The Ruin of Society

Influential types of media are creating a generation of mislead, unintelligent young boys and girls through representations of female body images, giving bad stereotypes, and by promoting violent behaviours. Our society has to do something to change the ever increasing stupidity in today's youths. If nothing is done to offset the effects of media, our society may turn into something much different and more dreadful than it already is.

Celebrities are infamous for tight buns, chiseled stomachs, and luscious breasts. They are perfect in every way. So no wonder "everyone" wants to be like them. These perfect female bodies are seen in almost every single television show, commercial and A list movie. Major role models of today's young girls are seen with these unattainable traits. It is because of this, that there are many problems with young boys and girls today. It seems that one main focus has arisen from recent media portrayals of women's figures; competition. Young girls today are competing with one another on their looks, and their boyfriend's looks. No more does society rate its people on intelligence; it rates citizens on their appearance. So how is media the culprit for this subtle crime? It is very simple really if you have ever sat in front of a television and actually watched a show targeted towards young teens. Example: America's Next Top Model. This is a show about a few "wannabe" runway models that compete against each other in various types of contests. The show features a crew of skinny, perfect bodied young girls who strive to have the best hair, makeup, skin tone, breast size, and lastly - stupidity. Tyra Banks, the host of the show has actually said to one of her models: A photographer won't like working with a smart model. The show is promoting being stupid for people to like you, and compare you to others using your good looks rather than intelligence. This show and many others like it are prime examples of what media is doing to our young children. Girls are starting to worry about their looks at younger ages, and boys are competing against one another to have the "hottest" girlfriend. People have suggested that television shows and magazines are only to entertain; not to affect a person's life greatly. A couple fairly recent studies have contradicted arguments that media is just for entertainment. These studies include Tiggemann and Pickering's connection between TV and body dissatisfaction. They "found that body dissatisfaction correlated positively with the total time female adolescents spent viewing soap operas on television" (Morrison, Todd, Rudolf, & Morrison, 2004). Another one of these studies was carried out by Levine, Smolak and Hayden who "observed that female adolescents who considered fashion magazines to be important sources of beauty and fitness information evidenced greater levels of body dissatisfaction than those who felt such magazines were not at all important" (Morrison, Todd, Rudolf, & Morrison, 2004). All this research is wonderful, but what does it have to do with the manufacturing of dumb little boys and girls?

A few different effects have been happening to young people. The first major affect has been on young boys. Television shows, commercials, and advertisements have been teaching young boys what to look for in a woman. Western society in particular has been teaching young boys that they should only care about a girl's body. This may be not easy to see right away, but a closer look into media might reveal how this is taught to young boys. Television case in point: Married with Children. The show is about a family of four, and their day to day lives. The show features a young girl, who is the extremely dumb blonde daughter. Every time she walks in view of the camera, there is an audience who hoots and hollers at her. The energy of this cheer increases depending on the amount of skin she shows off. What is this supposed to teach our young boys? Another problem with these perfect body images shown in the media, affects girls mostly. Since most types of media are visual, of course more emphasis is placed on making everything look more appealing. The problem with this is that some advertisements, and television shows go all-out. Some women shown in media are perfect. They have absolutely nothing wrong with them, and girls try to imitate them. Well, does it really matter if young girls try to be like these supermodel women? The answer is yes it does. Most of these women have had either plastic surgery to enhance certain body parts, or have been "touched up" in video editing software. It is creating a never-ending quest for young girls to make themselves look exactly like someone else. This body image idea is nothing new, Sociology has assumed a theory to it; Sociocultural Theory. It explains that women are dissatisfied with their physical appearance because: the thin body ideal that is being circulated in Western societies, a tendency for women to adopt a "body as object" rather than "body as process" orientation; and the "thin is good" assumption which emphasizes the rewards that are accrued by being attractive.

To explain further how media is creating this generation of unintelligent young people, we must explore more than just body image problems. There are also many stereotypes are demonstrated in different types of media. These stereotypes have degrading effects on mostly girls, but boys as well. Stereotype number one: pretty girls and unintelligent girls, and handsome men are rich. This stereotype trains both boys and girls about what to look for in the opposite sex. First off, and example from a type of media is the television show series: The Bachelor. The show is about a group of young women who are competing for the handsome and rich bachelor. In one of years the show was aired, the bachelor was not at all rich. The show just brought in some good-looking Joe from off the street. So how do the girls get picked to go through to the next round? The bachelor gets to pick who, and he always picks the prettiest, blondest, and most well-endowed woman in the lot. Many young viewers who watch this show end up thinking that this is the way life is. If you're a really pretty girl, or a really handsome man, the world will love you.

