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Eleanor Roosevelt once said “no one can make you feel inferior without your consent” (About.com Education). This famous line has been said by women throughout generations. However, inferior is what women feel, and it is without consent. The cause is the misrepresentation of women in the media and how it has drastically changed how women see themselves. Media in our society is constantly sending messages of how women should be viewed and how they should be treated. Women have been misrepresented by the media by hyper-sexualizing them, creating infamous damsels in distress role models in Disney movies. The media has created an unrealistic body image which has negatively affected the mental health of women as well the way men view natural beauty. In politics the Medias representation has devastatingly taken its toll on women’s political efficacy.
One of the most common ways that the media misrepresents women is through the use of sexism. Sexism is defined as the “prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination, typically against women, on the basis of sex” (Merriam-Webster). Everyday society is subjected to commercials of attractive women advertising an object the company is trying to sell. They are not attracting consumers to the product but more to the idea that if they have this product they too will either look like the women portrayed in the commercial or will be able to attain an attractive woman’s attention with this product. Some of these ads include alcohol ads, car commercials, body spray companies as well as many other male directed commercials. Television commercials are not the only ones guilty of this act.
Hollywood has also had a major part in the act of sexism against women. In many movies, women are the damsels in distress. They are always waiting to be saved by a man or trying to find the love of a man. In movies that have a female dominant role, the female is always mean, bossy, unhappy, and has given up on having a family and children to pursue her position of power. However, this of course is never the case in with a male dominant role that always seems to have it all. When women are on screen even in a dominant role, they are still seen as eye candy to appeal to viewers of all ages. Author of Women and Hollywood Melissa Silverstein has quoted, “Female characters are still sidelined, stereotyped, and sexualized in popular entertainment content [...] Females are not only missing from popular media, when they are on screen, they seem to be there for decoration—and not engaging in meaningful or prestigious employment” (Miss Representation). Not only is this a well-documented problem throughout history in Hollywood, this issue has still not gotten any better. An issue with the misrepresentation in television and Hollywood films is that it teaches young women what society thinks they are worth. Another issue that is presented is that it teaches men of all ages that it is acceptable to treat women as sexual objects and to see them as inferior.
Reality television hype-rsexualizes women and degrades them into being objects for men’s enjoyment. The media also turns these women against each other as well, which is not realistic and engrains the idea that this type of behavior is justifiable for young women. Jennifer Pozner, executive director of “Reality Bites Back,” appeared on the documentary of Miss Representation, and expressed her thought of women in reality television shows. She stated, “Women are decorative, stupid, gold diggers, bitches, catty, manipulative, vindictive and untrustworthy, especially to other women” (Miss Representation). This is a major misrepresentation of women and it spreads the message to the public that these character traits apply to all women. Reality television shows like “The Bachelor” also support the idea of hyper-sexualizing women and degrading them to try to win the affection of a single male even if it means going against numerous other women. This show for instance, uses many attractive women to lure in the male viewers. Amongst this is the issue that reality television shows portray women as natural enemies. All of these factors are degrading to the humanity and dignity of women, and not in the slightest bit are even realistic. Women are challenged everyday by the media, most of which are pressures to look a certain way.
Women on magazine covers are role models to young women everywhere. These young women are forced to see what they should look like and who they should be. They are forced to think they need to dress and act a certain way. Magazines portray beautiful women in beautiful clothing. However, these hypersexualized women are photo shopped, which is degrading to the model as well as the women who view them in the magazines. This leads them to believe they will never look like this or go to extreme measures such as anorexia. Women develop eating disorders to try to come close to the size of the model on the cover of the magazine, when in reality it is an altered photograph. Women in today’s society are pressured to look a certain way, a way in which the male counterpart would find them attractive. This has taken a toll on the representation of women and has sadly taken a toll on the public’s health. The American Medical Association announced “it was against image manipulation in advertising, stating that alterations made through processes like Photoshop can contribute to unrealistic body image expectations, eating disorders and other emotional problems” (Psychology Today). Not only does photo shop portray false images and unrealistic appearances, but also it has started to affect the mental health of society in a way that is sometimes irreversible.
Not only is this irreversible in the fact that many people have committed suicide due to not feeling pretty enough or getting bullied for their appearance, but also many women spend thousands of dollars on plastic surgery to try to manipulate their faces and bodies into the ideal perfect body type that society and the media has led us to believe is acceptable beauty. This embraces the misrepresentation of women because the male desire is pushing women to get bigger breasts, flatter stomach, or bigger lips. However, it is perfectly acceptable for a male to be unappealing to the eye and the shame men get are not half as bad of the shame a woman’s body would get. Actress Daphne Zuniga explains in the documentary of Miss Representation that she was asked to get Botox in her face for a movie role because the way she looked was not good enough for the producer. She explained how guilty she felt for doing this to herself and the shame she felt sitting in the chair while she looked up at a fat bald doctor putting needles in her face. When she was discussing this, she wanted to express the idea that women are always pushed to alter their appearances whereas men are not. Another issue with Photoshop is that men are also subjected to believe that the photo shopped models on the cover of magazines are what women should look like. This gives them an unrealistic attitude towards the true beauty of women.
