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Diversity Final Organized

The document discusses how women are portrayed in media. It argues that advertisements often objectify and sexualize women, portraying them as objects rather than human beings. This normalization of objectification contributes to rape culture and increases gender violence by desensitizing people and implicitly encouraging dangerous behaviors. When women are viewed as objects, it also leads news media to blame victims of assault and harassment. The document advocates for movements promoting more respectful and equitable portrayals of both men and women in media.

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65 views4 pages

Diversity Final Organized

The document discusses how women are portrayed in media. It argues that advertisements often objectify and sexualize women, portraying them as objects rather than human beings. This normalization of objectification contributes to rape culture and increases gender violence by desensitizing people and implicitly encouraging dangerous behaviors. When women are viewed as objects, it also leads news media to blame victims of assault and harassment. The document advocates for movements promoting more respectful and equitable portrayals of both men and women in media.

Uploaded by

api-340022705
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Jessica Chipman

Final Draft

12/6/17

Women Seen in Media

I remember in my first semester of college I was talking with a fellow classmate about

media. Im studying animation right now in college, so the topic of media comes up quite a bit. I

remember him saying something like sex sales. While his statement was true, it made me feel

wrong, sick even. I wanted to retaliate and say, no it doesnt! but I couldnt because it was

true. Some people may not find anything wrong with sexual based advertisements. The

problem is the way in which these ads are portrayed usually make women out as being objects

instead of human beings. These particular ads normalize dangerous behaviors. They create and

maintain an environment where women are seen as objects. They also create and maintain an

environment where women are discredited in media using victim blaming tactics. The way

advertisement media portrays women may be the leading cause behind gender violence.

Advertisements portraying sexual innuendos encourages rape culture. Advertisers use

what is called the gaze to establish a relationship between the reader and the person

represented in the image (George, Trimbur). The gaze is used to create a link between the

viewer and the photograph, it creates a desire, a demand, a call for action, you name it. It can

create a fantasy between the viewer and the person in the photograph which, in turn, can

cause that person, if you can call them that, to take a simple look in the eye and a smile as a

sexual gesture. The gaze in photographs can be directly linked with why women and girls are
warned not to look a strange man in the eye. The simplicity of the gaze used in sexual ads has

created an unsafe environment that leads to gender violence against women.

Women in media are often objectified. The objectification leads to violence

advertising normalizes and trivializes battering, sexual assault, and even murder (Kilbourne).

When an image is seen and read often it becomes so engrained in our minds that we become

desensitized to it. Being desensitized to any dangerous behavior, like sexual harassment, is

serious because when a person sees it on the street or reads about it they may not recognize it

for what it is; sexual harassment. In so doing, it increases the chance of hostility towards

women.

The result of women being defined as objects can be seen in our news articles. many

of these [news] stories tend to blame victims and devalue their lives. (Kamerick). In many news

stories where victims are blamed, they state that the girl was wearing revealing clothes. What I

want to ask these reporters is If what she was wearing was what caused this rapist to rape her

then why is it, that a girl wearing a sweatshirt and sweatpants was raped? Women are not

sexually assaulted because of the clothes they are wearing, rapists look for an easy target.

Women are raped because our society teaches that its okay to sexually assault a woman due to

advertisements that belittle sexual assault.

There is a wrongness with the way suggestive advertisements portray women. Sexual

advertisements have become so engrained in our media and society that it has resulted in an

increase of gender violence against women. When women are depicted in media as objects it

increases the likelihood of violence against women. When a woman is seen as an object to
society it causes her story to be discredited in the media; as many if not all of us have

witnessed. Indicative ads promote rape culture and normalize dangerous behaviors.

Movements against the way women are portrayed in media have given many women and men

hope for a future where gender violence is not promoted in society. These movements have

given women and men who have been victims of sexual assault and/or sexual harassment a

voice. These movements have fueled my hope for a future were men and women are both

portrayed in media with respect and equity.

Course Adjectives (2)

At the end of the course, students will be able to demonstrate a critical awareness of culture

and diversity, communicating their awareness through written means.

I dont normally know whats going on around the world unless its posted on Facebook. This

class gave me the opportunity to research about todays diversity issues and about people who

have defied the odds. For example: in week six discussion I was able to research about a lady

named Temple Grandin to better write a response to a fellow classmate.

Students will be able to rhetorically analyze both written and visual texts.

I already knew how to rhetorically analyze written text before this course but I was given the

opportunity to hone my skills when I analyzed Obamas speech in this classes first assigned

essay.
Works Cited:

Kamerick, Megan. "Women Should Represent Women in the Media." Ted Talks, Sept.

2011, Accessed 24 Nov. 2017.

Kilbourne, Jean. "The Dangerous ways Ads see Women." Ted Talks, 8 May 2014,

Accessed 24 Nov. 2017.

George, Diana, and John Trimur. Reading the Gaze: Gender Roles in Advertising, 206,209.

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