The Impact of Media Beauty Standards on Women's Leadership Roles, Lecture notes of Marketing

Download The Impact of Media Beauty Standards on Women's Leadership Roles and more Lecture notes Marketing in PDF only on Docsity! Everyday, girls are bombarded by images of societal beauty standards. These standards change women emotionally and physically. About five percent of the women in the world naturally possess the bodies portrayed in social media and yet we all strive to maintain these unrealistic bodies with diets and unhealthy decisions. In my research, I explored the origins of our current beauty standards and its connection to the inequity of women in leadership roles. While collecting my photos, I began to categorize them by emotion, memory or repetition. Choosing photos of women that influenced my life and research. As a whole, my collages work together like a quilt. I chose the medium of collage because women might find insecurities while reading advertisements or looking at photos on social media. I chose photos and colors that convey feelings or memories of longing, nostalgia for a time or state of being. I wanted to create this feeling because we all can relate this feeling while looking at images of others. The process of collage making is also a transformation, a message that in life we all transform because of our minds and environments. For me, the collages with the children in space remind me to be silly and light hearted in challenging times. We are all human and we should give love to our souls and hearts instead of hatred or disappointment. Grace V. Abstract: This essay is about how the media portrays women and its connection to the lack of women shown in leadership roles. The essay also includes analysis of the media and what advertisers want women and men to see and believe in society. The process of the essay and research involves a personal journey of being media literate, finding empowerment and breaking the mental barrier of beauty and societal standards. These ads are examples of marketers making the connection between “beauty” and the workforce. The ad on the left states that a workwoman’s responsibility is not only in her work but also in her skincare. The allure of purchasing the product also comes form the phrase, “Doctors advise!” The ad on the right states that “beauty” answers the work call not the woman’s work ethic or skill. In the same ad, the word “smart” has a smaller font and bold than the word “beauty” and a W.A.A.F (Women’s Auxiliary Air Force) is only smart when she uses and buys Palmolive. A woman is never smart or capable because of her intelligence or abilities but by how beautiful she is and what products she uses. This formula that advertisers created “in the pursuit of money [is the reason why many of us women are still imprisoned in our bodies]” (Baker 35). Even though these advertising tactics were used back then, many businesses still use similar strategies in order to make their revenue. And as the topic of unhealthy beauty standards gain awareness, marketing teams use this realization to their advantage. For example, “when women [decide] to liberate themselves from the overly feminine look, magazines [endorse] the ‘nude look’ so women [can] look ‘natural’ while still subscribing to the standard of pretty that they [are] trying to avoid” (Baker 35). Advertisers don’t lift their fingers to benefit the improvement of female self-esteem but instead use our found strength and empowerment from years of oppression to make money. How degrading is that? Why are we facing the consequences when we’re trying to expose the media for what it’s really doing to women? How can we move on from this ongoing oppression and continue to empower ourselves despite the roadblocks? We’re facing these consequences because advertisers don’t like it when their “system” is jeopardized by the true upper hand (real women that are media literate). And I don’t believe the “system” will change despite our efforts. I’ve come to realize that it won’t make a difference if women try to persuade the media their rights or how women should be perceived because advertisers will just “[introduce] a new domination technique to compensate for each of our newfound powers” (Baker 35). But what will make a difference that women are already doing is changing and being aware of their ideas and thoughts on the unhealthy beauty/societal standards. Women such as the author Jes Baker wrote Things No One Will Tell Fat Girls; she centers her work on “embracing a body-positivity worldview, changing perceptions about weight, and making mental wellness a priority” (Davison). In Things No One Will Tell Fat Girls, Baker cites from The Beauty Myth written by another avid conversationalist Naomi Wolf. Wolf is also the author of Fire with Fire which is about The New Female Power and How It Will Change the 21st Century. These are just a couple of revolutionaries that are trying to make a difference for women in this standardized world. However, being a revolutionary doesn’t always mean making a scene, it can also mean acknowledging that there is a problem and conversing about it. Unhealthy beauty standards aren’t the only issue women have been trying to solve but also the lack of women in leadership roles. Women that are trying to break through an industry mostly filled with men such as film directing or producing are discriminated because people or in this situation men want to keep the power that they have by privilege (Bbcnews). For example, Katherine Hardwicke author of the Twilight series says, “‘Nobody says, I’m not gonna hire a female director.’ On their list there’s just twenty-five names, and none of them are women” (Miss Representation). This means that men won’t explicitly say they won’t hire women directors, they just choose not to or not to challenge what they know (Miss Representation). Unfortunately Hollywood “is run on one assumption…that women will watch stories about men, but men won’t watch stories about women” (Miss Representation). In media as you go up the ladder “fewer and fewer women and people of color exist…which means that 97% of everything you know about yourself and about your country and your world comes from the male perspective” (Miss Representation). Not that the male perspective is wrong but if the target audience is mostly towards women than women should be the ones to be portraying what and who REAL women are. While examining female political candidates for presidency or in leadership roles, it came to no shock to me that women in power are seen as a horrible and unattractive idea. When Hilary Clinton speaks people respond with, “Take out the garbage (Miss Representation)!” or when she comes on television men “involuntarily cross their legs (Miss Representation).” She is also confronted with phrases of “Iron my clothes!” and a “stereotypical bitch”. Some journalists believe that she became senator because of Bill Clinton and how he “messed around” (Missrepresentation) not because of her merit. When Sarah Palin became a candidate, she was looked at as more feminine and as a “woman other woman want to be and men want to mate with” (Missrepresentation). Photographers documented supporters between her legs that were at her convention which “pornified and ditzified” (Miss Representation) her image. Both Hilary and Sarah portray themselves differently trying to attract the audience for their ideas and thoughts but in return received cruel banter and their dignity taken away form them. Though these two candidates were disrespected for their ideas and beliefs, they did not give up in their hope in becoming a political leader despite their gender societal standard. Women such as Jes Baker, Naomi Wolf, Katherine Hardwicke, Hilary Clinton and Sarah Palin are role models for the realization of unhealthy beauty and societal standards. I was able to break the mental barrier because of the examination these women put on our culture and what example they set for young women. I learned about women, about myself and what potentials we hold inside of us. I learned to love myself even though that sounds cliché but I am grateful for who I am, what I’ve done and what I can do. I am empowered and passionate about seeing more women in leadership or even myself. I never thought that coming out of this research I would want to be a revolutionary but I do. I WANT to be the change that I wish to see in the world but I also want other women too feel the same way. We can empower each other by standing up for each other when we’re oppressed or objectified. We can empower each other by surrounding ourselves around inspiring role models and women and men who believe that we can make a difference and that we deserve to be in this world. Because women do deserve to be in this world. We deserve the same rights given to men. We deserve equal pay. We deserve to be known more than a shirt size or what makeup we use. We deserve equality because we are humans, we are complex and we don’t take “no” for an answer when we put our minds and hearts into something we are passionate about. Manifesto: • Know your world and what kind of society you live in. Define what it’s like to be a woman in society today. • Acknowledge your feelings if something is wrong. Don’t push it aside because it’s not the status quo! • Be media literate. • Have faith in yourself in whatever you do. • Fight for what you believe in and stand up for other girls. • Surround yourself with people that support you for you and what you believe in. But don’t be afraid if someone stands up to your views or challenges your beliefs. • Love yourself. Love yourself whole. Love yourself in pieces; just love who you are and that the world wouldn’t be where it is without your thoughts and actions.