what do women want—to read, to see, to hear...
by sandi tomlin-sutker

Women are not a monolithic group, for sure. We not only come in all sizes, shapes, colors and ages, but all political leanings and cultural backgrounds as well.

So, in researching this article on what women want from the media, I found just about everything. Yet there are unifying themes: women want respect—for their intelligence, curiosity and diversity; they want choices, empowerment, and input into what the mass media offers; they especially are tired of demeaning, abusive images that may perpetuate violence and disdain for girls and women.

We’ve all experienced it: standing in line at the grocery checkout, magazines bombarding us with too many breasts, belly-buttons, air-brushed, flawless-skinned movie stars, and perfectly coifed heads of hair no one can achieve on the average income. I cringe when my five-year-old granddaughter is with me, trying to distract her from those images that may lead her to question her own beauty, images that promote a hyper-sexualized version of femininity that seems dangerous and constraining. If you think I’m over zealous, here’s a statistic for you: “The average girl or boy spends approximately 6.5 hours per day being exposed to and interacting with various media—TV, videotapes, videogames, Internet, etc.” (Source: Kids and Media at the New Millennium: A Comprehensive National Analysis of Children’s Media Use: Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Report 1999.) How much of that exposure is negative? How many hours per day do children and teens spend interacting in meaningful ways with positive images that build a strong sense of self and strong personal values?

Who buys these magazines? And why? Is this what women truly want? What about movies and television? Why are there so few roles for the Kathy Bateses or even actresses who once fit the glamorous female stereotype but who have now passed beyond “a certain age”? And how can we, as consumers of all this media attention, change things so that we truly can get what we want?

There have always been isolated protests against these images and against the lack of substance in women’s media. I remember the early, heady days of Ms magazine as they attempted to publish a magazine that did show a respect for women’s intelligence and diverse interests at the same time trying to find enough advertisers to support that shift in a mass media publication. But commercial magazines (and movies and TV programs) depend in large part on advertising to keep the doors open. A recent meeting in New York City of the heads of the major mass-market women’s magazines gives some insight into the dilemmas they face. “What all these publications aim to do…is to tap into a spirit stirring the new millennium – a trend more spiritual, a fascination with the interior lives of real people, and a hunger for more substance in daily living.”

News editor of Real Simple, Lesley Alderman, believes women are searching for more satisfaction in their daily lives: they still want to organize their closets, cook a memorable meal and dress well on an often inadequate budget…but those things are only means to an end. That end, studies show, is more fulfillment, more joy, more spiritual meaning, more time for richer relationships. Yet advertising dollars still drive the editorial content of these magazines, movies and television shows to a large extent. And those advertisers seem to cling to the old images—the known quantities—while enough women buy those magazines, watch those shows and consume their products to keep the media machine going. A case in point about online sites for women: “The reality is that the bread and butter of page views comes from sex and horoscopes—it’s the dirty little secret of any woman’s site that that’s where the traffic is,” says a former Women.com editor.

Personal change is often slow; cultural change even more so. I remember in the 1970s saying to a friend that the changes being wrought by the feminist movement would certainly take a full generation—twenty years. Thirty years later, I realize my naïvete! Change is clearly not linear, doesn’t only go forward, but loops back and spirals around, swings left, swings right and comes back to center, then just when we despair that no ground was gained, something shifts, gains momentum and a new cycle begins.

There are some strong signs that change is gaining ground. Magazines like O are still full of ads and articles about beauty. But recently they are focusing more on what real beauty is—expressiveness and inner character—even discouraging women from going out to get Botox injections. One editor said she’d still do a spread on lipstick, but talk more about why we wear it, what it represents to us.

And look at the incredible array of offerings in bookstores and the web that are anything but reinforcing of the old limitations for women.

allyoucanread.com/index.asp?idCat=20 lists the websites of 59 women’s magazines, from A Woman’ View, Bitch, Bust, Financial Woman Today, Latina Style, Ms., Nervy Girl, to Women’s Monthly and Zenith. The Christian Science Monitor has a rich world news site, Women Making History Today, with stories in categories such as sports, politics, work and self-image.

Why is it so important that these changes take place? Isn’t it simply a matter of choice? Doesn’t the mass media reflect the desires of the mainstream population? Or is the sheer volume and type of images deeply hypnotic, constraining our true ability to choose? For a thorough understanding of how images of women (and of men) in the media effect our sense of self, see Brave Dames and Wimpettes; What Women are Really Doing on Page and Screen (Susan Isaacs, 1999); Where the Girls Are; Growing Up Female with the Mass Media (Susan J. Douglas, 1994); Popcorn Venus; Women, Movies and the American Dream (Marjorie Rosen, 1973); A Place in the News (Kay Mills, 1990); Can’t Buy My Love: Why Women and Girls Must Fight the Addictive Power of Advertising (Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D., 2000); and finally, Understanding Media (Marshall McCluhan, 1964)—the classic book which many believe was the beginning of the media literacy movement in the United States.

And again, online, I found two sites that are powerful tools to change what the media offers us as entertainment and how advertisers portray women and girls (and men and boys) to sell products. About-face.org is a San Francisco-based non-profit group that promotes positive self-esteem and combats negative, destructive images of women and girls in the media. Mediaandwomen.org is a resource for students, teachers, consumers, parents, mediamakers and businesses….and NOT for women only. Their non-profit project, Girls, Women + Media, aims to educate consumers about how media in pop culture effects women and girls and empower us all to advocate for the changes we want.

One thing is for sure: women want to read, they want to experience the rich emotions that good movies and books can evoke, they want to learn new skills, important facts.

According to one source, “Time, convenience, information, communication and community drive women’s needs.” If women are more and more mindful of the impact on themselves and those they love of images that empower vs images that detract, the Media that serve those needs will thrive—those that don’t, will fade away.

Sandi Tomlin-Sutker lives on Little Pine creek near Marshall in Madison County with husband, Sam; dog, Fitzgerald; and cat, Pesto, and whatever other country-dwelling critters come along (recently it was a racoon who sneaked in through the dog door for a snack of dog food!) When not hanging out at the creek or working on WNC Woman magazine, she works a bit at her shop on Lexington Avenue, The Natural Home.
[ naturalhomestore.com ] [ sandi@wnc-woman.com ]