Culture, Socialization and the Media - Movie Review Example

Culture, socialization and the media The media is a significant aspect of the contemporary society. The youths spendmost of their time very day consuming mass media products, a feature that makes the media products influential in their upbringing. Produced in 2011, Miss Representation is a documentary film that investigates how the media portrays both the women and female children. Key among the features in the film is the fact that female children want role models and they rely on the mass media to find them. Unfortunately, the media has a skewed portrayal of women including those in influential positions a feature that systematically perpetuates the skewed contextualization and sexualization of girls from tender ages. The US culture propagates the underrepresentation of women owing to the society’s reliance on mass media products as the below analysis of the film entitled Miss Representation portrays. Most of the mass media contents such as films and music videos portray girls as sex objects who must dress scantily and portray themselves in a sexually appealing manner. The urge to maximize sexual appeal is therefore an overriding desire in most of the young girls in the American society. This validates the film’s claim that most of 12-year-old girls in the country do not appreciate their bodies. The glorification of skinny women in the media products make most of such young girls desire such small bodies. The young girls therefore begin changing their diets in an attempt to develop the small and glorified bodies. This enhances the development of eating disorders in the young girls. Additionally, the media has systematically become prestigious section of the society with most of the young girls desiring jobs in the media. This motivates the change of diets in an attempt to acquire the bodies that television and music videos glorify. Most of the twelve-year-old girls in the United States currently have varied eating disorders because of their attempts to change their physique (Ettus, www.forbes.com). A report by the task force on the sexualization of girls in the United States explains that sexualization when the value of an individual arises only from their sexual appeal. The eating disorders in young American girls are fundamental social feature that validates the society’s consistent valuation of the girl child based on their sexual appeal. The girls therefore try to look sexy in order to feel valuable as portrayed by the mass media products in the society. The film explains that depression rates in young girls in the United States have increased to double digits between 2000 and 2010. The increase in depression rates results from the hatred that the girls feel for their bodies, which they consider unattractive. Children gain weight as they grow. Unfortunately, the weight makes the girl feel unattractive owing to the media’s skewed portrayal of beauty in women. The girls therefore begin devising ways of shedding off the weight and begin feeling bad about their bodies. This systematically leads to depression besides the evident eating disorders. According to the task force, sexualization arises when a society begins to equate being sexy with physical attractiveness. The media defines physical attractiveness narrowly often portraying facial beauty and small body frames to attractiveness thus portraying such women as sexy. Additionally, the task force explains that objectifying a persona sexually is yet another way of enhancing sexualization. Objectification of a person sexual refers to the process of making a person for others to use sexually instead of viewing one as independent and with unique diverse abilities. The portrayal of sex by media products in the current society systematically enhances the objectification of girls. Besides defining sexy in terms of physical attractiveness, the media portray that women must make themselves beautiful for the men. The above argument underscores central themes in the film, which explain that girls continue to view themselves as objects. Women and girls in the society strive to meet the standards and definition for sexy in their attempt to appeal to the men. Girls supplant their talents and interests in education by striving to remain beautiful and sexually attractive for the men as portrayed by the media products. Women who objectify themselves have low self-esteem since they rely on the complements from men to remain both happy and functional. Such women do not boast of any other ability and even talent since they believe in remaining sexually attractive. Girls who objectify themselves are more likely to become depressed than those who do not. Additionally, such girls have lower self-confidence and are less ambitious than those who do not. Such disorders arise from their skewed definition of beauty coupled with their desire for attention and constant appreciation from their male counterparts. When they do not receive such appreciations, they question their beauty thus plunging into depression. Advertisers on the other hand continue to propagate the values of sexualization in their attempt to enhance their financial benefits from such misconstrued mindsets. Women therefore respond to the message of never being attractive as propagated by advertisers who continue to introduce new products that promise heightened beauty. Women spend billions of dollars annually on beauty products as they try new products introduced by advertisers who promise to make them more beautiful. Furthermore, advertisers use specific models with the features discussed above. Advertisers use the various media to influence the cultural values and norms. The glorification of beauty creates room for the advertisers to exploit women. This implies that all the mass media components operate systematically in their attempt to indoctrinate women into believing in the values of objectification. Women feel the urge to impress their men always. They must look god for their men; the women therefore consume the messages spread by advertisers and buy new beauty products among other products that define feminine beauty. Furthermore, the use of sexy women has extended to the advertisement of many other products to include cars and food products among many others (Becker 532). In retrospect, the American media continues to underrepresent women especially those in professional positions. This way, the media obtains the freedom and space to define specific cultural norms and value all of which enhance the profitability of the business ventures. In doing this, the media has systematically enhanced the sexualization and objectification of women and girls in the society thereby validating most of the undesirable social features prevalent in the modern society. As people increase the time they spend consuming mass media products, they become indoctrinated to the dictates of the media in their definition of beauty and portrayal of women in the society. The desire by most girls to meet the media’s definition and standards of both sexual appeal and beauty results in the increasing rates of depression, eating disorders and low self-esteem among girls. Personal reflection I love music. I therefore spend most of my time watching and criticizing new music videos and following the lives of musicians. The music videos portray women as sexual objects who the male musicians use to sell their videos. Most of the videos have women dressed scantily while dancing seductively. Additionally, most of the music videos glorify sex even premarital sex. Sex is always a central theme in most of the music videos. As such, I also often find skinny women sexier. I also believe that sexual intercourse sustains relationships even before marriages. However, I value women and believe that they are fundamental members of the society capable of rising to positions of influence in the society. The media’s portrayals of such women as Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice and Dr. Jackson Katz among many others prove the potential in women. Women can remain beautiful and still achieve their desired goals. Works cited American Psychological Association, Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls. Report of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls. 2010. Website. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/pi/women/programs/girls/report-full.pdf Becker, Annie. Television, disordered eating and young women in Fiji: Negotiating body image and identity during rapid social change. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 28: 533–559, 2004. Print. Ettus, Samantha. 25 Alarm Bell for Women: Sounds from miss Representation. Forbes woman, 2011. Website. http://www.forbes.com/sites/samanthaettus/2011/10/21/25-alarm bells-for-women-sounds-from-miss-representation/ Read More