Portrayal Of Women In The Media

People rarely ever realize that the media plays an important role in defining who they are (Newsom J.). In fact, people compare their experiences to others to understand their lives, and the lives they usually compare it to are the ones they see in magazines, TV, billboards, movies, and other media (Kirk &Okazawa-Rey, 60). For this reason, girls and boys grow up believing that everything they see on the media is right. However, media under-represents women, they give the idea that women’s value only relies on their youth, sexuality, and beauty (Newsom J.).

A consequence of portraying women in such way is shown by statistics. “In the last years, rates of depression among girls and women have doubled” (The representation project), and this pressure

Media are not “real” but they affect people in real ways because we take and have meaning for ourselves out of whatever we’ve been given by those who do the creating (Kirk &Okazawa-Rey, 61). One or more people create a reality and show it to the public, who accept the ideas as a reality (Center for media literacy, 2). For example, A model can be pictured with a perfect body and a beautiful face, but the reality behind that image is that there were people working to include and exclude certain things about that picture. Maybe they tried to omit the wrinkles on her forehead, but they tried to enhance her beautiful blue eyes. Because the final result they show is not real, this media message is considered “constructed” (Center for media literacy, 2). This is what is discussed in the documentary Miss Representation. Jean Kilbourne explains that the media shows girls unattainable beauty standards, but perfection is not the reality since other people work to the model look the way they do with computer programs. This flawless image of women is what affects the mentality of teenagers who are a vulnerable class in society because they are not as emotionally or intellectually mature as an adult. (Newsome

Most media get their revenue from advertising. (Newsom) U.S. advertisers spent $253.6 billion in 2009. (Newsom) This shows the strong relationship there is between profit and the media. The real purpose of the programs on television, or the articles in a magazine, is to create an audience so that the network or publisher can sell time or space to sponsors to advertise products. Sponsors pay for the time to show a commercial based on the number of people the network predicts will be watching (Center for media literacy, 6). This is why the publisher transmits programs that result attractive, and one of the things that attract most young ones is sexuality. Additionally, the advertisement may also use women’s bodies to sell products also sell sexuality. Then, two institutions use the image of an attractive woman to gain an audience: the tv network, or magazine and the advertising company. Women are objectified, they are used as sexual