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Essay about Gendered Media

Decent Essays
Article 7

Gendered Media: The Influence of Media on Views of Gender
Julia T. Wood
Department of Communication, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill times more often than ones about women (“Study Reports Sex Bias,” 1989), media misrepresent actual proportions of men and women in the population. This constant distortion tempts us to believe that there really are more men than women and, further, that men are the cultural standard.

THEMES IN MEDIA
Of the many influences on how we view men and women, media are the most pervasive and one of the most powerful. Woven throughout our daily lives, media insinuate their messages into our consciousness at every turn. All forms of media communicate images of the sexes, many of which
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Also under-represented is the single fastest growing we are aging so that people over 60 make up a major part of our population; within this group, women significantly outnumber men (Wood, 1993~). Older people not only are under-represented in media but also are represented inaccurately In contrast to demographic realities, media consistently show fewer older women than men, presumably because our culture worships youth and beauty in women. Further, elderly individuals are frequently portrayed as sick, dependent, fumbling and passive, images not borne out in real life. Distirted depictions of older people and especially older women in media, however, can delude us into thinking they are a small, sickly, and unimportant part of our population. group of Americans- older people. As a country,

Stereotypical Portrayals of Women and Men In general, media continue to present both women and men in stereotyped ways that limit our perceptions of human possibilities. Typically men are portrayed as active, adventurous, powerful, sexually aggressive and largely uninvolved in human relationships. Just as’ consistent with cultural views of gender are depictions of women as sex objects who are usually young, thin beautiful, passive, dependent, and often incompetent and dumb. Female characters devote their primary energies to improving their appearances
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