Kenechukwu Igweze

Mrs. Armstrong-Sanchez

English 110

9 September 2011

Life, who makes the choices? you or the media

Most people think that they are completely in control of their own thoughts, emotions, actions, basically their whole lives and the way they see other people. However, in actuality, they are not. In the society we live in today, we are all brought up on stereotypes and expected to fill the supposed roles of the child, the woman, and the man. All we see on TV, in commercials, magazines, and on the internet is the stereotypical person. The big strong male figure, the mother or the sexy and thin female figure, these are some of the types of characters portrayed in everything that we intake from the media. The media is a massive information network that connects people to the world, which is beneficial, however , it also misrepresents different groups of people which in turn warps the minds of its audience. It forces us to prejudge, and we grow up on these often false representations of the world. The representation of women in the media has changed a lot in the last couple decades, Many of us would agree that some strides have been made in how the media portrays women in movies, TV and magazines, and that there has been an increase in the presence and influence of women in media. Nonetheless, female stereotypes continue to expand in the media we take in every day. Images of female bodies are everywhere. Women's bodies are used to sell everything now a days. Many actresses and other women that are used as marketing props are now encouraged to be thinner. These impossible to achieve standards of beauty are pushed on all women, most of whom will never be able to achieve those picture perfect bodies. It causes women to feel bad about themselves, and also imposes the wrong ideals to young girls who see these images as well. Not only are