Female Celebrity Stereotypes

Gender stereotypes are everywhere. Even before we can understand what this means, people are constantly exposed to them through advertisements, toys, clothes, and the media including television shows and movies. To evaluate the prevalence of gender stereotypes in television programs targeted towards young children, I chose to watch four different shows called Phineas and Ferb, Little Einsteins, Horrid Henry, and Sofia the First. When picking what shows to watch, I intentionally selected at least one that looked targeted towards boys, another that appeared to be targeted towards girls, and finally one that seemed gender neutral. I also made sure to watch at least two episodes of each program to determine whether the themes I observed were

According to Webster dictionary, a celebrity is defined as a famous or celebrated person. Celebrities serves as role models, heroes, cultural commentators, charity spokespeople, and political candidates. An exploration of celebrity culture uncovers changing conceptions of legitimacy, authority, and credibility at play in our culture (The Hedgehog Review, 2005) .There is a celebrity culture that has engulfed Canada, and indeed North America for a while now because celebrity culture is alluring, even to those who are embarrassed to admit it. There has been increasing infiltration of celebrity culture into politics. The media might have deliberately and unwittingly contributed in perpetuating this celebrity culture.

The portrayal of many stereotypes in a cliche set of fake, made up, pageant girls within Libba Bray’s novel, Beauty Queens, surprisingly moves away from this idea of satire when looking at the bare bones of the storyline. It’s a simple story of women, moving past the patriarchy they’ve been raised where beauty is everything, growing into who they truly are and celebrating their differences as humans, all while surviving being stranded on an island.

As with most electoral races, the media takes on the role of portraying images of candidates to the public. The motives behind these conscious, deliberate decisions vary greatly, but the results are always interesting to dissect. Starting with the June 20, 2016 issue of The New Yorker, we see a depiction of Secretary Clinton mid-fight, sitting in the corner of a boxing ring (appropriate following the death of Muhammad Ali), sporting her confident, signature grin despite all the

They also have the ultimate power to decide what is newsworthy and what is too ordinary to even be considered as news. This power also tends to scrutinize women on the basis of their behaviour or their appearance instead of merely focussing on their platforms. In the 2015 election, the media covered the “Leaders Debate” (Munk Debate) that consisted of political leaders disputing on public issues asked by Canadian citizens. It is likely that within a debate one will see their political leader act in a competitive manner, however, those leaders are men (being Justin Trudeau, Stephen Harper and Tom Mulcair) and because they are of that gender, it is justified for them to act as so. Although, if the media were to cover the same leader’s debate with a change, in that it consisted of all female politicians acting competitively, this debate would then instantaneously become newsworthy and/or viral. The central reasoning behind this is that it is “unexpected” or “surprising” for a women to behave in such a way because if they “acted combatively, they would then be violating deeply held notions of how women should behave” (Gidengil, 2003, p. 567). The media also focuses on the fashion sense of female politicians much more than their political platforms and their stances on current issues, which would not be the case for men. This is because the media generates stereotypes which shows men to be “effective, aggressive and strong leaders, while women are represented as “gentle, warm, stylish and weak leaders” (BLIGH, 2012, p. 565). The media is also inclined to present women as being incompetent in comparison to their male opposition simply because of the stereotypes given to both genders by society, for instance, saying that women are not the ideal leaders that are capable of running a nation. The view of women “not being ready” is because

So many people have said, with regards to the Meryl-Trump incident that Celebrities don’t represent them, and that celebrities should stay out of politics. Here’s the thing: Celebrities many not represent each one of us individually, but rather a group of us as a whole. They show us that we can fulfill our dreams if we choose to work for it. They bring out the emotions that we never thought anyone else could possibly understand. Hollywood creates characters that are easy to find connections with. Of course, you may never have been a sharecropper in the 1930’s, but you can certainly identify with certain aspects of the sharecropper on the screen. Movies, Television, Film, etc. are all devices that matter because they work to try to give every

The growing connection between politics and Hollywood has happened for a number of reasons, in a somewhat cyclical fashion. Politicians need Hollywood stars to support their campaigns because celebrities are useful in fundraising attempts and recognition. They have the advantages of fame, wealth, and can easily command press attention. In return, celebrities endorse candidates whose policies are beneficial to their industry. For example, while Clinton was in office he argued for “industry self-regulation and a television rating system, as opposed to formal government regulation” (Ormand and West 38). For this and other reasons, Hollywood stars donated large sums of money to Democratic candidates in return. In 2000, Hollywood contributed $20 million to Democrats as opposed to the $13 million that was contributed to the less Hollywood-friendly Republican party (Ormand and West 40).

