Media Savvy Youth: Challenging Pop Culture Messages that Contribute to Sexual Violence | Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs. There is no denying that the media is a powerful force in contemporary society. With the daunting combination of seemingly endless resources and control over access to information, the media offers us a blueprint for how to act and what to think. Whether you are online, watching TV, or listening to music, you are vulnerable to an onslaught of messages that you may not even be aware of. Their influences are so ingrained in our daily life that they often go unnoticed. This is why media literacy is so imperative. We are often surrounded by messages that promote a victim-blaming mentality, sensationalize sexual violence, support rigid gender roles, and encourage negative stereotypes of those outside the mainstream of society.
Confronting media’s use of power and manipulation is an important aspect of anti-sexual violence work. Download the publication Related Content Sound Relationships Nutritional Label (Spanish) Additional Online Resources. Male Bashing on TV. Warning for our male readers: The following article contains big words and complex sentences. It might be a good idea to have a woman nearby to explain it to you. It’s been a hard day. Your assistant at work is out with the flu and there is another deadline fast approaching. Your wife is at a business conference, so you have to pick up your son at daycare, make dinner, clean the kitchen, do a load of laundry, and get Junior to bed before you can settle down on the sofa with those reports you still need to go over.
Perhaps a little comedy will make the work more bearable, you think, so you turn on CBS’s Monday night comedies: King of Queens, Yes, Dear, Everybody Loves Raymond, and Still Standing. And the commercials in between aren’t any better. A digital camera ad: A young husband walks through a grocery store, trying to match photos in his hand with items on the shelves.
A family game ad: A dorky guy and beautiful woman are playing Trivial Pursuit. CBS is not the only guilty party. Strong female portrayals counteract negative effects of violent media for young adults. Men and women are less likely to experience negative effects to sexual violent media when watching a positive portrayal of a strong female character, even when that character is a victim of sexual violence. Christopher Ferguson, Assistant Professor at Texas A&M International University, surveyed 150 university students in a controlled environment in a recent study published in the Journal of Communication. Each participant screened a variety of TV shows that portrayed women in different lights when it came to sexual violence. The results showed that men and women had less anxiety and negative reactions when viewing television shows that depicted a strong female character rather than a submissive one.
Past research has been inconsistent regarding the effects of sexually violent media on viewer's hostile attitudes toward women. Much of the previous literature has conflated possible variables such as sexually violent content with depictions of women as subservient. Media Portrayal of Women. What is the media portrayal of women today and how does this impact how young girls perceive themselves?
With programs such as The Bachelor and Flavor of Love showing a dozen women competing for the attention of one man, often using their sexuality, magazine ads displaying a half-naked female body to sell a fragrance or cosmetic product, and television commercials highlighting a woman's thigh and butt to sell sneakers, it may be difficult for society not to be influenced by the overwhelming message to objectify women.
Negative Female Stereotypes Female stereotypes in the media tend to undervalue women as a whole, and diminish them to sexual objects and passive human beings. According to research done by Children Now, a national organization trying to make children a public priority, 38% of female characters found in video games are wearing revealing clothing, 23% are showing cleavage. Positive Female Stereotypes How the Media's Portrayal of Women Impacts Girls Sources: "Media and Girls. " Negative Effects of Media on Women. "Better Buns In 10 Days! ", "Flatten Your Stomach! ", and "Lose 10 Pounds In 10 Days!
" are all headlines that women are bombarded with each and every day. Perfection is in, and the media makes sure that women know they're lacking. Whether it is on a billboard at Times Square in New York City, or even in a grocery checkout line in Small-town, USA, it affects every woman. "Feelings of guilt when eating that brownie? History of the Media and Women Introduction of Magazines Magazines began as refined soapboxes from which literate men expounded their points of view, in essay or satire. Portrayal of the Perfect Woman Starts As the years went by, the woman in the magazine became less realistic and more idealistic. Eating Disorders and Their Tie to the Media If a person looked in a fashion magazine of today, they are going to be constantly barraged with pictures of thin models. Bulimia Nervosa Bulimia nervosa, more commonly known as bulimia, is an eating disorder. The Objectification of Women. Westminster College: a private comprehensive liberal arts college in Salt Lake City, UT, offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in liberal arts and professional programs, including business, nursing, education and communication.
Female Body Image and the Mass Media: Perspectives on How Women Internalize the Ideal Beauty Standard Sociocultural standards of feminine beauty are presented in almost all forms of popular media, barraging women with images that portray what is considered to be the "ideal body. " Such standards of beauty are almost completely unattainable for most women; a majority of the models displayed on television and in advertisements are well below what is considered healthy body weight. Mass media's use of such unrealistic models sends an implicit message that in order for a woman to be considered beautiful, she must be unhealthy. The mindset that a person can never be "too rich or too thin" is all too prevalent in society, and it makes it difficult for females to achieve any level of contentment with their physical appearance.
Female Body Image Concern over weight and appearance related issues often surfaces early in females' development, and continues throughout the lifespan. Cultivation Theory. How the Media Define Masculinity. In Tough Guise: Violence, Media and the Crisis in Masculinity, Jackson Katz and Jeremy Earp argue that the media provide an important perspective on social attitudes – and that while the media are not the cause of violent behaviour in men and boys, they do portray male violence as a normal expression of masculinity. [1] In 1999, Children Now, a California-based organization that examines the impact of media on children and youth, released a report entitled Boys to Men: Media Messages About Masculinity.
The report argues that the media’s portrayal of men tends to reinforce men’s social dominance. The report observes that: A more recent study found similar patterns in how male characters were portrayed in children’s television around the world: boys are portrayed as tough, powerful and either as a loner or leader, while girls were most often shown as depending on boys to lead them and being most interested in romance. [3] [1] Earp, Jeremy and Jackson Katz. MediaSmarts. Www.annekesmelik.nl/TheCinemaBook.pdf. Feminism. Feminism, in the broadest sense, refers to a political movement directed towards the emancipation of women from cultural stereotypes which have always served to denigrate and disparage them.
This movement is furthermore concerned with the exploration of how femininity (or better still, womanhood) might be reconceived once these stereotypes have been abolished. Much progress has been made over the course of the past two centuries, but much more work still needs to be done. At present, this feminist work is being carried out in two separate but related areas. The first area is that of political activism. Here, feminists continue to lobby for the personal and professional rights and recognition historically denied them.
Some of the rights and recognition feminists are demanding include equal employment opportunities at high corporate and institutional levels, equal wages, and public acknowledgment for the important contributions of heretofore neglected women in history. Briseis in Troy and Stockholm syndrome - Reviews. Far from being a feisty embodiment of female empowerment, Briseis in Wolfgang Petersen's Troy seems more of a victim in a Stockholm syndrome-type relationship. LucindaE traces how the ancient 'war prize' story has been transformed into a consensual romantic arrangement to please contemporary audiences LucindaE, 29 June 2011 I love a tacky epic, with hackneyed script, cardboard characters, absurd costumes, anomalies and general nonsense. When I finally got round to seeing the 2004 film Troy by Wolfgang Petersen I expected to enjoy it, reputed as it is to have all these features.
Sometimes I did laugh out loud. In the Iliad, Briseis is a princess of Lyrnessus, a neighbouring city of Troy. Most critics were dismissive of this attempt to retell the sacking of Troy, but some praised it. Ruby Blondell in her article, 'Third Cheerleader from the Left...' sees the role of "the feisty Briseis" as empowered, in opposition to that of the "helpless victim Helen". For sure, it adds to the tension.