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When some people think of women they automatically think that, as a woman, they are meant to stay in the household and do work at home. In media, and more specifically advertisements and commercials, stereotypes are imposed about females, but the one that is very common is the one about the household and doing things like cleaning and cooking. People do not see the other side of things, because there are women who are not always at home and work. I think that when society says that women are supposed to do housework and cook, it is untrue.

When looking at advertisements and commercials, if people look very carefully, all the advertisements and commercials that relate to cooking or anything related to housework has a woman. And as said by Vaishali Shrikhande,

“Seventy-five percent of all advertisements using women were for products found in the kitchen or bathroom, reinforcing the stereotype that a woman’s place is in the home. Women as compared to men were portrayed mostly in house settings rather than business settings.”

This shows that most of the business settings are not by women because it is the men that take that place. Women are only on house settings because it is expected for a woman to be cleaning and cooking. This is reinforcing the stereotype because it shows how men should not be expected to clean.

As you can also see, in the video shown above most of the commercials show women cleaning and not men. It even showed a movie that children watch,Snow White. Snow white enforces how women are meant to be cleaning the house for men, because she is happily cleaning the house for the six dwarfs.

However, these stereotypes are not true, and one reason why they are not true is because there are women who don’t always stay at home and go to work. There are women who are famous inventors that impacted society positively, and thought about things other than cleaning and cooking. For example there is Mary Anderson, who invented the windshield. Without the windshield people would have a hard time driving in the rain. There is also women mechanics like Sarah “Bogi” Lateiner who decided to work in something women are not seen in. Like the CBS News video shown, there are women like Sarah who are deciding to change the stereotype of females. Sarah not only has a shop where she is a mechanic, but she also decides to hire mostly women so that they can work.

In relation to me, it is untrue because I do not plan on depending on a man and always being at a house cleaning, so I do not want to follow it. I have a future planned with a good career and a job. Connecting it to SMASH, I think that since there are women following stereotypes about having to be housewives, there is less than 25% females working in the STEM field.  I think that it is untrue because when a stereotype says that women are “supposed” to do something, then women would be like slaves. And I do not see  women as slaves and I see women having good careers and jobs.

In conclusion, even though there are women who are housewives, the stereotype that women are supposed to do housework and cook is not true. Women have the doors open to any other options like education and jobs.

 

 

Many companies today who use tall, slim, and flawless models in their advertising are causing teenagers to have a low body image, as studies show. When in reality, these models account for less than five percent of the population, and are an average of 117 pounds and5’11”, while the average female in America weighs approximately 130 pounds at 5’4”. Typing into Google or YouTube, “I don’t want to be skinny,” a large majority of the results is about how to lose weight or of women who have anorexic bodies, and barely anything about maintaining your weight. I would agree that the media does affect some people by causing them to have low self-esteem, but to impose these stereotypes on all women and girls is an offense. I admit there are times when I look in the mirror and scold myself, but not for the supposed reason the media throws at us.

Many studies report that teenage girls are being affected in a negative way by models in advertisements trying to convince them to buy their products in order to be “beautiful”. In a teen self-esteem survey at least 75% of girls have reported “depression, cutting, drinking, smoking” and engaging in other activities including eating incorrectly. When questioned why, the majority of the girls answered that they felt ugly, and wanted to be as ugly as they felt. What happened to what the minority of the girls said?

There are times when I am affected by the media, but my side of the story—to my knowledge—has never been told to the public. The goals companies have set—to tell you this is what you want, you want to look like this, without our product you will never be this or that—to make you buy their products, is often not successful. Nevertheless, many different companies manage to succeed in hurting a girls body image. But one statistic has never been studied, except only to say that women—who say they are not affected—are lying or in denial.

Generally, I feel that the media does not greatly affect my body image, since I have never wanted to wear make up, become skinny, or wear bikini’s on the beach while enjoying a cheeseburger. I accept that I am average, and in fact am grateful for it. The experiences I have had in my past never made me want to be a “typical female.” In my very own personal experiences, many girls I do know in fact oppose the idea of being the “five percent”. Even celebrities—such as famous singer and musician Adele—oppose the idea of ever being skinny.

Adele addressed her weight to Karl Lagerfeld saying, “I’ve never wanted to look like models on the cover of magazines. I represent the majority women and I’m very proud of that.” And, “I’d lose weight if I was an actress and had to play a role where you’re supposed to be 40 pounds lighter, but weight has nothing to do with my career. Even when I was signing [a contract], most of the industry knew if anyone ever dared say [lose weight] to me, they wouldn’t be working with me.”

 

Stereotypes about women being insecure about their weight are not true simply because it is a majority of the population.  “Studies show” does not necessarily mean that they apply to all those who “fit” that category. Not all Asians are smart, not all Blacks are criminals, not all men are the same, and not all women are insecure about how they look. It’s those differences that should bring us together and tell the world: “This is who I am, and I won’t let anyone change that.”

         Not all black people eat fried chicken, watermelon, and drink Kool Aid. Not all black people listen to gangster rap and cuss out their teachers.There are respectable black young men and women who appreciate their elders, eat healthy, and most of all know when enough is enough.

         When I walk around and people take a look at me I am immediately categorized into a group of people who seem to lack anyone’s trust or even respect. This society has grouped all dark-skinned and light-skinned people into people who don’t know anything and don’t want to know anything.

