Representation of Women In the Media Since the 1960's the representation of woman on the whole has been changing in the media and in the real world. The change came about after the contraceptive pill was made available to anyone woman who wanted it in the sixties, and this empowering change was reflected eventually by film, when it was realised there was a market for a new kind of film heroin. In past years the stereotypical woman in film has always been cast a supporting role for a male heroin. It was thought that the woman should only be there to exaggerate the strength of the male part by acting as a damsel in distress. This role of women became almost like a cliché as it was so over used.

Females in magazines are represented as slim, beautiful and having a flawless appearance. This has had a major effect on women; especially teenage girls who feel they are not pretty enough. The result from these depictions is that girls are uncomfortable with their appearance and would sometimes drastically like to change their appearance, therefore eating disorders have been a recurring issue. It is known that teenage girls as young as 12 have used sunbeds or have used other means to acquire a tanned look. This shows the influence that the portrayal of women in the media has. Teenagers entering a beauty pageant is common, especially in America, a country famous for having glamorous women.

Women are often represented as being part of a context (family, friends, colleagues) and working/thinking as part of a team. In drama, they tend to take the role of helper (Propp) or object, passive rather than active. Often their passivity extends to victimhood. Overly sexualized images of women in video games, and unrealistic images in magazines.

Disney movies, from Beauty and The Beast to Aladdin show slender, unrealistically curvaceous, and quite vulnerable young women, who are dependent on male figures for strength and survival, not their own sense of empowerment. Media stereotyping of women as objects and helpless beings creates very low expectations for society's girls.

Much as with television, video games can confine women in many ways as well. One of the most noticable elements of many video games is not really so much stereotypes about women’s roles, but the way they are presented as sex objects. Consider how “the impossibly busty body of Laura Croft, the female protagonist of Tob Raider, can be viewed nude on certain websites. The theory is that these stereotyped representations could be damaging to both girls and boys” (Norris 716). Even though she is not a real women, she is still idolized and made into an unrealistic picture of what the

perfect should be. For young boys, this gives the idea that a real woman should look the way this character and to little girls, she is seen as a hero who is impossibly beautiful and has a body that no true human woman could ever hope for. This makes both boys and girls prone to idolizing an unrealistic woman and might make the real women look dull in comparison. Women in this game, at

least the central character, Laura Croft, is an unattainable ideal and that is, in itself, a very damaging notion for both genders.

Mummy's little Lolita: The 11-year-old girl whose beauty treatments cost £300 a month to make her look like Barbie. She wore her first set of false eyelashes at eight, and her beauty treatments cost £300 a month.  A sick abuse of an 11-year-old? 'No', insists Sasha's mother, 'I just want her to be famous...'

All the kids are at it now,' insists Jayne. 'We spend about £300 a month on beauty treatments for her. 'Sasha's friends are the same. All girls their age are. Of course they are! Why else would you be able to buy make-up for pre-teens at Boots?

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1032029/Mummys-little-Lolita-The-11-year-old-girl-beauty-treatments-cost-300-month-make-look-like-Barbie.html#ixzz1BO02Zp8a

 

Ask Sasha how she sees herself and she replies: 'Blonde, pretty, dumb  -  I don't need brains.' Her mum laughs her head off at this, proud that the child is so like her.

HEADLINE -Size 4 (UK size 8-10) model: I was fired for being too fatFormer Ralph Lauren model Filippa Hamilton is 5' 10" and 120 pounds