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The Perpetuation of Female Stereotypes Essay

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Images are all around us, and while some are helpful many can destroy the image that is our existence. These negative images are projected at us through media, and the media is all around us, making it at the very least difficult if not impossible to ignore them. A great analysis of the effect of these negative images on young women is a film titled Beyond Killing Us Softly. The third in a series of films on the advertising industry, body image, and women, Beyond Killing Us Softly is a 30-minute documentary that explores the question of how adolescent girls interpret the confusing, conflicting, and sexist messages they get from the media. Featuring feminist activists and scholars including Carol Gilligan, Amy Richards, Gloria Steinem, and …show more content…

This woman is the perfect example of the media's projection of femininity, and beauty. She is white, and at that blonde, very skinny and has typical white "delicate" features. Her face and body appear flawless with no signs of scars, or blemishes or any other markings that would simply suggest normal living. No doubt this woman has lived through normal life experiences such as falling off a bike or scraping her knee on the concrete. In a classroom at Wheelock College, while scantily clad models from Cosmopolitan flash across the big screen, Professor Dr. Gail Dines warns, "Real women don't look like this. Even models don't look like this." The provocative professor points out that airbrushed images have been around for years. What's new is that pornographic poses have slipped into the mix. The media portrays her not as a human being, but as a flawless, beautiful, feminine, sexual being.

The problem with these impossible standards is that a woman is forced to lose her identity through these flawless and often-pornographic images slapped all around women's daily lives. This woman in the ad epitomizes the problem. This ad and others like it are given the job of setting the standard of beauty for women. Messages such as these can be incredibly detrimental to women of different races, ethnic backgrounds, body types and religious beliefs sometimes. Our media doesn't seem to care and

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