Gender Roles: For The Sake Of Womankind

For the Sake of Womankind

Gender roles have changed throughout the course of history, yet the struggle for true equality amongst men and women still prevails. Women continue to be viewed as the minority group, where being born a girl automatically lowers her social standard. This social standard dictates how she is respected, how she is viewed, and what opportunities she is given. Efforts have been and are made to blur the distinction between being a male or a female, but the amount of progress is not enough to say that both genders are equal. Some people may say otherwise, but as a whole, women will never be the equivalent of man in the eyes of American society. Economically speaking, women have lower wages than men despite the policy …show more content…
Media portrayals influence and shape the minds of society. There is television, music, movies, Internet, social networking sites, and advertisements that contribute to what the average persons sees everyday. Nonetheless, media is not controlling lives, but is certainly influencing them. It has become a media norm to objectify women, using their bodies as tools to sway consumers. At very young ages, people are exposed to advertisements “involving a naked woman draped over a car hood, or a woman with shoes or a purse covering her otherwise naked breasts” (Turner). As a result, people make the connection that all women enjoy to be sexualized like those in the commercials and expect to be treated like so. Portrayals, such as those, create the general idea that women have the sole purpose to please people. Women are humans, not objects that serve a certain purpose. Once a woman is perceived as an object, they will start to be treated as one (Turner). There is no level of respect given to women. Equality cannot be achieved if those who think they are superior to women get to treat women accordingly. Despite the progress women have made in creating an equivalent status to men, “women’s empowerment through feminism is being co-opted through advertising promising advancement through nail polish while continuing to objectify” (Turner). All the progress that women have been making is slowly diminishing to nothing. It has come to a point in advertising that women’s feminism is now being used as a marketing technique. Through these depictions, women’s liberation is constantly being downgraded. All the work women had to go through in the past to get to where they stand today loses meaning in the span of a thirty second advertisement. There is no tone of respect coming from society, so women are unable to be taken