How does the Media Influence Perception of the Female Representation - Essay Example

ORDER: 217202 (April 7, 2008) How does the Media Influence Perception of the Female Representation If the print and the audio-visual media had their way, a beanpole with probably a boiled egg on top would be the exemplar of female beauty! William Wordsworth may have talked of the "Phantom of Delight" without specifying its physical proportions and attributes. But if the modern media were to try to describe a beautiful woman, the description might not be far different from a "fairy of filleted flesh"! After all, with each passing day the media are driving more and more women in the West to emaciation in quest of the supposed body beautiful. Gone are the days when beauty lay in the eye of the beholder, and a well-proportioned body was a thing of beauty and object of admiration. But, then, we live in a consumer, if not a consumerist, society where consumption means "the purchase and use of goods, leisure activities and services". (Jagger. 2000). Though some writers (Schama. 1987) trace consumerism to the 17th century Netherlands, others (Ewen. 1976; Susman. 1982) emphasise that it was not until the years between the First and the Second World Wars in the USA and Britain that consumer culture became fully established. The elusive "ideal" Even today one hears it said the world over that "consumer is king", or the "queen" as the case may be, but the insidious brainwashing of the "king" or the "queen" by the media at the instance of advertisers has left the "queen" with no volition. She dances to the tunes of the media, the tunes called by advertisers who pay the piper. Consumer society develops an increasing need to shop, meaning that individual consumers are increasingly finding the definition of themselves within commodities which can develop a feeling of high or low esteem if they do not have the new car, handbag, or pair of shoes presented as the new "ideal". (Marcuse: 1964). Shakespeare may have had his own reasons for saying in one of his plays that "good wine needs no bush"("As You Like It"), but in today's world advertising rules the roost and helps what amounts really to commodification of the consumer. After all, they have come to see themselves in terms of the commodities and goods that they purchase and possess. Advertisers sell the "ideal" image that most people long for but not all of whom can achieve. That "ideal", of its very nature, is unattainable, a mirage that one keeps chasing all one's life, is not allowed to be realised in the palaver of the media. Those who buy the advertised products are made to image that they are buying the resultant image. Thus, advertising claims to sell a lifestyle through the wares it hawks. Commodities are consumed not only for their "use value" but also for their "sign value" (Jagger: 2000). That means commodities are bought also for "what they signify" (p.47) because "symbolic consumption is fundamental to the process by which modern individuals create and display their identities". Nature defied! Similarly, one's appearance "does express personhood" (Judith Andre. 1994. p. 21). "It expresses one's choice, one's values, and one's taste" and thus, possibly, one's identity. Thus, what was once considered immutable and the work of Nature is being reworked. For consumer culture to flourish, not only do new images have to keep being created, but consumers need to have reasons for keeping on buying. The reason, Jagger argues, is "the desire for the sign, not the commodity itself". In other words, it is not the intrinsic worth or utility of a commodity that influences that judgment of consumers but its appearance. Above all, the tendency to keep up with the Joneses, the need to be seen having what everyone wants, forgetting that the ideal is unattainable, combine to help advertisers put consumers into a straitjacket. An obvious example is the television programme "MTV Cribs" where the rich and the famous show viewers around their homes, and, in the process, show what is most likely something they will never have. However, it is something viewers will continue to strive for, given the capitalist society's emphasis on status, wealth and power. Most viewers are not inhibited by the realization, if they realize it at all, that the garish opulence a conducted tour of which they have just had is way beyond their economic means, or need. No subjective judgment Do we individually decide what is fashionable and what the new "ideal" is Or do we let others, vested interests, do the thinking for us Is our thinking not influenced by fashion designers, magazine editors, celebrities and clothing stores before we decide it for ourselves If we decide the way all these worthies make us decide the matter, where is our individual volition We live in a society in which people are continually judged by appearance, clothes, hairstyle, even by the right weight. Therefore, there is constant pressure to conform to the "norm", a standard set by male psychologists who have never quite figured out what the "norm" is or how it has been arrived at, but only recognise those who deviate from it. (Blood-2006; Holland-2004). With the efflux of time, the image of the "ideal" has changed. Victorian women, for instance, were expected to have tiny waists, and so they wore corsets to achieve the "desirable" shape for women. (Winship: 1987) However, in the 1960s, during the second wave of feminism, many