Media has made a woman an object and has totally forgotten that she is a human,
making her one of most handy forms of attracting attention and to derive a
desired result. The definition of a woman in terms of the media would be a
person whose young, beautiful, attractive, great body, thin, and everything
about her is perfect. Its unnatural, created in such a way that it blinds people
of reality and such images make women feel inferior and men treat them
accordingly making them realize they aren’t up to the standards.
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Women’s bodies are used as items for amusement for men today in almost every
kind of media and due to that the status of women has been changed drastically,
because of such means of the media women are characterized and tagged with
specific traits. Women need to posses countless qualities in them in order to be
considered worthy of appreciation. Due to the abstract portrayal of women in
media, women find them selves trying their best living up to those standards
just because the media radiates that image they think that is want men want, and
in reality it has become what men really want; a good body. Because that is how
they are judged by their physical appearance and that is the way, things work
these days and the major reason behind this is the media. It is mainly if not
solely responsible for this distorted image women have. Though these qualities
are superficial but because they have been given so much undue importance girls
underestimate themselves because they don’t posses these qualities. (Blanche)
Specially advertisements objectify women and use them as a sex object and
nothing is given more importance than the physical features. Take for example a
shampoo add, though it’s a shampoo add the woman in it would be physically very
attractive, will first be shown as an outcast socially and then after using the
shampoo everything Mira curiously changes for her, her fate starts to shine and
she becomes a head turner gaining everyone’s attention. Such add thus has an
underlined message that makes it a trait that women who have good hair are more
likeable, preferred upon others. This technique clearly shows its preferences
and persuades people that this what they want and openly degrades people who are
deprived of it. This has led to the fact that almost all women today wake up
unhappy of how they look physically, there’s so much to be that no matter how
hard they try it seems futile to be as good as women on TV. Because in media
women are just objects to be used, they are bereft of their rights and feelings,
they are de humanized and hence the media can show them and make use of them in
everyway possible and all to please men. (Melissa Turner, 2001)
The constant portrayal of women as mere objects, ready and available to please
men, creates a cultural attitude where degrading treatment of women is
acceptable because of the lack of belief in the equality of women. The
objectification of women that is caused by the media creates a culture where
women are so objectified that any type of violent or degrading treatment becomes
entertainment for the masses; this becomes more likely as the images become
normalized and women become more objectified. The constant bombardment of media
with women being objectified cannot help but to change attitudes and compel
behavior unique in the extent and devastating particularly for women in their
consequences.
In short media makes use of soft-core pornography that is any form of media that
uses a woman's physical appearance specifically to attract customers or viewers
when it is not necessary in order for the message to be understood, it is
pornography with clothes on and it has gradually been accepted by the society.
References
Blanche, “Media Literacy: Our Cosmopolitan Culture”, by girls for girls media
literacy Http://www.bygirlsforgirls.org/2001/medialiteracy1.html
Turner, Melissa, Expository Magazine, “Tina Coggins and Expository Magazine,
2001 – 2002”, http://www.expositorymagazine.com/cultural_ideology.htm
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