The Media's Top Ten Tactics
The negative exploitation of women in the media affects the women in many ways. There are 10 major tactics the media uses that negatively affect women. The media:
· Constantly says there is always something that women can improve about themselves (breast, butts, stomachs, wrinkles, hair, and more). The enhancement process is a never ending process. The media sets an unrealistic standard of beauty that is flawless in every aspect of their appearance. Not only does exposing this unrealistic standard attract the male audience, but it also assures profit to the diet and makeup industries not to mention the plastic surgery industry. *According to the Media Awareness Network, “It is estimated that the diet industry alone is worth $100 billion (U.S.) a year”.
· Portrays beauty as thinness. Women come in all shapes and size women are beautiful regardless of their size, yet the media continues to make women think that they have to be painfully thin to be considered beautiful or sexy. *Research shows that the models today weigh at least 23% less then that average women. Setting the impractical customary ideal of perfection and submission of attraction and lifestyle affect women everyday. *The Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute states that measures of weight control are being taken on by girls as young as nine. As well as in the U.S., Teen Magazine in 2003 said that 35% of girls 6 to 12 years old have been on at least one diet and that 50% to 70% of normal weight girls feel that they are overweight.
· Shows skin, skin and, more skin. This affects the way that tends are set and the clothes that are sold in clothing stores due to high demand. *In Nicole Krassras’s study of Playboy and Cosmopolitan, she reports that both men and women magazines contain females sexually she says, “Women should primarily concern themselves with attracting and sexually satisfying men”. In this day and age the more skin you show the better, clothing companies are making clothes like shorts and skirts shorter and shorter and shirts and dresses tighter and tighter. This has now become a normal trend in the world of fashion for females especially teenagers.
· Dismembers body parts instead of focusing on the women as a whole. This is used solely used to sell merchandise to the male demographic this tactic in advertisement has been used very often for everything from beers to cars.
· Says sex sells. The use of sex and sexual suggestive gestures are used as commonly used in the media and portrays women as just sex objects for the pleasure of men. While images of women are represented in a way that makes them desirable to men these messages devalue women as objects or as unimportant as full human beings in relation to other genders.* Former president of Canada’s Media Watch, Shari Graydon, points out that women’s bodies are used in some sort of sexual way in order to grab peoples attention.
· Expresses women as objects. Women become objects when their bodies and their sexuality are linked to products that are bought and sold. The use of women as lifeless object that are used for the benefit of others instead of human being.
· Uses sex-role stereotypes to portray women as submissive and subordinate and men as controlling and dominant, or displaying violence against women and children. Advertisements that use slogans and pictures that depict women being physically attacked glorify the violence that occurs against women every day.
· Promotes gender-based violence by portraying women as lifeless and doll-like, with incredibly pale skin and emotionless expressions. This condones violence against women by implying that women are dolls to be played with or that women are sexy when dead.
· Promotes stereotypical gender roles for women to aspire to. Women are now not only taking care of the home but also playing a part in the business world while still being expected to look attractive. By fitting women into one of three major stereotypical roles or lifestyles of either being the typical single female with multiple sex partners and a free spirit, the “supermom” who is sexy, fit, and takes care of her home and her perfect children, or the business workaholic female who stresses a lot and has relationship issues because most men are intimidated by her financial stability and strong independence.
· Portrayed as childlike, naïve, venerable, or incapable of intelligence. Even at young ages women in ad or magazines are portrayed as passive or childlike this message tend to give off a sense of vulnerability that is typically connected with the role of being a potential victim of violence. In the documentary Killing Us Softly the narrator Dr. Jane Kilbourne states that in some ads where women are depicted as innocent and childlike they send the message that “Women don’t really mean ‘no’ when they say it , that women are only teasing when they resist men’s advances”. There are also times in the media where women are shown as unintelligent and advertisers feel that women’s inputs or views come free because her opinions are exclusively dependent on the ideas or views of their male companion so they need not bother trying to cater to the female demographic.
