Gender, Gender And The Media

Throughout today’s society, media contributes to almost everyone’s daily life. From informative news channels to comical television shows, media proves to be effective in advertisement, releasing messages and informing the audience. Although media proves to be wildly effective in advertising, releasing messages and informing the audience, periodically destructive and misleading messages are provided to the audience and directly influencing women. Cultural critics widely agree that media tends to negatively influence women and all the critics point to research which supports the belief that women are portrayed as subordinate to men, having no

media in today’s society and culture. The documentary is arguing that women in the media are not

Media enforces the social-cultural standards, which women are required to follow in order to look and behave in a manner that society considers acceptable. Newspapers, commercials, posters, magazines, fliers, reality shows, and cartoons only name a few of our everyday interaction with the media (Scholar, C.2011). However, these standards presented by media send a false perception of women, thus portraying women in a negative and disrespectful manner. Society views woman as mentally, morally, and physically inferior to men, and media is only highlighting this idea (Scholar, C.2011). In fact, media represents women in a stereotypical form of beauty, they display women as sexual objects, and create the illusion that women are ignorant.

As explained in Judith Lorber’s excerpt from “‘Night To His Day’: The Social Construction of Gender”, gender is a socially constructed concept that everyone unconsciously adheres to (Lorber). As a socially constructed concept, representations of gender roles can reinforce or challenge the stereotypical images. In Killing Us Softly 4, Jean Kilbourne analyzed the advertisement industry’s representation of women and argued that the media plays a huge role in shaping gender formations (Kilbourne). Although objectification of women is still a prevalent issue, Kilbourne acknowledged that there are efforts nowadays that challenges the unrealistic representations of women and femininity (Kilbourne). Inspired partly by Killing Us Softly 4, the project is my way to reflect on how the Disney movies I had watched as I grow up represented gender.

Our society seems to have a lot of very stereotypical misconceptions about boys and girls and the role they are expected to play. Media has a pivotal role to play in this front concerning the idea of defining and framing gender. Media consumers transform the messages in that and make demeanors with

The paramount of social adversities facing the modern society is the divide between definitions of gender. Gender represents an abstract interpretation of sex and this notion is simply a societal construct. The establishment of gender has evolved into a tradition of humanity, however this tradition evolved into a social divide between masculinity and femininity. The pressure to conform to societal constructs of masculinity and femininity poisons society and branches off to toxic masculinity; such were nurtured from these figurative beliefs. Gender roles further stigmatize the victims who refuse to conform. However, gender roles has witnessed a revolution in modern times. The purpose of this collateral involves analyzing the evolution of gender roles present in media from mid 19th century to modern times. The period of time, or 1960’s, was chosen because of post World War II’s effects on stereotypes in society around the world. Post war not only challenged stereotypes but further kindled women’s role in the workforce and women began to fill in roles previously belonging to men. In later years, a radicalization of the feminist movement has spurred and our modern times is a witness to its ascension to the paramount of feminism. The media, since the 1960’s, has allowed society to be the primary witness. With the evolution of gender roles, the media must also adapt to the changes in societal views of gender roles and the entire feminist movement at large. This collateral seeks to

Gender and the Media by Rosalind Gill addresses gender stereotypes that are brought onto women and men through the media resulting in objectification and subjectification. Gill discusses how the representation of gender is altered as a result of the media in Western societies. Gender and the Media is aimed to address the rapid transmission of media and how those changes affect the construction of feminine and masculine gender roles in society. Gill uses her interest in the contradictions of gender construction by society, to analyze gender and the media. Using feminism as a backbone for her research, Gill and many commentators support the idea that feminist ideas are common and may even affect the media. Gender and the Media addresses multiple forms of media: postfeminism in advertising, gender in the news and journalism, and gender in magazines. Gild aims to address the construction of gender representations, elements for gender analysis, and feminist culture with Gender and the Media.

15). By foregrounding the complexity of gender in a postfeminist culture increasingly opposed to gender-specific analysis, Levine reminds us that these projects of feminist media analysis are as important in the twenty-first century as they were during the early days of feminist studies.

