One might say that the media plays a very important role in today’s society. It is viewed, read, and streamed by millions around the world. What they media portrays can highly influence the way somebody thinks if it is constantly brought up in front of them. This can lead to people believing that they have to reflect what they see in the media in order to be approved by society, which is a very common belief that women have. There are many different aspects of how the media portrays women, but the most common is through the use of princesses. James Poniewozik, a media and television critic for Time magazine, wrote an article titled “The Princess Paradox” in which he explored multiple princess influenced movies in how they depicted women.
…show more content…
He discusses how Hollywood feeds into the princess craze by continuing to release princess related movies. However, he claims that today’s modern movies have made their female characters less dependent on men and more individual and confident in themselves, unlike the older princess movies. Even though these movies end with the girl getting the guy at the end, he claims that girls are okay with it because the movies are balanced with “varied depictions of young women” (Poniewozik 667). He states that even though these movies are taking a step into feminism, they are still setting standards for girls. He says that now girls “should be pretty, but in a class-president way, not a head-cheerleader way” (Poniewozik …show more content…
Once women become exposed to society’s idea of “perfection,” they feel as if they are never good enough no matter what it is that they do. Both Orenstein and Poniewozik point out that women feel pressured to be both pretty and smart. Orenstein also adds that a lot of girls have stopped playing sports because it was viewed as “unfeminine” (Orenstein 673). The importance of this is because it means that these girls would only focus on making themselves look and act nice and they won’t care about actually being involved with themselves, meaning they would be so worried what other people will think about them, that they won’t have time to realize what they think about themselves as human beings instead of an
He discusses how Hollywood feeds into the princess craze by continuing to release princess related movies. However, he claims that today’s modern movies have made their female characters less dependent on men and more individual and confident in themselves, unlike the older princess movies. Even though these movies end with the girl getting the guy at the end, he claims that girls are okay with it because the movies are balanced with “varied depictions of young women” (Poniewozik 667). He states that even though these movies are taking a step into feminism, they are still setting standards for girls. He says that now girls “should be pretty, but in a class-president way, not a head-cheerleader way” (Poniewozik …show more content…
Once women become exposed to society’s idea of “perfection,” they feel as if they are never good enough no matter what it is that they do. Both Orenstein and Poniewozik point out that women feel pressured to be both pretty and smart. Orenstein also adds that a lot of girls have stopped playing sports because it was viewed as “unfeminine” (Orenstein 673). The importance of this is because it means that these girls would only focus on making themselves look and act nice and they won’t care about actually being involved with themselves, meaning they would be so worried what other people will think about them, that they won’t have time to realize what they think about themselves as human beings instead of an