Media portrayal on women
There are many ways in which the media portrays gender in stereotypical ways. Media can include television, magazines, radio, internet, movies and even video games. The majority of people today come in contact with one or more sources of media each and every day. The topic of how gender is portrayed by the media has been a large issue, due to the fact that many people are so influenced by the images they see and the things they hear through media. Laura Kramer states that “In the last decade, sociologists of gender and women’s studies scholars, more generally, have turned increasing attention to the body, as a site for making claims of identity, for negotiating one’s social position, and for embracing, enforcing, or resisting the gender system.” Women more than men are the target of many advertisements in media and in return women are pressured to maintain an "ideal" image that is shown in media.
Model being used in advertising
What makes a woman beautiful according to her portrayal in advertising? She is young, tall, blonde, tan, most often white, her body flawless due to medical procedures and most of all thin, well below the recommended weight for her height. The perfect body shape that is being presented in advertisements is well under the normal weight of the average woman. While the average height and weight for a model is 5’10” and 110 lbs, the height and weight for an average woman is 5’4” and 145 lbs. With those facts at hand it is easy to see why young girls in the United States are at such a high risk for eating disorders. Two things that are not really understood by younger girls is that the body image used in advertisements is unattainable to the majority of women and that anything less than perfection in advertisements are somehow altered. Photos are altered by airbrush and are taken in the right angle in the right lighting. The women being photographed also have professional hairstylist and make-up artist to enable images that are both restricted and negative. They are restricted and negative due to the fact that they misrepresent who women really are. Women are stereotyped as one image and that image is of perfection. That image does not allow women to be viewed as diverse, individual women.
Thin Model in advertising
To understand why the models that are being used in advertising have such a negative effect on young girls, one must take a look at the negative effects that these models cause; eating disorders. The unattainable image of beauty portrayed by advertisements has generated an unhealthy environment for young girls. Young girls see these stereotypical images of what a woman should look like in advertisements and in trying to achieve that look they can develop low self-esteem, depression and eating disorders. While eating disorders affect both men and women, according to the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (2003), research shows that more than 90 percent of those who have eating disorders are women between the ages of 12 and 25. Anorexia and bulimia are the two leading eating disorders prevelant in women.
Anorexia is an illness that is very common in young girls. It is common among girls 15-19 years old and has been seen in girls as young as 8. Anorexia is characterized by not eating with the hopes of becoming thin. They begin to loose a lot of weight and at that point they can no longer bear the fact of gaining that weight back so they continue to not eat and loose weight. Anorexia is a result from a distorted body image. As stated from the National Alliance on Mental Illness,bulimia is a serious eating disorder that is distinct by a destructive pattern of binge-eating and frequent inappropriate behavior to control one's weight. A person who has bulimia lacks control of their eating behavior and over eats. They follow these episodes of overeating with laxatives, diuretics, and self induced vomiting to loose weight. Bulimia nervosa typically begins in adolescence or early adulthood. Like anorexia nervosa, bulimia mainly affects females. Studies indicate that about 50 percent of those who begin an eating disorder with anorexia nervosa later become bulimic.
Throughout the past century it is no wonder why eating disorders in women, especially young girls due to the fact they are the most vulnerable, has become such a problem. Young girls have been pushed to stay thin and maintain the images that are presented in the media and through advertisements. No matter where young girls go, what they listen to, and even the images they see, young girls are bombarded with the idea that to be successful and happy, they must be as beautiful and thin as the models presented in advertisements. The portrayal of these models influence the acceptable, but sometimes unattainable standard of beauty in a young girl’s society. With these young girls being exposed to images that are unrealistic they develop self esteem issues and then they become dissastified with their own bodies. With having a low self esteem due to the images in the media young girls develop issues such as depression and anxiety. With these problems at hand it becomes hard for young girls to feel attractive and accepted in our society.
The sexualization of the women in the media
Throughout all forms of media it is obvious to see that we live in a world that is very sexualized. Magazine advertisements, magazine pictures, commercials and even ads on the internet are shown in a sexual way and women are usually the objects of sexualization in the ads. Sexualization is when a person's value comes only from his/her sexual appeal or behavior, to the exclusion of other characteristics and when a person is sexually objectified (ie. made into a thing of another's use). Throughout the media it is obvious to see that women are very sexualized and they are usually portrayed as objects that belong to men in these advertisements. One ad which shows exactly how women are sexualized and how they are objects that belong to men is the Dolce & Gabbana ad (located at top of page). There is just one girl in the ad that is laying down while a man is on top of her holding her arms down. The ad is showing that the woman is the object of the men and it is making her look like she is inferior to the men. With ads such as the Dolce and Gabbana one, women then decide that they should treat their bodies as sexual objects. With women treating their bodies as sexual objects it then leads women to believe that that is all that is important. Also with these ads showing women as sexual objects, men then begin to believe that the sexual image of women is what is important and what makes them "attractive". With this sexualized image that is being portrayed in the media it becomes hard for women to be accepting of their own beauty and constantly compare themselves to images in the media which are more often times unattainable.
References
https://sites.google.com/site/mediasportrayalonwomen/
