It's not just television and movies that often portray women in a poor light. Print newspapers and magazines are part of the problem, too.
In newsroom cultures of newspapers and magazines around the world, the photographic depiction of women in many stand-alone photos amounts, more or less, to what might be called newsroom rape. It's not a pretty picture, and the mindset among editors who green light such photos and write the captions needs to change.
If these photos and captions of scantily clad "models" and "campaign girls" were of black men or Islamic men and carried captions such as "Juicy Fruit" and "Get an Eyeful," things would change very quickly. But depicting women this way is business as usual in most male-dominated newsrooms, from the New York Post to Esquire magazine.
To raise awareness about gender equality for women in a man's world is not an easy thing, since so much of modern culture and news media continue to objectify women as sexual objects for men to ogle in movies, magazines and print ad campaigns.
Surely, you've seen photos of pretty young women with unnecessary cleavage posing for ''promotions'' for computers, flower shows, tourist sites and smartphones. What kind of culture accepts this kind of media violence toward women.
Of course, the women who pose for these photos are also to blame, and they must have their awareness raised as well. The women get paid, their managers and PR people get paid even more. Business, as usual. But this must change.
Rape happens in cultures that portray women as objects to rape, and the more cleavage shown in newspaper and magazine photos, the more these culture create a dangerous atmosphere for women. The culture we live in should honor and portray women and girls in photographs as equals to men and boys, and stop with the cleavage shots.
Violence towards women is not a laughing matter. Stop the immaturity and grow up. Male editors will someday have wives and daughters, and they'll care more about rape and violence then, but it's time to start showing respect for women now.
