How Does Women Affect Society

Modern day social norms are largely influenced and created by media because advertisement and television have permeated people’s lives pressuring their citizens to achieve perfection, misrepresent the public and exploit men and women. America runs on advertisement, in both economical and social aspects. Media companies will publish anything that sells, and a very common category is sex. Most companies and magazines exploit men and women’s bodies with the intention to get more consumers. While that idea may work, there is a subconscious message being addressed making people feel insecure and pressured to look flawless. Advertising uses emotions to sell products and sex is included in those emotions. Sex helps to promote jeans, perfumes, alcohol, watches, personal

This power hierarchy may support development of perceptions of women as appropriate targets for sexually aggressive behaviors” (Capella, Hill, Rapp, & Kees, 2010, p. 38). TV commercials depict the body language of women as passive, vulnerable, submissive, and very different from the body language of men. Men are depicted as strong, masculine, authoritative figures and are deemed more important. However, Tide, a Procter and Gamble laundry detergent, has taken its advertisement in a better direction, recently showing a clip where the leading male actor proudly proclaims “I’m a stay-at-home dad,” and later goes on to braid his daughter’s hair. By showing a man playing out typically “feminine” behaviors, Tide is promoting a more equal society. (Lantagne, Huffington Post) “Traditionally, women have been depicted as dependent on men and shown primarily in the domestic scenarios. In contrast, men have been shown in the workplace, and are portrayed as knowledgeable, powerful, and driven.” (Koernig & Granitz, 2006, p.