Abstract

Technology is one of the best things in the world, but it also has it’s of drawbacks. Among the main disadvantages is the significant role it has played in objectifying women. The women appear on the internet as sex objects. The source of this idea is the way our culture has taught us that women were created to satisfy men. Most of the communities view women as inferior human beings, which is not such a good thing. The current generation also believes that a ‘real woman’ should present herself in a certain way. Some of the ways that women are expected to give themselves today are by showing off some of their body parts and having a body shape that is sexually appealing to society. Some women have decided to change their ways dressing to satisfy the demand of this young generation. This paper will discuss how the media portrays women and its effects on society.

Keywords: Media, objectification, stereotyping

The portrayal of Women on The Media

Introduction

Some improvements have been made on how the media sells the image of a woman. Television, film, magazines, and social media are the main areas where a woman’s sexuality is used as a headline in advertisements and entertainment. Despite the strides made both in the portrayal and presence of the women on the media, there are still many concerns about the same topic in modern technology. The late 20^th and the current century have seen the media fuel the stereotyping of the female gender (Easteal et al., 2015). Although some people are championing for gender equity in all frames of life, the act seems to be developing even further due to the environment in which the youth have been brought up. This paper will discuss how women are portrayed on the media in the current century and its impacts on society.

Women Portrayal

The magazines, television, social media, and the internet at large are some of the primary sources of information today. A good percentage of the population in the world has access to at least one of these sources. Therefore, any information sent via one of these sources could spread very fast across the globe. This speed at which news is addressed is one of the advantages of technology. However, the same way communication is sent via these channels is the same way the image of both genders is spread. How a woman and a man are portrayed on the media are very different.

There is more decency on how the male gender appears on the screens of our television or the front pages of the magazines (Berns, 2017). However, most news channels employ a woman’s sexuality to attract more attention.The female gender is, therefore, used as a ‘bait’ for the audience to access the information. The films and social media use the same trick to get more viewers as they strive to make more money. Women are three times as likely as their opposite gender to appear in sexually appealing attire. These statistics seem to be growing with time because the youth who take up the high positions in the media industry have been brought up in an environment that suggests to them that stereotyping of women is a normal thing.

Many women and men have come out to condemn the act of miss representing the female gender strongly. Women are not treated with the same respect that the men receive. They have been objectified in advertisements as many companies know that they can make more sales using a woman’s sexual body than when using the men. Objectification can be defined as the act of treating someone as a mere object without respecting their dignity and personality (Grogan, 2016). Although some advertisements have a different objective, the side-message that is usually sent in these images is that women are sexual objects. It is quite worrying that this act has been done several times until it appears as a regular thing. There was more decency in how women were shown on televisions and magazines in the past. However, the technological developments that have characterized most of the late 20^th and the 21^st centuries have been a facilitating factor to the sexual image shown on the media.

            Another image that the media paints is that women should represent themselves in a given way to qualify for the society’s justification. The dressing code has been set by the , and the current generation believes that women should dress in a certain way to be ‘real women’ (Kumari& Joshi, 2015). In a century where two different generations exist together, it is easier to see the difference between the past and present. In the past, women covered most of their body parts as a way of respecting themselves and those around them. However, the current generation demands that a ‘real woman’ should be able to dress in a sexually appealing manner and have specific body figure. The thin waist is one of the things that ladies are demanded by the society to find. These demands, however, have some impacts on the lives of our fellow women.

The Source of Objectification

Everything has a beginning, and female objectification also started from somewhere. The leading cause of how women’s pictures are painted all over the internet is the education that children receive at their early age. Although every culture in the world is different, there is one factor that seems to cut across all communities. The idea that women were created to provide sexual satisfaction to the men is something that has been fed to the minds of the people (Easteal et al., 2015). The truth that most of the people do not want to admit is that both genders depend on each other for sexual satisfaction, except in individual cases. Therefore, the belief that women are the only ones that should provide satisfaction is a fallacy.

The sad part is that this information has now been sent from generation to generation. It is something that has been around since the existence of our forefathers. The difference between then and now is that in the past they were just ideas painted in one’s brain, but the technology has made it possible to paint the same pictures visually. The contemporary society, therefore, does not view a woman as a companion but a sexual object (Kumari& Joshi, 2015). People forget that women are also humans and that they have feelings like any other person. This dehumanization makes it a lot easier to objectify women because they are represented as some rewards to their opposite gender.

Impacts on the Society

The portrayal of women in the media is something that has a lot of effects on how the society thinks, especially the young people. Some of the impacts can be seen on social media. Social media is one place in which every youth will find themselves at some point in life. It has become one of the primary needs of any young person. Although it is a good source of information and encourages socialization, it also provides access to some disturbing news. The woman’s portrayal in the media has significantly affected the way people think of the female gender (Berns, 2017). The source of this image, as stated earlier, is the education that was the early generations gave us. However, the current generation learns about the same on the internet and has an even worse interpretation. The young age now believes that women’s role in society is solely to provide sexual satisfaction to men. About 90% of the women images shared on the social media sends a sexual image. The pictures are often those of naked or semi-naked women, and the youth enjoy that more than those of decently-dressed ladies.

The virtual rules created by the society regarding how women should dress also has an impact on the female gender. Social media is one platform where these rules can be seen taking effect. There are higher chances of pictures featuring naked women getting more likes than those of a woman dressed in a Nun’s clothes. This generation has also been made to believe that one can only thrive if he or she gets the attention of many people. Therefore, to post great pictures of themselves and get more interaction over the internet, some women decide to take pictures of their half-naked bodies as a way of ‘respecting the rules’ (Grogan, 2016). Inasmuch as there are many advocating against women objectification, some women objectify themselves in a bid to gain more friends and become relevant to society. They also do that by doing all they can to ensure that they make their body shape more appealing to the people. As such, they ignore a balanced diet and take on unhealthy paths which could have severe consequences on their health.

Conclusion

            The media is one of the primary sources of information and has seen a lot of improvements due to developments in technology. However, it has played a huge role in facilitating the objectification of women. A woman is now viewed as a source of sexual satisfaction rather than a companion. This objectification has had adverse effects on society and the ladies themselves. The society now believes that it is right to present women as sexual objects, and some women have decided to change their dressing codes to become relevant in the society.

Reference

Berns, N. S. (2017). Framing the victim: Domestic violence, media, and social problems. Routledge.

Easteal, P., Holland, K., & Judd, K. (2015, January). Enduring themes and silences in media portrayals of violence against women. In Women’s Studies International Forum (Vol. 48, pp. 103-113). Pergamon.

Grogan, S. (2016). Body image: Understanding body dissatisfaction in men, women and children. Routledge.

Kumari, A., & Joshi, H. (2015). Gender Stereotyped Portrayal of Women in the Media: Perception and Impact on Adolescent. International Organization of Scientific Research, Journal of Humanities and Social Science (IOSR-JHSS), 20 (4), 44-52.

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