Women are often portrayed unrealistically in media. They are frequently shown as sex symbols with perfect bodies and little depth or character. This includes iconic figures like Marilyn Monroe and influences young girls to see beauty as the most important quality. Models promote an unhealthy thin ideal, and Barbie teaches that women should have impossible proportions. Magazines further distort images through heavy use of Photoshop. This constant exposure gives women and girls unrealistic standards and can damage self-esteem or even lead to eating disorders. The document argues that media should present women in a more honest, balanced way that does not equate a person's worth with their appearance.

1. Ethical Issues-How women are represented in the media
In the media women and men are represented very differently and always have been. In most films
and other parts of the media industry women are seen as sex symbols and are seen as these
beautiful women with no flaws who all have this sex symbol about them. This has always been the
case from the famous actress Marilyn Monroe who is known for being one of the biggest female sex
symbols to Angelina Jolie who is more famously known for playing the dominate Tomb Raider
character. It’s also known that films with a male protagonist have been higher budget films due to
the fact that society is used to this in the media. However I am against how women are represented
due to the fact it has a negative impact on society because young girls think they need to look a
certain way.
When we look at the media we are used to seeing the male character being the big strong hero
while the women are shown as the house wife who will do anything for their husbands and their
family, but that’s not all. Women are also shown to be more of an item more than a person due to
the fact that media shows women to be good at one thing only and that’s being a sex symbol. A
main example of this is Marilyn Monroe who was one of the biggest female actors of all time.
However Monroe wasn’t known for her acting she was known for her looks and her body. In the film
7 year itch the iconic scene of her dress blowing up and showing her thigh’s gave her the sex symbol
status.
If we look at recent events just like Victoria’s Secret Model we see loads of women parading about in
their underwear looking painfully thin. This takes place every year with younger and younger girls
entering. If you are scouted to be in the fashion show the creators make you work out three times a
day for an hour each time and your diet is described as ‘rabbit food’. If we
look at this picture we seen how skinny this model is (Miranda Kerr), and how
little she is wearing. This is a bad reflection on women due to the fact most
women don’t look like this some never will. If we also include young girls they
could see this picture and decide this is okay which could lead to not eat and if
worst comes to worst anorexia. This gives women a low self-esteem and
could lead to depression and other illnesses.
Young girls are also exposed to dolls such as the very popular doll Barbie.
Barbie has been around for many years and allows young girls to dress them
up and do their hair. However the Barbie doll has perfect skin with big boobs
and a tiny waste which isn’t realistic. People can question how can Barbie
have a negative effect on young girls well a girl named Valeria Lukyanova took
this to a whole new level when she had plastic surgery a number of times in order to look like the
famous doll. In order to look like Barbie she had her boobs enhanced to 38DD, had two of her ribs
removed in order to get her waist like
Barbie’s and her skinned smoothed out to
make in flawless. The picture (left) shows a
before and after she had the surgery. A lot
of ethical issues have been raised about this
girl and how having this amount of plastic
surgery can have a bad impact on your body.

2. If young girls saw this picture this could have a negative impact on them due to the fact they could
get the idea that they need to look like that when they’re older and that its okay for their body.
If we look in a lot of magazines such as lad mags like zoo or nuts a lot of the women in there are
usually naked or wearing just their underwear. Their bodies are all very perfect with no spots or
stretch marks and all in perfect proportion e.g. tiny waist and big boobs. However with the increase
with technology comes the popular editing software Photoshop. A lot of images we see in the papers
and magazines have been photoshopped and make celebrates look the way the media want them to
look.
The picture left shows a very good example of
what photoshop can do to pictures. This picture
of Britney Spears shows her to have dark under
eyes, lines around her mouth and her hair to be
messy. The picture on the right shows her hair
to be a lot neater and in place and her skin to be
smoothed out and her make up to be perfect.
We can also see that she looks a lot younger and
more attractive on the right. A lot of magazines
photoshop celebrities bodies in order for them
to look a lot skinner then they actually are. A lot
of women feel intimidated by this and feel the need to lose weight in order to look like these
celebrities. However this isn’t always the case a lot of women in the media industry are under a lot
of pressure to look a certain way all the time by wear tones and tones of make up and to lose
weight to look skinny and more attractive. A good example of this is the world famous singer Katy
Perry, who we all see as beautiful and always looking very attractive, but recently a picture of Katy
Perry was posted without makeup on look very different from the picture on the right. This picture
was quickly deleted which proves that the singer was very embarrassed due to the fact she’s not use
to people seeing her like this. This is due to the media always being around her taking picture of her
which is why she feels the need to always look good. This sets a very bad image of women and sends
a false image to people making them think you must always look beautiful and made up in order to
people to find you attractive.

3. In conclusion after all the topics I have talked about, media portrays women in a very negative image
making them to look perfect when actual fact they are just the same as everybody else but instead
there under a lot more pressure to look a certain way. The use of photoshop also adds to the ever
growing problem of girls losing weight to look like the ‘perfect women’ and the amount of make up
girls wear in order to look perfect.