Why is the representation of women so important?

The representation of women is important within the media. Within today's society, women are often represented as being only shown for their attractiveness, appearance and looks rather than who they are. Women are often objectified in order for this to look like a realistic representation. 

An example of this type of representation of women would be the 'blurred lines' music video by Robin Thicke. Within this music video, we see women walking around in little/no clothing (as there are two types of videos). This objectification is something that is seen commonly within the media and is therefore not seen as 'controversial'. The way that the women are represented within these videos and other media can shape/determine how an individual uses self representation in order to represent themselves as individuals. The self representation of these individuals can also link to the theorist Dyer who stated that 'how we are seen determines how we are treated, how we treat others is based on how we see them, how we see them comes from representation'. How women are represented can often lead to a change in how women as individuals treat themselves. It also can change the way men treat women. Men are more likely to treat women as sex objects if that is what they're seeing in the media. Those who are often in charge of the media we view as consumers are men. The term that can be used to describe this would be 'male gaze'. This is where the middle aged men create media purely for the entertainment of the male audience. The theorist Gerbner said that media was a 'drip drip' process which meant that the process was slow and more accumulative compared to being immediate. Due to the fact that women have been represented as sex objects for a long period of time, the representation is dominant ideology - as it is seen as normal within today's society and therefore the majority of people accept it.

In the media, people simply see the connotation of women as wearing little clothing and wearing make-up. The denotation that both men and women take from that connotation is the fact that this is how women should dress and look like - which in turn affects the way women represent themselves (self representation). If women see these media products and think that is how they have to look/behave then they are likely to try and change in order to be like these women that are in the media. This affects women's self confidence and changes the way they view themselves as women. This is when low self esteem and confidence comes into play as they feel like they cannot and will never be able to look like these women who're in the media (which are few and far between).

Although the way in which women represented in the media isn't 100% real, it allows for the young audience to have people to look up too. This helps them with self-representation as they know what they want to be and what they want to look like. This is important for the younger audience as it gives them direction and a path onto becoming similar to the women represented in today's media. The representation of media is so important in today's society as it allows for the representation to be accepted or challenged. Giving people the ability to comment or react to the media helps to build self-representation. For example, when blurred lines was released, a parody was created by three girls who decided to go against the way in which women were portrayed in the video by swapping roles with the male characters - thus making the men the sex objects rather than the women. This demonstrates that the representation of women is important purely for the fact that it can be challenged by people who don't agree with it. This is a small ideology and therefore the minority of people do not agree with how the women are represented in 'Blurred Lines'. Due to the fact that the producers of the media are male, the representation of women is created purely for the male gaze. This means that the idea that women are sex objects and just there for objectification is that of a dominant ideology as the producers get the say in what goes into the media on a daily basis. 

Overall, the representation of women is important when it comes to self-representation of women themselves and how people accept/challenge the dominant ideology that is the representation of women in media.