Gender Marginalization

The oppression and gender favoritism has been around ever since civilization existed, even before so. Women, were and still are today, treated as the lesser gender than men. Examples such as, we couldn’t vote, we had to wear certain clothing to appease men, and if there were any sign of intelligence in her, she would be burned alive. Of course, thing like that aren’t around today and we have a lot more freedom than before, but we are very far from

Historically, the concept of gender was a black and white theory. Male and female were the options, and you stayed the way you were born. If you were anything else, you were oppressed and pushed to the fringes of society. It has long been feared to be “out of the ordinary.” Recently, nonbinary and transgender people are challenging the idea of a black and white gender theory by pressing the idea that gender is a spectrum. The gender spectrum is often misunderstood. People who are transgender or nonbinary face complications every day, and these complications have long been unnoticed. Due to a recent shift in society’s views, gender is a popular topic discussed on many different media drawing attention to the issues faced daily. The article “Rethinking Gender” by Robin Marantz Henig is focused on the gender spectrum and the issue of transgender oppression. The video Moving Beyond the Binary of Sex and Gender posted by TEDxTalks clears up misconceptions about being transgender. The two pieces of evidence discuss similar topics in very different ways. Between these two sources, it is simple to understand the gender spectrum, however, “Rethinking Gender” is a stronger piece of evidence in support of the gender spectrum because it provides more personal accounts, statistics, and is more credible.

The concept long existed prior to the conception of the phrase “intersectionality,” at-tributed to Kimberle Crenshaw, a lawyer and legal scholar to address the multidimensionality of those who are marginalized and oppressed in society and as a criticism of identity politics in an article published in 1989 “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics.” Crenshaw (1989) argued that the focus should be on those on the margins of marginalized identities – those who are multiply-burdened because they hold status in more than one marginalized social identi-ty. For instance, the experiences with oppression by Black women cannot neatly be allocated

In a country where freedom of speech is at the foundation, one would think that women are free to express themselves in whatever manner they see fit, including online. In contrary to this belief, sexism has been evident in many social media platforms online. It seems impossible to live in a world where sexism does not exist. Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram are home to sexist remarks and arguments between strangers, celebrities, friends, and acquaintances. In the article, “Cybersexism” by Laurie Penny, she claims that the Internet was made to be a gender free environment but that over the years the Internet has not become a safe place for women. While Penny makes a few valid points, like the Internet sexualizing

We are constantly being bombarded by the social constructs of gender. In advertisements women are portrayed as beautiful, fragile and dainty, where as men are seen as powerful, strong and masculine. These subliminal messages, along with the more blatant ones from peers, teachers, media, and parents, serve to reinforce gender stereotypes, roles and labels. In addition, they further alienate those who do not conform to these norms.

Stereotypes. That is what most people would say of gender representation in popular culture. It is in the same jumbled up mess with sexism. Gender representation are deeply rooted in our community that most of the times, we are not even aware when stereotyping happens. It is rooted in us most probably because of the social status that we get far back when we were in our mother’s womb. Speaking of womb, physical aspects also make stereotyping a lot more unavoidable. On top of all of that comes culture that we were exposed to when growing up and exposed on a daily basis. From comic books, cartoons to blockbuster movies, men and women are constantly given an image that causes us to be indoctrinated to view certain aspects as the normal characteristics,

An article written by Sarah Miller, “ I Really, Truly, Fully Hate 'Women Against Feminism'—But…” gives great examples on how some of these feminists are exaggerating. Miller says that women are using tweeting, movies, and certain articles as substitutes for our thoughts. Miller has also been irritated by hashtags on facebook. #banbossy is a way for moms to show that they are teaching their daughters that being bossy is actually a great thing. Another thing that feminists are taking out of proportion is the editing on models in magazines. Miller explains that no one is making you buy them, and if you do, then you shouldn’t be surprised or get upset

From an early age, we are presented with images from all sources that attempt to define what is gender appropriate. The media reinforces those stereotypes by the use of colors, pictures, and even fonts in published advertising. This paper will review a selection of images from websites and recent magazine displays to document the current trends and gender stereotypes promoted in the world of media today.

