Missing Women In Media

Appearance is the daunting link between media and social perception of what it is to be a female. From children show’s to adult programming women are objectified as seductive beings that must in one way or another tend to the needs of a man and if this isn't the case the woman seems to be an evil conniving selfish person. The clothes determine the character. In most cases we see young women with little to no clothing, dressed sharp and professional or careless and sloppy. Female characters we see in media are often the seductress, the conniving business woman, the house wife and always the damsel in distress. 

My name is Michelle, I’m 24 years old and I am a media major currently in my junior year. I grew up in Queens, New York and I have to say media has affected my life in many ways. From what I remember I started noticing female objectification the minute I stepped into junior high school. Until that moment I actually thought Britney Spears school girl outfit was so amazing, but little did I know my rude awakening was waiting for me. Boys in school treated girls with disrespect. They discussed music videos and female body types instead of cartoons or homework. 

I grew up watching Disney movies and soon discovered they were all lies. This princess was left to rescue herself. Today I go to college and have a wonderful 2 year old daughter running around pulling my hair. The one thing I’ve noticed about media is that there isn't a character or person that I can relate to that I know of. According to TV I am in my 20’s, my selfish years where I travel the world establish  my career and party like an animal. The truth is I balance everything even if media says its impossible. 

In the “Devil wears Prada,” actress Meryl Streep, plays the conniving editor in chief. She is the successful woman that has sacrificed many things to achieve success. Women in the media are forced to make choices between a personal life and a career because they can’t have it all, while men are often over achievers and have abundance in love as well as fortune. In “Cheaper by the dozen,” another common movie we see actress Bonnie Hunt playing the part of the mother whom is the caretaker of the house and is forced to leave her book tour because her children need her and her husband can’t seem to hold things together. 

Reese Witherspoon happens to be acting in a few films that place women in categories such as Legally blonde where she wears pink through out the entire movie while everyone else is dressed in dark or neutral colors around her to emphasize that she's an “airhead”. In “Sweet Home Alabama,” Witherspoon plays the main character which is a successful woman that returns to her home town from New York and sees all her childhood friends as sloppy house wives with many kids. Its agenda’s like these that don’t make sense although they exist there is a growing number of moms and wives that are working hard and are successful in maintaining a balance between career, family and life in general. 

        It seems as if the media neglects the real life struggles of women around the world to reflect attention towards Kim Kardashian. Then again what do people like? If I post a selfie I get 30 likes, but if I post a picture with my grandmother I get 10 likes at most. I just wonder who is writing the narratives and who is the audience. 

What Media Is (to me)

The way I see it, media has been, and will probably always remain to be, an immensely powerful outlet for expression and communication. And it wouldn't be that way if we did not take into consideration the way we actually use and interact with media—both individually and as a society. And with the addition of more advanced technology, the power and impact media has on society has only continued to soar. If you were to just take a step back every so often, perhaps take an hour or so to disconnect yourself entirely from "the grid," and observe things like: the advertisements around you, and the way a person walking by you might be interacting with their gadgets, it would be difficult not to see both how extraordinary, and how silly media can be now a days. I believe the trick is to detach oneself completely from society for that particular moment—especially the want, need and desire to socialize (and this could be rather difficult because it's sort of in the nature of people and a society to interact).

As for me, I am an observer. I love to observe. And I'm not talking about passively observing to take in visual stimuli, or observing because I am nosy and want to know the who, what, when, wheres of everything. I literally observe, re-observe, continue to observe, think... think again... rethink... analyze... observe again and think at the same time.. and so on. The people who know me well in my life know this about me, and sometimes they don't even get it—why observation drives my mind so. This obsessiveness of mine to be so observant, by the way, probably stems from my introverted nature (or so I would theorize). But it just feels as though there's an art to observing, and when one more pensively observes they will see and realize so much more. And for me, one of the most interesting things to observe is the media. Facebook, news outlets, Instagram, Youtube, and whatever else I may venture to check out or use on the occasion.

