...it is obvious that what we should be thinking of women today (obtain authority, become a successful business woman, getting paid equal to men), is extremely different to how women are portrayed in the media. Todays women in the media are sexualized, they provide unrealistic expectations, and there are undeniable stereotypes. To begin, women are exceedingly sexualized in the media. Pornographic pictures of women are a huge component of media today, which leads to the objectification of women. By having these women viewed as sexual objects, the main reason why marketing companies do this is to attract men, and to have other women looking up to the advertised women as a role model. A good example is the Calvin Klein commercials, where women are seen as sexualized (making other women jealous and wanting to be like them) and sexually attracting men (if they buy this product they will get the girls). Another example is the MTV channel. The women on this channel will arouse sexual fantasies, but the less seductive more modest female singers barely get...
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...The media is selling the idea that girls’ and woman’s’ value lies in their youth, beauty and sexuality and not in their capacity as leaders. Boys learn that their success is tied to dominance, power, and aggression. Many would agree that some strides have been made in how the media portray women in film, television and magazines, and that the last few decades have also seen a growth in the presence and influence of woman in media behind the scenes. Documentaries such as “Miss Representation” focus on outlining the flaws and misrepresentation media has on woman and girls. Their project aims to challenge and change the way media objectifies woman. Nevertheless, female stereotypes continue to thrive in the media we consume everyday. Gender stereotypes are everywhere. Stereotypes are defined as a “generalized view or...
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...The Media’s Representation of Women The greatest problem facing women is the way the media portrays and represents them. America’s population is about 51% female, but the media is mainly focused on men and their actions (The Problem). Many things in the media that are said are sexist and degrading to women. Ads with completely normal meaning such as trying to sell food or other products are oversexualized with women in them, trying to convince people to get the product. This pressure from the media to be perfect and ideal can cause eating disorders, encourage self harm and dangerous behavior, and lead to other mental illnesses. The National Organization for Women created a campaign that promotes women and encourages them to be willing to try new things. The media is unfair to women and there must be a way to help it get better and help women reach equal representation with men in the media. Men are represented in the media much more than women are. In about a 3 to 1 margin, males outnumbered females in front page newspaper headlines in coverage of the 2012 presidential election. On TV talk shows aired on Sundays, of all people interviewed women made up 14% and only...
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...In a country that spends about $55-billion on cosmetics, it is no surprise that 82% of women apply makeup to increase their self-confidence (Cash, 1989, p.351). This depressing statistic means that only 18% of women do not need to apply makeup to increase their self-confidence. In today’s American society, we are constantly bombarded by images of flawless, perfect figured girls in the media. The media is allowed to set the beauty standard, and its presence can become harmful towards women, and society as a whole. The media reinforces its message through a number of outlets such as: advertisements, social media, and magazines, ultimately making its influence inescapable. Although it may be too late to change the media’s grip on our generation,...
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...Our media is a reflection of our society, and unfortunately our society often mirrors that reflection. How can we claim to be a progressive culture when we regurgitate the same problematic tropes that have plagued our society for centuries? We are always exposed through television, the Internet, movies, radio, advertisements, the—list is endless. Even during infancy, we have internalizing media that has likely been our first exposure to many new concepts. If we take American hegemony into consideration, then our country’s media is being assimilated into countless countries throughout the world. The assimilation of westernized sexism, racism, homophobia, and transphobia is being internalized by Western and non-Western people alike. Our criticism...
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...The treatment of women in the media is an issue that is discussed very often. Many women in the media go through a lot of different obstacles;due to how they are portrayed. Also many of them have to change their way of life due to the demands of the media. Women in the media are not treated fairly and do not get the same opportunities as men. Many women in the media are not portrayed in a very positive way. Anna Davtyan-Gerorgyn stated, “Magazines and advertising usually portray women as; young and slim and many other things.” Many women are viewed as sex objects when they are being on the media. Women allow themselves to portray in that way because they believe that it is what people like to see. Women see other women in the “perfect body” and want to change their body shape. Anna davtyon-Gevorgyn also stated, “That the amount of women on the news broadcast were limited” (cite). This proves that women do not get the same treatment as men when it comes to the news and other podcast. Many people do not pay attention to the way women are acting, due to how everyone have become a custom to this way of life....
