Effects of Media on Women and Children

The Effect of the Media on Women and Girls Mass media creates unrealistic, unhealthy portrayals of female sexuality, sexual health, and shows unnecessary female sexuality and nudity on an immense level. The average woman is misrepresented in the media; this is unhealthy for many women and girls. Studies show viewing sexually objectifying material contributes to eating disorders, low self-esteem, depression and body dissatisfaction. In a 1992 study of female students at Stanford University, 70% of women reported feeling worse about themselves and their bodies after looking at magazines. Lack of identity is a major concern for adolescents and the media is constantly telling them who or what to act and look like. While it is up to an individual to accept or reject what they see, read or hear, the media effects women and girls consciously and subconsciously; often leading to self esteem problems, eating disorders and other psychological issues. Magazine covers such as this are found in stores all over the country, it is impossible not to see them while in the checkout line. The Media has been shown to misrepresent the average woman. Consider the movie industry; body doubles are frequently used to cover up imperfections of the female movie star. There is no disclaimer on the substitute to let people know that is not the person staring in the movie. The majority of women that are seen in the media are fashion models, singers and actresses, many of which are shown to be free of imperfections and presented as the how women should look or act in today’s culture. Consider video games; in a recent study, Haninger and Thompson (2004) sampled 80 “teen rated” games released in 2001, 46% of the games depicted women in a sexual way. The study also showed that only female characters were portrayed as highly sexualized and it is common in video games for women to be prostitutes as characters that are targets for the male hero. The media is everywhere. Television,

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