Gallagher 1

Mass Media and the Influence on Women Brian Gallagher Mass Media and Society Messiah College

Gallagher 2 William Bernbach, an American advertising executive once said, All of us who professionally use the mass media are the shapers of society. We can vulgarize that society. We can brutalize it. Or we can help lift it onto a higher level. (William Bernbach Quote, 1989, p. 11). Mass media plays a very prominent role in our lives. Mass media has shaped our culture to what it is today, and it will continue to develop as long as technology develops. Mass media has the power to spearhead a movement, or it has the power to tear a movement down. Mass media has the power to help people think for themselves, or make people forget to think for themselves. Like every good thing, there are positives and negatives to mass media. Mass media can help fortify stereotypes and spread false perceptions about people through the way they are portrayed in that media, or mass media can help tear them down. The former is the case for women portrayed in media. More often than not, mass media can be an outlet to make women look down on themselves while painting a picture of the ideal women that the media portrays. The media influences the way older women, young women and teenage girls view themselves physically, emotionally and even sexually. Although mass media has many effects on the way women view themselves, the way the media makes women think about their physical features is most prominent. For decades, women were treated like they didnt exist. Women couldnt vote in elections until 1890 when Wyoming grants that right to them. By 1900, every state allowed women to vote. In 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act sets a minimum wage without regard to gender. Women only gained equal rights in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which gave rights to blacks and women alike, supposedly giving them equal protection and opportunity. In 1972, Title IX of the Education Amendments prohibits sex discrimination in all education departments that receive federal support, granting women the right to any education (Timeline, 2002).

Gallagher 3 It has been a long haul for women over the past century just to gain the rights that all humans should have. The media portrays women as model types. If one were to turn on the TV, one would see a majority of the girls on the TV as skinny, fit and physically attractive people. The media shows an unrealistic view of women, and as a result, the way they view themselves from the outside will directly affect them internally. Stereotypically, women are hard pressed to wear their emotions on their sleeves. For a woman, the more an idea penetrates into them, the more susceptible they are to have that idea define them. Shelly Grabe, a Psychology professor at the Unviersity of Wisconsin says in an article on Medical News Today, I want to stress that it's totally normal for women to want to be attractive. But what's happening in our society is that many women are striving toward something that's not very realistic or obtainable, and that leads to a lot of health consequences (Grabe, 2008, p. 15). When researching this matter, researches exposed women to media images who showed womens bodies as the ideal woman, and one group was not exposed to this type of media. Naturally, the end result was that the women who were exposed to this type of media had less satisfaction of the way their bodies were. This is a problem, because the media has set up the idea that in order for a woman to be beautiful, her body has to be unnaturally and unhealthily thin (Grabe, 2008, p. 14). This can be described as media observation. Through a blend of actual and expected exposure, women are socialized to objectify their own physical characteristics from a third person perception. Women develop an expected physical appearance for themselves, based on observations of others (Mass Media, 2011, ppt. 9, p. 2). Many

Gallagher 4 alarming facts have been presented about women depicted in television and women who are fashion models. The largest percentage of women represented on TV is in their 20s. For the average fashion models, the average age is 16. Their average weight is 120 and their average waist circumference is 23 inches. This study also shows the averages for American women. Their weight is 164.7 pounds, and their waist circumference is 37 inches (Strong, 2008). Clearly, one would see the divide that is represented in the media and what is in reality. In a sample study, 68 % women who were presented with womens magazines felt worse about the way they looked. 75% of women who are of normal weight think they are overweight, and an alarming 90% of women overestimate their size (Mass Media, 2011). Naomi Wolf, an American author and political consultant said, More women have more money and power and scope and legal recognition than we have ever had before; but in terms of how we feel about ourselves physically, we may actually be worse off than our unliberated grandmothers (Mass Media, 2011, ppt. 16). The media tries to tell women that they have to look a certain way in order to be beautiful or sexy. The media tells women to be a sex object for men, and tries to pinpoint them only to this role. Advertisers want their product to sell. On TV, any car commercial or beer commercial objectifies women to sell their product. They know that there are many people out there that will buy their product due to the girl that is in the advertising. The use of women is a contributing factor to sales, due to the fact that most of these commercials are geared toward a segmented audience. Victor Strasburger, MD, says in an abstract in The Offical Journal of the American

