Running Head: How Women are Portrayed in America thru media

How women are portrayed in America thru media: Gender analysis of a video and a
website
Melanie Hegel
University of Texas at El Paso








How Women are Portrayed in America thru media
Introduction
Women are frequently portrayed as sex icons or the one that have to stay at
home doing the chores and raising the children. The most popular influences are
websites and videos making it an ok thing in the American culture, why? If the media
says its okay then we are most likely to do it or say it. The Unrealistic Portrayal of
Women in the Media: Beauty and Body Image by Melanie R Salome from yahoo,
explains how in every media source the women is not-real. 5 Minutes Of What The
Media Actually Does To Women by Jean Kilbourne from YouTube. Kilbourne
expresses the realistic view on the magazines and how magazines make the women an
object and not a human. Media has corrupted how we view and misrepresent women
due to the advertising from magazines and videos. This genre analysis is trying to
change how they see women in magazines and in videos. What they are not noticing is
how they are making society think it is okay to show that much skin and that if you are
not a size 0 you are not pretty or if you are no anorexic you will not be happy. Media is
a huge influence throughout our society we see media in almost everything, from
movies to commercials, to brushing your teeth to putting deodorant, we all see them
skinny or sexy to a certain point. They should all be comfortable with their skins and not
be basing their beauty in media.
How Women are Portrayed in America thru media
Audience and Purpose
The intended audience for the article The Unrealistic Portrayal of Women in the
Media: Beauty and Body Image is for teens, adults, and parents in gaining knowledge
of how women are seen in media. The article is also intended to inform mostly women
how and why they are being seen the way they are. Giving brief history on why women
are seen in media. The audience when reading this article they are most likely to
understand more the idea of why women are seen as staying home and cooking,
cleaning, and raising the children. The genre of this article is very open to expressing
the idea of what started the women prospection in the media.
The youtube video is intended to teens, young adults, and adults who like to
see videos not only in America but throughout the world and inform and persuade to
change how women are seen. The audience is involved because as women are reading
this they want to change how they are viewed. This genre 5 Minutes of What the Media
Actually Does to Women is intended to general awareness demonstrating how
magazines show a perfect women or even a family.
Involving these two different but similar sources the audience is likely to know
and understand more about women in media. They can also learn about the history,
according to Salome The history of a woman's 'usefulness' basically began with being
How Women are Portrayed in America thru media
a sexual plaything, a mother, and a caretaker. (2009) The audience will not take too
much time informing themselves due that the video is five minutes long and the article is
about a page too two pages long. As the two sources are fairly easy to comprehend the
language and writing styles is formal.
Rhetorical Issues: Ethos, Pathos, and Logos
The video 5 Minutes of What the Media Actually Does to Women contains a very
high ethos. Jean Kilbourne has a B.A. in English from Wellesley College and a
doctorate in education from Boston University. Upon her graduation, she received an
award from Wellesley that enabled her to spend three years in Europe, working for the
British Broadcasting Corporation in London and for a French film company in Paris.
More recently, she was profiled in Feminists Who Changed America 19631975 and
was one of twenty-one journalists, media activists, and educators included in a Media
Heroes deck of trading cards. (2013) Her outstanding work has made her the most
recognized women to do 4 films about how media influences women. The credibility of
this woman is amazing and should help all other women who need the knowledge to
understand the influences by women in the media.
How Women are Portrayed in America thru media
The emotion that flows thought these two resources are high. By giving history
and pictures they are more likely to be moved and want to make a difference. The
differences between the two are that the video evokes more visual emotion seeing and
hearing Kilbourne talk gives a greater impact. The article has a deeper emotion, as you
read their imagination takes place and you feel the emotion more to the heart.
Structure and Delivery
In 5 minutes of what the media actually does to women, the information is
shaped by the genre in a brief amount of time. Jean Kilbourne starts talking about how
ads sell more womens image. Then, the message is intended for everyone. The layout
consists of the following: the thesis at the beginning, then the arguments, and finally
the conclusion. It is easy to follow what the speaker intends to say as her arguments
are stated with many slides as examples according to groups transmitting how women
are portrayed. This is done by mentioning one group of facts with a following one that
has some of its consequences. This makes the presentation easy to understand and to
follow. This way, no one gets bored and has a clear understanding of what the speaker
wants to say. There are some limitations; for example, the presenter did not paused for
questions and we do not know what sources she used. Also, it is unclear whether the
consequences of the facts given are actually all of them.
How Women are Portrayed in America thru media
In the article The Unrealistic Portrayal of Women in the Media: Beauty and Body
Image the structure is based on history. Melanie expresses full detail of the history in
her article using dates and examples throughout the years. She does not have a clear
layout just mostly give out details and examples. The audience is general for everyone
who can read and understand. Her organization is very interesting due that she is
stating strong facts and opinions. The similarity between the two is that both are trying
to convey a strong point of view about how women are viewed throughout video.
Conclusion
5 minutes of what the media actually does to women had more influence on the
way women were shown and explained more clearly. Jean Kilbourne gave more ethos,
pathos and logos to the topic. The discourse community has to change in many ways
but if there is no one to inform them, then they have no way in knowing what is going
around the community.




How Women are Portrayed in America thru media
References
Salome, M. (2009, October 16). The Unrealistic Portrayal of Women in the
Media: Beauty and Body Image. Yahoo Contributor Network. Available from
http://voices.yahoo.com/the-unrealistic-portrayal-women-media-beauty-
4665231.html?cat=9
Kilbourne, J. (2013). 5 Minutes Of What The Media Actually Does To Women.
Available from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xAbAeZ-Gog
Kilbourne, J. Full Bio. Jean Kilbourne. Available from
http://www.jeankilbourne.com/bio/