In an age dominated by media, it is almost impossible not get sucked into and internalize the things we see before us. This begins as early as infancy. Studies have shown that 74% of children under the ages of two watch TV (“TV and Kids Under the Age of 3”). This continues throughout a person’s life, and continues to shape them. The usually stereotypical images and characters shown in media can have many detrimental influences on persons, particularly children and young adults, such as low body image, eating disorders, and increased aggressive behaviour. In order to shape a better tomorrow, it is imperative that the media people see better reflection of men and women to avoid the aforementioned side effects, and to socialize the children of …show more content…
The slim female body type presented in the majority of media has a great influence on young girls in particular. In one study, it was shown that 69% of teen girls identified that the images shown in magazines created their perception of the ideal body, and 47% reported that these images inspired the girls to lose weight (Ata, Ludden and Lally, 1025). This is a relatively gendered phenomenon, as the same study found that half of teenage males reported that media had little to no effect on their eating behaviours and self esteem (Ata, Ludden and Lally, 1026). Additionally, the media’s representation of masculinity as a rigid box which boys must fit into has its own consequences. In the film Tough Guise, a film which begins with showing clips of male violence in movies, immediately followed by statistics of male violence, anti-violence educator Jackson Kratz goes into depth about the consequences of internalizing these images seen in media, and expecting oneself to put up a tough exterior. He states, “But putting on the tough guise comes with a cost, and that is a cost in terms of damage to their psyches and their ability to be a decent human beings” (“Tough Guise”). The film’s implications are not unwarranted, as it continues to correlate the gross amounts of violence committed by men, such as the fact that 85% of murders, 90% of violent …show more content…
However, this is not the case. There are ways to break the cycle to slowly change the media one sees, therefore giving them the potential to change the society around them. In order to change some of the female stereotypes perpetuated in film and TV shows, one primary answer is to include more women into the creation of these shows. Having female workers has been shown to produce more balanced female roles, “The presence of women in behind-the-scenes positions of control...who correlated with more major female characters and female characters who were more multi-dimensional” (Erigha, 86). In her article, “Content Analysis of Gender Roles in Media: Where we are Now and Where Should We Go”, Rebecca Collins concurs with this statement in her implication that girls may require the representation of other girls to identify with, and therefore to learn from them (Collins, 292). Including women in the creation of the shows is important, however it is only a stepping stone into fixing the larger problem. In her novel Feminism Matter: Debates, Theories, Activism, author Victoria Bromley explains where one must go to find the root of the
I really enjoyed watching the documentary, Miss Representation. It was very informative and eye opening. The film explores the impact that the media has on society and the misrepresentation of women. While the media can be a place to learn and stay up to date, there is also an ugly side to it. Our generation spends a huge amount of our time on our phones, computers, and watching tv so I feel like we are affected by the media the most. The media influences people at a young age impacting their views on themselves and the world around them. Girls especially get the message that their value is on how they look. The way media portrays women in movies and television over sexualizes women and dehumanizes them. This type of media can lead women to
Mass media not only reflects gender stereotypes but also plays a role in changing them. Females used to be portrayed as less brave and more dependent. Now there are strong, independent female characters like Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games and intelligent, brave female characters like Hermione Granger from Harry Potter. Like women’s changing positions in society, more aggressive and dominant females are being featured. Mass media molds new stereotypes but not all the ideas that are communicated are positive.
The documentary “Miss Representation” delves into how the media and society. The viewer is exposed to how the media builds an expectation of how women should look and act. When the media portrays women as the perfect weight, height, and behavior for the target audience, it lowers the self-esteem of the females watching that cannot hope to compare to a fictional character. Men exposed to these types of advertisement and entertainment are taught to objectify women. It distorts societies and male expectations of how real women should look and behave. The documentary also discusses the lack of female protagonists in television and movies. There is a distinct lack of female heroines in our world today. This shortage further diminishes the hopes
Male gender roles in contemporary media that are negatively portrayed through masculinity greatly effects the physical, psychological, and behavioral image of men. The social construct of masculinity in society and its relationship to males is generally reflected in male media consumption. The popular concept of women’s feminine image in the media is vastly overshadowed and more predominantly acceptable in subtle society in comparison to male’s image of masculinity.