feminists wore men's clothes (Nava: 1992) to defy the stereotype of women as "helpless yet seductive child, doll, bird, baby" (p. 163). They wanted to destroy the idea of femininity and what it meant to be a woman. Ironically, however, it was during this period that theories of subordination of women, and patriarchy, were consolidated, and links were established between fashion and enslavement. In other words, fashion was viewed as the badge of slavery. Writers such as Orbach (DATE) argued that whilst women busily occupied themselves with the latest fashions and the newest commodities and continued to make themselves attractive to men, patriarchal society (men) was able to control them. Women were kept in their place, "the home", subordinated and enslaved, but given the illusion of choice and freedom from the confines of consumer culture. One woman is said to have put the whole issue in context succinctly: "If put in a box and given the choice of eating chips, salad or chocolates, each would pick something different, based on personal preference. Each would also probably be satisfied with his/her choice. But if women were taken out of the box and allowed to choose whatever they wanted to eat, there would be endless possibilities. Shadow, no substance Nevertheless, consumer society, like the capitalist society, was created to give the illusion of freedom of choice while really providing only the framework within which women could choose. Those who try to 'think outside the box' are regarded as dangerous and ostracised by society; in the 1950s the 'free choice' of goods symbolized the 'freedom of the free world'." (Nava: 1992. p.162) There are some dominant discourses which pass for common sense, are known to and abided by all (Blood: 2006). Lesser known discourses pertain to dieting and getting fit which owe to theories of experimental psychology about body reduction and, in the process, distortion. These theories eventually become part of mainstream popular discourse, such as magazines, books, and television programmes. For instance, body reduction is traced to diets and exercise classes, and shows that women should meet the standards set for the ideal but must never be unhappy about their appearance if they are to be considered "normal" (Blood: 2006). Indeed, there is almost a hierarchy in the way discourse travels from top to bottom, and gets incorporated into everyday talk and lives. But the process by which discourse becomes dominant is selective, and processes which could damage society are often marginalised. Discourse analysis of the contents of popular women's magazines shows the extent to which theory has been taken as fact as far as women's feelings about their bodies are concerned. (Blood: 2006). Women are made to feel they need to be slim; if they are not, they must strive to be so to find happiness within themselves and fit into society. All this is portrayed in the language used in popular magazines when talking about women and their weight. (Blood: 2006) Women "don't" work! Media, film and fashion industries seem to conspire to brainwash women. The fashion system is capitalist and patriarchal (Banim: 2001). It "exerts hegemony of meanings (a dominant ideology) which are communicated around clothes that tell women how to appear as women". (p. 6). As John Berger once remarked, "men act and women appear" (Winship: 1987. p. 54) without an apparent "work" being done to make them look immaculate and desirable in the eyes of society and men. Women's work has an uncertain status because it is not regarded as work at all (Winship: 1987). However, women make themselves look attractive, and cooking and cleaning comes "naturally" to them because of their gender (Winship: 1987). These activities "are not work because they are about being a woman" (p. 54). Gender research has, however, proved otherwise. For years it was believed that our gender was biologically inscribed upon us, like our sex. Today, even this can be changed, but researchers have realised that gender, like identity, is negotiated and is implicated in social and cultural factors that surround us. (Unger and Crawford: 1996; Ghail and Haywood: 2007). From the moment we are born, certain colours are chosen for us, depending on our sex: Pink for a girl and blue for a boy. Also, certain attitudes are expected of us: girls are polite and shy, and boys are loud and naughty. If these ideas and attitudes are passed on to children from a young age, then ideas of femininity and masculinity as traits of a specific gender will not change. Those who have obtained certain qualities from the opposite sex can often be ostracised. For example, female body builders are often pointed out as having masculine qualities (Bordo: 1992; Gimlin: 2002; Jagger: 2000). Femininity, an opinion! The idea of femininity is a contested one. Many writers have sought to define it with difficulty. Holland (2004) states that at the same time as being a concept which refers to certain sets of gendered behaviours, it is also "fluid and not fixed" (p. 8). Smith (1988) and Craik (1994) argue that the media have a large role to play in the reproduction of images of femininity, and it is "the media who have provided the means for promoting desirable images and icons of femininity, because they can be endlessly reproduced and widely consumed" (Craik quoted in Holland 2004. p.10). Now, what about the impact of celebrities on the ideas of women and young