Assignment 17- Kaylyn Torkelson

Women in the Media

Kaylyn Torkelson

By choosing whose voice is heard and what is important enough to be reported on, today’s media is able to shape the way people think about themselves and others. With such an ever increasing influence, mass media can bring about a lot of change in society. However, media portrayals can also have a disparaging effect on the way people view themselves, as is the case often times with women and young girls. According to the documentary Miss Representation, originally aired on Oprah’s OWN Network in October of 2011, media stereotypes show young girls at an early age that “a woman’s value and power lies in her youth, beauty, and sexuality, not in her capacity as a leader.” Through magazines, newspapers, television, and radio, girls are shown that they have to fit a certain mold to be desirable and worthwhile, leading to a negative effect on both the physical and mental health of those children. Speaking out against stereotypes and providing strong women role models is the only way to curb the effects of a deleterious media and to prevent these issues in future generations of young women.
          In both print advertisements and television today, the majority of women shown possess an “ideal” body type that may be unattainable for many of today’s women and children. The focus on this “ideal” body type leads many young children to believe that if you don’t look like the women on TV, then there’s something wrong with you. The prevalence of this mindset has led many teenagers towards eating disorders and physical harm. A study published by the New York Times in 1999 demonstrated this effect. After the release of television shows with skinny protagonists such as “Melrose Place” and “Beverly Hills 90210” in Fiji, the incidence of bulimia and anorexia rose almost twenty percent among teenage girls, even though eating disorders had been virtually non existent a few years before. The media is affecting the way teenagers view their bodies, while also showing young girls what you must strive towards to be considered attractive. According to Gigi Durham, author of the novel The Lolita Effect: The Media Sexualization of Young Girls and What We Can Do About It, children at an early age are learning that “there’s only one kind of sexy,” which everyone should work towards being, and that “the younger a girl is, the sexier she is.” These statements make up the Lolita Effect, which the media uses to “undermine girls’ self confidence” and “condone female objectification.” This Lolita Effect leads to an over-sexualization of young girls, who are becoming sexually active at younger ages. Inspired by the women whom they see on everywhere, young girls are beginning to dress and act like the actresses and stars they see today.

Media has yet to change its harmful representation of women because the sole focus of advertisements, newscasts, and print publications is economic in nature. The media is not interested in the physical and mental safety of young children and teenagers; they’re only interested in the safety of their overflowing pocketbooks. We can’t continue to put the fate of the young people of our country into the hands of people who don’t care what they do with it. As consumers of this media bias, it is our job to tell the media that this is not okay. It is our job to improve the situation of women in the media, so children don’t have to experience what we went through as kids. Don’t buy into the stereotypes that the media spits out about women. Don’t support companies that continuously place value in a woman’s appearance over her other abilities. The young girls of today and tomorrow need to learn from strong women role models instead of the over-sexualized, unattainable props that media makes women out to be. Showing young girls that the stereotypes the media presents are wrong and promoting the idea that everyone is beautiful, whether or not they fit those stereotypes. Television, radio, magazines, and newspapers should be utilized for the purpose of making teenagers and young girls more confident in their selves instead of worse.