Objectification of Women

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On average we are exposed to around 3000 advertisements per day. The majority of these portray women in a sexualised way or being dominated my male figures. It may seem harmless to most people but in reality the media is used as a platform for the constant objectification and degradation of women, sending negative messages about how women should be treated. The phrase “sexual objectification” has been around since the 1970’s and has always been highlighted as a big problem yet nothing has been done to try and stop it. It may seem harmless enough but studies have shown the many negative effects this can have on the women affected with 91% of cosmetic surgery procedures being performed on women and girls as young as 9 becoming aware of their physical appearance. In this day should women still be portrayed as nothing more than an object? Sexual Objectification has taken over life in areas we do not even realise. Even from a young age children are conditioned to believe that males are more important than females. The majority of characters featured in children’s books are male while only a third of lead characters in children’s programmes are final. This portrayal of male and female roles is continued throughout the media with only 12-15% of the highest grossing films being female centric. Objectification is weaved throughout all of our lives, even something that is gender neutral will usually be referred to as male apart from objects such as boats and cars. Throughout history females have always been portrayed as weak figures who need to be controlled by men whose main role is to look after the family. Although women are now more accepted in the workplace they are still expected to look after the family as well as coping with the p... ... middle of paper ... ...highlighted as a major problem in the media it is still an issue even today. Regardless of the many proven negative effects objectification can have on women and young people nothing has been done about it. We must stop using the media as a platform for degrading women and instead use it to tackle the issues it has caused. Children should not have to be raised in a society where women are made to feel like they are not good enough and where it is seen okay to treat them as nothing more than an object of desire. Works Cited http://www.pediatricsdigest.mobi http://www.cristingrogan.com http://www.kon.org/urc/v5/greening.html http://www.psychologytoday.com http://thesocietypages.org http://www.apa.org/education http://www.independent.co.uk/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/ http://www.dailymail.co.uk http://www.news24.com/ http://www.prezi.com http://cratesandribbons.com/

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