The Media's Portrayal of Men and Women

The media's portrayal of men and women.

In an imperfect world we see the ways that the popular media uses gender tensions everywhere. The truth is that sex sells, we know that. For example, the challenge that advertisers face is how to use "Sex sells" the best. Some advertisers do this better than others and the ones that truly understand gender tension will in the end sell the most. In today's media, women are primarily objectified more often than men in most types of advertisements and movies.

Modern society is fixated on the appearance of a woman. Society believes that ideal women should be thin, pretty and big breasted. I often wonder why we put so much emphasis on the way a person looks. I've talked to some of my friends and asked them, "Who do you think should be more attractive in a relationship, the man or the woman?" Surprisingly the men and even more so the women say, the women should be. I believe that Hollywood had has a great influence on appearance. The movie industry shows the public that they are looking for people who not only have the talents, but are predominantly "good looking". Women are often depicted as victims of violence or as sexual objects, and researchers have found that these media portrayals may influence how women are viewed and treated in society. (Donnerstein, E).

According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), "cosmetic plastic-surgery procedures tripled between 1992 and 2000. Liposuction has increased by 386 percent, breast augmentation by 476 percent" (Lisa Haney, "Saving Face" www.csmonitor.com ). In order for men to look appealing, they are supposed to be big, not like women, muscular and athletic-like. I have noticed that women are wearing more revealing clothes than men. Women have countless numbers of shirts and dresses that show cleavage and a curvaceous body. Men do have the option to show off their muscular body, but many choose not to.

A major difference between males and females in the media is nudity. In many many movies men are seen with their shirts off, most likely in an action movie or in an action scene. We all do, we all think that's okay for a man to show off his body, his nakedness but it is somewhat not appropriate for a women to do it. Have you ever wondered when you see the rating system of a movie, and it says mild nudity. They always refer to the males, males probably with their shirts off. But when a movie states intense nudity situation they constantly refer to females with their clothes off (www.mpaa.org ). This implies that women are objectified more intense than men

Music and music videos, may also contribute to negative perceptions of women which is objectified more than men. Researchers have found an average of 18 instances of aggression each hour on Music Television (MTV), 35% of which depict sexual violence against women. (Peterson, D.L. and Pfost, K.S). Studies show that the dominating theme of "love relationship" in songs has increasingly shifted to include explicit sexual references that are often more demeaning to women than men. (Peterson, D.L. and Pfost, K.S).

As stated earlier, advertisers face the challenge of how to use "Sex Sells" the best. When watching T.V. commercials the majority of hair commercials are done by females. One might wonder "why not men?" Also, in cell phone ads they use females because they assume females love to talk, which is in some degree true. In our society