The Influence of Media on Women

Introduction:

Sexual objectification of women can be found on every media platform which has an
effect on women in many ways. Sexual objectification is when a person is showed solely
for their appearance and is treated as a sexual object that fulfills people’s desires. Every
media platform represents women solely for their appearance and disregards their
personalities and roles. Women are always represented as perfect, skinny, and sexy which
gives other women insecurities about their looks and it makes them focus their attention
on the way they look rather than focusing on other stuff that are truly important.
Televisions, magazines, and social media often represent women for their looks and not
for their knowledge. It severely affected women all around the world and its effect has
more cons than pros that it nearly doesn’t have any pros. Women that were affected by
the media are dissatisfied with the way they look or their weight which causes food
disorders, low self-esteem, and negative moods and it mostly affect young women.

Literature review:

Media in all its forms have represented women as sex objects for many years that it has
shaped the image of women in everyone’s mind as an appearance only and dismissing
their roles in society and their achievements. According to Stankiewicz and Rosselli
(2008), approximately 30% of the advertisements in three well known U.S. women’s
fashion magazines featured naked or half naked women and Lindner reported that more
than half of the advertisements in a well-known U.S. women’s magazine were portraying
women as sex objects (Millard and Grant, 2006). Moreover, Lavine, Sweeney, and
Wagner (1999) stated that a study have examined the exposure to media platforms like
TV ads that portrays women as objects and whether it causes women’s body
dissatisfaction to increase or not. The participants have been exposed to 5 nonsexist ads,
no ad control condition, 20 nonsexist ads and 15 sexist ads which resulted in revealing
that women that were exposed to sexist ads were judging their body size as larger and
they noticed a huge difference between their actual size and their ideal size preferring
being skinny more than the ones that were exposed to nonsexist or no ad condition. In
addition, a study was made that included 437 women and men that were randomly chosen
to watch advertisements that include sexual objectification of women or to watch
advertisements that didn’t include appearance. Results showed that the women and men
that were exposed to an advertisement that sexually objectify women were having more
dissatisfaction with their body and mostly women that got affected the most which
indicates that after viewing the advertisements that included sexual objectification of
women, women and men had a greater state of body dissatisfaction(Krawcyzk and
Thompson, 2015). A study was made (that included 90 Australian women aged 18 to 35
that were selected randomly to watch magazine advertisements that features thin women)
to test the effects of media images on self-objectification. The participants who watched
advertisements that featured a thin woman have reported a greater rate of self-
objectification, body dissatisfaction, anxiety related to weight appearance, and negative
mood than those who watched a product control ad (Harper and Tiggemann, 2008).
Furthermore, a research was done that included randomly choosing 219 adolescent girls
to a 15-month fashion magazine and followed them over time. Results showed that the
exposure to thin-ideal images of models has a long lasting negative effect on vulnerable
youth (Stice, Spangler, and Agras, 2001). A study was made on random college women
and showing them photographs from some well-known magazines that contain thin-ideal
images and ordinary images. Study showed that people who got exposed to thin-ideal
images have decreased self-esteem and increased negative moods, body dissatisfaction
and eating disorders symptoms (Hawkins, Richards, Granley and Stein, 2010). In
addition, Egyptian movies like Rouh’s Beauty starring the Lebanese actress and singer
Haifa Wehbe. It’s main idea is that Rouh(Haifa Wehbe) is an attractive woman that is
desired by many men and they are mainly focusing on showing her body and
disregarding her personality which was taken from an Italian movie Malena that had the
same exact idea which shows that Media is only representing women as sex objects
which downgrades their position in society. Similarly, Instagram solely focuses on
showing the female viewers makeup tutorials and hacks to make their body look like the
magazine models and it also shows fake and unrealistic content which increases the
women’s low self-esteem and makes them more dissatisfied with the way they look.

Cultivation theory:

Cultivation theory was started by the theorist Gerbner that died on 2005. The theory is
about how the media effects and changes people’s perceptions based on what they watch
on the TV. According to Hesse-Biber , Leavy, Quinn and Zoino (2016), that cultivation
theory looks at the growing content and frequency of the messages being spread
throughout many media platforms. This theory suggests that the more media someone
gets exposed to, the more they will start to see the mass media images as realistic
(Holstrom, 2004, p. 197). “The constant repetition of certain forms and themes (values)
as well as the constant omission of certain types of people, actions, and stories,
powerfully influences and homogenizes viewers' conceptions of social reality” (Levine &
Smolak, 1996, p. 250) (Hesse-Biber , Leavy, Quinn and Zoino, 2016). Most causes of
eating disorders is the promoting of media on women that are skinny ,beautiful, and
feminine which can sometimes be nearly impossible for most girls to achieve. “Only the
very thinnest 5–10% of all American women can actually acquire and easily maintain the
supermodel's salient, and most desired feature: her fat-free body. The remaining 90–95%
of American women have fallen prey to the message that they are abnormal: that they
improve their lives and selves only if they diet, exercise, and lose weight” (Seid, 1994 as
cited in Williamson, 1998, p. 65)( (Hesse-Biber , Leavy, Quinn and Zoino, 2016). The
results are that the more a woman is exposed to the idealized image the more she will
believe it is achievable.

Framing theory:

Frame theory is based on media’s attention on certain events and then putting for them
ameaning. Advertisers purposely frame messages to attract the consumer’s attention
.According to the framing theory (Scheufele 1999), A frame is a central idea of a
message that is noticable , it provides a meaning to the message, and it builds an aspect of
public reality for a consumer (Bazzini ,Pepper , Swofford and Cochran, 2015). Some may
use an appearance frame for a health and fitness magazine which results in affecting
people and it can influence their behaviors and attitudes by getting the message that
appearance is important and seeing themselves as objects.

Conclusion:
In conclusion, media almost always portrays women as objects that are praised just for
their beauty and not for their personality and knowledge which affects young women in a
negative way. Being exposed to media platforms may result in the increase of body
dissatisfaction, low self-esteem, negative moods, eating disorders and many others. All
the studies showed that media is filled with sex objectification of women.

1. Do you think that women are sexually portrayed on media such as magazines and
TV commercials?

2. Have you ever compared yourself to women on TV, magazines, or internet?

3. Do you think sex objectification of women on media affects women in a positive

or a negative way? And how do you think they get affected?

4. When do you view yourself as more powerful (when you’re wearing a dress or
when you’re wearing a suit)? And why do you think so?

5. Is a woman’s appearance and body structure a large factor in what makes her sexy
and beautiful?
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