Gallagher 5 Acadamey of Pediatrics that, Women are as likely to be shown in suggestive clothing (30%), partially clad (13%), or nude (6%) as they are to be fully clothed (Strasburger, 2011, p. 10). Advertisers feel that the using a woman as an attention-getting device diminishes women's self-esteem and ignores other aspects of their human potential. Stephanie Nicholl Berberick, a professor at the University of Buffalo says, Because of the harmful ideal put forth by the Western media and accepted in large by American patriarchal society there are drastic increases in plastic surgery, a steady (not decreasing) number of sexual assaults, and an overwhelming occurrence of eating disorders. Yet, when a woman gazes at an airbrushed beauty wishing for the models thighs or slender hips she fails to register that the image she sees before her is not real. Our understanding of the images we see seldom takes into consideration the beauty we see are fabrications. These images are designed by graphic artists commissioned to change appearance and stimulate desire (Berberick, 2011, p. 6). According to the American Society of Plastic Surgery, from 2000-2009, 91% of plastic surgeries were on women. For them, there was a 36% increase of breast surgery, 84% in tummy tucks, 4,184% increase in lower body lifts, 132% increase in butt lifts and a 65% increase in breast lifts (Berberick, 2011). Clearly, the media has influence these women to look like the girls represented in music videos, films and TV shows. It seems that beauty is now based on how unnatural one can seem. Accepting the body one has is now not good enough, and a day that was in the media spotlight on April 29th proves that. A recent issue of a craze of plastic surgeries was during the wedding of Kate Middleton to Prince William. Obviously, the wedding was the main reason why people were watching that event that was mass televised; even here in the U.S, but viewers, newscasters and critics alike all

Gallagher 6 were blown away by the beauty of Kate Middletons younger sister, Pippa Middleton. Everyone loved her dress, her grace and natural beauty. But little did she know that she would spark a mass craze of plastic surgeries in her name. The media made a huge deal about how beautiful she was. To some people, Pippa stole the spotlight that day just by the way she looked. Women saw the way her butt appeared in her dress and wanted their butts to look just like hers, and what came of that was the Pippa Butt Lift. According to ABC News, Facebook groups and blogs were dedicated to the way she looked that day, calling her Her Royal Hotness. Ever since that day, plastic surgerons are offering this procedure called the Pippa Butt Lift. Dr. Constatntino Mendieta said that 80% of his cosmetic work is now dealing with butt lifts, 20% being the Pippa Butt Lift. ABC further reports that a woman named Christina Valdez, a 28 year-old single mom wanted the Pippa Butt Lift. All she wanted was to look just like her and nothing else. She said that if [Pippa] can look petite and great and still have a nice backside to her, so can IIve always had a little bit of a complex with my stomach and trying to fill in the back side a little more (Canning, 2011, p. 14). Thus, in a surgery that lasted over two hours, Mendieta put some of the fat from Valdezs stomach into her butt so she would have slimmer waist and perfectly match the shape of Pippas butt. When confronted of why to not just pad her backside she says that at the end of the dayI want it to be mine and be sexy and not have to worry about stuffing my backside (Canning, 2011, p. 19). A royal wedding is something that happens only once and a while, so it attracted many viewers. Although Pippa didnt deliberately go out and try to get people to change their butts to look like her, the media made such a fuss over the way that she looked that women wanted, some needed, to look like she did. The media set up a false idea in numerous women that day. Before

Gallagher 7 we know it, we will look around and see even slimmer women then we see now because of that media portrayal. Older women arent the only ones who are affected by the way mass media runs their lives. In many ways, the battle for the minds of teenage girls and young women is something that is of the same importance. While the media seem to have a profound impact on women as a whole, maybe the most important battle is the battle for the teenage girls who get a steady dose of this media every day. For being so young, their minds are just now in the stages of shaping and developing. Things these girls hear at home, at school, on the radio, on TV or even on social networking sites are going to affect these girls dramatically. Teenage girls have their very own serious battle to fight. Day in and day out they are getting pounded by sexual innuendos and advertisements to tell them how to be beautiful and to be accepted. Ever since the turn of the century, more and more teenagers are practicing sexual intercourse at an early age. According to the 2009 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 46% of all high school seniors have had sexual intercourse, and 14% have had had 4 partners or more (Strausburger, 2011, p. 2). American teenagers spend more than 7 hours a day in front of various media mediums, being shaped by the things that they see and hear every day. In a recent study, it was said that 40% of lyric lines in songs related to sex. Almost every R-rated movie since the 1980s has had at least one nude scene. Lastly, the Internet is something that is rotting the minds of young girls and other teenagers (Strausburger, 2011). It is a source of pornography and various other things that regard to sex. All of these things are contributing to the shaping of the female mind at an early age.

