Media and Women

1. Media's Depiction of Women

Media present bolters, stereotypical, limited and skewed perception of women.

• Media present women as passive, less likely to be on their own feet
• Media present them as fringe members of society
• Their rewards and aspirations are subordinate to men
• Media present them as sex objects who are usually young, thin beartuful m dependent and often incomplete
• Women devote their primary energy in improving their appearance
• Media present them as decorative object

1.1 Women's place in the society:( media's projection)

• Her place is at home/ indoor and they are well protected
• They play with dolls, play "dress up", help in the kitchen
• They take out houshold trash or wash dishes, take care of homes and people.
• They are not considerd in decision making process.

1.2 Women vs Men

• Men are stronger and protector of women.
• Women are emotionally stronger than men
• Women play with dolls , work in kitchen; while men are in sports and  they behave mischiveously.
• Male gaze and female are gazed at.
• Men are aggressive in men's group, while appeasing in female company
• Men are rational, ambitious, smart,competative, powerful, stable, dominian but women are tolerant, senstive warm, romantic, socialble peaceful, fair, submissive and undestanding. 

1.2.1 Erving Goffman's view:

• Females are likely to be pictured  as shorter than male and  so less authoritative.
• Females are likely to be touching and caressing objects: men grasp them.
• The function that they perform are likey to be less important to them and to the society.
•  Females are likey to be subordinated
• Women are  likely to be less oriented to the depicted scene
• Females' roles are depicted in family roles.

2. Women in Advertisements:

In ads, normal and unattractive women are very rare because only higly stylied paragones will attract the people. 

2.1 Attractiveness and reality:

• Ads give strong empasis on the female body being attractive , desirable and youthful.
• Mothers are portrayed  as wise and nurturing.
• Women are objects to be ogled and possessed, they are converted into commdity.
• They are painted, decorated, slight, vulnerable with limbs and chest exposed.
• " Exposer to highly attractive imags can negatively affect fellings about the self" ( in an interview with the under graduate women.)

2.2 Dress:

• Nude figures of women in ads are more than men.
• In advertisements, strong presence of unclothe women are seen.
• They are provocatively dressed.

2.2.1 Letters to the editors ( provocation by women)

• "Half naked breasts for exampleare are  more provocative than fully naked or fully covered."
• "Girls have  every right to wear attractive dress. Let them wear any dress, but let them do it in privacy of thier homes, not in public places to provide a feast to the eyes of potential rapists."
• " In present day society, women have conveniently allowed themselves to be exploited for povocative advertisements, without batting an eyelid.Girls wear more reveling, see- thorgh dresseds inviting provocation."
• " The root cause of rape in society whether urban or rural is manily the loose moral of women who attract leering looks due to her provocative behaviour inviting special attention."

2.3 Advertisers exploit women for profit:

• J. Walter Thompson, :" Women's Magazine is the most efficient means of reaching  vast markets'
• "Women spend the money " , he used to say.
• The presence of so many lithe and less cloth women represent advertisers attempt to  project certain meanings on to their comodity.
• Women are apples of men's eye and some of their desirability can slide over to the inert pooduct they are linked with.
• In 1984 ads, partially clad or nude models were 50% greater in women's magazine.
• Images of women are for generationg a consumer society for the celebration of profits.
• In our own towns and markets too, it is the young women who sit in the stationery shops, P.C.Os etc. because they attract more customers in the shops.

2.4 Age group of women in Ads:

• They are ecrtain to be youthful
• They are younger than males
• In 1959 and 1989 ads, 70% of women were between 18 and 34 years of age.

2.5. Women and Make -up:

• Women spend many sleepless night to do away with pimples, warts etc.
• Anxiety and money wasted by them in dressing and living like stars.
•  When women are made models in ads, they have been fully costumed, made-up,lighted, and photographed with a special lens but if the women herself looks at her picture, she may not recognizde the person there.

3. Women in Print Media

• In 1977, only about 15% of print journalists in Norway, Denmark, and Federal Republic of Germany were women.
• In Pakistan and Southern India, women represented no more than 3% of print Media.
•  In 1980, just 14% of news reporters and 6% of current affairs producers in B.B.C T.V were women.
• In Japan no women news reporters have been recruited for 20 years and women print journalists are about 1% of the total.
• So many women related concerns and activities are ignored but if covered they may suffer from biased or distorted reporting.

3.1 According to Marliee Karl

• Women are virtually absent from the important news of the world whether transmitted by press, Radio, or T.V.
• Very little media coverage is given to women’s work, achievements, situation or needs.
• The media are responsible for representing and dissemination traditional stereotypes of women.
• When women are involved in organizing and action and especially when they step out their traditional roles, the media often distort or ridicule.

3.2 Women in news coverage.

• Women rarely appear in news; studies carried out in different countries underline this basic absence.

• In 1979 women constituted only 8% of news makers across eighteen main news papers monitored in Sri Lanka.
• In U.S.A. it fell between 1975 and 1977 from 14% to 7%

• Some coverage is partly due to the presence of some senior women journalists in positions of responsibility.

• “Creating a climate of discount and prejudice against women working for peace. Our voices are silenced and facts are distributed in ways which incite more violence on bigotry against us”. (British Press.)   
• Women in India do not experience that kind of silence, there events or processes not entirely ignored but the coverage tends to be fairly superficial.

• Even when an incident touches the lives of women, their views are rarely sought.

• Women’s issues like dowry deaths, Rape, Sex- Determination Tests, Sati etc draw national and media attention to them.

• Only when campaigns by women’s group are launched media gives attention or only the most obvious women’s issue merit a mention

3.3 Women in front page news 

• Generally women’s problems never figure on the front page on the newspaper unless it is a gruesome murder or a case of bride burning even bride burning has ceased to be news now a days.
• Events and issue involving politics, economics, law, religion – in this order are of the top of the ladder of the news worthiness.

Dowry death for example was featured on front page only when it could be linked to the law or debates on parliament. (24^th march 1984 in Indian express)

3.4 Women in Humor columns

• “Women expect maintenance for all sorts of frills and luxuries which can drive the poor male insane… they are only interested in buying saris, perfumes and lipsticks. I have this problem of maintaining my lawful happily married wife. Government must make bill for maintenance of wives all over the country.”(25^th March 1986 in Hindustan Times, Rajender Puri)  
•  "I dislike women. Today’s wives are so conscious of their equality that they are forgetting their personality requirements. Women are soft, gentle and feminine. They should not be ashamed of it. They should stay soft, gentle and feminine instead of turning into half-baked human concoction neither here nor there” (10^th Feb 1980in Daily Sunday Magazine on Rape)