Motherhood makes women feel “as sexy as Rush Limbaugh in a thong,” which is not what the media would like its audience members to believe, said a communication studies expert Thursday night.

Susan Douglas, the Catherine Neafie Kellogg Professor of Communication Studies at The University of Michigan, at her lecture entitled “Motherhood in the Media: The Last 30 Years,” spoke to an audience of more than 80 members about the portrayal of women, especially mothers, in the media.

“I am here to say look out! Images of the perfect motherhood will assault you,” Douglas said. “We’re here to get a little angry about how women are represented in the media.”

Douglas read portions of her new book, “Mommy Tracking: The Mass Media and the Rise of Momism.”

The way women are portrayed in the media affects public policy, the treatment of women on the job and the “absurd standards of perfection that have been set for women,” Douglas said.

“Your face has made the mistake of having pores on it,” Douglas said, warning women in the audience.

Not only female audience members were interested in how women are portrayed in the media.

“I’ve always wondered how Christina and Britney went from seeming like decent girls to looking like whores,” said Brandon Hart, junior in pre-business. “There’s a difference between them and other celebrities who maintained more decent images, like Mandy Moore. I’d like to know why.”

Slides were shown to illustrate how celebrity moms versus welfare moms are portrayed in the media.

Celebrity moms are shown smiling, made up, with light backgrounds and happy children, Douglas said. Whereas welfare moms were shown not smiling, not made up, with unhappy kids and dark backgrounds.

Regular mothers are not “June Cleaver with cleavage,” Douglas said. There are impossible standards set for mothers by the media, and if moms don’t meet them they feel like failures, she said.

The history of moms in the media began in the 1970s and 1980s, Douglas said. There was a 79 percent increase in single-parent households in the 1970s, most of which were headed by women, so women turned to media for guidance, she said. “When women became working mothers they became a market, and when you’re a market you matter.”

Douglas held the audience’s attention, garnering laughs throughout her lecture.

“She’s really interesting. We’re lucky we were able to get her,” said Pat Miller, director of the Lectures Program. “She’s funny as well as substantial. She’s a very dynamic speaker.”