Gallagher 8 In our world, a girl can turn on the radio and hear a sexually suggestive song, hum it in her head all day long, then little does she know, the idea is deeply penetrated in her head. A girl can turn on the TV and see beautiful women being shown in a sexual way and thinking to themselves why am I not like that? Media plays an enormous role in the way women view themselves sexually. In a recent study, it states that listening to sexually degrading lyrics is associated with earlier sexual intercourse, black female teenagers exposure to rap music videos or X-rated movies is associated with the likelihood of multiple sexual partners or testing positive for an STI (Strausburger, 2011, p. 12) Teenagers, however, whose parents control the things their children watch are less sexually experienced (Strausburger, 2011). Self-objectification is a big cause of this. In a study in 2006, it was found that White and Latina adolescent girls with a more objectified view of their bodies had bad sexual health, due to the fact that they stopped using condoms when sexually active (Zurbriggen, 2007). There are many consequences to the fact that girls our being sexualized at an early age. At an early age, these girls are being taught to see beauty as something they are not. The media is setting up a false idea in these girls heads and telling them that all men want a girl to look a certain way, act a certain way and live a certain way. The sexualization and objectification of women in the media appear to teach girls that as women, all they have to offer is their body and face, and that they should expend all their effort on physical appearance (Zurbriggen, 2007, pg. 27, p. 1). If these teenage girls are any indication, then the next generation of women in our world will have an even tough time dealing with the media in the future. Women in the past were not faced with same temptations and abilities to change the way they are. But as technology

Gallagher 9 advances, this temptation will increase and it will be harder for women to be happy with the way that they are. In conclusion, the way women are portrayed in the media directly affects them in the way they view themselves physically, emotionally and sexually. The media shows these women what beauty is, and women feel that they must achieve this so men would be interested in them and that they will be accepted by society. Models seen on TV are nowhere near representative of the normal women weight and body type. Women objectified in music videos and films are a big influence in the reason why women want to get plastic surgery and look like a celebrity. The music that one hears on the radio is more times that not leaning towards sexual innuendos. These songs are teaching women to be a sex figure in order to be accepted. And the battlefront for teenage girls is the thing that is most alarming. These girls are facing this media at a very early age, and these mediums are shaping and molding their minds into something that is fictional. Naomi Wolf once said in her book The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women, Ideal beauty is ideal because it does not exist; the action lies in the gap between desire and gratification. Women are not perfect beauties without distance. That space, in a consumer culture, is a lucrative one. The beauty myth moves for men as a mirage, its power lies in its ever-receding nature. When the gap is closed, the lover embraces only his own disillusion (Wolf, 1992, pg. 176). The image that women get from the media in regards to themselves does not exist. Women have to realize that God made them in such a way that is beautiful to Him. Since God is perfect, we must assume that everything God creates is good to Him. God didnt make every

Gallagher 10 woman like what we see on TV or see portrayed in music videos. God made women in all shapes and sizes, letting them be beautiful in all sorts of different ways, and not just in the ways that mass media tells them to be beautiful. At the end of my research, I realize that media plays a bigger role in my life then I thought. Little tiny messages affect me day in and day out and they usually go unnoticed. The media can influence what I listen to, what I wear and what I eat. I think of this and realize the battle women must face every day to combat these views that the media portrays them as

Gallagher 11 Works Cited Berberick, Stephanie. "The Objectification of Women in Mass Media: Female Self-Image in Misogynist Culture." The New York Socialist. 2010. Web. 9 Oct. 2011. <http://newyorksociologist.org/11/Berberick2011.pdf>. Canning, Andrea. "Pippa Middleton Butt Lift Craze: What's Behind Plastic Surgery Fixation?" ABC News. 28 Sept. 2011. Web. 9 Oct. 2011. <http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/pippamiddletons-derriere-plastic-surgery-fixation/story?id=14617782>. Grabe, Shelly. "Concern Over Strong Media Influence on Women's Body Image." Medical News Today. 18 May 2008. Web. 5 Oct. 2011. <http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/107269.php>. Journalism Quotes." Web. 18 Oct. 2011. <http://www.schindler.org/quote.shtml> "Mass Media and the Female Body Image." Lecture. Author Stream. 20 June 2010. Web. 5 Oct. 2011. <http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/aSGuest50170-420688-mass-mediafemale-body-image-feminist-beauty-myth-entertainment-ppt-powerpoint/>. Strasburger, Victor C. "Sexuality, Contraception, and the Media." Pediatrics. 2011. Web. 5 Oct. 2011. <http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/126/3/576.full>. Strong, Bryan, DeVault Christine, and Theodore F. Cohen. The Marriage and Family Experience; Intimate Relationships in a Changing Society 10th Edition. Belmont California: Thomson Wadsworth, 2008. Print. "Timeline of Legal History of Women in the United States." Women's Rights Movement. 2002. Web. 10 Oct. 2011. <http://www.legacy98.org/timeline.html>. "William Bernbach Quote." ThinkExist. 1989. Web. Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth. Anchor, 1992. 176. Print.

Gallagher 12

Zurbriggen, Eileen L., Rebecca L. Collins, Tomi-Ann Roberts, Deborah L. Tolman, Monique Ward, and Jeanne Blake. "Report of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls." American Psychology Association. 2007. Web. 10 Oct. 2011. <http://www.apa.org/pi/women/programs/girls/report-full.pdf>.