Women As Objects: The Effects That Advertisements and Illusions Have on Women

John Funkhouser

Dr. Adams

MPS RA #3

November 4, 2010

Women as Objects: The Effects That Advertisements

and Illusions Have on Women

"With approximately six billion people in the world, and a mere ten million of them suffering with some type of disordered eating" (.18% of the overall population -- less than a ¼ of 1%)  (Something-Fishy.org).

Introduction:

The media's portrayal of women in advertisements has an effect in the long run on women because these illusions can cause eating disorders for women that desire to be like what they see. By illusions I mean the computer generated effects that companies use in order to make their models look even more unreal in their beauty. Media uses the technology these days to enhance their models even more.  This “perfect” look has women constantly influenced by the media to be pretty. In other words, the media does a great job of making women feel like they are not only objects in society, but need to be a certain weight in order to be accepted. The media’s perspective on women, while very distorted in its appeal, can cause disorders in a young uneducated women’s life. Women can develop unhealthy eating habits that can lead to anorexia, and bulimia.

              According to AvalonHills.com, the main difference between anorexia and bulimia is that anorexia is the fear of gaining weight, so the person often times does not eat a full course meal. Bulimia is when an individual constantly forces themselves to throw up in order to lose weight. Moreover, both of these eating disorders present health issues for women. For example, “Bulimia damages the digestive system and can affect electrolyte balances, which in turn damages organs. The starvation of anorexia causes the body to slow down to preserve energy, which in turn has adverse consequences. In extreme cases, both can lead to death” (AvalonHills.com).
               According to something-fishy.org, "The average woman model weighs up to 25% less than the typical woman and maintains a weight at about 15 to 20 percent below what is considered healthy for her age and height." I think that many women do not know this fact and that is why it continues to be a problem in society because they think that it is normal. Think of all the diet advertisements that you see every day on losing weight. A lot right? Indeed, this is because people want to "look good" and "fit". Although there is nothing wrong with getting fit and looking good, the media takes it to the next level because of the large amount of skinny and unhealthy models that they show in commercials.
           So what can be done to solve the problem? Does every teenage girl have to turn off the TV and not be sucked into the media's view of women so that she does not get an eating disorder? Of course not. It's important to let young ones know that what they see on TV is not real and that most of the time it is computer animated. I think that educating kids about the media and the dangers that it can have on people in society will in turn make the world a better place and eventually end the messages that it sends kids and young adults.

Method:

            For my research, I will conduct a survey that will consist of seven questions that will help me better understand if women think that this is a problem in society, where they mostly see it, and what ages that it targets. I will survey 40 women, 20 that are young adults, and 20 that are middle aged so that I get a good comparison on how teenagers are viewing media, and older people. The seven questions that I will ask consist of:

1.      What is the most common place that you find women being portrayed as objects?

a.       T.V. Ad

b.      Newspaper

c.       Magazine

d.      Billboards

2.      Who is mostly affected by the media’s portrayal of women in society?

a.       Young women (20-35)

b.      Kids (6-12)

c.       Teenagers (13-19)

d.      Older women (35-*)

3.      Out of all the commercials and ads that you see, what is the main message that they try and get women to do?

a.       Lose weight

b.      Buy a product

c.       Eat healthier

d.      Exercise

4.      What time of day do you normally see the ads that depict women as objects?

a.       Morning

b.      Afternoon

c.       Evening

d.      Never

5.      How does the media make you feel when you see these commercials?

a.       Mad

b.      Happy

c.       Sad

d.      No emotion

6.      Overall would you say that the media portrays women in a negative way?

a.       Yes

b.      No

7.      Do you or do you know someone that has an eating disorder due to the media’s influence?

a.       Yes

b.      No

Description of Survey:

The first question is set up to find out where the person sees the media the most during the day. Whether it’s TV or magazines, it will give me a good idea where the most popular media source for displaying women as objects. For me, I would have to go with A. T.V. because whenever I watch a show late at night, I always see commercials that persuade me to buy a certain product and that I will be with a “hot” woman if I do so. In this case the person being used to get the product to sell is the women. A lot of times commercials use beautiful models to sell their products because it is an attraction method that they use.

Next, the second question will give me a better understanding of what age groups are most affected by the media’s portrayal of women as objects, according to the survey. I would have to go with C, teenagers because I think that they are the ones that think trends in the media are “cool” and often times are ignorant about the issue. For example, I remember when I was a teenager one of the girls that I talked to said that she needed to lose weight. I told her that she was crazy because she looked perfectly normal, but she said that she had to because of commercials she saw of women tanning in the sun with flat bellies. This is just one example, and I am sure there are more. I am very interested to see what people think is the most affected by the media.

The third question I posed has to do with messages in the media. I want to figure out what messages are most popular toward women in the media. If I were taking the survey I would probably pick exercise because I see that all the time. Losing weight can be associated with exercise, but there are also pills that are designed for people to lose weight as well so that is why they are in two different categories.

The fourth question has to do with the time of day that these portrayals are most frequent. I would have to go with C, evening because most of the time that is when people are home watching T.V., but then again people do wake up early and watch infomercials. This will give me a better idea of what time during the day these messages are being sent out to women.

The fifth question is designed to help me figure out how women are feeling about this subject, and whether or not they care. I think that a lot of women would probably be mad because they have to deal with the same issues every day with the media depicting them as objects that sell products.

The sixth question has to deal with whether or not overall women think that media does indeed have a negative influence. I predict that almost 80% or more would say yes.

The seventh and final question has to do with whether or not that person knows a person that has an eating disorder or in turn them.

Results Summary:

            I will be graphing my results with 2 graphs per question, one showing the young adults answers comparing to the older adults. It will be interesting to see the differences of each question in their percentages because it will show how older women think differently or the same as young adults. I think that the results should be helpful in supporting that there are negative messages being sent out by the media to women.

           

Conclusion:

In conclusion, the stereotypes that women need to be fit, small, skinny, and beautiful poses a threat for women in society because it can lead to health problems such as eating disorders. Upon researching for this project, I found an interesting quotation that I would like to share. “When the unnatural thinness became attractive in the media, girls then did unnatural things to become thin” (Pipher, 1994). Clearly, the media portrays women in an unhealthy manner which can influence uneducated women in society. That is why it is important to do surveys and research about the issues that present problems in the media so that the common people can manually fix it.