Annie Smith ! English 1010 ! Rachele Dalton! December 3, 2013!

! ! ! !
!

Women in Media!
When it came to writing this proposal, my topic was a no brainer. This is something I

have been very passionate about for some time now and I feel it needs to be addressed. When it comes to the perception of women in general, it is usually combined with derogatory remarks and slander, especially in the media. We are the butt of too many jokes and objectied too often as sex objects. What example does this set for the youth of America? To turn to on the TV and see women being called sluts and whores and hear too many sexual innuendoes. Ill admit, I love a good, Thats what she said joke, but media takes it too far. ! ! Why is it that women feel like they need to do lms and other various medias where they

are shown with their boobs out in order to make there way up in the business? Real women and genuine actors dont need nude scenes to show that they have talent and deserve to be on the silver screen. Take Elizabeth Banks for example, she has had a decent career but her big break came from a sleazy portrayal of a promiscuous young adult in the lm 40 Year Old Virgin. Was it necessary to have a huge masturbation scene at the end of the movie? She has done great work in movies such as The Hunger Games and Man on a Ledge, but any dignity she had was minimized because she did that lm. Dont these women know they are setting their gender back in not only in the entertainment world but the real world as well? As long as actors like Elizabeth

"1

Banks continue to exploit themselves for the world to see, women in general will never have the respect they deserve. ! ! One of my favorite examples of exploiting women in visual media is the music video for

Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke. After hearing for weeks that this video was, Brilliant and Inspiring I decided to give it a go. My question to these people is: How is women wearing nothing but high heels and a nude G-string prancing around in front of a white backdrop with, Robin Thicke has a big dick ashing on the screen so called, Brilliance? Speaking with some of my peers, also professionals in the entertainment industry, they nd, It is disgusting and completing degrading to women. And its not only the video its self but the lyrics. I am a victim of being a fan of this song due to the catchy beat, but after I discovered what the song was about, I was mortied. The song is about a man expecting, because she is a women, it is her duty to have sex with him and saying no is not an option. Excuse me, male species, we dont have your name stamped on our foreheads, we are not property. We do not owe you anything and deserve as much respect as any of you. Said by an associate. If you want someone to demand sex from all the time, get a blow up doll, we are not your personal love slaves. ! ! As well as expecting sexual relations and other lyrics such as, Hit me up when youre

passing through Ill give you something big enough to tear your ass in two.Really? Really. The best part of this production is that the director of this video was a woman! Thank you for setting women back in media, those of us producing wholesome and uplifting work appreciate the set back. Says former SLCC lm student and lm director Joylynne Chrislan. ! ! The media sells an image of what they deem to be the ideal womanyoung, tall!

and thin with perfect proportions, hair, skin, and teeth. Everywhere we turn we are! bombarded with magazine covers, billboards, movie posters, and the like, in which the!

"2

images of the models are manipulated, in some cases, beyond recognition. The media! knows this image is unattainable; we know it is unattainable. So why are these standards! of beauty still being imposed upon women, the majority of which are naturally larger and! older than models?Scientists generated a computerized model of a woman with Barbies proportions, and concluded that a woman with that body type would have a back that was too weak to support her upper body. Her torso would be too narrow to contain all vital organs, and she would suffer from chronic diarrhea and eventually die of emaciation. How glamorous, right?(1)! ! The Robin Thicke video is a great example for this statement. All of the models in that

shoot were super skinny with perfect hair, make up, and physique. What message is that sending to women? Statistics show that Americans spend around 40-100 billion dollars on diet pills and products per year and that over ninety percent of women are unhappy with their body. (2) Media encourages this lack in self condence by saying that double zero is the only way to be beautiful and successful. It is damaging to self esteem and companies use this as a tool to increase prot.! ! Anther great example of unnecessary sex in media would be in the movie Bridesmaids.

Again, hilarious movie, I am a fan, but does having a sex scene as the opening scene of the lm set the tone or in any way push the story along? As the story unfolds, we nd the character Annie has had a horrible relationship history and loves a good booty call, however, there are are more creative and artistic choices than porn to set up the plot. ! ! Exploiting women is not only an issue in lm and music, but in advertisements and news

coverage as well. A recent survey in the United Kingdom, for example, shows that about two thirds of women thought that advertisers go too far in using sex to sell product. They found explicit billboard advertisements more offensive. (3) Recent French Reports also highlight the

