CHAPTER 1

PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN MEDIA

1.1. Introduction

Women’s participation, performance, and portrayal in media are the three important
dimensions of study for the social science researchers of modern time, especially for
feminists. Because for the empowerment and development of the women section, it is very
important to give them a proper environment where they can raise their voices against the
inequalities and the gender gap they are experiencing in our male-dominated or patriarchal
societies. Improving the status of women, in every aspect, is regarded as the only way to
eradicate this gender gap and achieve a better quality of life for women. For this,
communication can be regarded as a vital way and mass media can play a significant role in
shaping social values, attitudes, norm perceptions,n behavior. It has been widely recognized
that media can play a substantial role in promoting and disseminating information among the
masses and are regarded as the key players in the social, political, and economic development
of women. Media can focus on all the problems faced by women, these can give a space for
women to talk about their rights or freedoms, and most importantly media can provide a
democratic environment where women can participate, represent their womanhood and in
which they will be portrayed positively. A positive portrayal of women in media is necessary
to maintain the real dignity and status of women which will minimize the gap and inequalities
between men and women. But if media also become male-dominated or play the role as a
mere agent to forward this tradition then the whole situation will be against the women and
their development and empowerment will not be possible.

1.2 Journal of Higher Education and Research Society: A Refereed International

ISSN 2349-0209 Volume-3/Issue-2 OCTOBER 2015

123

The portrayal of Women In Media

JHERS
S

PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN MEDIA

-DR. DEEPANJALI MISHRA

Concept of Media:
media is the buzz word of the era of globalization. The rapid expansion of
the term and the concept of the present form of globalization has been made possible
only through the information revolution throughout the world. It has been widely
recognized that media can play a substantial role in promoting and disseminating
information and are key players in the social and economic development of women.
Therefore, media largely reflects the lifestyles socialization terns, participation le ls,
cultural boundaries, political maneuverings, religious manifestations, educational
standards, social hierarchy, and of course, society images of any given society. As per the
political scientist, James Rosenau's definition, "Media is a label that is presently in vogue to
account for peoples, activities, norms ideas, goods, services, and currencies that are
decreasingly confined to a particular geographic space and its local and established
practices.” Media can play a significant role in either perpetuating or challenging
social norms and behaviors that condone violence against women. New media can be a
platform for the objectification of women and girls, from everyday hyper-sexualized, one-
dimensional images of women and girls to overt violence.
Researchers report that women’s magazines have ten and one-half times
more ads
and articles promoting weight loss than men’s magazines. Television and movies reinforce
the importance of a thin body as a measure of a women’s worth. In recent reports over
three-quarters of female characters in TV are underweight, and only one in twenty are
above average in size. Over weight, actresses tend to receive negative comments from male
characters about their bodies. Research indicates that exposure to images of thin, young,
air-brushed female bodies can be linked to depression, loss of self-esteem, and the
development of unhealthy eating habits in women and girls. Twenty years ago the average
model weighed 8 percent less than the average woman, but today’s model's weight is 23
percent less than the average woman. The messages that the media sends to women about
thinness, dieting, and beauty tell “ordinary” women that they are always in need of
adjustment and that the female body is an object to be perfected.
Emotional abuse is any behavior that is designed to control human beings through the use
of fear, humiliation, intimidation, guilt, coercion, or manipulation. Emotional abuse is any

1.2. Concept of Media

Media is the buzzword of the era of globalization. The rapid expansion of the term and
the concept of the present form of globalization has been made possible only through the
information revolution throughout the world. It has been widely recognized that media can
play a substantial role in promoting and disseminating information and are key players in the
social and economic development of women. Therefore, media largely reflects the lifestyles,
socialization patterns, participation levels, cultural boundaries, political maneuverings,
religious manifestations, educational standards, social hierarchy, and of course, society
images of any given society. As per the political scientist, James Rosenau's definition,
"Media is a label that is presently in vogue to account for peoples, activities, norms ideas,
goods, services, and currencies that are decreasingly confined to a particular
geographic space and its local and established practices.” Media can play a significant
role in either perpetuating or challenging social norms and behaviors that condone
violence against women. New media can be a platform for the objectification of women
and girls, from everyday hyper-sexualized, one-dimensional images of women and girls to
overt violence. Researchers report that women’s magazines have ten and one-half times
more ads and articles promoting weight loss than men’s magazines. Television and movies
reinforce the importance of a thin body as a measure of a women’s worth. In recent
reports over three-quarters of female characters in TV are underweight, and only one
in twenty are above average in size. Overweight actresses tend to receive negative
comments from male characters about their bodies. Research indicates that exposure to
images of thin, young, air-brushed female bodies can be linked to depression, loss of self-
esteem, and the development of unhealthy eating habits in women and girls. Twenty years
ago the average model weighed 8 percent less than the average woman, but today’s models
weigh s 23 percent less than the average woman. The messages that the media sends to
women about thinness, dieting, and beauty tell “ordinary” women that they are always in
need of adjustment and that the female body is an object to be perfected. Emotional abuse is
any behavior that is designed to control human beings through the use of fear, humiliation,
intimidation, guilt, coercion, or manipulation. Emotional abuse is any kind of abuse that is
emotional rather than physical. It can include verbal abuse, constant criticism, put-downs,
and constant disapproval.

