Portrayal of Women in the Media

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Women’s Portrayal in the Media Yesenia Acevedo ENG 122 English Composition II Prof. Jamie Cooper April 30, 2012 Women’s Portrayal in the Media Throughout the years women have been used to sell products in advertisements. What is considered to be the perfect woman throughout history has changed in so many ways. Since the 1890’s women have been used in advertisements. Being thin was considered to be the ideal image of a woman in the United States. In the early 1900’s, thinness was what was in style and to be considered a physically perfect woman, she had to be 5’4, 140 lbs. To fit into this perfect woman category, women started calorie counting and keeping track of their weight. Women wanted fuller breasts and a thin waist. As the years progressed the ideal size for a woman decreased. The new look for a woman required a very thin waist. In order for women to achieve this goal and become more attractive, they wore corsets, girdles, and punished themselves with extreme dieting. Then it evolved to women having a thin waist and fuller breast sizes. So they started wearing push up bras to increase their breast size. In the 1960’s a new model emerged that did not have to worry about exercising or dieting just to keep up with the thin models. She set a whole new standard to what was considered to be a skinny model. She weighed 89 pounds and stood at 5’6. This weight could not be achieved by most models and it started a dreadful trend where if they were not this thin they were considered to be fat (Media’s Portrayal of Women, 2010). Today, the advertising world promotes products to young girls using thin models influencing them that being thin is the only way to be. Fashion designer Ralph Lauren fired a female model because she was considered to be too fat because she wore a size 4. When these stories come about, this causes women to have problems with

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