Harmful Women Stereotypes Essay

Representation in media is hugely important as it influences, both consciously and subconsciously, culture and society. Gender representation is especially important in this day and age because more and more media is being consumed by younger audiences. In G-rated animated movies and televisions shows targeted for young girls, the female characters are hyper-sexualized and, 9 out of 10 times, their stories revolve around finding a man to love them, facilitating our cultures obsession with heteronormativity. Boys are encouraged to watch male dominated action movies, full of violence, sexy, scantily-clad women, and heteronormative, hyper-masculine stereotypes. Boys who are interested in any media designated “for girls” is seen as less masculine and may face bullies and pressure from all walks of life, at home and in school. Society begins teaching boys and girls how to gender immediately, what is appropriate, tolerated, encouraged, and what is unacceptable. As we grow up our media becomes more violent, more sexualized, and even more gendered. I will be exploring gender representation in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gilmore Girls, and The 100, discussing the problematic and the progressive representations of gender, starting with Gilmore Girls.

In Hollywood film women 's roles have varied quiet considerably between genres, geographical placement, and period settings. These factors contribute to the different representations of women 's roles in the film they are present in. The roles are diverse going from the traditional maternal role to that of manipulative murderer. Women 's roles in movies can be almost equal to the male roles, and the co-stars are not given the majority of the acclaims just because they are male. Society has set certain standards that women are supposed to follow. The most common image of women is that they are very passive and try to avoid conflict in any situation. More and more in society women are breaking down the social barriers that confine them to their specific roles. The films Rear Window and Resident Evil show women in roles that are untraditional for our society. These two movies help to show how women are rebelling against social norms and that they are taking more active and aggressive roles. In film noir’s we can see women represented as the femme fatale, a woman whose mysterious and seductive charms leads men into compromising or dangerous situations. In action movies we see the heroine who is strong both physically and mentally, and has the ability to use weapons. Women seem to be more trapped than men because they are supposed to live up to society’s standards dealing with beauty and size, which are more physical characteristics. These specific guidelines have been set by

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.

Media portrays femininity on a daily, in our lives. Femininity are the qualities that traditionally associate with females. In movies femininity are strongly showed. People of all ages are exposed to the expectations of femininity which affects our views on female. In the media such as movies like “Cinderella” the portrayal reinforces gender stereotypes to their audience.

Women are deemed as a “minority” yet make up 51% of the world population and in 2014 made up only 12% of protagonists in films. And that is just on-screen, the percentage decreases as you go farther and farther into behind-the-scenes positions such as directors, cinematographers, and writers. Add race and ethnicity and those characters' percentages decline even more (Lauzen, 2015.) Women in film and television are often portrayed with emphasis based on their body type and in advertisement are largely objectified. The large objectification and misrepresentation of women in the media has led to an offset psychological view of women from growing up to adulthood.

American commercial cinema currently fuels many aspects of society. In the twenty-first century it has become available, active force in the perception of gender relations in the United States. In the earlier part of this century filmmakers, as well as the public, did not necessarily view the female“media image” as an infrastructure of sex inequality. Today, contemporary audiences and critics have become preoccupied with the role the cinema plays in shaping social values, institutions, and attitudes. American cinema has become narrowly focused on images of violent women, female sexuality, the portrayal of the “weaker sex” and subversively portraying women

For this paper, I am going to be discussing gender in the institution of films. Specifically, I am going to be discussing femininity in coming of age films. I am going to discuss how gender is represented in coming of age films in regards to femininity. Coming of age movies set an expectation for teens and young adults it lays out what they should fear and what they should thrive to be in order to transition to adulthood successfully. The media defines cultural and gender norms that are often very stereotypical (). The cultivation theory suggests that exposure to stereotypes in the media can lead to adopting these beliefs in their real lives (Giaccardi et al., 2016). In the media, masculinity is often portrayed as aggression, power, dominance,

Since the beginning of time, gender has played a big role in how one acts and how one is looked upon in society. From a young age children are taught to be either feminine or masculine. Why is it that gender plays a big role in the characteristics that one beholds? For centuries in many countries it has been installed in individual’s heads that they have to live by certain stereotypes. Women have been taught to be feeble to men and depend on them for social and economical happiness. While men have been taught to be mucho characters that have take care of their homes and be the superior individual to a woman. For the individuals who dare to be different and choose to form their own identity whether man or woman, they are out casted and

The highlight on the latter raises a larger question about the radicalized sexual images of women today. It is most likely the society that is bombarded by the media’s usage of advertisements, television, billboards, magazines and internet. We are surrounded by the images that most people don’t have. Reality shows and entertainment are emulated and are the common choices for teens today. They may seem like harmless amusing entertainment but take a closer look, and you’ll see that the way women are portrayed is far from the truth. This may seems to be a successful marketing tool for several sources but its ways of showing malicious actions.

Since the 1940’s, movies have predominately portrayed women as sex symbols. Beginning in the 1940’s and continuing though the 1980’s, women did not have major roles in movies. When they did have a leading role the women was either pretreated as unintelligent and beautiful, or as conniving and beautiful: But she was always beautiful. Before the 1990’s, men alone, wrote and directed all the movies, and the movies were written for men. In comparison, movies of the 90’s are not only written and directed by women, but leading roles are also held by older and unattractive women. In this paper I will show the variations and growth of women’s roles in movies from the 1940’s though the 1990’s.

The idea of the “feminist” woman has taken off in recent years. She is self-empowered, resourceful and only with a man if she so chooses. Many shows and advertisements still embrace the age old stereotypes and the younger, more impressionable generation is watching and absorbing these messages. The issue is that the media has not gotten the idea of empowered woman not meant for male enjoyment and changed accordingly. So instead of the next generation of sure, inventive, and capable women the media is cementing ideas such as value by attraction and sexuality, starting younger and younger in these unwanted lessons. This Literature Review was conducted with the following question in mind: What do we need to understand about sexualization of young girls in media? From this review, three themes emerged: the Cause, the Effects through Sexualization and Message behind it, lastly the Perception.

"For most of history, anonymous was a woman", quotes Virginia Woolf. (1) Throughout history, women’s lives were restricted to domesticity and family, and they were left oppressed and without political voice. Over the decades the roles of women have dramatically changed from chattels belonging to their husbands to gaining independence. Women became famous activists, thinkers, writers, and artists, like Frida Kahlo who was an important figure for women’s independence. The price women paid in their fight for equality was to die or be imprisoned along with men, and they were largely forgotten in written history. However, the roles they took on were wide-ranging which included working in factories, tending the troops, taking care of children

Filmmakers use traditional gender stereotypes to produce characters audiences can easily identify with by portraying conventional images of a person with identifiable characteristics. In previous years, the dominant representation of a women in film has been the passive, subjugated protagonist. However, through the development of female empowerment and added feminist representations of film, the female heroine transformed to become strong and independent women in her own right, as an individual character.

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.

In society, women are often perceived as the weaker sex, both physically and mentally. In modern times women have leveled the playing field between men and women, and feminism is a highly discussed topic, but for years, women faced discrimination and prejudice both in life and in the workplace, due to their sex. This way of thinking flooded into the world of film. In their works, the authors of each of the various sources address the limitations and liberations of women both on and off the screen in nineteenth century Film and Cinema. Not every source is completely filled with information related to the research topic, but they do cover and analyze many of the same points from different perspectives. Prominent points addressed in each