The second stereotype is that women are sexual objects, and men are "players". There were a few studies done about music videos and the amount of certain sexual activities found in each one. Two of these studies stood out. The first study found that "60.7% of videos on Black Entertainment Television (BET) were found to contain sexual content" (Ward, Hansbrough, & Walker, 2005). The second study said that their "analysis of videos from four channels reported that hip-hop videos contained more images of fondling, sexual dancing, and simulated intercourse" (Ward, Hansbrough, & Walker, 2005). This research only shows us that there were sexual activities being shown in music videos; a media type. The interesting fact about these hip-hop music videos is that they portray this exact stereotype noted above. Most of them show a horde of young beautiful women dancing and fondling the famous male hip-hop artist. This man is being depicted as a player of women. He can pick and choose as he pleases, and the women have no say in what activities go on. These women are shown as sex objects, and once used by the player, a new sex object comes along.

A third stereotype that media tends to teach young viewers, or rather; all viewers, is that material wealth is important. Everyone knows that money doesn't make you happy, or at least we all like to say money doesn't make us happy. The truth is that media; in its discrete ways, is teaching all of us that you need money, and you need many special items. News broadcasts are showing happy celebrities, wearing million dollar dresses and suits. They drive million dollar racecars, and live in giant mansions. Celebrities have it all and "it all" makes them really happy, doesn't it? Apparently it doesn't. One celebrity that stands out in particular is Brittney Spears. She has millions of dollars, a baby with the famous hip-hop rapper Kevin Federline, many expensive cars, and she lives in a massive house. Her life is perfect, except for the recent rumours going around the celebrity world that she's a drug addict. Obviously money and fame, and "it all" don't make Brittney Spears happy. If money doesn't make everyone happy, then why does media constantly tell us it does?

The connection between these three stereotypes and how the media is creating a misinformed, unintelligent group of young people is very evident. One main focus of these three stereotypes is they all have to do with personal appearance. All forms of media today are stressing a greater importance of personal appearance than personal intelligence. Years ago, the "superstars" of society were engineers and scientists. A man (since women were not allowed to go to school) was adored for his intelligence. His cleverness was what made women melt in his hands, not his handsome exterior. Through many years, movies, and television have transformed society's lust for intellectuals into lust for attractiveness.

A final argument backing up the statement that media creates mislead young boys and girls is that different forms of media are promoting violent behaviours. Violent behavior can be anything from the use of bad language to physical hitting. There was research done way back in 1985 about violence and what viewers thought about it. According to the research carried out by Gunter, "viewers' ratings of seriousness [were] related to four major factors: realism of setting, physical forms of the violence, degree of harm to victims, and physical setting of the violence" (Riddle, Eyal, Mahood, Potter, 2006). The study established that the more real the violence seemed, the higher the degree of seriousness the viewers thought it was. To relate this back to our topic, we extract from this research that violence on television is becoming ever more real-like, and that viewers are thinking it is actually real violence. We have to criticize some cartoons which are aired on television, and aimed directly at young kids. A few of the cartoons shown today which influence young kids to act more violently are: X-Men, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Batman, and Samurai Jack. All these cartoons show people being hurt, but are perfectly fine in the next episode. Even though these television shows are very entertaining to young children, there is one major downfall of them. These cartoons can "...remove/reduce (i.e., disinhibit) reservations that youth might have with regards to performing aggressive acts already in their repertoire. Thus, witnessing of Wile E. Coyote being blown to bits by dynamite has the potential to disinhibit unrelated acts of aggression in viewers, such as pushing, shoving, and hitting" (Kirsh, 2005). This simply means is that when young children see violent behaviours on television, they are more likely to act violently in their life. This doesn't necessarily make the next generation of teens less intelligent, but it does sway them down the wrong path into a more violent life. These small and subtle images of violence viewed when a person is younger, may increase chances of more extreme violent behaviour when they reach pre-adulthood.

There are many activist groups who are trying to ban violent television shows, but the makers of these shows have so far survived their bombardment of roasts. There are two sides to this argument, one side states that violence in the media creates violent youths. The other side says that violence in the media has nothing to do with violence in youths, and people have the ability to think for themselves. Society does not want to believe that different media types help promote violent behaviour in people. This problem is very real, and must be dealt with to lessen violent behaviour in people.

Media is a very influential organism. It comes in the form of television shows, commercials, video games, movies, and advertisements. Almost everyone in the world views some form of media at least once a day, and it affects all our lives greatly. As well, children; both boys and girls are easily influenced and manipulated. Grouping children (influential people) with media (major influencers) creates a huge problem. Media promotes violent behaviours, through violent cartoon television shows targeting young children. They affect greatly the behaviours in youths, and are leading them down a path of violence. As well as showing violence, media depicts many awful stereotypes. These stereotypes as a whole are creating children who are worried much more about their appearance than how well they do in school. When both girls and boys see a ridiculous perfect looking female body image, they assume that all girls are supposed to look like that. These children grow up with unrealistic views of what a real woman looks like. Through these three subjects, media creates youth that are extremely misled and very unintelligent compared to years ago.

References:

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