girls about themselves and their bodies Blood: 2006; Holland: 2004; Gaines: 1990; Rojek: 2001; Banim et al: 2001 have all argued that the images that we see in the media of film stars, singers and models, all "portrayed as the embodiment of fashion and our aspirational icons" (Banim et al: 2001. p.5) actually have little resemblance to the real experience many women have of themselves. Though some of these studies have looked at the different effects of images from the media which have had "experiences", such as clothing (Banin et al: 2001) and body image perception (Blood: 2006), none has looked into the complex relationship women have with the images presented by the media and how thy negotiate these into their everyday lives on a larger scale. Pressure in Western society is not only to stay thin but also to stay young. Celebrities have undergone plastic surgery to look young. Actresses like Demi Moore, Melanie Griffith and Farah Fawcett have all resorted to this stratagem. Maybe in today's society ageing women have no place, and that "femininity as a cultural phenomenon is inscribed upon the bodies of young women" (Holland: 2004, p. 13). Bordo (1993) argues that those actresses who have face-lifts "are changing cultural expectations of what a woman should look like at forty-five and fifty" (p. 25). Age does wither! However, instead of making the ageing female body more acceptable, it creates greater pressure on women to stay young. "They have established a new norm, achievable only through continual cosmetic surgery in which the surface of the female body ceases to age physically as the body grows chronologically older (Ibid-DATE-p 26). This dangerous new phenomenon has been cited as a cause in the rise of anorexia and bulimia in women in their forties and fifties. The trickle-down effect of images and ideas from the catwalks to celebrities, and then eventually to our own lives via the media, has been blamed for many of the problems we have in our societies. But there are those who argue this has been done unfairly, and even Winship (1987) points out that women are not such "dupes" that they cannot resist images portrayed by the media as the "ideal" to aspire to. The difficulty comes for women, as at the same time as trying to negotiate their identities they are faced with the pressures of living in a man's world. Winship touches upon the argument brought up in the 1960s that fashion at the same time as liberating women also enslaved them, but concludes women are "not sad and sorry victims always at men's mercy but do daily have to deal with the effects of masculinity in their lives. We are 'their' women even as we try to be 'our own'" (p. 81). In many cultures, age is a marker of wisdom and maturity, and gains respect. However, in Western culture it is something that must be avoided at all costs. For Andre (1994), "our belief that only young women are beautiful is not some accidental lapse in attention" but "flows from our belief that the ideal woman is childlike, strong enough to serve a man but not strong enough to challenge him" (p. 18). Stay young forever! Here is acknowledgement of male domination in society. And how can anyone yet blame a Shakespearian character for describing women as "weaker vessels" Despite women's work towards equality and attempts to resist stereotypical images of what a woman should be, there is little women can do when they are not allowed to mature and age (Andre: 1994). As Mattelart (1986) argues in "Women Media Crisis", "sex role discrimination is fundamental to the maintenance of the capitalist economy" (p.8). The biggest sins for a woman in Western culture today are portrayed as bring, getting, fat, and growing old. The media know this, and not only reproduce these ideas but also play a part in inventing them. References Cited: Andre, J. (1994): "Respect for Bodies" in Winkler, Mary G and Cole, Letha B (ed.) "The Good Body: Ascetism in Contemporary Culture", New York, New Haven, London: Yale University Press Bordo, S (1993) : "Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture and the Body", Berkeley, London: University of California Press Gaines, J. (1990): "Costumes and the Female Body", London, New York: Routledge Gill, R. (2007): "Gender and the Media", Cambridge: Polity Gimlin, Debra L(2002) : "Body Work: Beauty and Self Image in American Culture", Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press Banim, Green, G (Ed.) (2001): "Through the Wardrobe. Women's Relationships with their Clothes", Oxford, New York: Berg Hancock, P. et al (2000) :"The Body, Culture and Society", Buckingham, Philadelphia: Open University Press Holland, S (2004): "Alternative Femininities: Body, Age and Identity", Oxford, New York: Berg Jagger, E (2000) : 'Consumer Bodies' in Hancock, Philip et al (ed): "The Body, Culture and Society", Buckingham, Philadelphia: Open University Press Mac An Ghail, M. and Haywood, C (2007) : "Gender, Culture and Society; Contemporary Femininities and Masculinities", Hampshire, New York; Palgrave Macmillan Mattelart, M. (1986): "Women Media Crisis", London: Comedia Nava, M. (1992) : "Feminism, Youth and Consumerism", London, California, New Delhi: Sage Publications Rojek, C (2001): "Celebrity", London: Reaktion Book Ltd. Unger, R. and Crawford, M. (1996): "Women and Gender: A Feminist Psychology", New York, London: McGraw-Hill Winship, J. (1987) : "Inside Women's Magazines", London, New York: Pandora Press. Read More