Depictions of Women in Media

Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,3 (A), Martin Luther University (Institute for Anglistics/ American Studies), course: Twentieth-Century American Women's History, language: English, abstract: According to Webster's Dictionary, media is 'a medium of cultivation, conveyance, or expression'1. It contains newspapers, magazines, television, radio, the internet, video games, and much more. Undoubtedly, not only men but also women appear in media. Along with it, women are bombarded by lots of media pictures every day, nowadays. Those pictures present women who are beautiful only if they are slim, pretty, and culturally accepted. In the opinion of the viewers, television is supposed to be the medium that is most 'real'. In that case, one has to question the correctness of the images of women on television and how this affects the attitudes of the viewers. Advertisements are probably the most influential products on television. Here, women are mainly pictured as a housewife who is married, with children, and who is obsessed with cleanliness or as a sex object who is tall, with long legs, wonderful teeth, hair, and skin. Similarly, the image of women as sex objects can be found in other media such as magazines, music clips, or video games. One can find many examples for each. Thus, Britany Spears hardly wears any clothes in her music videos and men who are shown in the background of music clips are fully clothed while women in the same position are close to be naked2. If you have look at computer games you won`t find many women in it but if so they are very much sexualized - 'wearing tight revealing clothes and having unrealistically large breasts, and distorted small waists'3 - such as Lara Croft. This paper will deal with those images of women and consequently the effects of them. Concerning the effects this work will concentrate on the increasing prevalence of plastic surgery, especially among teenagers, eating disorders, and low self-esteem nowadays. 1 Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (1997), 10th edition. Springfield. 2 What's the problem? Facts about girls, women and media, No name. No date. 3 pages. Online. Internet. April 25, 2004. Available: URL:http://www.mediaandwomen.org/problem.html p. 1-2. 3 Ibid., p.2.