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...The last 25 years have seen tremendous strides for women in terms of social change. However, there is a disconnect between what is happening in our culture and what is reflected in mainstream news media. With the influx of more female participation in youth, high school, college, and professional sports, it can rightfully be assumed that coverage would also increase. This, however, is false. Over time, women’s athletics have received less time on screen because of the overwhelming number of men’s sports and the disinterest in women’s sports all together. When broadcasted, the overall attitude and tone toward the female athletes and the program are poor. This differs drastically from those of men’s sports. The media coverage of women’s sports media, the enthusiasm, and overall attitude toward these athletic...
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...In the essay “Out-of-Body Image” by Caroline Heldman, Heldman illustrates the strain on the relationship between a woman and her body caused by the manipulation in the media. Early on in the essay, Heldman makes it clear that the media has an issue sexualizing women and she does it through tone and the words she chooses. In the introduction of the essay she discusses the typical body figures people see in advertisements; they are “impossibly slim (and digitally airbrushed).” The words impossible and digitally suggest this sense of fabrication and falseness, a perception that cannot be reciprocated by a typical woman. She continues by suggesting that the depictions of women in the media is poisonous and highlights just how bad the impact of the media is, that it is comparable to poison and is harming not only women but young girls who view these advertisements as well. Heldman also demonstrates the direct effects the “poison” has, she mentions that self-objectification leads to eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. These disorders stand out from the essay because they discuss a serious disease that could affect young girls and women. Heldman then focuses on the young girl aspect of the problem when she mentions the American Psychologists Association investigative report. The report found that girls as young as seven years old were learning to objectify themselves after watching advertisements and across other medium. Heldman states, “Teaching them to think of themselves...
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...eye of the beholder” but what if the beholder’s vision is blurred? The media today dictates what is beautiful, and these standards are so high that they are impossible to reach. Both Camille Paglia and Daniel Akst point this out in their essays about the effects these standards have on the general population. Paglia uses an appeal to the emotion of her upper-class middle-aged women audience who may choose plastic surgery as a method to stay beautiful whereas Akst uses all forms of rhetorical devices to appeal to everyone in defining what beauty truly is. Camille Paglia, Yale graduate and professor of humanities and media studies at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, says in her essay “The Pitfalls of Plastic Surgery” depicts the belief in the beauty of uniformity. Women have a belief that if they don’t look a certain way, then they are not beautiful, so they turn to plastic surgery. In an excerpt from her essay, Paglia shows us this example of a media sex icon “...Amazonian superheroines like Lara Croft: large breasts with a flat midriff and lean hips, a hormonally anomalous profile that few women can attain without surgical intervention or liposuction” (793). What Paglia attempts to accomplish with this essay is to appeal to the emotions of these women, so that they will not lose identity in this sea of uniformity. But woman are constantly having to compete with the young and sexy media icons and turn to things like botox. However, the need to be forever young...
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...African American's Journey Essay Below is a free essay on "African American's Journey" from Anti Essays, your source for free research papers, essays, and term paper examples. “African American’s Journey to Freedom” Charity Johnson HIS204: American History since 1865 Instructor: Leslie Ruff February 11, 2013 “African American’s Journey to Freedom” To some African Americans it may seem ironic that The United States of America is known as “the land of the free” considering that majority of their ancestors entered the US as slaves. African Americans were brought to North America via the middle passage which originated during the fifteenth century. They were enslaved for approximately 400 hundred years until the end of the Civil War in 1865. Although African Americans were enslaved in America, they were determine to survive and one day be freed in this great country. During The African American’s journey to freedom several significant events took place which was inclusive of but not limited to: The Civil Rights Movement of 1865-1877, Separate but Equal Legislation (Plessy vs. Ferguson court case) in 1896, The Harlem Renaissance of 1920, Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954, The March on Washington Movement of 1963, and The Black Power Movement of the late 1960s and 1970. I will discuss the significance of these events in relation to the African American journey to freedom and how they have help shape American society today. THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT OF 1865-1877 Frequently when...
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...In today’s society, people are more exposed to variety types of social media as we are living in an Information Era that allows us to exchange information freely in a short time. For example, we can see lots of television program that delivers persuasive messages to us so that they can influence us, even though some of it is not true and not even beneficial. One of it is, we can see nowadays, that the issue in which woman always concern about their body image and think that there is only one ideal and perfect size is all because of the influenced by media. Media tend to show and portrays unrealistic standards of beauty. It gives people, especially women a lot of pressures until it have successfully predisposed women’s behavior till they are willing to do anything for the sake of having that “perfect” size and shape—super thin body. By using an essay written by Deborah Tannen “There is No Unmarked Woman” as a reference, we can see that women tend to do their best, as it is a must for them to dress up attractively to astound other people as it is unavoidable for women to be judged by other people...
