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Women in the Media

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Women in the Media
Changing How Women are Portrayed in the Media

ABSTRACT
Through this paper, the reader will be learning about how different women are portrayed in the media, and what people can do to hopefully change this one day. Women are constantly being portrayed as having to be “perfect” in the media. Whether it is on the news, in magazines, in movies, or on television, sexism is all over the place. With the proposed research ideas and methods, hopefully people will be able to make a change in this area and take women more seriously.
OVERVIEW
The media portrays women in a way that makes them feel as if they have to look a certain way in order to be accepted and successful. This can make life hard for women, but with enough research and support, hopefully this misrepresentation can be changed. Many women have very low self-esteem, and most of them are younger women. Teenagers are really into the entertainment industry. “American teens spend over ten hours a week in media consumption” (Gilmore 2012). They spend most of their time watching television movies, reading magazines, or browsing the internet. There are ads all over the place in each of these areas where the majority of the women will be seen as thin, pretty, and sexy. Most people would say that this is what women have to look like in order to succeed and make something of themselves. Some might think that in the entertainment business, actresses and models are the only ones to be treated like this. However, that assumption is wrong. Female athletes are also treated this way. This situation does not only occur in the United States. Women are portrayed like this all over the world. These situations clearly have an effect on how women feel about themselves if they do not look a certain way. They feel as if they need to change how they look no matter what it takes.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Some research has been done that focuses on the situation with how women are viewed in the media. One woman, Renee Engeln-Maddox



Cited: Daniels, Elizabeth A. 2012. “Sexy Versus Strong: What Girls and Women Think of Female Athletes.” Pergamon Press - An Imprint of Elsevier Science Volume 33 Issue 2: p79-90. Englen-Maddox, Renee. 2006. “Buying a Beauty Standard or Dreaming of a New Life? Expectations Associated with Media Ideals.” Sage Publications Inc Gilmore, Catherine. 2012. “Miss Representation.” Library Journal Volume 137 Issue 11: p44. Haas, Cheryl J., Laura A. Pawlow, Jon Pettibone, Dan J. Segrist. 2012. “An Intervention for the Negative Influence of Media on Body Esteem.” Project Innovation Inc Kane, Mary Jo, Heather D. Maxwell. 2011. “Expanding the Boundaries of Sport Media Research: Using Critical Theory to Explore Consumer Responses to Representations of Sakr, Naomi. 2002. “Seen and Starting to Be Heard: Women and the Arab Media in a Decade of Change.” Social Research Volume 69 Issue 3: p821-850. Yunjuan, Luo, Hao Xiaoming. 2007. “Media Portrayal of Women and Social Change.” Feminist Media Studies Volume 7 Issue 3: p281-298.

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