Stereotyping Women In The Media

Throughout history when we think about women in society we think of small and thin. Today's current portrayal of women stereotypes the feminine sex as being everything that most women are not. Because of this depiction, the mentality of women today is to be thin and to look a certain way. There are many challenges with women wanting to be a certain size. They go through physical and mental problems to try and overcome what they are not happy with. In the world, there are people who tell us what size we should be and if we are not that size we are not even worth anything. Because of the way women have been stereotyped in the media, there has been some controversial issues raised regarding the way the world views women. These issues are important because they affect the way we see ourselves—contributing in a negative way to how positive or negative our self image is.
In the media there are people who view women a certain way, and if we don't hold to the standard that we are not as good as other women who are the size the media says we have to be. In an article it said that "Large women in America are to all intents and purposes invisible in today's thinness-obsessed culture. A big women is neither seen nor heard, and is defined purely in terms of her weight and other people's prejudice." (Goodman par 1) This is a hard thing for women that a heavier to understand because they want the person to think that they are heard. This plays into the way that they think and the way that women look at their bodies. You can see this happening with different types of televisions shows, which put on the show thinner women. "Practically the only television programming that addresses her directly consists of weight-loss ads, the message: lose weight. You're not real women unless you're thin (Goodman)". It is hard to think that this statement could be true, but

we see it every day women how don't matter unless they are thin or thin to the world. In the United States it plays a bigger role then in other countries. In the commercials we only see the thinness people and the clear faces for the make up commercials. It puts women down that do not have the type of body that the media wants it makes women go through physical and metal sickness. Renee Zeglwer is a good example of this she has struggled with her weight her whole life that she has been in the show business. Hollywood tells her that she needs to be a certain size to be considered for roles. She has come out and said that it is hard for her to be as thin as everyone wants her to be and that she is so much happier being a normal size. To lose weight is not always a bad thing it is losing weight at an unhealthy way. There are diseases that women get because of they way try to lose weight fast so they try the fastest thing. The diseases are called anorexia and bulimia; they are both deadly and harmful to the body. Anorexia is what people do the most, they starve themselves and tell them selves that they are to fat so if they don't eat that they will be thinner and they will but the thing that it is doing is eating the things that our inside there body and it makes them weak. Through my life and most of my teenage years I have struggled with my weight and thinking to my self that I have to look a certain way in order to be excepted and I do not come from a family that is know for being small and thin. I have always wanted to be a certain size, but as I have gotten older I come to realize that it doesn't matter what size we are it is our attitude that makes us except our weight or that it could be the down fall to us. In the article it said that "A more dire consequence of teen attitudes about weight emerged in a study, which found that high school students who believed they were either very overweight or very underweight were more than twice as likely as other students to have suicidal thoughts. Suicide

attempts also correlated significantly with these categories, but with important racial and ethnic differences". There are more and more teenagers that feel that they need to be a size that they can be able to have people see that they are there. There was a girl in my high school that was a freshmen she didn't like the way that she looked it got so bad that she thought that she would not deal with it anymore, so she decided that the best way was to take her life and that if she did this that she would never have to look at her body again she was so psychology messed up because she let the media tell her what size that she needed to be that she committed suicide. There was a survey done to teenagers about obesity and how it affects them in their life we came to realize that teenagers are more concerned about their weight than adults because they worry about what people are going to say about them and what is going to happen to them if they are not a certain size. Going to the store is not always a fun thing, finding clothes that fit and that makes us feel good, this is always made me think of what I would look like if I was skinner. Many young men and women are dieting to be thinner to become accepted in to the cult of thinness and to be wanted with people. There are so many people who are looked down because of the way that they look and that they are not able be appreciated because they are not thin enough. In my life weight has been a problem and sense I have been at college just in theses few months I have come to realize that if we except who we are that we can move on and become the people that we want to be and to never let anyone tell us different. "The powerful; influence of advertising and media further encourage the idea. This is bad enough in and itself, but there is a further consequence: The more attunement to the body, the less attention to addressing social concerns." This statement can go back to the times were the media shows women and men that they have to look a certain way to be come excepted into the society.

Not only is the media making women feel bad about who they choose to star in the movies television shows, but the store are joining in now by making it almost for the average American women to find something that fits and that look fashionable. I know how this feels because it has always been a hard time for me to got shopping and find close that I liked that fit me well. I always wanted to go to the stores that all my friends went to find clothes but I was never there same size and so it made me feel bad because I wanted to be that size the size that everyone wants to be. I know that for me I had a sister that was small in high school and I always wished that I was her size and I waned to be able to wear the same clothes, but it was not in my jeans. I know that when we get older we come to realize again that we are better when we are not concerned with our weight and try to just be the best person we can be. In the commercial fruit of the loom there are women that are normal and look like an average size and it shows people that women can look like that and be beautiful. They went on Good Morning America were
In the end the media stereotypes women as beginning a certain size to become excepted into society but as we learn and grow we can come to the realization that its our attitude that gets us were we are today. There are many people in the world that think they have to look a certain way to become famous but they don't they have to just have confidence in us to become who we want to be. I know that if the teenagers of this generation just have confidence in themselves and do not let the stereotypes of women and others effect what they think that some day that women will not be stereotyped as they show be a certain size to be accepted into the society. Also when we look at the way that women are viewed we can see how that it can effect what they think about the world and that if we think that women have to look a certain it can be damaging to there health and I become a way to stop this we just need to have the media look a women different.