Media's Images of Women & Self-Esteem

Although the press is entrusted with reporting current events in an unbiased fashion, coverage of women's issues, particularly feminism, leaves much to be desired. For example, women are largely excluded as news commentators, unless the topic of discussion happens to be related to gender. Women commentators are ubiquitous on news talk shows such as Nightline or Crossfire when the subject is Hillary Clinton, abortion, or breast implants. When traditional "male" topics such as the war in Bosnia or budget hearings are aired, women are either conspicuously absent or are represented by "token" women panelists. Rarely, if ever, does the public witness a television talk show panel discussion on the closure of military bases, for instance, that is made up predominantly of female members. Consequently, the image that is projected to women is that females are needed only for discussion of those rare subjects in which men are not well-versed.

Issues related to women of color are largely igno

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es who can make it in a man's world. Other literature emphasizes how women can effectively juggle the demands of career and family. Even magazines that target working women devote an inordinate amount of coverage to methods to effect physical changes, e.g., hair, makeup, exercise, and diet. (The June 1995 issue of Working Woman included the following articles: "The Customized Body," "The Smart Diet," "My Taste Buds Made Me Do It," "What Should You Weigh?" "The Minimal Workout," and "The Positive Power of Exercise.") This type of journalism sends a message to women that limits their focus to micromanaging their own lives instead of transforming society. Another method that the media employs to lower the self-esteem of women is by bombarding them with violence perpetrated against female victims. In a study of the effect of screened violence on women, researchers made the folllowing finding: " . . . female participants experienced an increase in feelings of disempowerment when they viewed film clips depicting women as victims of violence" (Reid and Finchilescu, 1995, p. 408). Women experienced similar effects when they read fictional and non-fictional accounts of such violence (Reid and Finchilescu, 1995, p. 409). The frequ
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Approximate Word count = 1916
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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