Women in the media and how they are perceived

By Sophie Kelly
THERE are plenty of stereotypes when it comes to women in the media. There’s the femme fatale, the super mum, the sex kitten, the girl next door, the bitch ... the list goes on and on really, and we are all supposedly meant to fit into one of them.

Many would agree that some strides have been made in the last 20 years in how the media portrays women in film, television and magazines, and how much coverage women’s issues actually receive.

This is all because of women (and some cool men too!) speaking out. There has also been a huge growth in the presence and influence of women, both in the media limelight and, just as importantly, behind the scenes.

It all sounds pretty fantastic, but then Hillary Clinton came along declaring that she wanted to run as the Democratic Party nominee for the US presidency in 2008, and suddenly things didn’t look so fantastic after all.

The media was slammed, not only by well-known females but by the public for their sexist coverage of Clinton. They even went as far as to say that they had impacted her chances of becoming the Democratic Party nominee.

One survey during the election race showed that 30% of those surveyed thought that the news media had been too hard on Clinton, while only 13% and 19% believed they were too hard on John McCain and Barack Obama respectively.

So why did the media act the way they did? Well, one reason which has been suggested is that female politicians are rarely interviewed as vigorously as their male counterparts. A Canadian study by Jenn Goddu found that journalists tended to concentrate on the domestic aspects of female politicians’ lives rather than on positions and opinions on issues of the day. A prime example is their treatment of Sarah Palin, who ran for the US presidency in 2008.

Inadequate women’s news coverage seems to be a worldwide phenomenon.

The Global Media Monitoring Project is the largest and longest study on the representation of women in the media. It is also the largest initiative in the world on changing the representation of women in the media. It global terms it found that, as news subjects, women have grown by just a measly 17% to 21% between 1995 and 2005. And, to add insult to injury, most of the global news tended to focus on their status as celebrities and negative roles in legal or social events rather than focusing on the contributions made in politics and government. News talkshows are just as bad when it comes to featuring women. In 2005, only 14% of guests on major US Sunday morning programmes were women. And out of 600 guests, only three were black females.

Let’s face it, SEX sells. That’s just the way it is. And, as a cousumer of the media, you cannot escape it. The number of sexual scenes on TV has doubled since 1999. And 70% of all entertainment shows excluding news, sport and children’s programmes) include sexual content. Yup, like I said, it’s pretty much everywhere. And in order to sex-up something, media companies use images of female bodies to sell everything from food to cars.

Singers, actresses and models are becoming younger, taller and thinner. Women’s magazines are chock-full of articles and diet recipes urging you to lose those last few pounds so you can have it all – the perfect marriage, loving children, great sex and a rewarding career. Again, I’ll ask why? It all seems to come down to cold, hard cash.

By presenting an ideal image which looks very easy to obtain, but in reality is extremely difficult to achieve and maintain, the cosmetic and diet industries are assured of growth and profits as high as the skies. After all, the diet industry in the US alone is worth between $40 and $100 billion a year.

This desire to achieve unattainable beauty leads to, (you’ve guessed it!) depression, loss of self-esteem and the development of unhealthy eating habits in women and girls. And the media is fuelling the fire, creating hundreds upon hundredsof images of young, thin females who have been airbrushed to within an inch of their lives. Giving credit where credit is due, there are plenty of people out there who are not swallowing the media’s hype – women, girls and men – who are concerned about equality in our culture. They want to see women promoted in a better light in the media and overall power-sharing in society for women and girls.

But we’ve still got a l-o-o-o-n-g way to go.

For more information go to:
www.mediaandwomen.org
www.whomakesthenews.org
www.media-awareness.ca
www.iwmf.org.