1. Media Influences on Gender Roles in Adolescence
By: Emily Purifoy
We Have to Understand Media if we want to Understand Society

2. Pre-Adolescence
More recently the pressure to be thin and beautiful is at an all time high. Pre-Adolescent children ages 8-11 are found to be experiencing body dissatisfaction.
There is even little evidence present that girls as young as ages 4-5 struggling with body image
Female characters in Rated-G films have females wearing very similar sexualized clothing as compared to Rated-R films.
disney-clipart.com
disney-clipart.com
littlemermaid.wikia.com

3. Beginning of Adolescence
When we enter adolescence we strive for a sense of AUTONOMY or independence from our parents and becoming our own individual.
During this time, we turn further away from our parents/guardians. They are often found turning to the media to help them deal with issues associated with their changing bodies and identities.
One of the main reasons for this increase is adolescence desire to spend more time alone, usually in a bedroom where media is the only source of entertainment.
Around 50% of adolescence have personal TV sets in their bedrooms.

4. Beginning of Adol, Cont.
One of media most subtle goals is to make you feel not good enough. Constantly the same stereotypical males and females are shown in ads, TV shows, movies and magazines.
There are always ads advertising the latest diets, work out crazes and weight loss supplements.
Adolescence are constantly bombarded with the reminder that you can always lose weight and be more fit.

5. “Several authors have identified the mass media as the most powerful conveyor of socio-cultural ideals. Not only do the media repeatedly present images of an unrealistically thin ideal, but they also provide information on ways to accomplish this. A number of studies of women and adolescent girls have reported positive relationships between television viewing and magazine exposure with weight concerns and eating disorder symptomatology... As content analyses of music videos reveal high levels of sex-role stereotyping emphasis on the physical appearance of women, who are usually presented as thin and attractive and often provocatively dressed it is not surprising that these are associated with an increased awareness of dieting and the thin ideal” (Dohnt, H. Tiggemann, M )

6. noragouma.com
The Trick…
extratv.com
Media focuses on using hyper-thin, unrealistic models to promote products and promote being thin. However it is a thin that is nearly unattainable.

7. Body Image in Adolescence
45.6% of high school students were trying to lose weight
There has been much more emphasis on the females desire to lose weight than it has with the male population
61.7% of females and 29.9% of males have been reported wanting to lose weight

8. Body Image Con.
During adolescence, we become much more aware of our bodies. In general, adolescent females are more likely to want to be thin and lose weight over male adolescence. They are also more inclined to feeling more negativity towards their body image, participate in diets and develop eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia. While in contrast, the males will focus on building muscles. They often do not experience body dissatisfaction, they just hold a desire to look and feel stronger; to conform to the masculine male steryotype.

9. Males vs. Females On Body Dissatisfaction
Anorexia Nervosa
Muscle Dysmorphia
This occurs when a female looks in the mirror and sees herself as over weight and undesirable, no matter how healthy or close to the proper weight she may be.
This occurs when a male looks in the mirror and sees himself as puny and frail, no matter how strong and muscular they may actually be.

10. Distorted Self Image forum.bodybuilding.com
teenscanchangetheworld.blogspot.com

11. Media Influences
Media almost always objectifies women when advertising. Women are taught at a very young age that the base of their worth is how attractive they are. Men have been raised to believe the same. Men are seen as the superior being, all these advertisements usually catch the eye of men more than women

12. Gender Roles
With males, it is enforced that you have to be masculine all the time. You can’t cry, or show any emotion. You have to bottle it up and be the strong one. The leader, the one who provides for his family. If you cannot prove that you can do all of these things, you are considered “less of a man”. Which all men are ever told growing up, it to just simply be a man.
With females, it is all based on looks. It always has been and hopefully won’t always be that way. Females have to be thin, and attractive and the caregiver who cleans and makes food. Females are seen as over-emotional and not able to handle themselves in the workplace.

13. Gender Roles, Cont. Miss Representation The Mask You Live In

14. The Catch…
Due to the fact that women are usually seen as “over-emotional”, it usually keeps them from obtaining high ranking and influential jobs. Those are all for men; the “powerful” and jobs only a “leader” should obtain.
In most Media Businesses for more often than not there is 1 female for every 16 males.
So the media is run by men.
The media proclaims that they are giving us what we want. When, it is really what men want.
Just think for a moment, if there were more women involved in media, don’t you think they would try to change the direction of advertising away from the objectification of women?

15. The Average American Teenager Spends
-31 Hours Watching TV
-10 Hours on the Internet
-4 Hours Reading Magazines
-3 Hours Watching Movies
-17 Hours Listening to Music
Per Week

16. That Totals to 10 Hours and 45 Minutes Per Day Devoted to Media
In contrast, some studies show that children as young as 2 years old are exposed to about 6 hours of television a day.

17. Works Cited
Ata, R. Ludden, A. Lally, M. (2007) The Effects of Gender and Family, Friend, and Media Influences on Eating Behaviors and Body Image During Adolescence. New York: Journal of Youth and Adolescence.
Dohnt, H. Tiggemann, M. (2006) Body Image Concerns in Young Girls: The Role of Peers and Media Prior to Adolescence. New York: Journal of Youth and Adolescence.
Gilesa, D. Maltby, J. (2004) The role of media figures in adolescent development: relations between autonomy, attachment, and interest in celebrities. Leicester , UK: Elsevier B.V.
Newsom, J. (2011). Miss Representation [Documentary]. Virgil Films.