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Luane Beck, a lecturer teaching acting and digital video production, said media portrayal of women as sex objects is not necessarily a recent trend and the images of strong women have been blocked in media.

Beck said she is sometimes frustrated when her students hand in their scripts to her.

"The scripts that are coming from my students put women in submissive roles where they can't take responsibility or they don't take the right responsibility," Beck said. "They overlook things that are extremely obvious."

She said audiences are expected to believe the myth that a woman can't handle problems. Because the media often promote expectations, not reality, some women must constantly battle the stereotypes being projected, Beck said.

There are different perceptions between a strong woman and a strong man in the media. A strong woman is considered to be a problem, such as aggressive or a bitch, but a strong man is acknowledged, Beck said.

"Women are strong, but they are not expected to be," Beck said.

Beck said she is currently working on a film in which a married college professor is in love with a female student. She said she is getting positive feedback because women in the film are presented as very strong, intelligent and progressive, although the film's contents are controversial.

"When I tape my film as well, I use real-looking women. They aren't little skinny sex symbols. They are very real and the audience likes that as well," Beck said.

She said the media don't look to present the strong female image, even though the audience expects to see truth, and the film industry has only a small number of female directors who have the ability to depict real women.

"Certainly, the female audience is ready for it," Beck said.

According to Mediascope, a national nonprofit research and policy organization that promotes issues of social relevance in film, television, the Internet, video games, music and advertising, media portrayals such as depictions of violence against women and sexual objectification of women may influence mistreatment of women in society.

Advertising using female sexuality can lead to sexism and sexual harassment in society, said Jean Kilbourne in "Killing Us Softly", a documentary film that was shown at the Mosaic Cross Cultural Center for an event during Women's History Month. Kilbourne is a recognized scholar and educator on advertisements related to alcohol and tobacco and the image of women.

In the film, Kilbourne said the images of female body parts are often used to attract consumers, and women are obsessed with the sexual images in advertisements.

The images of Britney Spears wearing little clothing or Calvin Klein with teenage models have been used to sell products, she said. Sexual images are very powerful because they are emotional and involve life and love.

Although the images of "physical perfection" apply to both genders, women are often scrutinized, criticized and judged based on their physical appearances, whereas men aren't, she said. This also causes some women to take health risks such as increasing their bust sizes by plastic surgery or to develop eating disorders, and at least one out of five American women have eating disorders, she said.

Women are often portrayed as passive, vulnerable and silent, but they are physically attractive, and the media repeatedly send a misleading message that men's achievements lead women's fortunes. A solution for women facing problems is beauty, Kilbourne said.

Masculinity is portrayed as violence, and femininity is devalued. Women are dehumanized, and the change has been profound globally, she said.

Every woman is influenced by media images to some extent, said Jennifer Styles, a nutritionist at the Student Health Center.

Styles, who teaches a weight management class, said eating disorders are an important issue, and one of the main causes is the unrealistic body image in the media.

Women are objectified in the media, said Kati Fosselius, a graduate student studying nutrition. People are unconsciously affected by media images, but the images of models do not reflect real women.

"All the airbrushing, all the things that are done to her manipulate the way she looks," Fosselius said.

William Rames, a sophomore majoring in mathematics and a visitor to the Women's Resource Center on campus, said he can perceive the female body images in the media objectively because of his homosexuality and criticizes the way the media present women physically.

The unrealistic images of women in the media are based on men's fantasies and perspectives, and it is unfortunate for many women to be affected or oppressed by the media portrayals of women, Rames said.

"Media (have) this idea of the ideal woman," said Jessica Martin, a senior majoring in sociology and minoring in women's studies

Martin, who is also a coordinator of the Women's Resource Center and the event chair of the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, said women's portrayals in American media have caused problems of oppression, sexual assault and social hardship for some women.

The average American woman wears a size 12, and only 5 percent of the population actually looks like Britney Spears, Martin said.

She said people are aware of the problems, but she hardly sees changes in the way media portray women because there are not enough people who are concerned about the issue.

Jamonte Cox, a sophomore majoring in sociology, said he believes women are portrayed in the media respectably, and physically attractive men are often presented in the media as well.

He said although some women want a muscular man with a great body, men are not obsessed with seeing the perfect body image in media.

"I think all men should not judge a woman by her body but more toward her personality," Cox said. "I like a big woman anyway."

The portrayal of women as leaders is accepted in the media nowadays, but it wasn't the case 30 years ago when she was a student, said Elena Dorabji, a SJSU political science lecturer.

Dorabji said images of outstanding women in the media give women the expectations that they can become leaders, but the young generation takes the improvement for granted.

In the news media, a woman being a spokesperson is no longer considered as something remarkable, she said. A White House spokesperson or president of a university can be a woman, and a good example is National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

Erika Jackson, a senior majoring in anthropology and behavioral science and a coordinator of the Women's Resource Center, said she has been inspired by outstanding female public figures, especially by Hillary Clinton.

Women in their 20s who are activists or outstanding are seldom presented, and those images are not portrayed in the media, Jackson said.

"People basically now accept that there are women leaders in government or in positions of the power," Dorabji said.

She said people acknowledge women public figures if they are in government or academics but not in business. However, they are expected to be well-qualified and mature and to have a normal middle-aged appearance.

Women can be strong and professional, but not too strong because they can threaten men's status, Dorabji said.

"You can tell that in American society obviously men are still in control," Dorabji said.

Entertainment media appeal to men's culture more, she said. Many female students wear molded bras and tight jeans and show a large part of their belly.

She said there are some exceptions, in that many female artists from hip-hop, alternative or Latin music show more cultural images rather than sexual images.

"Why do they need to go to the sexual extreme?" Dorabji said. "It shows that we still have a long way to go."