Its not big news that often the media portrays women on television as all tall,
beautiful, and skinny. Whether you watch the news, movies, or just television shows the
standard the media portrays for women can cause serious body image issues. Over the
past few decades the woman on television are becoming thinner and thinner, and are
constantly berating images of what they define as “beautiful”. The media's coverage has
even affected the way women eat on a normal basis, to the point where they are
changing their diet because of what they see on t.v. which is causing many to develop
eating disorders. According to a recent article on women's dietary habit and the media
“By demonstrating the effect on thin model images on subsequent eating behavior, the
findings lend further support to concerns that such media presentations may play a role
in establishing eating patterns that could lead to clinically relevant eating
disorders” (Krahé, B.).
Even the portrayal of certain career choices are now affected by medias portrayal
of women. A research was conducted to examine undergraduates' stereotypes of the
people in computer science, and whether changing some these stereotypes using the
media, can influence women's interest in computer science. In the first study, students
at two U.S. West Coast universities gave descriptions of computer science majors.
analyzing some of these descriptions revealed that computer scientists were perceived
as having traits that are undesirable with the female gender identity, mainly as lacking
person to person skills and being particularly and singularly focused on computers. In a
second study, college students at two U.S. West Coast universities read made up
newspaper articles about computer scientists that described them two ways, either as
fitting the current stereotypes or no longer fitting these stereotypes. Women who read
that computer scientists no longer fit the stereotypes expressed more less interest in
computer science than those who read that computer scientists fit the stereotypes. In
contrast, men's interest in computer science did not differ across articles. Taken
together, these studies suggest that stereotypes of academic fields influence who
chooses to participate in these fields, and that recruiting efforts to draw more women
into computer science would benefit from media efforts that alter how computer
scientists are depicted (Cheryan).
The media plays a major role in self image issues than many women suffer from
everyday. The media contributes a large amount to the unreachable goal of being
flawless. With the constant use of Photoshop and plastic surgery there is little guessing
why issues like these arise. If the media does not show average looking women the
epidemic of body image issues will continue to spiral out of control until the only thing
left is a unreachable dream.
Works Cited:
Krahé, B., & Krause, C. (2010). PRESENTING THIN MEDIA MODELS AFFECTS WOMEN'S CHOICE OF DIET OR
NORMAL SNACKS. Psychology Of Women Quarterly, 34(3), 349-355.
Cheryan, S., Plaut, V., Handron, C., & Hudson, L. (2013). The Stereotypical Computer Scientist: Gendered Media
Representations as a Barrier to Inclusion for Women. Sex Roles, 69(1/2), 58-71.
beautiful, and skinny. Whether you watch the news, movies, or just television shows the
standard the media portrays for women can cause serious body image issues. Over the
past few decades the woman on television are becoming thinner and thinner, and are
constantly berating images of what they define as “beautiful”. The media's coverage has
even affected the way women eat on a normal basis, to the point where they are
changing their diet because of what they see on t.v. which is causing many to develop
eating disorders. According to a recent article on women's dietary habit and the media
“By demonstrating the effect on thin model images on subsequent eating behavior, the
findings lend further support to concerns that such media presentations may play a role
in establishing eating patterns that could lead to clinically relevant eating
disorders” (Krahé, B.).
Even the portrayal of certain career choices are now affected by medias portrayal
of women. A research was conducted to examine undergraduates' stereotypes of the
people in computer science, and whether changing some these stereotypes using the
media, can influence women's interest in computer science. In the first study, students
at two U.S. West Coast universities gave descriptions of computer science majors.
analyzing some of these descriptions revealed that computer scientists were perceived
as having traits that are undesirable with the female gender identity, mainly as lacking
person to person skills and being particularly and singularly focused on computers. In a
second study, college students at two U.S. West Coast universities read made up
newspaper articles about computer scientists that described them two ways, either as
fitting the current stereotypes or no longer fitting these stereotypes. Women who read
that computer scientists no longer fit the stereotypes expressed more less interest in
computer science than those who read that computer scientists fit the stereotypes. In
contrast, men's interest in computer science did not differ across articles. Taken
together, these studies suggest that stereotypes of academic fields influence who
chooses to participate in these fields, and that recruiting efforts to draw more women
into computer science would benefit from media efforts that alter how computer
scientists are depicted (Cheryan).
The media plays a major role in self image issues than many women suffer from
everyday. The media contributes a large amount to the unreachable goal of being
flawless. With the constant use of Photoshop and plastic surgery there is little guessing
why issues like these arise. If the media does not show average looking women the
epidemic of body image issues will continue to spiral out of control until the only thing
left is a unreachable dream.
Works Cited:
Krahé, B., & Krause, C. (2010). PRESENTING THIN MEDIA MODELS AFFECTS WOMEN'S CHOICE OF DIET OR
NORMAL SNACKS. Psychology Of Women Quarterly, 34(3), 349-355.
Cheryan, S., Plaut, V., Handron, C., & Hudson, L. (2013). The Stereotypical Computer Scientist: Gendered Media
Representations as a Barrier to Inclusion for Women. Sex Roles, 69(1/2), 58-71.