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...she has encountered in her life. Cofer is known for the publishing of three collections of poetry, four essay collections, four novels, and short story collections. Cofer is currently “Regents’ and Franklin Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Georgia” (230). In this essay Cofer often experiences being stereotyped based off her beauty and ethnic background. Cofer is a beautiful Hispanic woman “who so obviously belongs to Rita Moreno’s gene pool” (231), as she stated in the beginning of the essay. Cofer begins the essay by relating an experience where a drunk man started singing "Maria”, from "Westside Story” (231) to her, while she is on a bus trip to London from Oxford. Cofer tries to keep her cool even though everyone around her finds it entertaining. Cofer states “I managed my version of an English smile: no show of teeth, no extreme contortions of facial muscles. . .” (231). At this moment, Cofer is aggravated by the actions of the drunk man but tries to keep her composure. Cofer feels that just because she is beautiful that does not...
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...MacCosmetics.com speaks to us through a conversation of which we are not aware; we are told messages that implicitly consist of the way western societal standards are set for men and women. Through Mac Cosmetics we are able to define what is beautiful by simply reading through the visual semiotics used. We respond, although passively and sometimes unconsciously, to these messages by defining our place and role in society. Furthermore, many times our own self-worth is lavishly filled or enormously plastered by viewing Mac’s propaganda. However, we continue as faithful customers because it is what our society expects from us: to be faithful consumers. Wherefore, the main argument of the proposed essay is that MacCosmetics.com promotes an intangible, vague and an erroneous representation of people in society, specifically in terms of gender roles and self-appraisal. As an active media channel, Mac Beauty Products alludes to selling beauty but in fact their message is one of negativity towards the naturally beautiful. Therefore, the message they denote implicitly is not the same as the one shown explicitly; the characters, the magic of this company, its current status in the market/society, and our own sentiment towards it frame the way we perceive the message and what message we ultimately perceive. This essay will touch on three specifics: Mac’s message on gender roles as portrayed by their advertisements, Mac’s use of implicit visual semiotics to display the message, and Mac’s explicit...
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...Their thighs are too big, their breasts are too small, their hair is boring, their skin is flawed, their body is shaped funny or their clothes are outdated. Today these are the thoughts of many women who feel they’re not beautiful. Naomi Wolf’s essay “The Beauty Myth” explores, why women feel they don’t measure up. Meanwhile Helena Maria Viramontes’ short story “Miss Clairol” examines the life of Arlene, who is a product of “The Beauty Myth”. Each author shows the power exerted by beauty ideals over women’s identities and goals, including the anxieties produced in women by these beauty ideals. The basis of Wolf’s essay was to show as time progresses it seems, the standards of physical beauty have grown stronger for women as they gained power in other social arenas. “The more legal and material hindrances women have broken through, the more strictly and heavily and cruelly images of female beauty have come to weigh upon us” (120) Women have accomplished so much over the past few decades yet, as you watch television or walk around the city, images of pencil thin women are shown to basically tell you that what you see is beautiful and if you don’t look like that you’re not. Wolf states that women today feel a need to purchase cosmetics to make them feel a sense of beauty, this is actually evident in “Miss Clairol” when Arlene is getting ready for her date, “She has painted her eyebrows so that the two are arched and even, pencil thin and high.” (90) This is showing that...
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...CLT 209 Final Essay Discuss the impact of media on gender identity. Madalen Smith 11473441 Who are we? Who do we want to be? These are questions that have plagued people globally since the beginning of time. Our whole life is dedicated to developing our identity- one that we are happy with and feel reflects whom we are inside. But what influences our identity? And to what extent? We are constantly interacting with media. Subsequently we are continuously absorbing meaning and information whether we realise it or not. This essay focuses on gender identity and the impact the media can have on it. As individuals grow and seek to cultivate and define their identity, is media influencing their thoughts and views? This essay seeks to show that whilst media does in fact play a vital role in how individuals and society view gender the final decision regarding ones gender identity, is something that comes from within. Media both presents ideas and reflects societies already held values. Media does impact on what we view as acceptable for each gender, and what an individual may feel is the norm for their gender, but only to a certain extent. Ultimately gender is something that is felt within the individual and cannot be manipulated by outside things. Media plays a significant role in contemporary societies everyday life. The rapid technological developments that have taken place during the twentieth century has resulted in media becoming prevalent in almost all daily aspects of...
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