Media's Images of Women & Self-Esteem

The media play an important function in influencing women's self concepts and self esteem. Unfortunately, the media have not kept pace with fundamental changes that have occurred in gender roles in American society. Selectivity, distortion, and marginalization still characterize the presentation of women's issues in the press. Stereotypical images abound in the advertising media. As a result of such irresponsible journalism, women are often saddled with negative perceptions of themselves.

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

Related Essays

Stereotyped Images of Women in the Media .... of how women are portrayed in the media have been .... and social sciences, 50, 3743-A. Hesse-Biber, S. (1991 .... Mirror images: effects of the standard of beauty on the .... (3647 15 )

Role of Media Images on Anorexia Nervosa .... According to Dr Joel S. Perlmutter, a professor and neurologist at .... be an effort also on the part of the media to play down the unrealistic images of women .... (2786 11 )

Unrealistic Images Schneider, Karen S. and Shelley Levitt. .... to the effects due to their heavy exposure to these images. .... who tended to be more exposed to mass media that presented .... (1390 6 )

Impact of Images on Young People Schneider, Karen S. and Shelley Levitt. .... to the effects due to their heavy exposure to these images. .... who tended to be more exposed to mass media that presented .... (1390 6 )

Female Self-Image & Eating Disorders .... protected by her family from corrosive and false images about what .... to whatever messages she receives through the mass media and from .... Haworth-Hoeppner, S. (2000 .... (2339 9 )

The Obsessive Pursuit of Thinness .... Furthermore, women's blind focus on achieving external appearance will .... will not become prey to the biased media images of beauty .... O'Dea, JA, & Abraham, S. (1999 .... (4417 18 )

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

Category: Psychology - M