Media Representation of Women

"Women's magazines of the 1950s and 1960s were 'crammed full of food, clothing, cosmetics, furniture, and the physical bodies of young women' , with limiting portrayals of women as mothers, housewives, and sex objects. The representation of these "happy housewife heroines" had replaced the "spirited career girls" of the 1930s and 1940s" (MODELING WORK: Occupational Messages in Seventeen Magazine, Kelley Masson).

It seems that nowadays women seem to sit back and wait for a "Prince Charming" to come and sweep them off of their feet. Is this the way we where raised? If were to ask my eight year old cousin what she wants to be when she grows up she will answer "a princess." How can this be a normal response to a question about a future career.

Disney movies put this idea in our head when we were children. We learned that men will rescue us from our normal lives, and take us to a better place. Now, chick flicks tend to further cultivate this idea. Women are fully capable of relying on themselves. Yet the media consistently drives in the point that the man is the protector, the superior.

I was recently asked the question "can men and women become equal". At that point I had answered that I didn't think that our society has the capability to achieve equality until the men make changes to their thoughts. However, after more consideration I believe that it is not until we stop teach out children (both boys and girls) or the damsel in distress that we can reach a more equal state. As of now the men rule the world. They believe that this is the job of the males as the masculine figure. It has been that way through out history and it will continue to be this way until media changes the messages that it produces.