Better Representation!

Representation in Media

 Representation in media has been an ongoing problem since the beginning, but recently the unfairness and stereotypes portrayed in the media has been brought to light more due to this period of wide access to media. 

It's no surprise that things such as gender and race are used as marketing tactics and are often taken advantage of in order to benefit the producer. Often times women will be degraded and shown in ways that are much more provocative than how a man would be portrayed. For example, in magazines and on the covers women will be showing much more skin and introduced in a more scandalous way, either by the facial expressions they are making or by the color they are wearing; but, if we look at the way men are broadcasted on magazine covers we see a much different approach taken, the man will often times be fully clothed and dressed in something much more professional. Not only is gender an issue when it comes to these marketing strategies but race and ethnicity as well. People of color and ethnic backgrounds are often overlooked in advertisements and are not equally represented in the media as a typical white person would be, without this representation it is unfair to them. 

 This is a magazine cover of women, showing almost her full body in the nude, versus a male magazine cover showing him dressed in a nice suit.

This could have detrimental effects on the consumers of this media because often times the one looking at these magazine of women and watching these stereotypical advertisements, are young, impressionable, teen girls. In the commercial for Tide the target audience is clearly women, they demonstrate this by focusing on a mother, who stereotypically loves pink, having to deal with her 'troublesome' daughter who likes to wear camouflage. The ad is clearly geared towards moms because they believe that those are the biggest market for their product, and they are most likely correct; however, this could negatively effect young girls watching these advertisements and cause them to think it's not okay for them to like other colors besides pink, because it may not seem "feminine". The other example commercial shown was one for Axe body spray-the message from this advertisement was basically, if your a guy who wears their body spray, then you are going to get a lot of girls. They portray this message by broadcasting a bunch of half-naked girls all running towards a guy, fully clothed, because he is simply wearing the body spray. This does apply to their target audience, men, but still nonetheless creates a misogynistic, unrealistic tone between men and women.

Although advertisements and media marketing has progressed and come a long way, there are still many aspects to it that are unfair but are still made in order to sell the product and pull in consumers. It is up to the people and target audience to recognize these faults in the media and work hard to correct them and gain equality and a better understanding.