How does the Media Influence Perception of the Female Representation Essay

How does the Media Influence Perception of the Female Representation - Essay ExampleGone are the geezerhood when cup of tea lay in the eye of the beholder, and a well-proportioned body was a thing of beauty and object of admiration. But, then, we live in a consumer, if not a consumerist, society where consumption means the get and physical exercise of goods, leisure activities and services. (Jagger. 2000). Though some writers (Schama. 1987) trace consumerism to the 17th century Netherlands, others (Ewen. 1976 Susman. 1982) emphasise that it was not until the years between the First and the Second World Wars in the USA and Britain that consumer culture became fully established.The subtle patternEven today one hears it said the world over that consumer is king, or the fagot as the case may be, and the insidious brainwashing of the king or the queen by the media at the instance of advertisers has left the queen with no volition. She dances to the tunes of the media, the tunes ca lled by advertisers who pay the piper. Consumer society develops an increasing study to shop, meaning that individual consumers are increasingly finding the definition of themselves within commodities which can develop a feeling of high or low esteem if they do not have the new car, handbag, or pair of shoes presented as the new ideal. (Marcuse 1964).Shakespeare may have had his own reasons for saying in one of his plays that good wine needs no bush(As You Like It), but in todays world advertising rules the roost and helps what amounts really to commodification of the consumer. After all, they have come to count on themselves in terms of the commodities and goods that they purchase and possess. Advertisers sell the ideal image that most people long for but not all of whom can achieve. That ideal, of its very nature, is unattainable, a mirage that one keeps chasing all ones life, is not allowed to be realised in the palaver of the media.Those who buy the advertised products are mad e to image that they are acquire the resultant image. Thus, advertising claims to sell a lifestyle through the wares it hawks. Commodities are consumed not only for their use value but also for their sign value (Jagger 2000). That means commodities are bought also for what they signify (p.47) because emblematic consumption is fundamental to the process by which modern individuals create and display their identities.Nature defiedSimilarly, ones appearance does have a bun in the oven personhood (Judith Andre. 1994. p. 21). It expresses ones choice, ones values, and ones taste and thus, possibly, ones identity. Thus, what was once considered immutable and the work of Nature is being reworked. For consumer culture to flourish, not only do new images have to keep being created, but consumers need to have reasons for keeping on buying. The reason, Jagger argues, is the desire for the sign, not the commodity itself. In other words, it is not the intrinsic worth or utility of a commodit y that influences that judgment of consumers but its appearance.Above all, the tendency to keep up with the Joneses, the need to be seen having what everyone wants, forgetting that the ideal is unattainable, combine to help advertisers put consumers into a straitjacket. An obvious example is the television programme MTV Cribs where the rich and the far-famed show viewers around their homes, and, in the process, show what is most likely something they will never have. However, it is something viewers will continue to