Media Biases

            Media biases can target anyone because of their ethnicity, religion, or ideology but what people do not seem to notice as often is the underlaying biases against women circulating and controlling almost all news networks and distributers. Sex sells so networks use it to their advantage, but when women do not fit into their conformities it seems their only way of dealing with it is to put them down and undermine their accomplishments. This is especially true when you look at how female politicians are treated by the media.

Weather Woman

          American's view 10 hours of media on average every week. That is a lot of time spent absorbing what the media puts out there and accepting it. First look at the women reporting the news and setting the standards on how people should look and how they should be viewed. Many shows and advertisers portray women as something to be looked at and not to be listened to. Everyone has heard the cliche that men are always objectifying women but now a new epidemic is arising described as "self-objectification" by Caroline Heldman, PhD. She goes on to say that this likely leads to depression and possibly lower ambitions. Maybe this could be the explanation for obvious differences in the numbers between male and female politicians. Even though women make up 51% of the US population there are only 17% of women in congress. 2010 was the first time that  women have not made significant gains since 1979. 67 countries have had female presidents or prime ministers but the US has had none. Not only have we not had female presidents, only 35 women have ever served as governors compared to the 2,319 men that have served. Americans often dodge the embarrassing fact that Cuba, China, and Iraq have had more female politicians than the US.

Hillary

Sarah

      There are two female politicians that stand out and they both received very different but equally harsh treatments by the media. " The bitch and the ditz." Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin. Clinton was always seen as the bitter wife of former president Bill Clinton that could never get over the affair and since has gone power crazy and insane. Even though she is a highly successful senator and a strong leader she is always referred to as Mrs. Clinton instead of her full title and she is even represented by annoying verbs by the press. It can be seen often that she complained this or nagged about this while men in the same position stated this and demanded that. The media is just setting her up to be hated. Sarah Palin on the other hand was just seen as another pretty face just looking for attention. Instead of the oval office she got a reality tv show and was featured on food network. She could never get past the aesthetics of how she was being represented and instead of getting slammed she just became the mom from Alaska. She said often that while being interviews they would place props around her like pitchers of lemonade and little cookies. Both women never had a chance of getting in because of how they were portrayed. Neither could be seen as strong women ready for power.

         "Get women in the oval office.... what's the downside?"    " Besides PMS and mood swings?" These types if jokes could go on and on butI think they are a good way to prove how people feel about women as leaders. Condoleezza Rice thinks America is not ready for female leaders because men need to maintain their masculinity. Rice herself has fallen prey to the media. She was often called a dominatrix because of how she held herself and was not willing to let herself get placed in the sex objects side of the media. Dr. Heldman thinks that politics is and will be considered a masculine job for a long time.

Miss Representation

Political Cartoon