them, Do Women Want to Be Them?"Department of Communications. 2006. Print.
Throughout the century, the ideal image of a woman has changed drastically, which can be directly attributed to the powerful persuasion of media. This ideal image has transformed from a voluptuous, size 14, 1950’s Marilyn Monroe to a 5’9, 100 pound, 1990’s Kate Moss. The most shocking aspect is specifically what young girls are now doing to achieve this “Kate Moss” image. Through the utilization of advertisements and stars on the big screen, this female portrayal directly targets the physical and mental well-being of females in cultures across the globe.
This paper tries to express how sexism/chauvinism ideas have infected the virtual-world of video games, and resulted in a male dominated video-gaming industry. Now, being that 49% of U.S. households own a dedicated gaming console (E.S.A. 2012), it is imperative that we address this issue. Gender disparity in the gaming business is exceedingly one-sided. Female employees constitute less than 10% of the gaming industry, and even though that shortcoming females have contributed to the video gaming franchise. A small number of females have indeed contributed to the gaming franchise as a result of the industries no-girls-allowed mentality which strongly suggest that old saying boys-only. In this paper, I will examine current research relevant to the video game industry and its representation of the female gender, provide personal accounts of sexual harassment within the video game industry and offer my opinions of what could be done to begin the steps in an extraordinarily difficult journey.
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
Too many people have had their minds fixed on the ideas that the perfect women should be a “lady” embodying the image of a Barbie, the only known flawless character known to our human species or the ideal man should have to live up to the unachievable expectations of every females dream of being 6’7 with an abdominal structure of a firefighter and a P.H.D in law. These expectations are extremely high and are impossible to obtain. Living in a materialistic environment influences children to adapt to trends and sudden changes to make themselves appear more passable for the people around them. The children of our generation have been infected with a disease called insecurity. TV shows and music videos have made the wrong idea of what people should look like and act like. The world should create better influences, end all violence, and have better places to live for the children of the future.
Along with new roles for women within a growing society, unrealistic standards and expectations have also followed. It took years and years of fighting and feminist movements for women to receive the same rights as men within a male dominated society. Although women are continuing to stand up for equal rights, women now have big roles within society and the idea that men are “better” than women is long gone. Women are now seen in every profession and businesses, holding high positions and leadership roles. However, due to growing roles of women, they have also had to endure a growning industry that has set unrealistic standards for them. Magazines, tv shows, social media outlets, adds, and commercials have all begun to objectify and sexualize women. The culture has set standards for women by putting the skinniest, flawless, tallest, and overall most sexually appealing women out for the world to see. Social media has become
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.
women in powerful positions on television. If girls are not able to see themselves in such
In 2006, Videogames became the most dominate media source in America. They are a great source of entertainment, but gender differences exist in video games and it is important to consider stereotypes because of how society demotes one gender over another. Videogames were once considered “boys only” and is the most male dominated entertainment, in terms of players, audience, and character representation in games (Zorrilla). Many things make up gender studies on videogames such as the option to play as ether a male or female, the physical appearance of the character, the role of the characters, the mechanics of the game, and playing the game itself. The research gathered represents both “corporate display” and an “interior colonization” of Gender in videogames (Connell 69, Millet 25). Key figures and games have strong effects on shaping people’s perspectives on gender roles. Iconic figures such as Lara Croft are used to determine if gender roles exist in videogames. Her identity in pop-culture is viewed as both a sexist dream, and a feminist icon. The role of her character takes human to character interaction to a new level. Before Lara Croft, the common stereotype for females was ether the “Damsel in Distress” or the object of desire for the male hero. Females are constantly underrepresented and not much has been done to solve this problem. Feminist and Patriarchy theories will be bricolage to deconstruct videogames and to view apparent gender in and outside electronic entertainment.
Alexandra Scaturchio, in her article “Women in Media” (2008) describes the media’s idea of beauty as superficial. She supports her argument by placing two pictures side-by-side; a picture of a real, normal-looking woman and her picture after it has been severely digitally enhanced. Her purpose is to show young teenage girls that the models they envy for their looks are not real people, but computer designs. She also states, “the media truly distorts the truth and instills in women this false hope because…they will live their lives never truly attaining this ideal appearance”. Scaturchio wants her readers to realize the media’s distorting capabilities and feel beautiful about themselves, even with flaws.
As more people are claiming their rights and being accepted by society, the media is forced to reach the obedience in a modern way. Women are fighting for they equal right and starting to play leading role in movie and TV shows. For example, not so long ago, I watched “She’s the Man” a movie played in 2006 by Amanda Bynes and Channing Tatum. Byrne’s character, Viola been playing soccer in place of his brother who didn’t want anything to do with soccer or any other sports for that matter. Bynes is really good at soccer and loves sport. She didn’t let herself brake by the tough guys in her team who think she was a man. She subsequently shows the absurdity of gender biases by being the best at what she loves. This type of movie prove there is nothing abnormal to our behavior and it do not make us less of a person when do not conform to norm of
Gaming has long been considered a male-dominated activity. There have been numerous scientific studies conducted to analyze the impact video games have on an individual and vice versa, however one of the most common discussions concerning the gaming community is sexism. With today’s growing audience and the popularity of smart phone gaming, it is a mystery as to why gaming has managed to keep its male-minded stereotypes. Most games reflect the sexist gender roles imposed upon gamers by society, however today’s response is a heated protest, some more dramatic than others. Most gamers are demanding more female protagonists, and developers are listening, but it’s a slow climb to equality in the world of pixels and fantasy. Let us discuss the surrounding influences of the video game community, some setbacks and remarkable breakthroughs in diversifying, and the ways gamers shape the games they play.