Preview

Human Sexuality In The Media Essay

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1507 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Human Sexuality In The Media Essay
Human Sexuality and the Media’s
Role of Shaping Thoughts

Abstract
Research regarding the elements of how media objectifies women is available and plentiful because it is an old concept. This objectification shapes the opinions that women have of themselves and that men have of them. Common bonds that exist within the literature regarding the media’s role in human sexuality is objectification is accepted as normal, it affects the building of self esteem, and the perception of what is sexually desirable. This paper includes a brief literature review, an analysis of the outcomes, possible implications and my personal reflection.

The media plays a large role in objectifying women, shaping their opinions of themselves, and outlining the thoughts of human sexuality. This statement is true because it can be proved through multiple examples of television shows, daily advertisements, music videos and more. This statement is true because research shows correlations between media and low levels of body esteem in women. This statement is also true because of the definition of human sexuality. Human sexuality can be defined as a mixture of the ways people feel and express
…show more content…
From the time we are a child until we have reached a very ripe age, we have a strong emotion tied to our sense of man/womanhood and our contentment with our personal selves. Regardless of diversity, our personal selves include our sexual character. If we are bombarded with fantasy and unrealistic images of ourselves, we will not feel comfortable with ourselves. Research from Halliwell et al noted that providing information about the unrealistic nature of media images may have immediate benefits for young girls and women. Such discussion creates an increase in the short term levels of body and self esteem. I believe that had that study tested for long term, the results would have been

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The article “Girls’ Bodies, Girls’ Selves: Body Image, Identity, and Sexuality” by Elline Lipkin is an informative article describing how men and women are treated differently in certain scenarios throughout the country. The title of the article suggests that females are having trouble figuring out who they really are with or without the help of media and advertisement. The title also suggests that women are the only ones who suffer from sexual objectification, which is not the case.…

    • 466 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The first major or/One of the most important differences men and women run into in terms of body image is the disturbing pressure from social media networks on how they perceive an attractive body. The author contends, girls have become victimized by society’s hyper sexualization and are exposed to the idea that their value as female is closely related to their sexuality. (Heldman 65). In contrast advertising companies highly influence women over men because women spend more time obsessing over their physical attributes. Moreover the media exposes women as a sex character, which impairs their judgment towards their body image. For example author contends “it’s because U.S. residents are now being exposed to 3,000 to 5,000 advertisements a day- as many per year as those living a half a century ago would have seen in a lifetime” (Heldman 64). Also everyday men and women and bombarded with unrealistic images from media outlets that influence the human race to acquire unattainable bodies. In contrast men are not as influenced from television advertisements even though they spend more time watching television.…

    • 798 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Gunter, Barrie. Media Sex - What Are The Issues?. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc., 2002. 207. Print.…

    • 1497 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The mass media, television, internet, radio, newspapers, magazines and film is part of our everyday life. It is a powerful tool that provides us with information and entertainment. It reflects our society and it influences the way we think. The media has been criticized for its portrayal of women as objects whose value is measured in terms of their usefulness to others. It becomes difficult to see them as thinking, feeling, and capable people. Constantly portraying women in a highly sexualized way makes it more likely all women will be seen as sexual objects. This becomes a human right issue.…

    • 468 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jean Kilbourne

    • 931 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Media has been the one to make these stigmas become real in our society’s minds. Media has given women the role as weak, emotional and codependent of men. Nowadays, females are being used to sell products by using their bodies or by performing sexual acts. Companies are persistent on selling their products by utilizing women’s “perfect” bodies and by sexualizing them. Media is the one to distribute to the world the image they have created among women and how powerful has men become over the other sex. With these ideas, women have had to live in a society that judges all the time, making them pursuit the image of a perfect body, which implies physical pain and damage, as well as psychological problems, healthy problems, economic issues, and even death. Kilbourne also states that these problems also lead to violence towards…

    • 931 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Mass media is very powerful. The industry has its finger on the pulse of the world. Twenty-four hour news cycles, readily-accessible entertainment and social media have all greatly affected the psychology of society. There is no better example of this than of body image.…

    • 2007 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The research conducted clearly shows that women are being sexually objectified by the media in many ways. Societies views on sexual objectification has changed over the years and has become more of an issue in today’s society. Sexual objectification and self-objectification have proven to be a cause for mental illness in women and girls because of the unrealistic standards that advertising show. After analysing all of the research shown, my opinion is that women have been sexually objectified by the media and the impacts on women can be harmful; this problem needs to be corrected by the advertisers to ensure women and young girls can feel comfortable and confident in their own bodies. Despite the conducting extensive research, more primary…

    • 152 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    From the past decades, technology has advanced at a rapid pace, and today, the technology cannot be compared to that of the past decades, it terms of efficiency and complexity. Technology is useful in various spheres in the world, including the business sphere. One of the ways through which companies use technology is through advertising and marketing. Through this, companies communicate with consumers, mainly creating awareness about their new products, or promoting their companies, for increased profitability. Marketing and advertising benefits the company the most, since this promotes company products, hence more sales for the company. On the other hand, consumers too benefit from marketing and advertising, as this makes them aware of the products in the market by different companies, thus are able to make their purchasing decision, after comparing various products in the market. However, advertising and marketing is also known to have negative influences on the target population for which the adverts are aimed. Marketing and advertising has negative effects on the youth in America, and these include eating disorders and obesity, body dissatisfaction, violence, and consumerism.…

