The media's representation of women



Summer Bridging Work 2017; Berger's statement


Berger’s opinion stating that women need to continuously “watch” themselves holds a deep and valid truth. As Berger mentioned in his statement, most girls are brought up with the notion that they need to control themselves and inherit an oppressive behaviour. This reinforces his idea on women constantly surveying themselves.


Firstly, a woman is most likely to be regarded as successful due to her faultless reputation. This reputation is likely to be gained through being inferior and respectful to her male superior. She must not state her own opinion or make influential decisions. In other words, a woman must teach herself to be oppressed.  A woman who contradicts the rules is likely to be seen as a nuisance. In today’s society, women are beginning to achieve freedom as stereotypes are being challenged. However, the media’s representation of women is often offensive and degrading.


Image 1: Vanish advert


 










Women are still being depicted as domestic beings who have a moral obligation to stay at home to clean and cook. Most detergent adverts feature women cleaning their houses while performing other domestic duties. These include Floor, Persil and Fairy. While the majority women perform house duties singlehandedly, these adverts are exceedingly degrading as they suggest that this is all women are good for.  It also creates the idea that all women should be capable to undertake domestic duties in order to labelled a respectable woman.


 Image 2: Fragrance advert.

Image 2: Fragrance advert





















This advert clearly illustrates male dominance and female objectivity. As the male model is grabbing his ‘partners’ leg, it suggests that he controls her and possibly manipulates her. The advert cuts off the females face entirely highlighting her relevance in the advert. This once again stresses the idea that she is under his control and is significantly inferior. The female audience of this advert may begin to feel offended by the fact that the women’s face is being cut off yet her cleavage is in clear sight. Most fragrance adverts deploy sexual gratification to lure in their male audience. This may make men feel important but makes most women feel weak and objectified. This advert submits itself to Berger’s statement as he claims a women’s “surveyor” is actually a male voice instructing her on how to behave. This image can easily be seen in this advert.






Image 3: Robin Thicke, Blurred Lines (music video)























This video concurs with Berger’s statement. Robin Thicke’s music video submits to the idea that women are only meant to appear. The video, as well as the lyrics, feature content that is impudent and disrespectful. The video contains naked women standing and dancing in front of the Thicke. The women conform the ‘damsel in distress’ stereotype as they seem to lack integrity and intelligence. In other words, they appear to be highly vulnerable characters who need men to protect them and attend to their every need. The lyrics to the song make the general message worse as Thicke sings about how he tried to “domesticate” the women. He also claims his woman is the “hottest bitch in this place” and how he knows she “wants it”. These absurd lyrics and videos contradict all the changes that women have made over the years regarding their freedom and rights. Women’s struggle to fight against stereotypes is made harder because of videos like these. Female celebrities within the music scene don’t seem to care as no one questions these lyrics and videos. This once again adds to Berger’s statement as men remain to have superiority.

Many other songs and videos face the same issue. Songs such as ‘Ayo’ by Chris Brown claim that women are his “bitches”. Other than the foul language, the messages in these songs send an awful message to young girls as they begin to question if men are their superiors and if they should be dependent on a man to be successful in life.

The psychological effect on women can be detrimental due to the media and their portrayal of women. Many young girls today find themselves obsessing with their appearance due to the media’s image of how a perfect woman should look like.  

To conclude, Berger’s opinion remains truthful and many changes in society have to made to contradict his statement.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tide advert

Image
A vast majority of Tide adverts are controversial as they connote many stereotypical ideologies. Tide adverts conform to the notion that women should be domestic servants and undertake any chores in order to gratify their husbands. In this advert, the dominant reading suggests the wife finds pleasure being subjugated to her husband. The washing powder clearly brings  a sense of happiness as the wife can bring joy to her husband by cleaning his clothes contentiously. The phrases that join the advert are also stereotypical. While 'He wears the cleanest shirts in town' is in a larger and brighter font, '...his 'Misses' swears by tide' is smaller and harder to read. The red font dominating over the black font could connote the husband taking credit for his wife's work therefore highlighting his dominance and superiority over her. The fact that she is referred to as 'Misses' also connotes this idea as she doesn't have an identity without other tha
Read more

Binary Opposites

Image
The Amazing Spider-man and the Harry Potter franchise In both Harry Potter and The Amazing Spiderman franchises, the binary opposites, the protagonists and antagonists, hold specific values that reinforce their role. Firstly, Voldemort’s role as an antagonist is exceedingly stereotypical in regard to the mise-en-scene, soundtrack, editing and camera work. The black clothing and evil actions empower darkness upon the world. His followers also wear similar clothing. This, among other factors, present Voldemort as the epitome of evil. It is ironic however, that most tyrannical characters don’t kill other people but rather, their disciples commit the crime for them. Thus, most characters in the movie refer to Voldemort as ‘the dark lord’ or ‘he who shall not be named’. Harry goes against this rule by addressing Voldemort by his real name emphasising his heroic traits of bravery. He is not afraid to confront this demonic being. Furthermore, it can be argued that Harry is an a
Read more

Post-colonism and orientalism- Gilroy and Said

Paul Gilroy:  - Student of Stuart Hall  - Colony: The countries that we control  - The British took over many countries in the world  - Decolonisation after WW2 Post- colonialism:  Political or cultural condition of a former colony "Colonial discourses continue to inform contemporary attitudes to race and ethnicity in the post-colonial era." - Gilory  Colonial discourse:  behaving as if we are superior to other races. This is similar to when the British white people used to treat those who were black or brown as inferiors.  Civilisationism constructs racial hierarchies and binary opposition.  Edward Said  Focused on the discrimination of those in the East. He argued that people in the west have little knowledge of what occurs in the east.  Orielantalism: How we look at those who are different to us Otherness: Those who are different from us    Said argued that the west allowed stereotyping to become a justification 
Read more