2011 Miss Representation

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Miss Representation
Introduction
The media is a very powerful channel of communication to the world. It influences much of societal change, political change and the kind of beliefs that we are expected to carry on with our daily lives. It is a powerful resource that when used wisely can effect change and when used in the wrong way, it could cause harm to the society. This paper aims at looking at how the media portrays certain standards about women.
Media Influence on the Ideal Woman
The media conveys the body image of the ideal beautiful woman to be thin. Majority of the population that watches the mainstream media like the television are women and girls. This is the platform where advertisements are mostly aired. Advertisements of the beautiful, perfect woman are pumped into their heads making them believe that for one to be beautiful, they must have a thin body of the ideal woman “Put simply, the beauty ideal in American culture is: thin.” (Ossola, p2). Many adolescents who are the largest group susceptible to these advertisements and the media philosophy end up being affected greatly in the long run. The media portrays the ideal woman to be of a certain race and of the upper social class. It also depicts the body of the perfect woman regarding appearance that has been beautified by the camera lenses and filters which does not exist in real life.
Girls with fairly larger bodies or average bodies end up having to deal with self-esteem issues or even social insecurities.

Therefore, these kinds of girls develop difficulties in socializing with other teens; which might lead to depression. In a bid to reduce their body sizes to fit into the perfect ideal woman, they tend to cut on eating and take on the diet that the media portrays to be of the ideal woman. Of which most of this meals are largely made up of junk food like snacks or fast-foods. As such, eating disorders are more pronounced in this age; which can be attributed to the fact that girls are really trying hard to be the ideal woman that the media presents.
More and more 12-year-old girls are going on diets because they believe what you weigh determines your worth,” Cutler observed. “When all you see is a body type that only two percent of the population has, it’s difficult to remember what’s real and what’s reasonable to expect of yourself and everyone else (Ossola, 10).
Women from the lower social class tend to be left out because of the media’s message of the perfect kind of dressing that should apply to an ideal woman. These women cannot afford to wear the expensive pieces of clothing that come up in these advertisements, thus, the society discriminates them and this poses a great challenge to these women and girls as the effects are far-reaching. The media gains from these advertisements and also the beauty industry makes a profit as it knows that woman will spend the rest of their lives trying to be that perfect woman that the media puts up; which is entirely impossible. The press puts up a kind of criticism when a woman is running for a political office. Articles about women in politics are centered more on their character traits than men. These traits tend to bend more into personality traits for a woman than men.
Media and women in politics
Women running for office are majorly looked into their way of dressing, makeup, hairstyles and their way of style and criticized by the media. This humiliates them and causes women depression. Also, it discourages women with the potential to deliver to the people from running for office because of the fear of being discriminated upon and their self-esteem put down.
When only male candidates were running, stories focused on character traits 6 percent of the time and political issues 55.5 percent of the time. When only female candidates were running, the stories focused on character traits 9.4 percent of the time and issues 51.7 percent of the time (Bahadur, 4). 
Women politicians are underrepresented by the media before and after elections. The media focuses more on women’s domestic affairs while running for office, for example, asking women politicians about who will be there to raise up their kids or grandchildren. These kinds of questions are not asked men who run for office.
Women politicians voices are often discriminated upon and described as angry bitter or crying by some journalists for example during the campaign for the presidential elections in the united states fox news reporter Sean Hannity was quoted to be saying that he cannot comprehend whether Hillary Clinton’s voice was of anger bitterness or screaming. This type of stereotypic view on women running for office by the media discourages them completely.
Women in the media
Women in the media are few and underrepresented. Women experts are not often called on shows to give their views about a particular subject in their areas of expertise. Women are not represented relatively enough in the sport-related news in the mainstream media and also in sports journalism, an area that is known to be predominantly male. Female soccer pundits are hard to come across in the media. Female representation as news anchors also comes with its bitter share of experiences from the side of the women reading and presenting news. Many are criticized for how they look, dress and how they pronounce words as they read the news. Women are less quoted in articles and magazines despite their contributions to society. The roles of women in films and movies are majorly about showing their bodies or having to be subjective to the dominant male actors. “It was this work of women or sex-role stereotyping that dominated earlier research.”(Thornham, 6).
Women are viewed to be as weak and unfit to play lead roles in movies. Females are twisted in their roles to look up to the males for protection and reproduction as their primary roles in movies. They end up playing the mother roles and kitchen roles most of the time. This sends a message to society as to what kinds of tasks a woman needs to play. Women are a lowly aid in the filmmaking industry. The highest paid woman’s salary is slightly a third of what the most senior male personnel in that position gets paid. Women directors and producers are few as compared to their male counterparts. It is also tough for a woman to direct a movie because of the standards put in place by the mainstream media. Women in movies also have very few speaking roles. “Women, as well as minorities, are cast in support roles rather than leading ones in both children’s shows and the commercials interspersed within them.”(Wood, 34).
Women and authority in the media
There are fewer women in decision making panels and boards of major companies in the United States. Women in the cabinet are also very few, yet they make up for 51% of the population. This means that decision-making process almost entirely involves men. The views and decisions might be right, but in a more profound opinion, it is the minority part of the population that makes those decisions. Also, the opinions of the women are not adequately represented in the final decision making. “The women’s press, for example, continued to be socially conservative even though it seemed to be moving with times.” (Curran, 11).
Women in authority are termed as incompetent if they express their emotions publicly, and this does not apply to men. For example during a tragedy, like the shooting of pupils in schools, if a woman in authority vents out her emotions she is termed as unstable and unfit, yet if it’s a man then the media would speak about the intensity of the attack and its negative impact on the society. The media has also portrayed the woman as an object of sex such that a woman who exposes herself more in the movies will be considered as a star by the media.
Conclusion
The media has not and is not doing enough to promote ideas of building the female population despite them being their largest followers. The media has portrayed an image of a perfect female human being to the world which is impossible to achieve because we all are humans. The media has done much in discouraging women from joining politics by criticizing them in areas which in the end are aimed at bruising their personalities. Women despite being the majority in the population, are not involved directly in the decision-making process.

Works cited
Bahadur, Nina. Women In Politics: Coverage Focuses More On Personality Traits, Less On Issues, Study Finds. 2013. Retrieved from: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/08/women-in-politics-media-coverage_n_3561723.html.
Curran, James. Media and power. Psychology Press, 2002.
Ossola, Alexandra. “The Media’s Effect On Women’s Body Image.” Hamilton, 2010, Retrieved from https://www.hamilton.edu/news/story/the-medias-effect-on-womens-body-image.
Thornham, Sue: pp. 10. Women, feminism, and media. Edinburgh University Press, 2007.
Wood, Julia. 2018, pp. 31-39. Retrieved from: https://www.nyu.edu/classes/jackson/causes.of.gender.inequality/Readings/Wood%20-%20Gendered%20Media%20-%2094.pdf.