    • 1188 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Rita, who is five years of age enjoys playing dress-up, which consists of wearing her mother’s high-heeled shoes, a long dress, her mother’s jewelry, as well as her lipstick. Also, Rita loves primping, making faces, strutting, dancing, and watching herself in the mirror. Not only does Rita find joy in playing dress up alone, but also she enjoys engaging in this activity with her friends. There are several different ways to go about explaining why Rita and her friends enjoy playing dress up, one-way is through the Sexual Objectification Theory, another way is through the Social Learning Theory.…

    • 1161 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sexual-objectification can occur in interpersonal or social encounters, and media exposure (McKay, 2013). Interpersonal and social encounters lead to women being objectified through sexual comments, harassment, whistles or shouts, and gazing from male beings (McKay, 2013). Research suggests that many women desire breast augmentation due to pressures from their romantic partners and peers (Howerton et al., 2011) Due to the social expectations, many women feel inadequate and succumb to breast augmentation or other types of plastic surgery (Howerton et al., 2011). Television shows and other forms of media educate viewers that plastic surgery is empowering and is a feminist practice, they also portray the female body as an object that needs work, and once fixed, it will solve all of their problems (Marwick, 2010). As a result of mass media and its influences, the fuller the breasts the sexier and more feminine individuals feel (Howerton et al., 2011). The interplay of these factors has resulted in many women’s interests in breast augmentation, demonstrating its relative value in female perception by society (Rohrich et al., 2007). A negative emotional consequence that results from sexual objectification is that women feel ashamed of their bodies when they perceive them as falling short of feminine beauty ideals, and encourages women to focus on their physical appearance treating themselves as objects to be looked at and evaluated (Calogero, Pina, Park, & Rahemtulla,…

    • 755 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    How does the media influence our body image? In what forms, does the media influence our perceptions about our body? These were the two questions that I asked myself in order to do the research paper and the panel discussion. In my opinion, I would agree that the media does influence and promote women and men to believe that the culture's standards for body image are ideal. Hence, the phrases, "thin is in" and "the perfect body" are two examples of "eye-catching" headlines that I observed in many women magazines. I learned that the media influences us through television, fashion and health magazines, music videos, film, commercials, and various other advertisements. Sadly, as a result, this repeated exposure, the "thin" ideal, can lead many young girls in triggering eating disorders, depression, low self-esteem, stress, and suicide. After acquiring this relevant information, I decided to focus my research on what type of media influences elementary school children and the adolescent teenager. The three central types of media that I found that did indeed influence body image are: Fashion magazines, famous top-models and actresses, and teenage or young adult women in the music industry.…

    • 1263 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Media Stereotypes

    • 217 Words
    • 1 Page

    The media is a powerful mean of socialization. The media encourage and facilitates mental constructs in the way people think. In particular, the media is extremely influential in presenting us with images of what men and women are or should be. I will focus on four ways in which the media represents cultural stereotypes of men and women. First, one of the most typical stereotype in the media, is that women are sex object. Notably sexual portrayals of woman pervade in music videos, advertising and television shows. Second, the media has encourage and promoted the notion that woman should be extremely thin. Magazines show women with unrealistic and impossible “perfect” bodies, which very often are digitally altered. Third, the majority of…

    • 217 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The facts that the adolescents are so exposed to this can often affect the way the see their sexuality, many may consider and start having sexual relationships before times, others may prefer to wait. Another effect can be in how the boys, or the men, sees the girls, or women, since often we can see medias materializing the women putting them out there more as a sexual object rather than a women who also has the right to feel, this can also affect the way in how girls see their selves often falling for this idea that women is meant to serve the man and be sexy and sensual to be able to succeed or fit in a group, this last point in my opinion is a negative effect on how medias portrayed sexuality. Even though lately the medias have been more “open minded” to homosexual relationships and now we can see more homosexual couples in television series, movie films, models, and more often medias can influence with the fact that girls like boys and boys like girls rather than liking your own…

    • 801 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    With it, it was brought and reinforced typical stereotypes that hurt women’s image. But it not only affects their image but also has an impact on their self-esteem that can in some cases lead to depression and eating disorders. Women’s self-esteem can also be impacted by the way they are being objectified and sexualized in many of the different music videos and commercials. This does not seem to be getting better, especially for the fact that women’s representation in media leadership position does not seem to be improving at a great level. This leads to women having less power to impact how they are being portrayed in the media. In addition, sexual content only seems to be increasing, “the American Academy of Pediatrics reports that of the approximately 14,000 references to sex a teen will see each year in the media, only 165 will contain any reference to delaying sex, using contraceptives, or avoiding sexually transmitted diseases.” Since this is an issue that is commonly overlooked, by educating women and young girls though social media, society can be changed and can have their eyes opened to what the reality of being a woman and looking like a woman really is. Hopefully in the future we can be part of a society that advertises women as being strong, independent, and intelligent which are the characteristics that represent a lot of the women in today’s…

    • 1812 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Association task force on the sexualization of girls reported that the sexualization of women and girls is related to numerous societal problems, and that increased awareness of sexual imagery and its consequences is important for improving the physical and emotional welfare of women and girls" (Stankiewicz 2008). Overall, the media is impacting women and girls everywhere and it is creating more problems than we could imagine.…

    • 77 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays