Being a Girl with Media Driving the Bus

Referring to radical feminism, I consider media’s role in “mediating identity,” from the position of patriarchal control.  Because so much of the information within media is “in the hands of male owners and producers,” (van Zoonen, 28), the mediated identity of girls is crafted to that which the patriarchal hegemonic discourse prefers the female to look, act, live, etc. 

To take a step away from pornography, there is the postfeminist issue of the ‘sexy body,’ (Gill, 137).  This sexy body as a source of identity goes back for me, as far as I can remember in various medias.  For visual media, such as television, magazine ads, and newspaper, and spans both young females and mature females.  For some, (I continue to date myself in this class), there is the youthful, spirited Alyssa Milano who continued into womanhood with an attractive, sexy self.  Although her clothing was a bit more wholesome in young television days, attention was placed on her figure, voluminous hair, and then other voluminous places on her body, as she grew older. 

Female television news anchors have historically reflected the fictitious Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) of Anchorman.  Similarly, female talk show hosts, guests on talk shows, and female children in commercials would have been considered attractive.  More modern depictions include the female cast of I Carly, or Hannah Montana.  These young and supposedly innocent females of Disney television programming should have been removed from a discourse supporting any form of sexiness, but also miss the mark, now adding the success of the character, Carly Shay, being sought after by a handsome young man, living successfully with her older brother sans parents, running a successful internet show, possessing a best friend, while still having a slim figure, thick black hair, and skin like that of the fairy tale Snow White.  So now, media has added to the female individualism additional pressures of career to the girl, as well as independence.  Media’s role in the girlhood identity has placed pressure on the girl to “do” girlhood in a particular way to be considered popular, and carries these pressures into womanhood, as those in focus within the media grow older in age.   Girls are now mediated are more super human than ever, doing it all, fitting the physical expectations of what male producers and directors think females should look and behave like.