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Women in the Media

Women are everywhere in the media. Open a magazine, turn on the tv, even go outside in any mid-sized city. Chances are, before long, you'll see a beautiful woman. An incredibly beautiful woman, usually near some sort of product. Never mind what is being advertised, from $2 toothpaste to a $200,000 car--there is a beautiful woman close by, usually looking bored and constipated.

Photo by Saquan Stimpson

Or turn on the news. Chances are that the woman newscaster, if there is one, is very attractive and slender, with hair that's been styled, brushed, prodded and sprayed within an inch of its life, and enough makeup on her face to poison a baby deer. Often the man is not bad to look at, either -- but when's the last time you saw an ugly woman, or a fat one, on tv? Was she the butt of a joke?

Television is not entirely a valley of the dolls. Rachel Maddow, for one, bucks the stereotype. And there are always high quality shows, like Nurse Jackie and The Wire, that cover the lives of the underprivileged, the unglamorous, even the unattractive, without being demeaning or hurtful. But these are lauded, not only because they are well made, but because they are exceptions to the rule, that the lives of the beautiful, rich and famous are somehow more worthy of coverage than the suffering of millions.

Next time you watch a tv program, really look at what you're watching. How many characters truly buck gender, racial or economic stereotypes, and how many reinforce them? What roles are given to women of color, to gays and lesbians, to mothers, to large women in advertisements? What sort of values do tv programs promote? How are women in the media portrayed? what stereotypes do you see being used? Who has the power and the privilege in these stories--even the nonfictional stories? In plain English, who's coming out on top, and who's getting heard?

This is not just a feminist issue. Discrimination is rampant in the media, from outright censorship, to slanting of a piece, to institutional preference. Even diverting programs, such as reality shows about rich people, serve to keep people from focusing on the real problems of their society.

The main job of media is to help advertisers sell audiences to businesses. The audience is the product, not the soft drink or the car. Because businesses buy and sell primarily affluent audiences, it's in their interest to reflect a sanitized, buffed and glossed picture of the world, while telling them only what they need to know and want to hear. Part of this is reflected in the beautiful faces of young models and movie stars.

The spectator-buyer is meant to envy herself as she will become if she buys the product. She is meant to imagine herself transformed by the product into an object of envy for others, an envy which will then justify her loving herself. One could put this another way: the publicity image steals her love of herself as she is, and offers it back to her for the price of the product.
--John Berger in Ways of Seeing

This form of advertising is lying. Sometimes it's blatant (recommending a product that harms people), sometimes subtle (an asterisk leads to lines of 8 point font--on a billboard), sometimes implied (Product X will make you young again), but there is always some lie being told. And advertisers know that women by 80% of the household goods.

Why, then, do women, with their great economic power, put up with degrading, hurtful, and sexist advertising messages? Why does anyone aid and abet a system which exploits them? I wish I knew. Women, people of color, even the poor and underprivileged, have come a long way--but it isn't far enough. It can only be changed by more work, more activism, and raising people's consciousness. By educating yourself, and by talking to other people, you will soon learn that you aren't alone.

Learn why models never smile.

Above photograph by Saquan Stimpson, used under a Creative Commons license.

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