For years, the video game industry has catered almost exclusively to men and reinforced a heterosexual cis white male norm with regards to whom they portray as characters and which audiences they market toward. Walk into any toy store, and you’ll see most aisles clearly divided by gender: girls get dolls and dog collectibles while boys get racing tracks and action figures. Even toys that are marketed towards all children, like Legos, still reinforce this idea of binary gender separation: girls build princess castles, boys build space ships. Hoever, even though the products are exclusively marketed, all audiences are still targeted by the company as a whole. This is true for many different types of products, except for one huge, glaring exception: video games. While many other forms of media have mainstream activism to push their representation and inclusion along, video games aren’t often discussed in that kind of light beyond side blogs and dissertations.

Throughout history marginalized groups have been represented indirectly through literature and film. The comic book industry is no different in that, the idea of the superhero being seen as an “other”, a different class of citizen is clearly evident. Until the first publication of the X-Men in the 1960’s, although superheroes were portrayed as “others” in society, they were not looked down upon, but rather put on a pedestal. The likes of Superman, Wonder Woman, and Captain America to name a few were treated like royalty and seen as utterly superior to the human race. With the publication of the X-Men, this representation of the “other” as a superior entity to the human race changed in that the X-Men were seen and referred to as mutants, rather

From toddlerhood, the female gender is oppressed by what society believes they should be. In children’s shows and advertisements, female children have a specific look that they then are expected to emulate, cute and pink adornments, playing with dolls and learning lessons about gender stereotyping without even being aware of what the difference between the sexes even are. Then, when they are older, they are sexualized, underrepresented, overdramatized, and molded into what they think they should be. When they break this mold, they are stigmatized. In a woman’s life, she will struggle with self-image and identity issues because she will never achieve the goals media images have set for her to reach. When women become viewed as individuals and are recognized for their achievements and the ideal for them becomes about something beyond their looks, and when representation is fair and equal, we will have achieved fair media representation for women.

In her article “A Woman’s Place is on the Internet,” Rebecca Mead notes that “if we have gone a long distance toward disproving the notion that a woman’s place is in the home, we are still discouragingly far from it being widely understood and accepted that a woman’s place might, safely, be online” (Mead, “A Woman’s Place is on the Internet”). Mead’s call for safety for women online speaks to the persistent misogyny and sexual harassment many women face on the Internet, and importantly, underscores the potential for feminist voices to make positive change for women on the Internet. However, the Internet is often a dangerous place for women who speak out about gender inequality. These issues are important to consider as Emma A. Jane argues, “on-line hostility is getting more prevalent, it is getting uglier, and it has a number of gendered characteristics” (“Your a Ugly, Whorish Slut” 534). Our experiences of Internet, then, are certainly marked by gender dynamics, gender norms, and gender hierarchies. The sexual harassment directed at female Internet users reflects an unequal power balance between users on the basis of gender: women are harassed on the Internet in sexually explicit and violent ways because of their gender identity. Additionally, sexual harassment directed at women who are publicly feminists and using the Internet as a means to assert their feminist viewpoints reveals that the Internet is not just

In general, digital media continues to present men and women based on traditional stereotypes, which has continued to limit the society’s perception of the possibilities available to women. Typically, men are presented as adventurous, sexually aggressive, and powerful, as well as less concerned with family issues and human relationships (DeKeseredy & Schwartz, 2016). Similarly, women are presented from the traditional cultural lens that they are beautiful, dependent, and often unable to fight for their rights. The stereotypical presentation of men and women is reinforced through the female and male characters covered in digital media resources. The distinctive roles that

This creates a problem for not only transgender, bigender, gender fluid etc individuals but also for anyone who might not be a hundred percent masculine or a hundred percent feminine which breeds isolationism, marginalization and sometimes even worse. The video “The Mask You Live In” from lecture, sheds light on this issue, showing how not adhering to the set male gender norms leads to young boys becoming isolated, marginalized and sometimes eventually using self-harm or suicide as a method of coping. Even with all these negative side effects of gendering common products, companies continue to throw money at branding agencies and mass media to persistently perpetuate gender

Women have been considered unequal to men throughout most of history. Very few places in the world gave women any rights. Women were always considered the ones who would stay at home and clean, while men would hunt, work, and provide. It wasn’t until the 1900’s where women finally started fighting for their rights, which they, kind of, won.