Media in regards to tv social media, news broadcasts, magazines, and all other forms in which are presented on a widespread coverage to society. The documentary explains how from an early age girls get the message that their value, their worth, and their potential for success depends on their looks. On the flipside boys are getting the message from an early age that looks and how a girl dresses is what important. They bring up the idea of how when one considers the “ideal women” their capacity of education, knowledge, life experiences, strength, and who they are as a person are often left out. The ideal women is typical in regards to her looks alone in regards to weight, height, hair color, skin color, and the way in which she dresses”. As mainstream media grows larger and wider, girls are becoming increasingly self-conscious at younger and younger ages and the shelter in which we try to protect young children is become harder to maintain. A group of young high school women were interviewed about the challenges they have faced as a result of mainstream media and their peers and the results were shocking. Every flaw one could bring up from being told they were ‘too skinny’. 'too fat’, their natural hair was ‘too nappy’, their skin was ‘too pale and so forth’. Society is teaching women all the things that are wrong with themselves and not paying any attention to how it is effecting women of this generation and already playing such a
We are living in a world where your identity is influenced by the media. Media is involved in our daily lives. Media has represented on what people think about topics, one of the most common ones is gender roles. Media indicated their messages into our consciousness at every opportunity that it had. Gender roles are a set of norms dictating the personality and actions of people based on their biological sex or what they identify. Gender roles in media are used in delirious stereotypes can cause self-image in young adults, causing loss of confidence, mostly in women. Many authors had expressed their opinion about gender roles in media through non-fiction articles. For instance, Katty Kay and Claire Shipman, who wrote, “The Confidence Gap,” confronts the lack of woman’s confidence impacting their performance. Another example is given by Cordelia Fine, who wrote, “Why Toys so Gendered?” in which she says that gendered toy marketing doesn't create gender stereotype, but it reinforces them. Lastly, Allison Lantagne, who wrote, “Gender roles in Media,” says that is up to the individual to decide what type of role they are going to adopt. She also includes that media reinforces social norms because the public accepts them. I agree with Allison Lantagne says that the media has an influence on our beliefs and attitudes toward gender because of its perfected image of genders, projects what a woman and a male should do, and what abilities each
Many people across the world are negatively affected by the media each day. Being exposed to the media, specifically body image, causes very damaging thoughts and actions to occur in a person’s life. Scientists and researchers tend to conclude that body images in the media and the exposure to those images causes a person’s mental and physical health to decline. To dig deeper into the conflict, people often question if mass media is the actual problem. Ultimately, scientists and researchers blame the media for the negative affects it has on people and the disaster it has created throughout time, while other people blame themselves for the negativity it has caused in their life. This controversial situation allows people to evaluate both sides of this argument and come to the realization that this specific situation is very crucial to know about in our lives.
Women should be submissive and be ruled by Men, according to some people. It is a known fact that women have been oppressed greatly by the generally patriarchal structure of the society. However, it is also evident that women have fought for equality. However, the female portrayal in the media has halted this advancement and even reversed it in some ways. Additionally, the media has deteriorating effects on females. The media of today makes women seem less desirable while also objectifying, over sexualizing and stereotyping them on a great level. This, in turn, has a very negative influence on females of all ages and forces younger girls to conform to the media’s marketed female ideal. Ultimately, the female portrayal in the media has too
Every day we are exposed to some type of media. Whether you know it or not, the media that you view each day affects you in some way. This is especially true for women and girls. The media puts a huge emphasis on how women are supposed to look to be considered beautiful, liked, and successful. All around the world women and girls look in the mirror and think that they are not thin or pretty enough to be accepted by the world. Would you want your sister, niece, best friend, or even your mother to think of themselves in that way? The media puts way too much emphasis on looks, and it needs to stop.
