Gender Roles in the Media Essay

Founded by Groves in 1999, the Cultivation Theory came into existence (Graves, 1999). The theory states that exposure to television develops social behavior and norms. At a young age, we are only just entering the stage in their lives where we are beginning to think for ourselves and develop our own personal beliefs and values. Our minds are gullible and can be easily manipulated. This particular empirical study analyzes the effects due to media, specifically Disney princess movies, on gender stereotyping. Gender stereotyping can be defined as common generalizations used to describe gender roles in society, specific attributes associated with each gender, and the differences between each. Many a time, gender stereotypes are

Gender Stereotypes are everywhere in the world. This paper will focus on the formation of Gender stereotypes through different media sources. The media sources that will be used include television shows, movies and magazines. Thus the paper will also explore the effect that gender stereotyping may have on development of a person’s social and individual identity.

According to the European institute for gender equality, “Gender roles refer to social and behavioural norms which, within a specific culture, are widely considered to be socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex.” In our culture, this tends to mean that women are supposed to be passive while men are supposed to be assertive. As pointed out by both Kristin Lieb and Jean Kilbourne in their TED Talks, the media plays a huge role in shaping our gender expectations and norms. Children watch many hours of television everyday. This has a large impact on how they view gender roles even from an early age. Unfortunately, many, if not most children's shows only reinforced negative stereotypes about gender until recently. While over the past

Today, more children are somehow connected to the media. Having computers, television, and phones, there always is a way to access it. The media being this accessible can cause problems, because in almost every show that airs on television has some type of gender bias. From how they portray a character from it’s behavior, role or appearance. This has set bad examples for children watching since the children copy what they see on TV. The cartoons, Charlie Brown, Phineas and Ferb, and SpongeBob SquarePants all have a gender bias. Each cartoon is aired on televisions at different times, so it show’s how throughout time gender bias is still an issue.

* Television viewing creates the concept of gender-role and racial stereotypes in children, as they start considering it as very natural phenomena. Heroic acts are expected out of males, while women are displayed as objects and less powerful.

It is no lie when it’s said that media influences human decisions. For adults, it could be the newest fashion trends. Perhaps which restaurant has the highest rating and seems to be the most luxurious. For children, it’s the same. Nobody is spared from society and the media’s norms.

In their pieces on the Smurfette principle, Pollitt and Ellis both discuss the idea that gender representations have intense effects on the children who absorb certain types of popular entertainment. Although we are hesitant to accept it, we are all influenced by the media in a very powerful way. Whether it be through TV shows, billboards, movies or the news. One thing that we commonly wonder about is if the adult female population is as influenced by the stereotyped gender roles present on TV or are we shaped at a young age and carry that perspective with us throughout our lives. This Smurfette principle has been around for almost two decades. It was introduced by Katha Pollitt and is unfortunately still present in our current 21st

“People learn more from media than any other single source of information” (Missrepresentation). This quote exemplifies how society learns and creates their standards about people, places, and things. All sources and mediums of media impact billions of lives every day. The media holds this power over society and it’s time to change that; especially when it comes to the media’s view of women. Women are constantly being misrepresented. This misrepresentation of women in the media is negatively impacting America by corrupting both the youth and adults. This is occurring because of the hyper-sexualization of women, wrongly portraying women in leadership positions, and creating stereotypes of women in movies and television.

Mass media has influenced gender norms in the United States since the 1950’s when television became a household phenomenon. Per Jacqueline Coombs in an article titled Gender Differences in the Influence of Television on Gender Ideology, she asserts, “television is a powerful source in disseminating information and shaping opinion, exposing people from many different social settings to the same messages” (207). These messages can influence gender norms and reinforce personal gender identity. Throughout the evolution of television, gender roles have expanded portraying women as leading character. However, there is still an undercurrent of patriarchal ideology.

Educators need to be aware of the gender stereotypes that their students are exposed to. The articles and book chapters that were assigned, give the reader an insight to how the media shapes the views of gender and how they can influence children as young as six.

Children first begin to learn their gender identities between the ages of two and six. With this, they also begin to recognize activites, traits, skills, and other stereotypes associated with each gender. During this period of time, children are vulnerable and impressionable, imitating the actions they see happening around them. Children begin to act according to how their gender is portrayed in society, and the media is playing a larger role in daily life now than ever before. Binary gender stereotypes are continually advertised in the media through movies, television shows, advertisements, music, etc. Unfortunately, a message seen far too often within

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

One thousand years go by and an abundant amount of people still view women in a stereotypical type of way. On the opposing view, if women did not overstretch the slightest of things, this wouldn’t be such an enormous issue. Women may be overreacting to what the media has to say about them. It is not affecting everybody but a vast majority of successful women from continuing to moving forward said Marianne Schnall. Important to realize, women are capable of doing jobs men can do. Such jobs as being an engineer, physician, mechanic, lawyer and even top notch business women! Up to the present time there is an ongoing public debate on women suffering from double standards. If it makes a female feel threatened or belittled than it may be

According to the social learning theory, the influence of the media in the formation of gender roles and identity is known as being indirectly and vicariously reinforced. It states that we can learn gender appropriate behaviour by learning from others. So by having gender stereotypes portrayed in the media, it has a powerful influence on all of us but especially on children because they are currently

An Annotated Bibliography for The Main Cause In Negative Gender Stereotypes and Traditional Gender Roles: