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Media's Influence on Women

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For many years, women have fought long and hard to gain equal rights with men. Women have been held back and restrained from many privileges and opportunities because of their gender. The Women’s movement also known as “The Feminist Movement” started in the United States during the late 19th century. The idea of this movement was to promote women’s civil rights and the equality of the sexes; socially, politically, and economically. Over the past century feminist activist have made great strides in the fight for equality. And because of this, feminism has evolved and taken many forms over the years. Even though equality between both sexes has greatly improved, the discriminative portrayal of women is still very much seen in the media. Because of the media's powerful and persuasive influence on society, it dictates the way women look, act, and often portrays them as being lesser beings. Generally, gender roles in society are based on stereotypes, traits, and behavior patterns. Carmen D. Siering’s, article “Taking a Bite Out of Twilight”, based around the series of science fiction novels, Twilight. The article looks at the catastrophic downfalls of having an intense relationship, such as the one that exists between the novels main characters, Bella and her vampire boyfriend Edward. Siering also takes a look at gender roles and how they play a major part of creating this “love” story. Julie O’Reilly, author of the article “The Wonder Woman Precedent: Female (Super) Heroism on Trial” which argues the issue of feminism in television and comic books. Within her argument, O’Reilly, claims that females in these mediums face different challenges, and are tested differently than that of their superhero male counterparts. The media also tends to portray female characteristics with negative and passive stereotypes. As a consequence society holds sexist attitudes, which in turn leads to unrealistic behaviors of how women should act. Stereotypes are assumptions people make about an entire group based on observations of some members. In the media, women are often displayed as dependent and weak; both intellectually and in strength, and in skill. Most times they are portrayed as being the damsel in distress or displayed as defenseless and blinded by emotions, causing society to believe that women are inferior to their male counterparts. However, current leading roles women take on in the media are allowing them to be seen as being more independent, and less vulnerable. Actress Kerry Washington, who stars in ABC’s hit series Scandal, as crisis management and White House “fixer”, Olivia Pope is a prime example of a character that depicts these changes in the media. Washington’s strong-willed character was created to break down the double standards of some stereotypes that women face in media. Pope, is just as cunning, controlling, and enticing as the men that surround her in the White House. By contrast, Kerry Washington’s character, Olivia Pope, tends to contradict the behaviors that feminist strive to symbolize. Pope who is the mistress to the president of the United States, is willing to take emotional abuse from him. And because she is madly in love with the president, she compromises her standards to underserve her married love. There is no doubt Washington’s character Pope can be viewed as a feminist character but in some ways her character falls short to the dependence of her male counterparts. In the Twilight series, written by Stephenie Meyer, the main character Bella is commonly referred to as the weak and helpless female surrounded by dominant and powerful males. Siering describes the character Bella as “being in need of someone to take charge, someone to take care of her- We see that Bella needs protection as she stumbles through the world” (440). Ultimately every choice that Bella makes is wrong and/or leads her into some kind of trouble to where she needs to be saved and watched over. However, this is how Meyer’s wants the audience to view Bella since she’s left her as a “blank slate”. Leading girls to believing they can become Bella and would want to pursue a relationship such as the one Bella has between her two male companions. As for comic book heroine Princess Diana (Wonder Woman), she is not necessarily weak but is dependent on her mother’s approval to become and earn the title of “Wonder Woman”. In Wonder Woman’s very first comic, she must

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