Media has long been a way to send specific messages to a selective audience. Magazines, television, movies, ads, and even video games have become a way tell people how they should appear or behave. While not all media influences are negative, most are not positive. Some television shows or movies have programmed gender roles into society’s minds. Also, magazines especially, advertising has distorted impressionable men and women’s body image. These are only two of the many influences the media has on human behavior.
Media plays a significant role in today’s society when it comes to gender roles. “Gender roles, as an example, exist solely because society as a whole chooses to accept them, but they are perpetuated by the media” (Lantagne). While watching television, many people fail to recognize the gender roles that are being illustrated throughout the show. Society shapes gender roles, and the media reinforces this ideology. In sitcoms, women are naturally the housewife, while the men determinedly enter the workforce. In reality, intimate relationships in today’s generation are fairly balanced, and it is almost expected that both individuals work diligently to provide for the household. Gender roles are also evident in a variety of other television shows. For example, in adventure and crime shows it is common to see men depicted as powerful and women as weak. With stereotypes like this, it shows women that they should keep their heads down and remain dependent on their significant other, and that men need to be influential and powerful.
Dozens of action movies are produced every year by Hollywood. Not to mention how widely most violent scenes such as guns and kills are accepted in most of them. Although most may view them only as entertainments, it is undeniable that the overexposed ideas of power and dauntless from not only the movies but our daily media had slowly changed our social norms toward gun and violent. Over 900 mass shootings, defined as having four or more fatalities in one incident by CNN, has happened in less than three years since 2013. When in fact, as TV news and newspapers intended to inform titles like “a student opened fire” or “people are shot dead in a historic black church”, almost none marked out the issue on gender or men in the titles. African-Americans, psychotics, Mexicans, and immigrants are more often to be written in contents of violence, whereas only few articles wrote about white men, who also build up a big part of our masculinity society. In the past, violence came from anger in specific reasons; today, violence has become a way to represent our toughness and masculinity. Not only did our popular culture lead us to a narrower idea of distinct gender behaviors, such as men to be brave and women to be sensitive, our media provides us even more contents toward normalizing what should be violent and incorrect.
The portrayal of women in the media affects women and young girls but this issue can be solved. In many movies, music videos, ads, etc. we see sexism between males and females. According to Gender Issues In The Media, “There are many fewer females than males in almost all forms of mainstream media and those who do appear are often portrayed in very stereotypical ways.” This shows that if women are seen in the same position as men they are stereotyped and
Has the stereotypical perception of gender in media changed? In fact media takes advantage of the idyllic image of males and females to misguide society’s perspective of what they should be. How about we explore the idea of misconception between the sexes in Julia T. Wood article, "Gendered Media: The Influence of Media on Views of Gender." She argues the diverse images of males and females portrayed being impractical, cliched, and constricted apprehension. In the movie "Maleficent", is about a young beautiful soft hearted fairy named Maleficent. She lived an adventurous and beautiful life in a enchanted forest kingdom, where a trespassing army threatens to harm the land. Maleficent then steps up to be the protector of the land. Unfortunately she 's betrayed by a old companion that turns her love into hatred and vengeance. She commissions a epic crusade with the king 's heir and puts a curse on his newborn daughter. Only the realize that Aurora is the one to bring reconciliation back to the kingdom. Based on my movie Maleficent I disagree with Wood 's images of sexism, stereotypical and optional roles of the two genders that are represented in media, for its demeaning of males opinion towards women and unrealistic to reality, yet I do agree of the victimization of women from men are depicted in the media.
Introduction Children are continually encompassed by literature that not only serves to educate, but also indulges in presenting a visual image of themselves and the society, that they live in. As such, the youths gain insight to an illusionistic perspective of the world around them. According to Wilson (2010), about 3 to 4 hours is spent, on sitting in front of the television, indulging in movies and films. Consequently, media has an extraordinary impact on youngsters’ advancement, thus leading to the contribution of their beliefs, values, and dreams (En, 2003). Moreover, Julia (1994) found that youngsters who viewed films with more gender stereotyping, had similar gendered desires for themselves, as well as others.