Now what significance does any of those two obvious facts about media, and my observational skills, bear for this blog? Simply put: observing is how I usually interact with media, and my observations have drove me to become an aspiring media maker. I would say at least six out of ten times, I see something that I don't like. That certainly does not make it invalid. But I often feel that with such powerful mediums out there, many with the invaluable ability to engender awareness and promote change, we could spare some of the sloth memes (where did those even come from?), deceitful propaganda and misleading information. I have a vision for media to solve problems to the best of its abilities—NOT create them. Specifically, I envision media to be an advocate for social justice and urban reform because that's the type of work I would like to do eventually—using media as my outlet. That is why I have a concentration in documentary and TV production. I think it would be wonderful, considering the direction some of our media outlets are going (ex: Music), for people to be more conscious consumers (:

CHECK IT: Just something interesting to consider!

Media and it's effects on me

My name is Kevin Alba, I am 21 year old male. I was born in Queens and still reside in Queens. Media has definitely had it's affects on me, especially when it comes to appearances. When I was a lot younger between later elementary and early middle school I suffered from childhood obesity. This made me feel really insecure on how I felt because of the way I looked and as well as the way I was judged by others. I got mad fun of by guys for being fat and I disgusted girls by being fat. Even though I had a few friends they still made fun of me at times for the way I looked. I guess I could somewhat blame the media because it does hold a lot of influence because it's what people are exposed to everyday. The media shows as the ideal man as a 6 foot 4 inch tall muscular man. And I was not that in anyway. I'm 5 foot 6 inches almost the opposite of the ideal man and with my wide frame and stuff I felt pretty discouraged that not would I be able to attract the opposite sex but that I would always be made fun of. Only until hearing from doctors that I was getting close of getting diabetes I figured that I really had to change my life around. So I began to work out a lot and eat healthier and went down from about 180 to 120 then I began to lift more weights to get more muscular and ended up at my current weight at 150. And just because of the changes of my appearances  I didn't get made fun of anymore and I became more appealing to the opposite sex and then I realized how badly people get discriminated or made fun of just because of simply being a little overweight or different from what people consider to be the norm. Once I got more in shape I couldn't even believe the attention I was getting and it all seem kind of fake to me. How could someone treat someone like crap because of the way I look and then suddenly change after that one change. I was just confused and I didn't know what to make of it.

I would say the media affects everyone not only males but females as well. I see females get objectified so much and overly sexualized for no reason. I see some commercials selling products that have nothing to do with females or their bodies to sell like fast food or even things for men. Like how does it make any sense. Like I always watch commercials and be like what the hell does that have to do with anything. I hate how people just view females like sexual objects like I'm a heterosexual male and I do find the female body pleasing but I don't need to be bombarding with images of them all over or of fit men all over to sell some type of cologne or perfume. It's just really unnecessary and excessive.  For example this ad
https://forums.digitalpoint.com/proxy/V%2FlNRoM4xGjzn0EO5NYnI46sxzdoonzPxCQrdFymhzui%2BqDjfe9MXEywoGP0ht2jmrHivpRgp%2Bo6gfJxgA%3D%3D/image.png
What the hell like what is this supposed to imply? Why would this make me want to try to out this sandwich because it doesn't this ad in no way makes me want to try this food. And it disgusts me on how they think this is okay to do. Like it's a sandwich why must I have to think of sexual acts for freaking food.