There has always been a semblance of tension between the press and the First lady, as they represent women who are achieving more public power over time. Gutgold puts it perfectly when she says; “To be seen and heard is progress for women in politics and in broadcasting” (Gutgold). The performance by Jacqueline is a vibrant demonstration of he advancement of female power through

For thousands of years, established gender roles have been a part of our society. Women are commonly known as sensitive, emotional, or passive. On the contrary, men are described as rational, competitive, independent, or aggressive. Believing women are more emotional than men is stereotyping. However, the stereotype is not entirely untrue. Development of gender roles is often conditioned more by environmental or cultural factors than by hereditary or biological factors. The development of gender roles between men and women involves the inference of peer community of each gender, the communication style of male and female and the intimacy or connection level of men and women.

Stereotyping is probably the most common concept used of the group’s communication concepts. We hear it all of the time like “you’re on this show so you should have this” or “you’re on this TV network so you should be friends with this celebrity”. Some celebrities will admit in interviews that some things aren’t an instant connection like you think they are. It seems to be that this age’s group is the era that things everything that is glitter is actually gold. Our age group, no matter what reality star it is, will always continue to put these stars in one category.

In well-known fairy tales the males and females characters are often portrayed in the same light. The male characters are often described as the hero with strong masculine traits while the female characters are portrayed as the damsel in distress. Throughout the years fairytales have been casting the same stereotypes for their characters. In the story Beauty and the Beast the author de beaumont depiction of what an ideal woman is lays in Beauty. She is meant to embody the role of a feminine, humble caretaker, lover, and savior. The author depicts males as provider’s, however, it is clear that the men in the story are dependent on a positive female figure for life. Beauty’s disappearance threatens both her father and beast with death, symbolizing

Is written by Meredith Conroy, Sarah Oliver, Ian Breckenridge-Jackson and Caroline Heldman, From Ferraro to Palin: Sexism in coverage of vice president candidates in old and new media, this article describes how news media in the previous vice presidential election displayed negative image, by focusing more on appearance. In 2008 John McCain chose Sarah Palin as his running mate, this was a total shock for all news media, ultimately, it caused an uproar with the Republican party. The reason why Sarah Palin announcement shock everyone was: for a female to hold a vice president seem uncanny, due to the reason they can assume presidency. This just goes to show how the media can easily perceive candidates to seem unqualified for a national level political position. The problem with female candidates is that they don’t want to hurt their families, this country has institutionalized women, as being the fitting description of a care giver ultimately making it much more difficult for them to

For our IB HL Language and Literature English Class, we have been studying Part 1: Language and Gender. In this topic we explored gender stereotypes and influences of celebrities on our beliefs on various topics including feminism. I choose to do this written task on a speech by Emma Watson that we watched in class because agreed with many things that she said but wanted to explore why someone might not agree and how they would react to this speech.

Have you ever wondered what influences us to behave the way we do? Look a certain way? Or even looked for an explanation to what causes us to apply a certain perspective regarding personal and controversial issues? One of the answers to these questions may revolve around the influence we absorb from celebrities. A definitive term for celebrity is an iconic figure to a category or group who has achieved success in one or multiple aspects of their lives. As a result, these individuals have drawn in publicity and fame. Over the years with the advances in media and other forms of communication, celebrities have become topics of discussion worldwide, rather if it’s at school, with colleagues or at the dinner table, it is fair to say that

The world is in a state of flux, changing drastically over the last few decades. The great milestones of technology has led us into the new Technological Age of the 21st century, whereby innovations such as the Internet allows information to be spread in seconds. Today, public figures such as celebrities and politicians play an increasing role in our society, shaping our views and mindsets of the world. Thus, it is especially important that they are held accountable for their actions, even those undertaken in private. Although it is often argued that we can overlook what is done in private if the person performs his or her public job well, it is indeed worrying with their massive influence over society. In my opinion, public figures should be