Essay: Critically analyze how women are represented in the media.
Introduction
In this essay I will be exploring how women are represented in the media and looking into sexism in a professional workplace environment. I will be talking about the history of women in the media, inequality of women in the media, how women are judged for their looks and how women are represented as a sexual item.
History
To start I will be looking into the history of the representation of women and how this has changed through to modern day. Unless they were needed women were viewed as nothing more than housewives, there to cook and clean. In World War 2 Rosie the Riverter became the face of posters encouraging women to step in and do a ‘man’s job’ whilst the men were away at war. Many people now see Rosie as a representation of feminism and …show more content…
This can be clearly seen in pop music and advertisement. R. Gill argues that ‘women are not straightforwardly objectified but are presented as active, desiring sexual objects who choose to present themselves in a seemingly objectified manner…” She adds that this can be seen in advertising “…The sexually autonomous heterosexual young woman who plays with her sexual power and is forever ‘up for it’. (2007:258). In other words women feel the need to sexualise themselves to feel accepted in patriarchal society. It could be said that this representation is dangerous and damaging to self-conscious young women wanting a career in the media or journalism. It could be seen as degrading and said to show no respect for women and their talents. According to Gender and The Media by Rosaline Gill, Imelda Whelehan suggests that the world has “entered an era of ‘retro-sexism’ in which representations of women ‘from the banal to the downright offensive’ are being ‘defensively reinvented against cultural changes in women’s lives’
Introduction
In this essay I will be exploring how women are represented in the media and looking into sexism in a professional workplace environment. I will be talking about the history of women in the media, inequality of women in the media, how women are judged for their looks and how women are represented as a sexual item.
History
To start I will be looking into the history of the representation of women and how this has changed through to modern day. Unless they were needed women were viewed as nothing more than housewives, there to cook and clean. In World War 2 Rosie the Riverter became the face of posters encouraging women to step in and do a ‘man’s job’ whilst the men were away at war. Many people now see Rosie as a representation of feminism and …show more content…
This can be clearly seen in pop music and advertisement. R. Gill argues that ‘women are not straightforwardly objectified but are presented as active, desiring sexual objects who choose to present themselves in a seemingly objectified manner…” She adds that this can be seen in advertising “…The sexually autonomous heterosexual young woman who plays with her sexual power and is forever ‘up for it’. (2007:258). In other words women feel the need to sexualise themselves to feel accepted in patriarchal society. It could be said that this representation is dangerous and damaging to self-conscious young women wanting a career in the media or journalism. It could be seen as degrading and said to show no respect for women and their talents. According to Gender and The Media by Rosaline Gill, Imelda Whelehan suggests that the world has “entered an era of ‘retro-sexism’ in which representations of women ‘from the banal to the downright offensive’ are being ‘defensively reinvented against cultural changes in women’s lives’