Women and the media- Who's more guilty?

The portrayal of females in the media have an enormous affect on behaviour, such, as how they, dress, act, and interact with the world around them. Whether it is a good thing is another matter.

Women are historical seen as the nurturers and care givers, but film and other forms of media have changed, women have become more and more empowered. Empowerment is a way to introduce more gender equality in the workplace but also in society. The term media encompasses a wide range of tools, it can cover magazine, film and television, these all reach a huge audience and therefore can potentially change the way of how a lot of females perceive themselves in the wider community.

Women in film have changed dramatically over the last 10- 20 years, many more women are being considered for main roles in films now and the have a more central role to the plot of the film, whereas in times gone by they would have had a more peripheral role, now they are more in focus and play a more central role to the plot. Even though they have started to claw their way into the movie scene, they are still viewed as sexual objects, a kind of " eye candy" one could say. But even as I say this, Just by getting the main focus, women have the chance to change the way the world views the changing roles of women in film. Gandhi was once quoted as saying " you must be the change you want to see in the world". Meaning you all have the power to change your individual situations. Education is a primary tool,it doesn't have to be the traditional school education either, religious education, social education etc.

All of these are a way in which women can empower themselves and make educated and well thought out decisions on how they want to be perceived in the world. Magazine and TV are another form of media that are guilty of objectifying women. So often do I walk by a magazine with a half naked women on the cover , and I don't see that as showing off your beauty, all I see is an incredible insecure women and that she can only get any attention by stripping down. Also in many women's magazine there are articles dedicated to this season style and how you must have this to be popular and desired. What I do find even more insulting is the Boots adverts on TV that are more frequent around Christmas. If you dissect the advert it is basically saying that the only thing that concerns women are the way they look, and the only reason they want to look like this is to get attention,

Which brings me to another issue, the need for attention. Surely a grown women no longer requires the approval of other people to feel some kind of importance, but the sad thing is it's true, women in particular, still still work to get the approval of others. We all have the power to change these perceptions, that is if enough people want to we can change things,if we stop buying theses magazine and watching the shows we can make it clear that there's no longer a demand for them hence no profits will be made, they will have to change things, but only if enough people want the same thing.