ipl-logo

Sexualization Of Women Today: A Content Analysis

968 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Influence of women on media

According to the ABS (2011), 55.1% of people aged 15-29, read magazines at least once a week. The mass media is an influential force in manipulating the way women are presented and as a result, these depictions of women can have a negative affect on an individuals self image and in turn, their emotional and physical health. Depicting women in sexualised manners through body language and in wearing particular clothing may lead to feelings of shame and appearance anxiety in oneself. The ability to develop a healthy sexual self-image is an important factor to consider in reference to the negative impact that the sexualisation of women in the media can have.

2. Content Analysis: Evidence of Sexualisation of Women Today
A content analysis was …show more content…

This form of depicting women is very narrow, only exploiting the bodies of women rather than showcasing their intelligence, creativity and accomplishments. More often than not, the woman featured on the front of these magazine covers is a celebrity. On the cover of this months ‘Elle’ magazine (as shown) is Reece Witherspoon who is presented in provocative black lace lingerie and is demonstrating sexualised body language through biting her thumb seductively. Additionally, she is surrounded by an article relating to sex and other phrases revolving around physical appearance such as “Styling tricks to know” and “Beauty upgrade”. She is an example of a celebrity boasting a plethora of accomplishments including motherhood, success as an actress and in claiming multiple industry awards. This is a repeated theme in all 6 covers. The portrayal of women in this way can lead to slow self esteem, eating disorders, depression and unhealthy sexual development. Not only that, but an individual may believe that they must conform to these particular appearances and …show more content…

The article discusses how girls as young as 8 are developing chronic illnesses and disorders due to the sexualisation of women in magazines and what they suggest on the covers. Young girls, for example, look at these covers of women and see that being sexually attractive equates with being successful or ideal. These unrealistic ideals in turn have a negative impact on young women. ”In addition to leading to feelings of shame and anxiety, sexualising treatment and self-objectification can generate feelings of disgust toward one 's physical self. Girls may feel they are "ugly" and "gross" or untouchable. … strong empirical evidence indicates that exposure to ideals of sexual attractiveness in the media is associated with greater body dissatisfaction among girls and young women.” This links to my content analysis where by I found that the majority of the magazine covers or 100% of those examined, did display these factors surrounding the sexualisation of women, which are clearly affecting individuals and especially adolescents, evident through this article.

4. Conclusion
To conclude, from the content analysis, it was proved that the sexualization of women is a highly common trend in today’s magazine covers and although only 6 out of the myriad of magazine covers were chosen and examined, this

Show More
Related
555 Words | 3 Pages

In this sincere essay, Teal Pfeifer creates an logical appeal that enlightens readers about the desperate need to boycott the magazines that use impractical female bodies, causing damage to young women. Pfeifer’s analytical evidence promotes an informative tone that makes her more trustworthy. Pfeifer states that according to research of Liz Dittrich, “twenty-seven percent reported that the images of models exerted direct pressure on them to lose weight” (Pfeifer 255). Pfeifer creates reasonable appeal with specific evidence based on studies that have been performed supporting her purpose to inform the reader. This creates an informative tone by including evidence of the situation at hand relating to the amount of women suffrage through the images exposed to them.

Read More
1375 Words | 6 Pages

IB Business and Management SL Internal Assessment Will the expansion of Covergirl models affect their reputation? Fanola McGarrity TABLE OF CONTENTS CONTENTS PAGE Introduction Commentary: Political Commentary: Social Beliefs Conclusion Bibliography Appendix Page 3 Page 4-5 Page 5-6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9-12 Introduction Covergirl has grown rapidly throughout the United States.

Read More
266 Words | 2 Pages

In the entertaining article “Turning Boys Into Girls”, Michelle Cottle enlightens the readers of how unrealistic depictions in media and advertisements are increasing men’s attention to self image in order to show the damaging effects media has when targeting the insecurities of men and women. Michelle Cottle utilizes relatable language to inform the readers of the effects the media has on men’s body image and how it “levels the playing field” for women. Cottle writes words like “beef-cake” and “whippersnappers” to appeal to younger males. The word choice implements a conversational tone that youth will find easier to relate to. She targets young men and boys to reinforce how damaging media and advertisements are.

Read More
424 Words | 2 Pages

Most current media is bias. The government needs to work towards making the media more progressive, which will decline the affects of harmful media. To reduce this concern, the government can limit what consists in the media due to strict policies. Everyone needs to work together to reduce the biases involved in the media. Also, according to College Men’s Third person Perceptions about Idealized Body Image and Consequent Behavior portrays that young children “who are influences by the idealized body images portrayed in the media tend to compare their bodies to the media”

Read More
735 Words | 3 Pages

The ideal of a women magazine model are full of photos with women who are typically white and very thin. Many women will agree that they may feel pressured to dress or look a certain way because of the way the models look. The media can make women feel insecure about themselves and have low self-esteem. The messages in the media says that women will always need to make an adjustment to fit the “ideal” look. Since, the media portrays such images and make women feel like beauty is important women need to make sure they love themselves.