All these advertisements made me sick which got me into doing graffiti and things like that. I hated having to digest these images just because some rich person has the money to shove whatever garbage they are trying to sell by sexualizing people. I rather see art or see something people put work in to get a message across that isn't about selling anything just being there for pure expression. I fear how this world is and how it is against women. I have a baby sister she is only 4 and she has no idea about how the world is. When I go out in the streets to paint illegally I have the fear of getting caught by the police, getting beat up, or getting robbed. Females have all that to fear but as well as getting raped. Like that's fucked up why must females have to have that constant fear, it's not right. I'm also afraid if some guy should ever ask my sister out on a date or prom and she deny them and because of that get shot or killed because some guy couldn't handle rejection. One could blame the patriarchy on that because a man feels entitled to whatever they want and when they don't get it they are told to act violently or like some spoiled brat. Not only that but I'm pretty sure they get ridiculed by their other guy friends because they couldn't get with some girl or whatever and all this ridicule can especially drive someone to do crazy things which I feel never justifies any of their violent acts but I can see why many men engage in these acts because as men we are told to not feel sadness or basically be emotionless because if we show any sign of it we are not a man. Bottling up ones feelings is never good because it's only time before someone explodes and do something outrageous or regretful. And I see why many men do commit these acts because they are told to bottle up their emotions or else they are pussies or women. Like what's wrong with sharing the way you feel about something, I have cried for many things that happened to me and at times in front of people that I didn't want to because of fear that they will judge me and think of me as weak for crying but it got to the point where I didn't give a shit because I'm not less than a man because I show my emotions, I'm just being real. And if someone is going to give me shit for being real because it's not manly or whatever then I know who to avoid because they aren't real, they are just phonies and fakes. My parents taught me one rule and I think it is the most important rule in the world that I wish most of humanity understood which is basically don't do things to other people that you wouldn't want done to yourself. If both genders did this we wouldn't have the problems we have today and we wouldn't need feminism because there is so much bullshit for example girls getting called sluts or whores because they sleep with a lot of guys but a guy is a stud because he gets with a lot of girls like what the fuck? How is that fair how does that make sense? I honestly feel its just the way for men to make women feel bad for expressing their sexuality like if we are the only ones to get allowed to do that. I feel also that women shouldn't feel bad and embrace their sexuality so what if a guy calls you a slut like f that he's just mad because you can get guys and he can't get girls or because you wouldn't sleep with him or whatever it's honestly a boyish emotion. Ugh I just feel like I'm rambling too much now I got to get my thoughts more focused and well put I'm sorry there is just so much crap going on in the world and it just sickens me that all the years that we have had to evolve we still have to go through some petty shit especially females they are the caregivers the bringer of life how can we as a male treat them any less than that. If it weren't for them we wouldn't be here if it weren't for females our sons or daughters wouldn't be here how could we treat them any less it's just not right, I'm just proud my parents didn't raise me the way Bell Hooks parents raised her under patriarchy. I'm just going off tangent but yeah media is alright like cartoons or funny shows but some stuff is too sexualized for no reason and I feel it instills negative connotations to not only us adults but also to our future.

Media and Islam to Me

Muslims have been marginalized and are no longer able to just focus on their faith.

As a women, an individual, a media observer and most importantly as a person who identifies with my religion I find myself to be against the biased representation and the consistent prejudice against Islam that occurs in the media. The one sided and grotesque method on reports on major news networks has made me revolt against the predominant part media. The unfair and unjust way Islam is portrayed and how Islamophobia has reached to the current worldwide state is a direct result of media making.  The unfortunate part is that with much of the public unaware of the actual truth of Islam what has resulted is a barbarabic theme that is associated with being a Muslim.

Muslims are expected to have thicker skin.

I do not condone any form of extremism in any form whatsoever. No form of violence is the answer to conveying any message. But when atrocious acts are committed by individuals who claim to do it in the name of  Islam the media is the first to jump on the bandwagon and  label these terrorist as Muslims and give news coverage in relation to their religion not the individual. On the contrary when other religious backgrounds who commit inexcusable crimes will not get a dimes worth of news coverage and the crime will be linked to the person not the religion. In a recent attack, two men, who identified as Muslim claimed to slaughter the creators of  Charlie Hebdo in the defense of the religion. These two men who had no justification whatsoever to gun down these journalists  but somehow in a matter of hours it became the representation of a non violent religion. Either you are a terrorist against free speech or you're a patriot. While in the same month “Christian extremists”  murdered several hundred people in Central African Republic and it failed to get barely any airtime.

Media does not fit into my life, media is the fly swatter and I am the fly. It twists and contorts my identity and chooses to do what they will to fit the political agenda at no cost to those affected. To wish I was a more eloquent of a writer to express the depth of this dire situation is an understatement. How interconnected our perception to what the media portrays is how we as individuals perceive and make our judgments. The media needs to portray theses criminals as criminals... not as a religion. The violent minority shouldn't overshadow the majority who do good in the name of Islam. Because of my stance and frustration with media I keep a distant relationship with it. However to say I am celibate from it would be a lie. I use social media, share posts that I feel shows a better understanding and conveys the unequal representations. I attend protests for Gaza and I post it on instagram, I do not watch any news networks or rely on the media for my current events but I try my best to stay informed to have a general up to date knowledge. I post pictures of my childs development, I go to the movies every now and then, I share adorable cat images, in a sense I am still a media consumer...just an extremely cautious one.

