Media Portrays Women

Words: 1784
Pages: 8

Megan Garber
Professor Keltner
Composition 1
3 November 2013
The Ways Media Portrays Women Throughout today’s society, media contributes to almost everyone’s daily life. From informative news channels to comical television shows, media proves to be effective in advertisement, releasing messages and informing the audience. Although media proves to be wildly effective in advertising, releasing messages and informing the audience, periodically destructive and misleading messages are provided to the audience and directly influencing women. Cultural critics widely agree that media tends to negatively influence women and all the critics point to research which supports the belief that women are portrayed as subordinate to men, having no

Besides Blum’s article, another scholar, Jean Kilbourne, also relates her thoughts and seems to agree that media portrays a woman as if she has no self confidence. In her article, Kilbourne is pointing out the shameful difference in the way society views a group of men between the way society views a group of women. Kilboure expresses in her article, “For men, though, there are no such consequences. Men’s bodies are not routinely judged and invaded” (467). As Kilbourne relates this expression in her article, it proves to the audience that society and media has a harsher critical opinion of the appearance of women in comparison to the appearance of a man that decreases the self confidence of a woman. Virginia Blum and Jean Kilbourne both effectively distribute their beliefs and relate to each other in terms that women have no self confidence in themselves through the use of reality television shows and popular young adult novels. Furthermore in relation to the influence of women through media, the media also identifies women as if they are merely an object. This misleading message that media portrays lies directly in television shows that include cartoons and superhero’s and even young adult novels such as Twilight. In Julie O’ Reilly’s article, “The