Media Watch

There has been a lot of negative press regarding women entertainers this year, whether it deals with their weight, authenticity of a pregnancy or music collaborations with former partners the overall climate in the media mirrors the control of women’s bodies and choices sentiment of our culture. But why do we feel the need to determine what is right or true concerning women in and out of the Entertainment business and what does this mean regarding women’s leadership or how we construct it? Eagly and Carli write about gendered stereotypes that limit women’s leadership and the strong emotions that arise from society’s’ construct of how a woman leader should act and the decisions she should make.

Take for example the singer Rihanna and her decision to collaborate with Chris Brown. Over and over the media states how destructive and irresponsible this career move is, asking the public questions like ‘Would you willingly work with an abuser who bashed your face in after you confronted him about cheating?’ it is apparent that we as a society will always identify the singer by this experience and hold her and any decision she makes accountable as a role model to women and girls who have undergone abusive relationships, even if Rihanna hasn’t claimed that role for herself. Another example of scrutiny in the media are the many reports of singer Beyonce’s fake pregnancy, these articles have several picture albums analyzing the ‘fake bump’ and ‘before and after’ pictures claiming that the singers slim figure is ‘too good to be true’ due to her recent delivery. The last news article I wanted to talk about covers the comments made by a designer concerning singer Adele’s weight. When asked what he thought about the singer, the designer stated that Adele was ‘a little too fat’. The fact that the only attribute the designer identified the singer with was her weight illustrates how we as a society rarely identify women with their qualities of attributes and the fact that the article uses the word ‘fatty’ to shame the designer who made the comments is ironic. Like I stated previously, this year has been filled with negative press regarding women in the entertainment business, but this is not uncommon. Negative feedback and criticism is what fuels our entertainment television and newsstands, as a society we thrive on judging the ‘beautiful people’ in order to make them ‘more real’ and ‘human’. Our emotions are often caught up in our critiques, which is something that Eagly and Carli write about, they state, “Those who promote the status quo of male-female relations may also evaluate women harshly as leaders. Consequently, the stereotyping of women, sometimes accentuated by emotions, is an important component of the labyrinth in which female leaders and potential leaders try to find their way.” I feel that because this society feels the need to control women and their choices rather than focus on their accomplishments and contributions, we limit their potential as leaders. These women have all broken musical records, they write about their sexuality, their emotions, their families and all we see is their inability to stop eating, their inability to perform the ‘womanly’ duty of birthing, or their lack of common sense when it comes to their dating life. They have to make choices that will please the public regarding their bodies, lives and family on a daily basis, which restricts their ability to make choices for themselves first. I think that analyzing why we become so enraged when a woman makes a decision we do not think fit is something we must critique first, we as a society need to dissect why we feel the need to identify women with superficial things like weight rather than their talent or their positions as leaders of their field.



Eagly, Alice, and Linda Carli. Through the Labyrinth: The Truth About How Women Become Leaders. Harvard Business School Press, 2007. eBook.

Articles Used:

Rihanna:
http://www.sheknows.com/entertainment/articles/953757/rihanna-rationalizes-working-with-her-abuser
Beyonce:
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/317550/20120321/beyonce-fake-pregnancy-surrogate-rumors-blue-ivy.htm
Adele:
http://www.inquisitr.com/191409/adele-latest-target-of-karl-lagerfelds-bitter-former-fatty-comments/