Below are some amazing articles that I really identified with and immediately felt relieved that I was not alone in my experience.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/mehdi-hasan/charlie-hebdo-free-speech_b_6462584.html

As a Muslim, I'm Fed Up With the Hypocrisy of the Free Speech Fundamentalists

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/rabah-kherbane/germany-islam_b_6486818.html

A Muslim's Response to the 25,000 Anti-Islam Protesters in Germany

http://paper-bird.net/2015/01/09/why-i-am-not-charlie/

Why I am not Charlie

The New Wonder Woman

      

     I have mixed feelings about how media portrays women today because I am a plus sized, Latina American wife, mother, full time college student and full time employee in my forties.  My diversity does not make me a “normal” media stereotype.  I can be drawn in by a variety of marketing efforts but am still insulted by the conventional methods of media and how they still dominate in this day and age.

     Since the rise of feminism in the 1960’s, there has been a constant battle and struggle against how media represents women.  Over the decades as we emerged out of the “Suzy Homemaker” or  “Stepford Wife” role into more affluent roles in business and society.  Sadly, we are still misrepresented.  Cultural achievements seem to have a massive affect on how media is relayed and consumed.  The Latina plus size part of me is insulted and discouraged from shopping for clothing when a magazine like Latina displays slender less curvy women to model apparel, when we are one of the most physically diverse cultures in the world. http://www.latina.com/fashion/shopping/workout-clothes-can-transition-gym-real-life Over the years, our bodies were created and influenced by the diversity of the blood that runs thru our veins from our ancestors. We are made up of African, Native American, indigenous and European DNA.  Our bodies are unique and distinctive. 

     When it comes to the forties and plus size me, my psychological emotions are easily persuaded by any beauty advertising of “natural” botanical products that promise to make me look younger and/or slimmer.  While facial image is easily attainable than body image for me, I flock to the stores to purchase the latest in skin care or weight loss/management.  Furthermore, since my personality has a little of the “flora & fauna” quintessence, any cream or lotion or pill that claims to enhance with botanics and herbs is not even any further thought.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/29/beauty-industry-women_n_5127078.html

     Through the years, broadcast television shows like Rosanne and ABC’s new sitcom Cristela, have helped redefine an array of women stereotypes and transform political and sociocultural influence but shows like these are limited.  Women like me can never be truly portrayed.  Since broadcast television does not have enough viewers to sustain more shows like these to reach these diverse stereotypes, cable has flourished to meet these demands.

     To conclude, my role in media is quite a diverse and unique one. In some ways I can be part of a stereotype but as a whole I am culturally, psychologically and emotionally diverse. Nonetheless in the end, media still has the ability to affect the positive or negative development of my self-esteem as well as how I perceive the rest of the world.

My Social Media Evolution

I have a love/hate relationship with social media. I joined the role of social media once I got into middle school to stay in touch with my friends and everyone else in school. It started with MySpace where the creation of your profile was almost like your mini blog where you can decorate the layout, add photos and quotes and so on. It was a fever for everyone to get the hottest layout for your page. I would consider this a form of media making... or at least we thought it was. We were creating... for lack of a better word, our spaces on MySpace that depicted our personalities, or at least the persona we wanted to be. 

I dropped my account on MySpace shortly after my freshman year of high school and picked up Facebook. It saved us the time of having to make these creative layouts, making it simpler and more efficient to keep in touch with 'friends' on our accounts. Shortly after my freshman year of college, my Facebook got dropped too. I went on a hiatus from social media for about a year. I was done reading meaningless posts that I had no interest in. After this year I picked up Instagram. Even simpler than Facebook and MySpace combined. Pictures, pictures, and more pictures! Maybe it's because the people I follow have now matured, but it's a little less meaningless... just a little, and I find myself following amazing accounts that are about important social issues. One of my favorites is Humans of New York (Click the link). I literally get excited every time he posts something because it is always an inspiring story about a local New Yorker, a story that I sit and think about for a while, and a story that I share with people throughout the day that sparks great conversation. 

This becomes a shared mass media event when I get to tell people about this account, they follow it, and share the story on. This is what social media is all about! I fit events like these into my life because sometimes the posts on Humans of New York truly make my day and forces me to have a different perspective than the one I had when I woke up that morning.

