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Women on Television Essay, Research Paper

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Women on Television Essay, Research Paper
Women On Television

The quality of American television has become a national disgrace. Young women in America who are displeased with their appearance more likely then not can trace those feelings

directly back to images from the media on television. The unrealistic representations of women that the media bombards young women with indicates that the television has become a source for a distorted understanding of gender roles among adolescent women. These images warp young women's views of their own gender identity. The media on television should in an attempt to provide more positive gender identities for adolescent women depict women on television in more realistic ways, should stop reinforcing negative stereotypes of women, and stop portraying women as sex objects in advertising.

Television is unrepresentative of the real world. Since most major directors on television are males, they depict a world, which agrees with their concepts of society on television. Young women see women in roles on television as being submissive to men or as not as intelligent as men are. For example, the case of the female mayor on the comedy shows South Park. She went to Princeton, yet she makes moronic decisions for the town and flagrantly poses for photos. The media should show positive roles that young women could identify with and imitate positive behavior from strong female role models. Television besieges women with portrayals of old women fearing the youth of young women. The result of these images is that these ideas create competition among women and divides women. The media should also be aware of the images of women depicted since young women in other countries also see the American television. In developing countries television ownership is rising and as much as seventy one percent of television programming is from more affluent countries .

Equally important would be to stop reinforcing negative stereotypes of women on television. Television still represents

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