Discuss how the media has influenced visions of female sexuality in Essay

Discuss how the media has influenced visions of female sexuality in the 21st century - Essay Example Over the years, women have worked hard to attain high levels of education and gain higher positions within the workforce ladder. However, a gender gap still exists even in these modern days where women’s goals and aspirations have been misrepresented. The media has played one of the greatest roles in this as it has conditioned the masses to believe that women’s success is based on their appearance and attractiveness (Gentile 2). Despite the fact that women work hard to earn these good jobs and vital roles in the society, they still feel the need to appear attractive in order to feel a real sense of success. The media through its advertisements and television programmes has only portrayed attractive women to be successful. As the young children grow assimilating these images in their minds, they can only combine women’s success and their appearances (Goh-Mah 2013). The media has created ideals of a perfect female body when presenting women throughout their broadcastings in the modern society. The media has programmed people to believe that tall, lean, and light skinned women are a symbol of beauty in the society. This has been emphasised by the fashion and entertainment industries, which are mostly viewed by the young generation. Advertisements have upheld and continued to portray this belief as they clearly depict a picture where a woman will enhance her appearance just to attract a man that she will get married to (Strohmeier 2013). These are marketing ploys to ensure that these companies sell numerous beauty products, shoes, clothes and other commodities. Youngsters do not understand this and they grow up already having a perception that model-like figures and accessories are symbols of beauty. This has led to the development of self-esteem issues among many people who don’t possess these features, therefore, taking some people to ex treme measures