A critical gendered lens is addressing the binary structures that people are placed in when they are portrayed in the media. Why is the man the rational voice of reason yet hyper aggressive and the woman is deemed emotional or crazy in every other sense. Women are seen as nothing, but a sexual object, whose sexuality is characterized as far as genuinely obliged thoughts of attractiveness (Markham, 2005). Western accepted cultural naturally unequivocally defined categories of gender with distinctive psychological and behavioral properties prediction from reproductive functions. Division between men and women, men’s work and women’s work, how men and women ought to act is a division perceived by biology (West aand Zimmerman,1987). Structural

The media does affects and influenced gender identity. For instance children are constantly bombarded with shows depicting gender stereotype models from toys marketed as for boys or girls, to children’s TV programmes and shows. It is common for children’s programmes to emphasize the role of the make “hero” who saves the weak female. Children interpret these messages as “real life” which shapes their reality, behaviour and expectations of their gender role. However, the social construction of gender does not happen only, it continues

In my EPQ I shall be discussing ‘How gender is portrayed in the media and its effects’. I will explore the effects on all genders and also how gender stereotypes are portrayed predominantly within plays and films. I chose to research and explore this topic as the portrayal of gender has dramatically changed over the years slowly due to the gender spectrum being more openly discussed. This progression widens the understanding of the definition of gender, and what gender fluidity is .For a long time gender has been a limited topic of discussion since many other genders were seen us unnatural because of this media tended to focus on only men and women due to other genders being unaccepted and unacknowledged. I will also be looking into the patriarchal point of view and its influence on the media and how it has progressed and its effects on the portrayal of certain genders overtime. I will then be looking at ‘The nuclear family’ and how that was considered ‘the norm’, the effects of not fitting into this category and how some genders upset this category. Then my focus will be how people’s lives are shaped when they don’t conform to the typical gender roles and how the media has impacted them. My final point will be to reflect on the changes were seeing in the media that are tackling these issues and furthering our understanding of genders.

Collins, Rebecca L. "Content Analysis of Gender Roles in Media: Where Are We Now and

Gender inequality is the idea or situation that men and women are not equal, and is a problem in countries around the world. I will be focusing my research on this type of inequality in Canada. It is an issue for both men and women that they are exposed to at birth, is fed by the media as a teen, and continues in their everyday life as an adult. My approach to this issue is examining three topics that are related to my assignment: childhood, everyday life, and the media. Acts of gender inequality can be found within these broad points that negatively or positively affect males and females. For childhood, there will be toys, clothing, and child advertising. In everyday life, I will cover the workplace, travel, and costs. Media will include celebrities, television/movies, and social media. My thesis statement is: gender inequality is evident in many stages of human development through childhood, teenage years, and adulthood. Gender inequality is a real thing and it is proven in childhood, as a teenager, and adult.

Dating back to the 1920’s mass communication mediums of film, television and print have all been means that act as powerful tools of propaganda and thus play an integral role in the lives of individuals. It is for this reason that it is often widely accepted that the media is to be used as a tool, which represents a common public interest. Men and women are represented through forms of media in different ways, which create images depicting stereotypical traits and characteristics. The problem brought fourth by this is concerned with the issue of gender or the ‘discourse’ of gender and how individuals perceive themselves (Gauntlett, 2008) As the media is such a big part of everybody’s lives, there is not doubt that when this powerful function is synthesized with the medium’s capacity to accentuate present day realities on our screens the result tends to elicit a dominant ideology; which in turn presents an argument for major ethical implications in regard to public stigma and subsequent prejudice. This essay shall critically consider gender representation in Sex and the City (HBO, 1998-2004) and the extent to which these characters challenge the patriarchal privilege.

The key research question of ‘Gender Roles in Media’ is to analyze gender roles to determine how women are represented in an array of media and how they are portrayed in a sexualized manner. The study was published in 2010 and 2011 by Rudy et al in two issues of Sex Roles. The research suggests that an increase in representing women in media can be worthy provided they bear in mind that the way women are depicted is positive in order to alleviate negative connotations. The research queries if media can affect the mindset of viewers in a negative or positive manner.