How The Media Consistently Fails Women
- Ingrid Sampson
- Feb 13, 2021
- 4 min read
This week, the New York Times released the jaw-dropping documentary, "Framing Britney Spears," which dives into the relentless backlash she has faced throughout her career and the details of her court-sanctioned conservatorship. The film shows exactly how the media's negative depiction of a young woman growing up in the spotlight messed with her mental health to the point of no return.
A 2003 interview was featured in the documentary and is now also resurfacing on social media for the way journalist Diane Sawyer treated Spears. To begin, Sawyer brings up Spears' ex, Justin Timberlake, and interrogates Spears on what she did to him to, "...cause him so much pain, so much suffering." There are many issues with this question. First of all, Spears was clearly deeply affected by the breakup as well, so much so that she asked to take a break from the interview when his name had been brought up earlier. Secondly, the public and the media trusted Timberlake's opinion over Spears', and let him smear her name and even used that rumor to promote his new album at the time. So, while Spears was being torn apart about the subject and losing supporters, Timberlake was making money and gaining popularity.
Later in the interview, Sawyer shows a clip of Kendel Erlich, former Maryland first lady, saying, "Really, if I had an opportunity to shoot Britney Spears, I think I would,” for being a "bad influence" on the children. Not only is that a terrifying and disgusting thing to say, but Sawyer then goes on to agree with Erlich and say, "...how hard it is to be a parent." This highlights the impossible double standard between male and female celebrities. Female celebrities, among countless other things, are expected to be role models to the children of the world, stay skinny and beautiful, and accept the abuse they often face at the hands of the media. Male celebrities, on the other hand, have almost no expectation to behave or look a certain way and are allowed to stand up for themselves without being labeled "bitches." Timberlake is a great example; he faced no real consequences for physically exposing Janet Jackson at the Super Bowl in 2004, while her career never really recovered from something that was HIS fault.
The list of female celebrities who have been similarly failed by the media is alarmingly long: Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, Megan Thee Stallion, Serena Williams, Demi Lovato, Ke$ha, Gabby Douglas, Whitney Houston, Lindsay Lohan, Amanda Bynes, Megan Fox, Amy Winehouse, Princess Diana, Beyoncé, just to name a few. The common thread is that women are generally criticized for every aspect of who they are, from their bodies and whether they're too fat, too skinny, too muscular, not muscular enough, all the way to their demeanor, expecting them to smile and never show anger or other "unladylike" behaviors. The latter expectation is especially prevalent toward Black women, who are so often categorized into the "angry Black woman" stereotype in situations where they have every right to be upset. For example, Serena Williams was penalized in a 2018 Grand Slam tournament for expressing her anger toward an umpire accusing her of taking signals from her coach, which caused her to break a racket. That cost her a point, she called him a thief in return, and he ended up taking a whole game away from her as punishment. This all came after Williams had just given birth, during which she almost died (another serious issue that Black women face at higher rates than anyone else), and was still getting back into the swing of things. Now compare that to the media's depiction of tennis player John McEnroe, who had severe anger management issues, but was applauded and basically built a career and persona off of being cruel and mad.
Just take a look at how differently their anger is treated in headlines:
Epic vs. embarrassing.
Here's how the media comes into play with perpetuating these expectations of women: by writing articles about and publishing images of women at their worst, comparing their looks to other women, criticizing their bodies, minimizing them to only their clothing or appearance, prodding at their sex lives, attacking them for speaking out, and forcing sexualization on them, women are treated as nothing more than empty bodies and entertainment for the public to tear apart. And of course the media attacks male celebrities too, but it's never in the same way. A broader issue here may be how the media profits off of tearing people apart in general, but female celebrities are subject to the majority of the attacks. For example, take a look at these instances of body shaming against female celebrities:
And these instances of extreme sexism female celebrities often face in interviews:
It's time that the media stops treating female celebrities as objects and starts treating them the same way they treat male celebrities–recognizing them for their talents, intelligence, philanthropy, humor, personalities, and countless other traits more valuable than just their looks. And of course it's not inherently sexist to comment on a woman's appearance–especially on a red carpet–but women have so much more to offer and it's time that the media catches up.
image source:
Comments