How Are Women Portrayed in the Media?
Q1. How are women portrayed in the
New Zealand media?
-Consider Bonds advert
-Jane Jetson info, Source 19
-NZ Stats/ examples
”What is generic is replaceable. With youth and beauty, then the working woman is visible, but insecure, made to feel her qualities are not unique. But, without them, she is invisible-she falls literally ‘out of the picture’”-Beauty Myth
Not only women but all people are constantly pigeonholed into categories within the media, people are categorized and prejudiced against (16). The idea of categorizing people has been conditioned into the public mind so that ideas such as ‘all blondes are ditzy’ or ‘all red heads are not only angry but a whole different species’ exist.
Divisions are everywhere and it is this same division that is a technique used by corporations to sell their products through the media.
Every individual western female has been categorized into a select few genres within modern media, there is the ‘Superwoman…mother, wife and career driven’ (8), ‘the femme fatale…sex kitten, [and] the nasty corporate climber’ (6). All of these things dictate how a woman behaves or more how a woman is supposed to behave according to the media’s standard.
The media places emphasis on age and beauty, “ads portraying women…only [show] body parts” (7) this puts across the idea that women are meat or objects to be looked at not individual people. Women are portrayed in sexualized ways for male attention they are mere objects (7). Females in television are supposed to be young and pretty to be aloud on screen, when compared with males the standard is different. Older male presenters are praised for their maturity however this is not the case with older women. Females in television are expected to be either young or still look as if they are young; age, which is a part of life, is portrayed as a demon. The media portrays that youth is the only form of beauty (18). This is something imprinted on females from a young age, while a
New Zealand media?
-Consider Bonds advert
-Jane Jetson info, Source 19
-NZ Stats/ examples
”What is generic is replaceable. With youth and beauty, then the working woman is visible, but insecure, made to feel her qualities are not unique. But, without them, she is invisible-she falls literally ‘out of the picture’”-Beauty Myth
Not only women but all people are constantly pigeonholed into categories within the media, people are categorized and prejudiced against (16). The idea of categorizing people has been conditioned into the public mind so that ideas such as ‘all blondes are ditzy’ or ‘all red heads are not only angry but a whole different species’ exist.
Divisions are everywhere and it is this same division that is a technique used by corporations to sell their products through the media.
Every individual western female has been categorized into a select few genres within modern media, there is the ‘Superwoman…mother, wife and career driven’ (8), ‘the femme fatale…sex kitten, [and] the nasty corporate climber’ (6). All of these things dictate how a woman behaves or more how a woman is supposed to behave according to the media’s standard.
The media places emphasis on age and beauty, “ads portraying women…only [show] body parts” (7) this puts across the idea that women are meat or objects to be looked at not individual people. Women are portrayed in sexualized ways for male attention they are mere objects (7). Females in television are supposed to be young and pretty to be aloud on screen, when compared with males the standard is different. Older male presenters are praised for their maturity however this is not the case with older women. Females in television are expected to be either young or still look as if they are young; age, which is a part of life, is portrayed as a demon. The media portrays that youth is the only form of beauty (18). This is something imprinted on females from a young age, while a