Portrayal of Women

So, I have just finished writing my final paper for Mass communication. I wrote about the portrayal of women in society, but to make it my own I used The Mary Tyler Moore show as an example.

The following is a blurb from my essay.......

In today’s society image is everything. More attractive people get treated with more respect than others. The media portrays the ideal women as tall, skinny, and beautiful. Anyone who doesn’t fit this category is unimportant or is thought less of. This portrayal of women has gotten worse over the years, and has lead to many women feeling insecure about themselves. “[Women] get the bends as [they] escape the schizophrenic landscape of Glamour or Vogue [in which] the fashion and beauty layouts insist that [they] be passive, anorexic spectacles whose only function is to attract men and who should spend [their] leisure time mastering the art of the pedicure” (Douglas 120). ..................

This portrayal of women has been going on for centuries. It has been displayed in thousands of movie and television shows. One of the shows it can be seen in is the 1970’s hit, The Mary Tyler Moore Show. It is displayed between two best friends, Mary and Rhoda. Mary is a young, thin successful woman, while her best friend, Rhoda, is average sized and is portrayed as sloppy and lower class. Mary lives a better life than Rhoda because her appearance matches the ideal women: tall, skinny, and pretty................

First, I’m going to start with their positioning in the scene. Mary is standing looking down on Rhoda. She can be compared to a mother. Mothers look down on their kids when they are in need or in trouble. They are always there to help their kids out. But they also have authority over them and can punish them when needed. Mary is looking down on Rhoda because she feels sorry for her. She feels she needs to listen and help Rhoda with her problems. Rhoda is sitting down looking up at Mary. We can compare her to a child looking up to their mother. A child is young and innocent and needs their mother for everything. They are much smaller than their mother, therefore they have to always look up to them. There are two meanings of why they look up to their mother. They look up to their mother when they need help or advice with something. For example, if they can’t reach something or they want something to eat; they go to their mother for help. They, also, look up to their mother as a role model. To them, their mother knows everything and they want to grow up to be just like them. So, Rhoda looking up to Mary symbolizes that Mary is like a mother figure to her. Mary helps her when she is in need and she is a role model for Rhoda. Rhoda is like a lost puppy in need of some guidance. Having Mary stand and Rhoda sit creates them both to be on different levels. Mary is higher, making here more dominant. While, Rhoda is lower, making her less important.
Both Mary and Rhoda are dressed completely different. Mary is dressed professionally in a nice work outfit and her hair is clean and nicely groomed. She looks like she is successful and has a job of high importance. She is confident and happy with herself and is ready to take on a new day. Rhoda is dressed in baggy old clothes and her hair is a mess. She is wearing a bandana on her head to hide some of the mess. She looks like she is poor and out of work. She is giving off the impression that she doesn’t care much about anything. She is unhappy with herself and wishes she could be like a certain someone. This certain someone is her best friend, Mary. The fact that Rhoda wants to be just like Mary explains why she is always looking up to her. When looking at the both of them most people would be more inclined to approach Mary instead of Rhoda. People judge others by the way they look, and are more inclined to talk to someone who is nicely dressed.
Now, I’m going to take away the image and just analyze the conversation between the two of them. Rhoda is complaining to Mary about how she lost her job and how she can’t find a new one. She is spilling out her problems to Mary and wants her advice. She wants Mary to help her find a new job. This is another example of how Mary is the mother and Rhoda is the child. A child expects their mother to do everything for them. When they need help they go to their mother thinking that they will make everything better. They automatically think that, that is what their mother is for. Rhoda is going to Mary and complaining about her problems. She needs help, so she expects Mary to help her. Mary is concerned about Rhoda and sympathizes with her. She is, in some way, like her mother and feels like she needs to help her. This gives Mary more authority over Rhoda...........

I feel strongly about this topic because I am a female and really don't like how we are being portrayed. The media is telling us that we're no good, if we're not a size "0." And we, keep seeing it on TV and movies. Millions of females are stressing about the way they look and developing eating disorders, so they can be as skinny as they can be. But, this is really unreasonable because female aren't a size "0." This is really stupid of people to think that only skinny people matter. Why can't everyone of different sizes be accepted? It's not like the bigger you are the less smart you are? Weight has absolutely nothing to due with how smart you are. And it should have nothing to do with the way people see you.

So, why is it that the main character is always the skinny beautiful women and never the average sized women? More people would be able to relate to the average sized women, than the skinny women. But, yet, they still always make the main character skinny. Why is this?