Feminism And The Portrayl Of Women In Media
- Thread starter quoth_the_raven
- Start date
Totally agreeing.
I mean yeah, sometimes you think "oh once again commercial for men" We discussed this in our psychology class few years ago
Teacher: When they try to sell something to women, what's in the picture?
Us: A beautiful woman
Teacher: WHat about when they try to sell something to men
Us: ummm....a beautiful woman.
Even I'm all for equal treating and not showing women as objects, I think sometimes women pull the "woman" card too easily.
As for feminism. When it's something that tries to get women same salary than men do etc. I don't mind and I am a person who says "goddamn I don't need balls to do that" but yet a few, I don't know is this the right term, extreme-feminists pull it to really extreme and I think in that point it's gone too far.
Springmoon
CSI Level Two
I wholeheartedly agree with the starting post in this topic. It's more than a bit off-putting to watch television and what we see are women not so much being exploited as being used in radically different ways than men are. There are still gigantic gaps in parity at all levels of society, especially in the United States, save education. How is it that more women are awarded university degrees than men, yet are not paid the same?
It's an uncomfortable fact, but it's there. The commercials are the least of it; it's very easy, BlueCurl to say that they should choose not to be in that commercial, but for every woman who can afford to refuse to do that sort of work, there is another (or more than one) who has to do it for other reasons. Or who will do it for her own professional or financial gain.
There is a pathetically small number of commercials that fall along the lines of Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty, or actresses like Camryn Manheim who refuse to fall down to a size 2 to fit in. Society has made us this way, and we can slowly make the changes to make women have their equal say in society, but it's a very very long way off. And, despite excellent global examples of leadership like Hillary Clinton, Margaret Thatcher, Angela Merkel, etc, there are other women who will sit back quietly and accept their lot and allow themselves to be led around by the male standards of society.
It's an uncomfortable fact, but it's there. The commercials are the least of it; it's very easy, BlueCurl to say that they should choose not to be in that commercial, but for every woman who can afford to refuse to do that sort of work, there is another (or more than one) who has to do it for other reasons. Or who will do it for her own professional or financial gain.
There is a pathetically small number of commercials that fall along the lines of Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty, or actresses like Camryn Manheim who refuse to fall down to a size 2 to fit in. Society has made us this way, and we can slowly make the changes to make women have their equal say in society, but it's a very very long way off. And, despite excellent global examples of leadership like Hillary Clinton, Margaret Thatcher, Angela Merkel, etc, there are other women who will sit back quietly and accept their lot and allow themselves to be led around by the male standards of society.
starzsgirl
Captain
I agree and as a woman who isn't a size 2 I like when the full figured girls like Camryn Manheim, Marissa Jaret Winoker, and Queen Latifa have taken stands that they won't use their bodies to sell their work. A women can be full figured, healthy, and be a very positive role model. I don't read magazines because I get tired of the ads for purfume and half naked girls looking at me when I want to realy my Rolling Stone, it's scary that young girls feel that they have to be model thin and are killing themselves form the inside out just to try and fit a picture that has been fixed with airbrushing and computers. The world as a whole need to realize that women have brains not just pretty faces and bodies.
quoth_the_raven
Corpse
^ Exactly, I agree completely with that. I've never been a skinny kid. I never have, and I never will be stick-skinny. I'm not built that way. I was always the chubby one in my class, always bigger and more muscular than the other girls and even the guys. I was always taller. In sixth grade I became very self-destructive because kids would make fun of me. I was too smart, I was a nerd, a geek. Everyone used to call me "Shamoo" because I wasn't stick-skinny.
All of this just because I wasn't stick-skinny like the other girls in my class. I realize now I don't need to be. They were immature. I'm a girl with brains and I can kick someone's ass if I have to
I hate now that the media says all girls have to be ditzy, stupid and trampy.
You know what commercial I hate the most? Special K. Look at that woman on there!! Does she look like she needs to lose weight? No! She needs to gain weight before a strong breeze comes up and blows her away
I also hate the Nutri-System weight-loss commercials not only for the women but for the men, as well. The women are like, "My husband? He jokingly calls me his 'trophy wife'" or "My husband LOVES my new body!" The men's aren't any better: "My wife says I'm not half as disgusting as I used to be."
The FAA banned Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty with the pictures of all-aged women who have aged naturally. They banned it, isn't that ridiculous? They'll show half a woman's a breast on national television for ratings, or show some man's naked butt but they banned those commercials, the ones that actually celebrate a woman's body, regardless of weight, size or color. It makes me sick.
All of this just because I wasn't stick-skinny like the other girls in my class. I realize now I don't need to be. They were immature. I'm a girl with brains and I can kick someone's ass if I have to
I hate now that the media says all girls have to be ditzy, stupid and trampy. You know what commercial I hate the most? Special K. Look at that woman on there!! Does she look like she needs to lose weight? No! She needs to gain weight before a strong breeze comes up and blows her away
I also hate the Nutri-System weight-loss commercials not only for the women but for the men, as well. The women are like, "My husband? He jokingly calls me his 'trophy wife'" or "My husband LOVES my new body!" The men's aren't any better: "My wife says I'm not half as disgusting as I used to be."
The FAA banned Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty with the pictures of all-aged women who have aged naturally. They banned it, isn't that ridiculous? They'll show half a woman's a breast on national television for ratings, or show some man's naked butt but they banned those commercials, the ones that actually celebrate a woman's body, regardless of weight, size or color. It makes me sick.
eggbe4thechicken
Pathologist
WTF?! Where is it that it's been banned? I live in England and they show it here, I love that commercial, how they're all so confident and such.
starzsgirl
Captain
I haven't seen it here in America and for the record I would love to see it. Sometimes the public relations people need a wake up call to the fact that media needs to change and follow the trends.
eggbe4thechicken said:
Same here. Tho they haven't showed it for a while. Another "old and normal people" is shown in.... was it L'Oreal's shampoo commercials?
