Gender Stereotypes In The Media

There is constant pressure that is put on women through advertising, internet, television, movies, and other media to be attractive or look good and be physically fit. Most would argue that many strides have been taken in how women are portrayed on the internet, television and magazines, and in film. In the last few years there has been growth in the number of women in media behind the scenes and their influence is growing. However, female stereotypes still flourish in the media we consume every day, on the internet, in print media, and on television.

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.

Gender stereotyping is used in media to build up and magnify character traits and bring humor to situations. Keeping that in mind stereotypical characters portrayed in popular movies and television shows allow viewers to internalize those messages of gender thus making it difficult to argue stereotype behaviors in the real world.

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

Gender roles influence every characteristic and aspect of our life, from how we feel about ourselves to the degree of our contribution in social life. From a ripe young age, children become exposed to this type of gender bias right away, which can negatively affect and shape their whole outlook on life. Consequently, as these young boys and girls mature both physically and emotionally and move on into adulthood, they are, in essence, shoved into a world that impacts their attitudes and behaviors towards gender roles and stereotypes. These specific attitudes and behaviors first cultivate in the private doors of their parent’s house. Afterwards, these same biases become reinforced by the child’s peers, school experience (education), television viewing, and, of course, advertisements in the realm of print and television media. From the looks of it, it is near impossible, for children to not become subject to some degree of gender bias at an early age. As a child grows and develops, the stereotypes follow them into the next phases of their lives (i.e. adolescence) and then on into adulthood. Not only are these gender stereotypes destroying girls, they are also killing boys. The components of this essay will attempt to illustrate how advertising in print and television helps to perpetuate gender stereotypes in our world. Along with that, one must ask the question of how much harm these negative biases in gender roles truly affects the minds of men, women, and young children.

Stereotypes are ideas held as a standard or example. They apply to the vulnerability of any one group. Intermittently, they are used against women in the United States as a whole, who are vulnerable in areas of predestined abilities to achieve a task based on sex. Not only must generalizations be lessened, but they also must be eliminated completely, as the effects they have on women are monstrous. Women in the United States are affected negatively by stereotypes through movies, mass media, and discrimination in the workplace.

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.

Advertisements, movies, TV shows, and other such things that consumers and viewers look at set a certain standard for society. They tell society to look a certain way and act a certain way. People don’t see a problem with messages that the media puts out, but it is a problem, especially when it affects people's self-esteems, labels people, and creates stereotypes about class and gender. Jean Kilbourne talks about one of these standards in her text “Two ways a woman can get hurt”: Advertising and Violence. Kilbourne focuses on gender norms in society, and how advertisements portray them. bell hooks a cultural critic, scholar, and prolific writer, author of Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor has similar views but she focuses on class, and how society represents the different classes in media, such as in movies and tv shows. These points can be seen in many tv shows and movies. Gossip Girl, for example, is a tv drama that attracts young adults, that shows the division between classes. Gossip Girl is about a group of teenagers who live in the upper East side of Manhattan, New York. The main characters Serena, Blair, Nate, and Chuck are all very rich. Then there is Dan who is also a main character and Jenny his little sister, that are considered to be poor. It is very obvious from the beginning how different they are from their classmates from the beginning of the show. It is seen in the way they dress, do their hair, their hobbies, where they live, and how they

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

Background literature: Previous studies about gender stereotypes enforced on people include; “Effect of infant’s perceived gender on adolescents’ ratings of the infant by Degelman, Dvorak, and Homutoff and Cowan (1983). These studies highlight feminine and masculine traits. They ask middle school students to rate a baby on each of those traits.

Several advertisements in the set of stimuli for these interviews inspired reactions which resonate with this courtship theme. All three informants became emotionally involved in these ads, able to self-project to a tremendous degree and to create imaginative stories about the people portrayed in the ads. Also importantly, the role portrayals of women in these ads were never seen by any of the informants as sexist or inappropriate, contrary to the researcher 's own introspection.

Gender roles plays a very significant part in society and the way people are portrayed in the media. Men and women are portrayed differently in the media specifically based on how they are perceived in society. Men have a more predominant role in the media. Women are presented as delicate individuals with less predominant roles. There are stereotypes of women and men, especially those seen on television. “Virtually all groups of people suffer from stereotyping and men are no exception. Stereotypes are powerful because they affect our expectations of what men should and should not be like. They are damaging because they narrow our notions of what men can be and do.” (Femiano & Nickerson, n.d.)

To begin with, the media reinforces and creates the stereotype that women are portrayed as sexual objects in order to make money

Besides that, I will also be looking out for writing in the magazines’ editorial content that suggest gender stereotype. Lastly, ads will be looked as the type of product and lifestyle associated with said product that is being depicted may show gender stereotypes.

Stereotypes have become a prevalent issue in our media. They, without our knowledge, prevent us from moving forward as human. In this essay, I will discuss the effects of stereotypes in media on gender roles, religion, and race.