"3

promotion of sexual values in advertisements that increasingly show degrading portrayals of women with overtones of violence, sexual domination and bestiality. (4) In doing research for this essay, I found numerous examples of women being portrayed sexually to sell a product. For example, in a Dolce and Gabbana ad, a woman is portrayed as a victim of gang rape, An extremely sexualized ad where violence against women is made to look fashionable. (5) It is never morally correct to advertise rape or sexual assault of any kind to increase prot. It is exploitation of women that makes the viewers think its okay to rape a woman because its fashionable.! ! I recently spoke with a Womans Advocate for the Salt Lake City Rape Recovery Center,

who told me, Women being treated as property and improperly is an age old issue but the media certainly exploits it and can denitely spread, inuence, and intensify a mens power over sex.! Like I stated previously, if media encourages violence and mistreatment towards women, society will take it as an invitation and act upon it. Melinda, of the Rape Recovery Center stated that she has been on many cases where a man feels like he hadn't done anything wrong. He simply took her to dinner and because he did, it was her obligation to sleep with him. If it is not consensual, it is rape, no matter the circumstance. ! ! Going back to the lm Bridesmaids, Kristen Wiggs character has sex with a man

because he took her to dinner. After he got what he wanted from her, he tells her to leave and hell call for another hook up. Pieces like this make it look decent to use a woman and toss her aside. It is exactly the same as the real life cases happening to women in the Salt Lake Valley. In Utah alone, only seven percent of women come forward about being raped. Unfortunately, people pay more attention to abuses against animals than to those done to women. The city of Chicago, for instance, has "three times as many shelters for animals as for battered women in

"4

1989; the animal shelters [have] a total budget several times higher tooThus, since women are mere objects and lesser than an animal, we consider their abuse cases to be unimportant. Should that be the case? The media seem to think so with continuous portrayal of sex with violence and fall short of clearly addressing the issues such as rape and domestic violenceLee and Solomon criticize that the media usually report rape gures "fatalistically - as if rape was a natural occurrence. (6)! ! An example of exploitation of women in news coverage: When a woman charged

Senator Brock Adams for sexually assaulting her, U.S. News & World Report reported: "The senator is not the rst politician accused of hanky-pankyThe news media need to thoughtfully report rape for what it is - - a crisis in the U.S, and an iniquitous and brutal crime. Until that happens, society will fail to consider it that way and the "dominant public messages about rape will only imply acceptance. This report also states that it is, Unacceptable for media to equate sexual assault as hanky-panky because that will only perpetuate the society's inability to recognize rape as a serious threat to women. (7)! ! The key to women gaining respect by men, and other women for that matter, is to start

respecting themselves. If they can cease to comply with the violent and exploiting images of women, the image of females in general will greatly improve. Women should not accept roles on television shows and movies that portray rape and sexual assault. Yes, those things happen in real life, but do they should not be encouraged. If modeling campaigns showed not only the super skinny women but all women on the spectrum, we could improve the overall self image of many women and young girls struggling with their bodies. I realize with the Bill of Rights and our right of free speech and press, America cant necessarily put a cap on the amount of violence toward women in media and turning them merely into sexual objects, but women can come to

"5

terms and decide not to participate in such works. Media should be uplifting and used as a tool to promote wellness and positivity. ! ! I recently watched an interview with Jennifer Lawrence star of the trilogy The Hunger

Games, and her take on women and young girls respecting themselves. She had no fear to be blunt and speak her opinions. The question to spark this discussion was how to deal with peers that judge you based on your appearance. To that, she said, Screw those people. In this interview, Ms. Lawrence states that its television shows like Fashion Police that make it seem okay and fun to point at people and call them fat and judge them based on their appearances. She mentions, These unrealistic expectations for women are disappointing and media fuels the re. I completely agree and nd the lack of respect for women in todays generation based on the media. If we can get women to start respecting themselves and respecting the others around them, I feel we can change how the world objecties women and realize we are not property or objects, or only there for your entertainment. It is understandable that some of these actresses accept these roles because they want to launch their career, or give them edge or whatever their ideals are. It only makes it worse for women in the real world who don't live in a romantic comedy or a porno. Not all women want to be viewed as sex objects and don't deserve to be treated as such. ! Citations:! (1) Philippe Harousseau. from a blog: by dmitchell2015 posted under Student Blogging Challenge The Negative Portrayal of Women in the Media: A Persuasive Speech! (2)Philippe Harousseau. from a blog: by dmitchell2015 posted under Student Blogging Challenge The Negative Portrayal of Women in the Media: A Persuasive Speech! (3)Media and Gender Monitor Issue 8! (4)Media and Gender Monitor 2002, Issue 10! (5)"Becoming a Better Woman From the Inside Out: Objectifying Women In the Media." Becoming a Better Woman From the Inside Out: Objectifying Women In the Media. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2013.! (6)Page, Clarence, Chicago Tribune, "Chicago Shelters Figure: 14 December 1988! (7)Lee, Manin A. & Solomon, Norman, Unreliable Sources, pp. 233, Carol Publishing Group, New York, 1990.!

"6

! !
! !

! !

"7