Obsession with perfection

The concept of media effects helps me understand that the way women are portrayed in the media is an issue and shows the effect that this misrepresentation has on individuals because of the response that occurs as a result of exposure to this degrading image.

By definition, Media effects are the changes in cognition, attitudes, emotions, opinions and behaviors that result from exposure to mass media. However, to me, media effects are the models, airbrushed and distorted, that graze the covers of popular magazines. Media effects are rape, abuse, and violence. Media effects are anorexia nervosa and related eating disorders.

Priming is a media effect theory that conveys the idea that the media triggers thoughts. This unveils a passive issue and one is more likely to receive, interpret and judge based on knowledge. In accordance with the issue of women’s roles in media, priming is used to trigger the thought that happiness can only be obtained through perfection.

Women have become a target for media effects. In the film, Killing Us Softly, Jean Kilbourne evokes a strong reaction from her audience when she puts a light on the often-overlooked issue of female stereotypes. According to Kilbourne, women have been shown an unattainable standard of perfection through the influence of the mass media and are willing to take strong measures to obtain the look of what they believe is perfection. The media has produced the perfect woman, an easy, yielding, needy, domesticated, nonresistant, beautiful object. Because she brings this issue to our attention, we are now able to judge the situation based on knowledge. 

Ads such as the Dolce and Gabbana “Rape” Ad have become commonly accepted and obviously show male dominance over women.

A further example of the effect of media is the case of Anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder that reflects an obsessive fear of gaining weight due to a distorted self image. Mass media has been particularly influential on the need for women to be thin. Statistics show that most anorexics are young women. Only 10% of all anorexics are men. The deteriorating image of women are symbolic of the influence that mass media can have.