After reading all of your posts I have to say I agree with you for the most part. I feel like, not all women feel that they are protrayed negetivly in the media. I, however, feel that way often. I heard an interesting comment about the dove ads, they tried to use "real" women, but they seemed to be more, perfect real women. I wasn't sure what that meant, but looking at the commercial, i sort of saw it. I mean I wasn't seeing women with a lot of imperfections, i was seeing toned, more...in shape, looking women. That being said, I think that what the dove ad was trying to accomplish was good. trying to show women that you see on a daily bases, not super models that we see in the media. there is this great website called "don't believe the hype" its all about women in the media. the women in charge of it is currently off but if you go back in the arcives and look at her past posts, they are pretty cool. here is the link http://audreybrashich.blogs.com/
quoth_the_raven
Corpse
eggbe4thechicken said:
They banned it on television here in America, the only place we can see it in the States is online at their campaign website. Really, it's so stupid
They can show teenage girls half-naked and those Burger King commercials where the guy gets out of the tub covered with only the bubbles from his bath otherwise naked in front of his wife, but they can't show a commercial not nearly as revealing that celebrates women and diversity.SarasGirl, I've seen some of the ads and I've noticed the women look more toned and thin than heavy, but there are a few with healthy-looking women I've seen as well. And they ban something like that?
SaraSidle_girl
Pathologist
All the perfectly goodlooking women with the perfect bodies have no problem with the way the media portrays them. Well, most of them don't. Some of them do care.
And I don't think these women do it for free.....
It's a huge problem with the American broadcasting system- they shouldn't be banning non-sexualized nudity. That's ridiculous. Unfortunately, I feel the Christian family coalitions have just a little too much control in the US, but that's a whole other discussion...
The thing about the protrayal of women in the media is that it's not just the overt sexualization of women to sell products; it's far more insidious than that. For example...
I taught a year 7 class in an all girls' school in Sydney, Australia. The lesson centred around tv commercials and the devices used to sell things. I showed them a commercial for a large grocery store chain in Oz. In this commercial, it supposedly showed an everyday shopping scene in one of the stores. The first thing I pointed out was the colours used- everything was red, white and pink, for the most part. And then I asked the girls to tell me who was doing the shopping in the commercial: all but one guy at a checkout line-up were women. Apparently, only women grocery shop.
The funny thing was, these girls wouldn't buy that this commercial had been engineered entirely to sell to women using the "every good mother does all the shopping for her family and you should too" argument. A couple of them actually went so far as to say that it just worked out the day they filmed the commercial that mostly women showed up! They didn't believe me when I said the whole commercial had been planned down to the smallest detail.
And therein lies the bigger problem- nobody is asking these girls to question what they see. All of this stuff is put forward as status quo and they're buying it hook, line and sinker. It's frightening.
On a side note- to the person who said you shouldn't be allowed to read a feminist magazine... would it be acceptable to read Cosmo then? I'm not sure how a magazine about empowering yourself is offensive; the basis for most modern day feminism is not to bash men, but to empower women, and help them to continue to recognize that the sexes are equal when it comes to points of humanity.
The thing about the protrayal of women in the media is that it's not just the overt sexualization of women to sell products; it's far more insidious than that. For example...
I taught a year 7 class in an all girls' school in Sydney, Australia. The lesson centred around tv commercials and the devices used to sell things. I showed them a commercial for a large grocery store chain in Oz. In this commercial, it supposedly showed an everyday shopping scene in one of the stores. The first thing I pointed out was the colours used- everything was red, white and pink, for the most part. And then I asked the girls to tell me who was doing the shopping in the commercial: all but one guy at a checkout line-up were women. Apparently, only women grocery shop.
The funny thing was, these girls wouldn't buy that this commercial had been engineered entirely to sell to women using the "every good mother does all the shopping for her family and you should too" argument. A couple of them actually went so far as to say that it just worked out the day they filmed the commercial that mostly women showed up! They didn't believe me when I said the whole commercial had been planned down to the smallest detail.
And therein lies the bigger problem- nobody is asking these girls to question what they see. All of this stuff is put forward as status quo and they're buying it hook, line and sinker. It's frightening.
On a side note- to the person who said you shouldn't be allowed to read a feminist magazine... would it be acceptable to read Cosmo then? I'm not sure how a magazine about empowering yourself is offensive; the basis for most modern day feminism is not to bash men, but to empower women, and help them to continue to recognize that the sexes are equal when it comes to points of humanity.
I'm not saying one shouldn't be allowed to, I'm just saying that the woman who did read it would probably be up in arms if a male coworker brought in a magazine whose purpose was to empower men. However, I wouldn't say that Cosmo is exactly a work-appropriate magazine either.
AshleyFirst223
Pathologist
Those shows on VH1 Flavor of Love and Rock of Love are crazy. I mean people on that show are very loose, to say the least, and they constantly drink and it's just like wow.
I don't think Cosmo is work-appropriate, I mean even the cover stories are inappropriate.
I don't think Cosmo is work-appropriate, I mean even the cover stories are inappropriate.
I just think that when we start telling people what they can and can't read at work, we've got bigger problems... Censorship is not the answer. Education is key. Bring up your kids questioning everything, that's what I say.