Women Portrayed as Sex Objects in Visual Media - Research Paper Example

?Women Portrayed As Sex Objects In Visual Media Introduction Commercialization is intruded into every segment of human life at present. Visual media plays a vital role in encouraging the commercialization process. It should be noted that advertising enhances the commercialization process immensely. For the success of advertising campaigns, visual media often make use of the body of women and teenage girls. Women body is believed to be the most beautiful thing in this world by many people and visual media exploit such belief for business purposes. Thus, women and young girls are portrayed as sex objects by visual media all over the world. This paper analyses the women portrayal as sex objects in visual media. Women portrayal as sex objects in visual media The thirst for acquiring fame is increasing day by day. Current parents are ready to expose the naked body of their teenage children for making money and fame. In many of the baby food advertisements, naked and stronger bodies of the children are utilized to convince the customers. Such advertisements may not end up there. It may develop from there and the young children, especially the girls forced to expose their naked body for different advertisements as time goes on. It should be noted that in many of the doll or toy advertisements, sex provoking themes are used as shown below. (Jayson) One of the major success factors of majority of the cinemas is women body. Men or teenage boys usually got to cinema after the analysing the factors such as which female is featured and how much her body is exposed in the film. There are plenty of women who like to expose their body in visual media to catch the attention of the public. In fact women are more beauty conscious than men. That is why many of them go after breast implants, butt enhancers, and liposuction. Being beautiful is one of the proudest characteristics of a woman. Women like to convince the public that they are beautiful and for that purpose they are not showing any reluctance in exposing their body through visual media. It should be noted that the winners of beauty contests are usually expose their body through media or cinema to get public attraction. More public acceptance will give more fame and money for them. Rap music videos are so powerful that they contribute to shaping a woman’s image and status in society. Today, the nature of rap music videos directly misrepresents women. Women portrayed as sex symbols or material objects in rap music videos, suggests that they are powerless and submissive (Massey). Madonna and Britney Spears are promoting their music albums with the help of their naked bodies. Music albums may not be sold properly if it failed to accompany revealing dances. Many of the music albums of Madonna and Britney Spears were achieved huge popularity, not because of the quality of the music, but because of their revealing dances. “Women become sexual objects when their bodies and their sexuality are linked to products that are bought and sold” (Sex and Relationships in the Media). There are plenty of good quality products which struggle to catch the market because of poor advertisements. At the same time, there are plenty of cheap quality products which excel in the market because of smart advertisements. In most of the product or service advertisements, women are utilized more than men. This is because of the abilities of women in gathering public attraction. Women brand ambassadors and advertisements with the help of their naked bodies are necessary, irrespective of what product or service is being introduced in the market, at present. Even for marketing mosquito repellents, female bodies are used by marketers. Manista (2001) pointed out that “Women are portrayed as dumb blondes, indecisive, childlike, frivolous, obsessed with or submissive to men, simple housewives, sexual objects, beautiful or successfully slim, dieting a "waif" look, or sexual prowess, and more in media (Manista) According to an article on BBC News (20 February 2007), “The media's portrayal of young women as sex objects harms girls' mental and physical health” (Sexualisation 'harms' young girls). Jayson (2007) also expressed similar concerns. Advertising and media images that encourage girls to focus on looks and sexuality are harmful to their emotional and physical health, a new report by the American Psychological Association says. The report analysed some 300 studies over the past 18 months. It included a variety of media, from television and movies to song lyrics, and looked at advertising showing body-baring doll clothes for pre-schoolers, tweens posing in suggestive ways in magazines and the sexual antics of young celebrity role models (Jayson). Social approval is one of the major motivating factors for teenage girls and women to expose their bodies in visual media. When money and fame comes in huge volumes, they may not think about the consequences of their activities. Only after few years, they will realise the consequences of their unwise actions in the past. After a certain age period, it is difficult for a woman to maintain her body shape. The struggle for the maintenance of body shape may force the woman to implement strict dieting in her life styles. The failure to maintain better body shape may force advertisers from staying away from a celebrity who they exploited very much in the past. For example, Naomi Campbell was one of the most heavily commercialized celebrities in the past. At present, she is rarely used by advertisers for promoting their products because of the fact that Naomi has already lost her body shape and beauty up to certain extent. Such avoidance may create lot of psychological problems to Naomi like celebrities. Conclusions Portrayal of women as sex objects is done by visual media for promoting products and services. However, such media activities may bring more harm than good to the women community. People started to consider women as a commodity rather than human because of such negative portrayal of women in visual media. The fame and social approval achieved through the exposing of women body may not last long. Women may realise the fact only later that the media is interested only in the beauty of their body rather than anything else. Such late realizations may cause huge psychological problems to them. Works Cited Jayson, Sharon. “Media Cited For Showing Girls As Sex Objects”. 2007. USA Today (20/2/2007). Web. 23 April 2012. Massey, Stephen E. “Women in the Visual Media: Does Appearance Matter?”. Web. 23 April 2012. Manista, Frank C. “The Image of Women in the Media”. 2001. Web. 23 April 2012. “Sex and Relationships in the Media”. 2010. Web. 23 April 2012. “Sexualisation 'Harms' Young Girls”. 2007. Web. 23 April 2012. Read More