Zoubaidatou Ouedraogo

Professor Jacobson

November 29, 2023

FIQWS 10108

Media Creating Women Stereotypes

 

 

Has it ever occurred to people how judging people online has become a natural on media?  Media is known for posting, being able to talk to friends and sharing videos. The videos that are seen is can be nice or it can be hated. These can create stereotypes. People always have something to say about someone else because they know their hiding behind the screen. There is always judgement when comes to social media. There is also always an expectation of a person like their race, gender, nationality, and religion. There can always be opinions about certain political/issue that can lead to conflict online. Social media has a made a huge impact on society. There are Race stereotypes where media represent racial and ethnic groups with opinions. African American are seen as criminals or poor, Hispanics are immigrants who doesn’t get paper or Asians because of their bodies. There are also religious stereotypes, where people have misunderstanding, and they would make their opinion about it because of event that happened or how they look. Lastly, gender stereotypes that have made an impact, women when their posting themselves there is always a comment about how they should look or what they should wear, basically having expectations. Women expectations on media has become a problem because there would be opinions on how a lady should act and what is expected from them. Women are being sexualized in media and it has become normal in media. Beauty standards has become important in media, there been images and appearance of women or young girls on media some may feel pressure to post for unrealistic standards.

Women on social media often get bashed or praise for their looks. Media have standards on how women should look the part. With this it leads may lead to people about how they should always look on media before posting. Media tends to take what is being posted about women and make their own comments about a person. “On Britney, Mia, and the Way the Media Treated Women in the 90s”, is about two women from 1990s, Britney Spears and Mia Farrow, and how they put their information about their lives on social media and during that time it explains how women were treated during that time. Media try to unfold these women and start talking about their roles. Due to some information being out of course social media wanted to step in and try to say their opinions about something that wasn’t about them. This led to stereotype because after that social media was being rude to Brittney spears. Individuals on social media made mean comments and basically cyberbully to Britney Spears. Social may also have their flaws, but they have their differences because since she is a strong role model to most people, people would have her back during that time. Mia Farrow was also be mistreated on social media due to the relationship she shared on social media everyone have their opinions and they would also have rude comments about it. “a four-part documentary on the relationship of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen, their acrimonious split, and the sexual molestation allegations against Allen. I found it profoundly hard to watch.” (Fast). Media has some good traits where they would stay up for celebrity. When celebrity decide to share their information online or people would find out, they’re automatically being judged and media wouldn’t care about their mental health, how its affecting them.

 

“Why the Sudden Urge to Reconsider Famous Women?” (Soloski). Women were seen as objects and not only being seen as objects. There were treated as one. Women wanted to be able to be treated equal. They want to be able to become more diverse and wanted to have legacies. Famous women who have legacies were reexamined and see how they contribute to gender, representation for themselves. “In America, at least, women in public life have nearly always been the exception rather than the rule, with their behavior and appearance explicitly policed” (Soloski). Women would have to act a certain way because their lady’s. Women would have to show themselves as classy and look a way to please everyone. “They are still judged by their appearance, they’re still judged by what they wear, how much they weigh, what their hair looks like” (Soloski). Weight, looks, and clothing, women would get body shamed because their either to fat or too skinny, they want women to look way to please themselves. They would go off saying that women can’t or should not look this way. Women are being control on how they should look which can affect their mental health. “But what I realize now is that it was one woman per industry who can succeed (Soloski)”. Women were less noticed on the industry and its now that women are being recognized, but its either by their body weight or their look appearance. Some would believe that women can’t do certain things because back then women were only being treated as objects and not like how man were treated.

“These ‘Rebel Women’ Sought Equality in 19^th-Centurn New York”, this article explains how their discussing the stories of pioneering women who was challenged and fought in 19^th-century New York. Gender roles for women was difficult because women had to prove to other people (men) that their able to work and do other things like men around the 19^th century instead of being seen as stay at home wives. “Rebel Women,” according to the exhibition’s curator, Marcela Micucci, who added that she also wanted to explore the historical parallels of the modern-day “nasty woman” (McShane). Rebel women were creating it was called “nasty women” only because the women didn’t follow their expectations. Women decided to take a stand focus on their rights and their educations which is was very important. “that I was a respectable person, born and raised in New York, did not know where he was born and that he was a good for nothing impudent fellow for insulting decent persons while on their way to church” (McShane). Jennings wasn’t taking anymore disrespect and stood up for her right. Instead of the person understanding that she had her rights she sued those police officers “pocketed nearly $250 in damages”. Even though there have been some problems for women, they do not give up. “Dr. Susan Smith McKinney-Steward became the first licensed black female physician in the state” (McShane). Instead of letting media control the way women should live, women took a stand for their independence and work their way up to getting what they need.

“Sexist slurs: Reinforcing Feminine Stereotypes Online” (Felmlee, Rodis, Zhang). This impact of how they use rude slurs and sexist language online about women. These bring negative stereotypes about women and gender inequality. This article emphasizes how women are being bullied online by using different platforms to attack them. “Harassment on social media constitutes an everyday, routine occurrence, with researchers finding 9,764,583 messages referencing bullying on Twitter over the span of two years (Bellmore)”. As said in the text that it’s a everyday thing for women when they either post about themselves. It impacts women emotionally because of the sexist language used online. “This brings down women will of posting online, their confidences and their mental health. Compared to those who have not been attacked, victims also end to report more incidents of suicide ideation and attempted suicide” (Hinduja and Patchin). Mental health is put in place because of the media having their opinion on how some women should post or what they look like. These expectations that they put women, media don’t realize that they create bad mental health for women, their force to talk bad about themselves and they decide to kill themselves. Women are bullied on the media if they don’t look a certain way the media wants them to look like, it leads them to decisions about their lives and further on. “One of our goals is to highlight online hostility toward women as a social problem and to bring to light several of its characteristics” (Felmlee, Rodis, Zhang). The author uses logos to explain how women are being harassed every day. The authors give data about how much of harassments that women get and their mental health, on how it is affecting them and their thinking. This aim to get attention to other people about how women are being harassed. The goal is to inform how this has become a problem in social media. The goal is to spread awareness about how they can address how women are being treated in social media and in public.

Finally, women were able to live up to their expectations back then and now, but there are still struggles for women on media. From how women were supposed to be back then to beauty standards to how media shape women now, there are still stereotypes going on. Women are now being accepted for who they are. They have been protesting and still are, women always found their way to get their independence. Media might have expectations for women on their body their face features etc. women find there way. Media wants to find behind a screen and talk about how they should look because they don’t know what they need. Media has become an issue and will continue if we don’t understand stereotypes then it would only get worse. Women may have to struggle but encouraging each other will help media become less harmful.

                                                      Work cited

Diane Felmlee, paulina Inara Rodis, amy Zhang. Sexist Slurs: Reinforcing Feminine Stereotypes. n.d.

Fast, Molly Jong-. On britney, Mia , and the way the media treated women in the 90s . 27 2 2021.

McShane, Julianne. These Rebel Women Sought Equality in 19th- Century New York. 25 July 2018.

Soloski, Alexis. Why the Sudden Urge to Reconsider Famous Women? 31 March 2022.