Black teen girls have been stereotyped harshly on television, at school, and even in their group of friends. In March, TV show host Wendy Williams told Sherri Shepherd how the network made  her  “act like a black girl.”  Acting like a black girl has been portrayed  to being loud mouthed and have a gaping laugh. Our first lady Michelle Obama stated that she was tired of being seen as an angry black women. This culture of the black woman is based on fantasies created by very ill people ( James Baldwin).

During the 20th and 21st century all types of media have been the primary source of obtaining all information. Many black girls don’t care what they’re seen as because it has been shown for so long we don’t even know when it’s happening. Studies such as the 1992 American Association of University Women survey of teenage girls showed that black girls didn’t have such a drastic drop of self-esteem as white and latino girls. This strength of letting roll of our shoulders has come from years and years of ignoring.

The pattern of degrading black people started during slavery in order for the masters to not have any sympathy for their slaves. So not providing education made black people illiterate which left the correct english and grammar to the slave owners. Slavery happened  so long ago but,  many caucasian people still believe it  goes on today. These many stereotypes goes to show how many  unknowledgeable people are and their minds are still 70 years in the past.

Black women, girls, and children have their place in the world and its not the way most of society views us in today. Being ‘ghetto’ is the number one stereotype and I think it doesn’t pertain to me in any way. I know how to handle myself in a situation and eat tofu on a daily basis. So these so-called stereotypes have been worn out and are getting old. I think its time we cut the barrier and realize we’re all the same.

Media is a powerful instrument that has the power to break even the strongest bonds of trust between humans. Sex, drugs, alcohol, and out of control riots are the fuel that feed the ugly beast of a stereotype that is imprinted on nearly every teenager. Shows and movies like Skins, The Secret Life of the American Teenager give the wrong idea to parents and adults around the world by portraying that teenagers are untrustworthy, irresponsible, and reckless. However, not all teenagers are like this and it brands all of us, regardless whether you are or not participating in said events (doing drugs, drinking, and having sex). This makes it unfair to those who don’t do these things because then parents may not let them go out with friends out of fear and due to the fact that they have seen what other teenagers are doing in shows that really only relate to a small portion of the total teenage population.

Teens are branded and judged by their parents by what they see on the television. For example in the trailer for the show Skins, we see a group of teens walk into a house party where there is a high amount of alcohol and some people that are clearly on some sort of drugs. If a parent were to see this commercial they would be struck by fear that their child goes out and also does these things. This breaks the trust bond between the teen and parent and also creates a stereotype around the teenager that whenever we go out, we go out to get drunk or high. Now I am not saying that all teenagers are completely clean because that would be a lie, for I know a large percentage of kids at my school that do use drugs or drink, however according to a study 40.2 percent said they had used marijuana, and one might think, “Wow that is a huge percentage of kids that are doing this!” However, you don’t look at the other 49.8 percent that have never touched drugs in their lives. They are subjugated to the stereotype that all teenagers get high and party. I cannot stress enough that this is not true.

The movie Project X also supports that all teenagers are crazy partiers and wrongdoers by showing the teens having a huge house party and turning into a riot and eventually destroying the entire neighborhood of the teenager who hosts the party. The media again brands us as crazy teenagers who only wish to cause destruction. When my mom saw the trailer for this movie, I could see the discomfort in her eyes and I knew that she was beginning to gather suspicions about what I was doing when I went to go hang out with my friends. This simple trailer that only lasted about 45 seconds had already successfully damaged the trust that my mom and I had. After seeing this trailer she began to question me more about who I was with, where I was going, and what I was doing. I was doing nothing wrong, but a simple piece of media framed me in the eyes of my mom and forced on the stereotype that I was doing illegal things with my friends just because we are teenagers. It is not wrong for parents to question what their kids are up to when they go out with friends, but in my point of view, this questioning should not be brought into action just because of a piece of media that is completely irrelevant to the teen’s life.

  Another stereotype that is put upon teens is that we are all sexually active. A study showed that only 3 out of 10 teens are sexually active. Visual media also brings on this stereotype, specifically by the show “Secret Life of an American Teenager”. The show is about a teenager girl who gets pregnant and has to go through high school dealing with the social pressure from her peers and the pressure from her parents. Nearly all of the characters in the show are sexually active, which provokes the idea that all teens are sexually active which is untrue. Obviously to most parents being sexually active is frowned upon due to the risks of pregnancy at such a young age. This again brings more suspicions and unnecessary questions about whom you are hanging out with, especially if it is someone of the opposite sex. Again, it is not wrong for parents to ask these questions, but it is wrong if they are asking these questions out of fear that their teens is partaking in these actions completely based off of a television show that has several sexually active teens in it.

Society has inappropriately punished teens with the stereotype that we are all crazy party animals, we use an assortment of drugs, and we are all sexually active. Sure, teenagers are always looking for a way to have fun, but not all of us resort to partying, drugs or sex. Society should not be focused so much on the few teens that are sexually active, or using drugs, but instead try and open their eyes to how many teens aren’t doing these things. In the end it is up to us the teenagers to try and change the mindset of society and hopefully end the unfair and untrue stereotypes that revolve and torment us everyday.