There are many useful solutions to help fix the poor representation of women in the media and the impossible beauty standards these representations create. These solutions can be divided into two basic categories: actions people involved in the media can take to help change the status quo and things consumers can do to protect themselves from the harmful effects of viewing unrealistic portrayals of women in the media. It is important to approach this issue from all angles because it is so deeply ingrained in our culture, and will therefore be challenging to remedy. However with a combination of well thought through solutions and cooperation from both consumers and those involved in the media, we can move toward a better representation of women in the media and a healthier perspective on beauty.
The first set of solutions are actions that actresses, models, magazine editors, advertisers, and other people involved in the media can take to change how they represent women in the media. Actresses, models, and other women who are featured in the media can refuse to have their pictures altered or retouched. This will help show women who view the pictures that no one is perfect and it is okay to have flaws. Some media figures already do this, including Kate Winslet, who publically spoke out against airbrushing after GQ magazine printed a very slimmed down photo of her on its cover (Hassani). Publications and companies can refuse to release unrealistic, retouched images. The company Arie uses only untouched images, and Dove uses real women instead of models in their advertisements (Krupnick, “Dove”). These companies are moving in the right direction, but more need to follow in order to broaden society’s definition of beauty, particularly in other forms of media like music videos and television shows which still mainly show only one example of female beauty, one that is slender and stereotypically beautiful. The answer is not to showing stop images of thin women in the media, because naturally slender girls exist and need to know that their body type is accepted and beautiful. Women of many different body types and looks need to be added to these very limited examples to broaden the idea of what is considered beautiful. As Julia Wood writes, “The problem with censoring is that somebody decides what all of us can watch, hear, and see. Who has the right to make this decision for all of us? A better answer may be to demand that media offer us multiple, diverse images of women and men. Instead of banning what we don’t like, perhaps we work to enlarge the range of ways in which people and relationships are portrayed” (241). For widespread change to occur, more people involved in the media need to alter and add to the way they currently represent women.
Media consumers can also do their part to fight against the harmful effects of limited and unrealistic beauty ideals in the media. Boycotting companies that misrepresent women in the media they produce is one way that everyday women can fight back. For example, The Representation Project promotes the use of #NotBuyingIt on Twitter to call out companies whose advertisements, websites, or other media are harmful to women and encourage others to boycott these companies’ products (“People Worldwide”). This will encourage companies to change how they represent women in the media since they need to sell products to these consumers in order to be successful. Consumers can also help themselves be less vulnerable to the harmful effects of the media’s representation in the media by educating themselves and improving their media literacy. Learning the truth about the media is important because, “It has been shown that if a woman is able to recognize that standards that are valued by the media are unrealistic, she is likely to show a higher level of resilience to body image concerns” (Serdar). Information about how the media portrays women and the effects it can have needs to be more widely available online and given more coverage in the news. Media literacy should also be added to the curriculum in elementary schools so that young girls are better equipped to handle the media environment that surrounds them. If all of these solutions are widely implemented, we can create a healthier media environment and put an end the unattainable beauty standards that harm women today.