Celebrity and talk show host Julie Chen confessed to having plastic surgery on her eyes to make her look less Chinese. While looking for an agent to represent her she revealed that an agent had told her, “He said, 'I cannot represent you unless you get plastic surgery to make your eyes look bigger'" (Allison Takeda). Her career was important to her so she went through with the surgery and she discussed how it tore her family a part because her family members thought she was ashamed of her culture.
This is just another example how of women have fallen into the pressure of how the media represents women to fit ideal beauty expectations. An article in “Cosmopolitan” explains how after finding out that in Indonesian women with bigger feet are considered more beautiful they have images depicting what beauty is around the world. With quoting “check out what people around the world consider sexy” (Cosmopolitan). This quote leads into different images of women from different cultures and what they consider sexy and attractive. However, they do not note that most of these things that are considered beauty are also a part of their belief system or religion. This magazine bluntly scrutinizes the different types of sexy around the world. They act like it is so bizarre because it is different than what American’s would consider sexy which in turn majorly misrepresents all women around the world.
Women all over the world have grown up with beloved Disney princess movies. Classics such as The Little Mermaid, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and even The Lion King have all shown women to be weak, naïve, love struck and waiting on a man to save them. In The Little Mermaid the main character Ariel only cares about getting Prince Eric, even if it means running away from home, disobeying her father and losing the one thing she loved to do, sing. She gave all of this up in hopes that a Prince would fall in love with her. This portrays Ariel as being weak and needing a man to be happy. In the classic movie Snow White, Snow was poisoned from a poisoned apple from a mean witch who happened to be her jealous step-mother. The only thing to save Snow was a prince to kiss her and save her from death with true loves kiss. This movie touches on a few important aspects of how women are misrepresented. First, her step mother is a middle-aged women who is jealous of her step daughter for being the fairest in all the land. This has set the tone for all step mothers in history to be evil. Secondly, this movie has shown young women that a man you can meet once will be your true love and he will be able to save you from anything, including death. The same story plot continues with Disney’s The Sleeping Beauty. Lastly, The Lion King although it is primarily about a young king running away from his problems while back at home his evil uncle Scar is in control of Pride Rock. When the lioness Nala finds out that Simba is still alive after disappearing she says to him, “you are our only hope” (The Lion King). She says this in regards to overthrow Scar at home and take control of the tribe again. Although, female lions in reality are very strong and independent this is not how they are portrayed in this film. This concept further supports the fact that Disney movies portray poor representation of women. Women are degraded in many ways through the media. Another way women are misrepresented are women who are in a position of power.
During this Presidential election, we have had a woman representing the Democratic Party. That fact alone has brought about many controversial conversations. Most of the opinions and comments are concerning Hilary Clinton. These comments are public via the news, Facebook or public opinion. However the route, this representation has devastatingly taken its toll on women’s political efficacy. When young girls and women who aspire to be the President of the United States see how Hilary Clinton is being represented on television, Facebook, or even from male role models that surround them in their own lives, it will engrave into their minds that they will never be president or want to be. They also will believe that they too will be getting mocked, hated upon, and scrutinized by the public. While watching Miss Representation a woman had discussed that it is important to see a women doing the things you want to do. It is empowering to see a woman succeed in a male dominated field, especially politics. For young women to see Hilary Clinton and the way the media is representing her, it is not going to empower future women presidents in the future. Women in high political positions are seen to be a threat to males. They are also seen to not have the ability to perform as well as a male and are seen to be too emotional for a position such as president. This representation of females in politics will surely cripple women’s representation of power and will affect women for generations to come. Former U.S speaker of the United States, Nancy Pelosi stated “ when I first ran for public office…although my son was a senior in high school, the question I was most frequently asked was, ‘ who’s going to be taking care of your children?’” (Miss Representation). She was mentioning this question because it proves that women are seen as objects to take care of children and stay at home. She also expressed that this was a question that would have never been asked to a male when he was running for office. This misrepresentation of women is detrimental to the future of young women everywhere and it is caused by the media and how they portray women.
When it comes to America, Americans have a small spectrum on what they consider beauty. One of the ways Americans misrepresent women in the media are in one of the oldest infamous competition, “ The Miss America Beauty Pageant”. These pageants take women from different cultures all around the world and judge them based on appearance, how they look in a bathing suit and how well they answer questions to decide if they are worthy enough to become Miss America and be a “role model” to women everywhere. Blogger Kristy Plaza stated, “The Miss America pageant is not the platform for elevating the status of women of color, or women in general. This pageant conveys the message to women that how you look directly correlates to your worth in society” (Neon Tommy). However, this pageant and pageants similar all spread this common message through the media. These pageants are about fitting the mold of what America thinks is beautiful and acceptable. Although, many of these women are pre-med and do amazing charity work, a role model should not be objectified to a certain classification of beauty.
The misrepresentation of women is an epidemic that has never truly gotten better, it has just become different. Women are still hypersexualized in the media and they are still seen as inferior to men. In today’s society, women still do not get equal pay compared to men even if they are doing the same labor. Pozner expressed “You have to look like Miss USA, have sex like Samantha from Sex in the City and think like June Cleaver” (Miss Representation). This quote proves that the media such as television and movies have made a huge impact on the representation of women and even though there are many films with a female dominate role society needs to wonder how misrepresented this woman could be. The usage of television, film, internet and magazines have shaped how society portrays women and how they should be viewed and treated by each other as well as by the male counterpart.
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