On Monday, both women in the media groups went to the Paley center for Media for a class called “Girls, Body Image, and the Media.” In the class we watched multiple clips from different movies, television shows, and commercials. Some of the clips were from the 50s and some from today. Some of the clips had something do to with women not being as strong as men. Others were about how “all a girl needs to be is pretty.” One of the clips was about how some girls don’t try to do well in school because not being “nerdy” or “smart” makes them popular. After we watched each clip, we had a conversation about it and talked about what the issue was. I noticed that throughout the years, the issue of women’s portrayal in the media has not really gotten much better or worse, for that matter. However, the situation tends to vary from the years. For example, an issue from the older television shows might be about how girls are not trying hard in school and getting bad grades, but at least they have lots of friends and have become a complete socialite. Where as now, some of the issues are about how a girl gets a nose job and becomes the new “It Girl” because she completely changed her image for society. But, overall, all these issues tie into one big issue that is how women are portrayed in the media. One discussion we had was about how, looking at magazines, women are very often showing a certain amount of skin. Compared to magazines with men, not always but sometimes, they are in suits and all professional looking. It is not often that one comes across a magazine with a woman on the cover that’s titled “business savvy.”My number one takeaway from this visit was all the examples of how women were portrayed differently. watching all the clips from movies, tv shows, and commercials helped me understand and get a better idea of what exactly the expectations for women are in society.
