Portrayal of Women In The Media

Introduction

 The portrayal of women in the media is an issue that has gained a lot of concern. Mass media takes the form of broad cast media, printed media and outdoor media. Media has been seen to have a lot of effect on the lives of individuals which is an increasing factor as the days go by. Media is a powerful tool that provides us with information and entertainment. It is a reflection of the society that we are and it greatly influences the way we think. The portrayal of the different gender varies and this contributes to the behavior of the growing generation that tends to emulate what they are exposed to by the media and it can be both bad and good. The media has however been seen to do more harm to the development of girls due to the poor portrayal of women in the media.

The portrayal of women in the media can be classified in terms of quality and quantity .In terms of quantity the media has not yet reflected the reality in terms of the women who are seen in the media. The media has given minority roles to women while the majority of the population is women. This has caused young girls to lack role models who they can look up to since there are limited numbers of female characters. This has also generated greatly to the popularity of men characters and the girls have opted to idolize them contributing to the mix up of roles that the girls should take up as they grow.

In terms of quality the media has been seen to portray women as the weaker sex whose value is measured in terms of their usefulness to others and their main roles are described to be domestic rather than leadership roles. The media has also portrayed the women as less likely than male characters to achieve their goals. This images are likely to be accepted as normal by the girls and this will consequently affect their ideas in terms of careers choice and the roles they choose to take in the society with a majority shying of from powerful and leadership positions since this reality is rarely visible (Durham, 210).

When a woman is seen in power, such as female boss, the media portray the woman to be cold- hearted, detached career woman with tendencies that are not common with the men who are in power. This shares the ideologies that a powerful woman sacrifices a healthy relationship, family and at times even her own sanity so as to be in a competitive position and become powerful and influential. This discourages the young girls from aspiring to become influential and powerful in the society and those bold enough to dream they lack role models to guide them through their dream.

The media has also been seen to direct women and girls energies into narrow channels to define their concerns preoccupation and aspirations within an imposed feminine frame work. Apart from physical looks and dressing there is stress of development of women’s mental faculties and behavior that allows male domination in the social structure. In most of the stories in the media, women are depicted with the life ambition of getting a right man and keeping him at all cost. They are also seen to engage in activities that are meant to please men at the cost of their happiness. This affects the romantic and love life of girls, since they feel that they should be there to please men and their main function is to please men even by engaging in activities that will injure them psychologically and physically (Judith, 31).

The media has also been seen to define beauty that has been used as a benchmark that the young girls use to compare themselves with. The media has portrayed beauty as perfect. The media mainly portrays beauty as a size 0, perfect skin and curvy girl. This idea is portrayed since the models used are fabricated to accommodate these qualities. The girls exposed to this images lack the discerning eye of the deception in these images and this leads them to the road of destructive self (Kettles et al, 66).

The description of a women’s relevance and importance in terms of her body is known as objectification of the women where they are made to feel that their bodies define them .In regard to this perception girls tend to feel ashamed and anxious if they do not meet beauty standards promoted in the various media channels.( Klenke, 127)

The definition of beauty of the media has been seen to be attainable among many young girls but they have been constantly seen to engage in activities that would help them attain the rating that would make them be described as beautiful. This has led to eating disorder since the girls are reducing the amount of food consumed so as to get the slim curvy bodies. There have also been seen to be an increased number of psychological disorders such as dysmorphic disorder, where girls obsess over perceived flaws in their appearance. This order can lead to depression, disability and even suicide.

In advertising, particularly in print publications, a women’s body is dismembered to sell a product. This means that only one body part is focused mainly a body part that is sexual in nature. The separated part of the body is then related to the product. (Greening, 4). This doesn’t allow women to view their bodies as a whole; they instead view the body as a composition of separate areas and one area of imperfection that makes it impossible for the rest of the body to be classified as beautiful.

When women are able to see each part of their body separately, it makes it easier to compare their parts to the women on display in the media. Such a comparison is unrealistic and doesn’t allow any woman whose look deviates from the popular images to see themselves as attractive. Media images play a bigger role than do the opinions of friends and family when it comes down to heterosexual women’s formation of their body image (Risska, 2).

The media has also portrayed the aging of women as lose of beauty and for any woman to remain beautiful they must remain youthful and young. This is exhibited by the ladies who are made to look younger and yet play the roles of elderly women. This tendency increases the sale of beauty products that are fashioned to keep an individual from showing the symptoms of aging. This has a negative effect on the girls since they leave in a constant fear of aging which consequently leads to the consumption of anti-aging products by this girls and surgeries that would revert any symptom of age (Wells, 553).

The media is also seen to sexualize girls mostly in fashion and advertisments that are displayed to girls to see in the media. The pressure on girls are exacerbated by the media increasing tendency to portray girls in sexual ways and hyper-sexualization of very young girls, most notably in fashion and advertising, is a disturbing trend given that these stereotypes make up most of the representations of themselves which girls and women see in the media.

The pressures on girls are exacerbated by the media's increasing tendency to portray very young girls in sexual ways. The media exposes a lot of sexuality to young girls and images that portray women to be powerless, passive victims. This contributes greatly to the growth of the girls and the decisions made on their clothing and behavior with most of the girls choosing clothing’s that portray them sexually and girls are now engaging in sex at a younger age which has increased teen pregnancies, STDs, and the number of girls reporting abusive partners. These behaviors are contributed greatly to the sexual images exposed to the girls that make them feel that they are sexual beings and there is no harm in engaging in sexual behaviors.

The pornography industry has also been seen to portray women as sexual objects that serve as objects that are meant to be used for the satisfaction of their male counterparts. The pornographic materials are also seen to show various violent acts against women and acts that would hurt women to be part of the normal sexual life that a omen should endure. This creates a negative mentality among the young women that they should be objects of pleasure and that violent acts against women are normal (Baron et al, 297).

The media is also seen to expose the young girls to materials that show violence against the women for instance, violence against women is publicized in form of rape that is reported in the news. The characteristics of the cases portrayed are those that highlight minority men in singular incidents of rape, involve strangers and those that involve gangs in which in reality are rare. Such emphasis on non typical violence towards women has the effect of minimizing the daily domination and violence that women and girls face ((Baron et al, 298).

When the salience of rape is increased in girl’s minds it tends to affect negatively on the girl’s self-esteem, trust and sense of self-control. The exposure to such violence tends to desensitize girls to such violence with girls tending to rate such imagery as less degrading. It also tends to make girls less sympathetic to a victim in a mild sexual graphically violent condition and they perceive it as normal which should not be the case.

 

 

 

 

Works cited

 Baron, Robert A.; Richardson, Deborah R :Human Aggression. Plenum Pub Corp, 2004. Print.

Durham, Meenakshi G. The Lolita Effect: The Media Sexualization of Young Girls and What We Can Do About It. Woodstock, NY: Overlook Press, 2008. Internet resource.

Greening, K.(2006). The objectification and dismemberment of women in the media. Undergraduate Research Journal for the Human Sciences. Vol 5

Judith worell. (2001). Encyclopedia of women and gender. Sex similarities and differences and the impact of the society on gender l-3. Volume two, Elsevier

Kettles, Michele, Colette L. Cole, and Brenda S. Wright. Women's Health and Fitness Guide. Champaign, ll: Human Kinetics, 2006. Print.

Klenke, Karin. Women in Leadership: Contextual Dynamics and Boundaries. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Pub, 2011. Print.

Risska, R.(1998). SF state researchers release study about women, the mass media, and the development of body image.

Wells, Alan. Mass Media & Society. Greenwich, Conn. [u.a.: Ablex Publ, 1997. Print