Read More
525 Words | 3 Pages

In the essay by Yusufali, she boldly writes: "[By] reading popular teenage magazines, you can find out what kind of body image is "in" or "out"' (page 52). By this, Yusufali explains how women

Read More
1459 Words | 6 Pages

From a sociological standpoint, today’s media’s sexualization of females is spreading like wildfire, and making this type of perception into a norm—the idea that women should feel the need to act “sexy” in order to attract

Read More
711 Words | 3 Pages

Today's society is constantly besieged by the media, through advertisements and extolling the importance of female beauty and discrediting other virtues such as

Read More
2531 Words | 11 Pages

The objectification theory states that women who consume objectifying messages from the media will eventually adopt objectifying perspectives of themselves. It is stated as self-objectification dehumanizes people. That dehumanization can turn into acts of sexual violence. It is known that many convicted rapists had fallen on the idea that their act was justified by objectification. This article assesses the acceptance of the objectification of women by using two scales.

Read More
1921 Words | 8 Pages

Sexual objectification is a very real issue that is easily propagated by the actions one takes, the language one uses, and the behaviors one glorifies. In a society where women take to calling themselves ‘bitches’ and ‘hoes’, young girls grow in an environment that reduces women to toys and sex objects and males in college campuses search for strip clubs where females are paid to fulfill sexual fantasies. People in western society live and laugh about the pornography industry while refusing to see the harmful and addictive effects it can have on its consumers. In order to ensure that future generations develop with the right social foundations, it is important to analyze the media with which we surround ourselves and develop an understanding of how it can affect one’s

Read More
1209 Words | 5 Pages

This form of objectification is often used as a means to appeal to men's sexual desires in order to promote and attract consumers, because marketers still latch onto the old “sex sells”, or so it would seem (Rowland, 2016). Music videos, magazines, fashion commercials, are all channels through which women are exploited and put out to be headless objects isolated for their bodies solely for sexual pleasure and viewing purposes. Rowland explains that although this charade may allure and trap most men, this is not the case for women. Emma Rooney cites in The Effects of Sexual Objectification on Women's Mental Health, “the sexual objectification of women is a driving and perpetuating component of gender oppression, systemic sexism, sexual harassment, and violence against women”. Jessica Vanlenti writes in ‘Worldwide sexism…Women’, that researchers from The University of Missouri-Kanas and Georgia State found these forms of objectification to be linked to women’s psychological distress, and are leading causes of suicide among young adolescent women.

Read More
975 Words | 4 Pages

Children are being pushed to look and dress like women who are manufactured to be the image of perfection, when the sexualization of women in media is driving a oversexualization of children in real life. Based on findings from an experiment at Journal of Adolescent Health testing the sexual knowledge of thousand children the researcher determined, “Adolescence is a developmental period that is characterized by intense information-seeking, especially about adult roles and, given the lack of information about sexuality readily available to teens, adolescents may turn to the media for information about sexual norms." (Journal). If this adolescence reliance of media for information on social norms, the observation from a New York Times article stating that, “…some studies indicate three-fourths of all girls have had sex during their teenage years and 15% have had four or more partners” (Schleifer) displays a connection to the inappropriate messages that the media is giving and the actions children are taking consequently. The use of sexualized television advertisements is creating generations of children who are more worried about how they are perceived regarding their sexualized

Read More
1385 Words | 6 Pages

In a society that is heavily influenced by mass media, women are repeatedly compartmentalized into unrealistic, and often degrading standards of appearance and sexuality. Doris Bazzini’s research on magazines and Caroline Heldman’s blog explores themes related to a woman’s appearance, while Jessica Valenti elaborates on the concept of virginity in her essay titled, “The Purity Myth”. Despite the diversity in scope when it comes to womanhood, there is a numerous set of expectations that a female must fit in order to be “ideal”. However, this checklist is so specific and debasing that it renders the criteria useless. The three main pre-requisites in being the ideal woman include physical attractiveness, sexual accessibility, and purity.

Read More
1091 Words | 5 Pages

With Happiness Comes Success A successful person is someone who takes on obstacles strives for their goals through easy and struggling times. “What Drives Success?” is an article by Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld which talks about how there is actually a secret to success; the secret is that there are three traits that learned from family, specifically parents but if these traits weren’t obtained then they can be obtained through hard work and courage. The way students see education is part of what makes a successful college student, but there are some demands in college that students may face such as being able to pay for school while supporting themselves, and sometimes their family, work issues, and balancing school with real life. In college

Read More
133 Words | 1 Pages

In today’s modern culture, almost all forms of popular media play a significant role in bombarding young people, particularly young females, with what happens to be society’s idea of the “ideal body”. This ideal is displayed all throughout different media platforms such as magazine adds, television and social media – the idea of feminine beauty being strictly a flawless thin model. The images the media displays send a distinct message that in order to be beautiful you must look a certain way. This ideal creates and puts pressure on the young female population viewing these images to attempt and be obsessed with obtaining this “ideal body”. In the process of doing so this unrealistic image causes body dissatisfaction, lack of self-confidence

Read More

More about Sexualization Of Women Today: A Content Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document