1.3 Statistical Details

1. Women only make up around 20% of expert news sources.

Unconscious bias, tight deadlines, lack of women's leadership across industries, and cultural
challenges all affect journalists' ability to include women experts. Experts also get put in
boxes by ingrained cultural beliefs. The lack of inclusion of women experts has serious
consequences. When male experts are prioritized, women's hard work and contributions are.
devalued and they are robbed of the recognition and public acclaim they deserve. Excluding
women with expertise in their fields also reinforces the idea that women's roles are to assist
men in their work. The imbalance in sources can also be linked to the higher percentage of
men in positions of power and authority, and women's tendencies to be less overconfident in
their expertise due to societal conditioning.

2. Only 24% of the people in newspaper, television, and radio news are women.

The Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) conducted 2015 the largest study on
the portrayal, participation, and representation of women in the news media spanning
20 years and 114 countries, and found that less than a quarter of new sources are
women. When women are featured in the news, meanwhile, they are more likely to
speak on their personal experience, popular opinion, or to provide eyewitness
accounts. If gender equality in society mirrors gender equality in the news, it will take
at least three-quarters of a century to reach gender parity.

1.4 Statement of the Problem

The mass media have long been welcomed as the watchdog of society and this tradition
bestows upon them the social responsibility to mirror and guide the process of social change.
But in contemporary India, mass media under various pressures have become the commercial
channels only and failed to reflect the social problems or aspirations of the entire population,
especially the problems faced by women in particular. So, the portrayal of women in Indian
media, be it films, television programs, visual advertisements, or newspapers and magazines
is becoming an area of great concern to people having an interest in social research and
studies. There is an ongoing trend in today’s media, both electronic and print, to portray
women as a commodity, sex objects, and
sometimes as victims. It is known to everybody that Indian society is a patriarchal
society; patriarchy is established everywhere and in every aspect of life, and unfortunately
media is no exception to that. Media as the modern corporate organizations are still
dominated by the male and in all the higher posts men are employed and they by controlling
the whole system of media try to depict the picture of women as weak and inferior in front of
the whole world.
1.5 Portraying Women

Portraying women is common nowadays where she is being exploited day today by the
means of her ignorance and not being aware of any situations. Why she is portrayed? It's due
to a male dominant society where she is considered as the inferior sex of men and she could
only serve as a homemaker or a mother, so regarding Media's context on women is irrational
and under-exploited as a social evil of the community. She is insecure in doing work and
exploited in the name of working conditions in media. In what ways does the media look at a
woman if we analyze it would owe some, she is considered as an inferior one a body of
commoditized advertisement where she is exploited by big MNCs and big business
corporations in the name of providing entertainment to the audience. They don't think of
women at all they need to keep hold of their audience so they use women as a burning
firework of stratified glamour, skimpily dressed, fashionable and making up the male's gaze
over them. Historical background of women in television: Women in television started in the
1960s with the countries like the U.S.A., the U.K., U.S.S.R, and other developed countries.
The context of India also started after the 1960s when Doordarshan played an important role
in it. Major serials like log bunniyad attracted all sets of people. The serial which was shown
was glamorous which made an idea that television was meant for glamour .it was the starting
of women being commoditized as a glamour dolls as well as to show their body of
advertising big MNCs and big businessmen. It was during 1991 that satellite channels, as
well as a cable channel, came into force where women were used as a commoditized object in
major channels for making audience attracted and improving their rating .catering, youth
programmers, business were all advertised by women as a commoditized girl. These trends
are growing nowadays in this commoditized world. Each television combat with each other to
attract the people by beautiful women with skimpily dressed fashionable to make the males
gaze and get attracted to these programmers.

1.6 Chapterisation of the Thesis

The entire research work is in 5 chapters.

 Chapter 1- Introduction will study the topic and its importance of the study , it will
give a major introduction of the topics

 Chapter 2- Review of Literature will include previous studies and reviews of the
topic. It also consists of the theoretical framework for the study.

 Chapter 3- Research Methodology carries details about the locale of the research,
research objectives for collecting the data.

 Chapter 4- includes analysis and data collection.

 Chapter 5- Findings, conclusions, suggestions, bibliography, and references will be

presented.