But, like everything else in life it cannot all be perfect. Social media has its well known defects. One of them for me is comparing myself to certain images I see on the internet, more specifically Instagram. Although I and many other people are aware that everything is not always as it seems, you get a slight pang of envy when you see images of young people with a lot of money, traveling the world, shopping all the time, and basically living a care free life while you're at home on your phone scrolling on Instagram watching their lives. Thankfully, it does not take me long to snap back to reality and remember who I am. Looking around in this generation it is so easy to get lost in the media world, but I also see how easy it is to make great use of it. People that raise crazy amounts of money for a certain cause solely through a social media platform is now the norm. 

People that start events like this are the ones that we should be comparing ourselves against and say "why can't I change the world like they are?"

I Know You Are..But What Am I?

Who am I? Well to start my name is Anna-Marie Aronis. I am a 29-year-old recent return to college student trying to better herself in this world. I never knew who I really was until I started going back to school in 2011, and decided to change something about myself. I realized that I had a good job and benefits working as a paraprofessional for the NYCDOE, but used the opportunity that gave me to go back to school and expand my knowledge. I always wanted to be famous, and not humbly famous like superstar famous, but I soon realized that that life was not for me, and putting effort to try to make it as a singer/model/actress/Broadway star, soon changed and I realized that, I do love working with kids and I do love media, and music etc, so my ultimate goal is to be a drama teacher.

My role in media consumption has a lot of influence on my early life especially, my childhood. Growing up in a Greek household I feel as if from an early age and as a product of European upbringing, media and what people perceive of you are very shown and somewhat went hand in hand. I remember being 4 years old and watching a Greek soap opera called “Madame Sou Sou” which was about a woman who was from the city and married a countryman. She thought she was better than everyone in her small remote Greek village because she was from the city. I feel as if that show kind of molded my view and interest in knowing what the wealthy people in society would live life and almost be fascinated by. Maybe it is because I grew up middle class regular American and with working class parents, shows like “Cribs”, or the “Kardashians” or even the “Simple Life” showing Paris Hilton in farmers clothes fascinated me, or even how a small town girl like Britney spears becomes a superstar overnight.

I find myself following a lot of celebrities on social media and I feel like I constantly compare myself to other celebrities who I find are appealing to me. I see myself bored alone on a weeknight scrolling through Twitter and Instagram, even trying out new diets and new ways of eating based on fitness models I follow on Twitter and Instagram. I find also a lot of even the way I dress and my hair is modeled around celebrities. For example I vividly remember showing my hairdresser photos of Khloe Kardashian’s hombre hair to mimic it exactly, she replied, “you know how many girls have shown me that photo?” I feel like for me it’s a subconscious thing, and being a former plus sized girl, I feel as if I never really embraced the “big is beautiful thing”. I always wanted to be thinner and I feel like making goal based on what I wanted to look like or for people to perceive me in a certain way is what I always did. I remember being 13 years old and envious of Britney Spears abs, embarrassed that I was so tall but not tall and thin like a Victoria’s Secret model, but more “big boned” as my Greek mother would call me, and dieted and tried and lost the weight. Seeing women like Jennifer Lopez and Khloe Kardashian, and now Lauren Kitt (Nick Carter’s, Backstreet Boys wife), who are tall curvy fit women I feel like, make and made more realistic goals of what I could look like, and my body image an confidence has changed. Instead of being embarrassed for being tall and wearing heels I feel like I did gain more confidence because I saw what those women did and the media loved it. I feel like sometimes the media is a “Mean Girls”, and almost judging everyone, but if they did it and it worked and the media embraced it, hey I could try it in real life. I feel like sometimes the media and Face book, and Instagram, and twitter is sometimes an overload of information all at once, and almost a popularity contest on our egos. Anything we post and myself included wants to be liked and wants to gain attention for it, but it’s interesting to see how far people may go to get attention or someone to like their photo. Another fact is that people are very unprivate. Some people will post all day and everyday of things they are doing, sometimes I think “ wow I didn’t go out I didn’t miss anything! Its all on Instagram and snap chat its like I was there”. To me where is the genuinely of “going out” and enjoying the company of your friends when the pressure is on to put your face on and pose for Instagram photos?

instagram.com/anna_banana_74

The media has the good and the bad with it. The best part for my life and me is that I can access information to make myself more and more educated, as I get older. I love that since I have been on and off in college, being educated has become less costly and more fun and more of an exciting experience. I like that I have evolved into a more computer and literate person by reading a lot, and taking time to analyze and research great works or literature at the click of a mouse. Hopefully for the future the growing media and technology will make he future brighter and people more aware and educated about things.