Growing up I solemnly watched TV for entertainment purposes, never really thinking about some of the reoccurring themes I was seeing. It wasn’t until these past few years, that I have started to notice some, what may seem to be subtle, but actually blatantly obvious trends in the shows I was watching. Sexism, and gender inequality is quite present in many of the shows Americans are watching today, and that is an issue that needs to be addressed. Sexism can be seen in many ways, from minor insults made by characters, to the sexism, and gender binary, to the ratio of female actor, to male. Now, I am not telling you to stop watching or start boycotting some of your favorite shows, but it is good to notice where this popular issue can be …show more content…
First I want to address the idea of gender binary. Gender binary is the classification of gender into two distinct, and opposite, disconnected forms of masculine and feminine. It focuses mainly on the idea of gender roles, and sets up stereotypes specifically for what a male’s life should look like, versus what a female’s life should look like. “Women’s history is no longer solely a branch of social history. It treats, among other things, electoral politics, economics, intellectual life, and popular culture [as well]”, say the American Historical Association. The constraints set by gender binary can dictate many aspects of a person’s life ranging from expectations of dress, behavior, and careers. When I think of men, there is an association of leadership positions, strength, and masculinity. I have been set up to believe that there are certain standards that men must make, and that women cannot follow any of them. This is very limiting for women, when they are set up to believe that they cannot hold a position of power, pursue a certain career because it is too masculine, or possess certain personality traits. Gender binary has been drilled into our society, and it is seen all throughout women’s life; especially in the workforce. According to Amanda D. Lots’ book, Feminist Studies and Media Culture : REDESIGNING WOMEN : Television after the Network Era, “as stories about working women
In society these days there is a noticeable difference in the treatment of men and women, the most common examples would be found in the social, business and culturally convention realms. These ways of life have double standards in many different ways. There are many ways to convey the ways of discrimination towards women by men.
Women first gained the right to vote on August 26, 1920 with the 19th amendment was approved, giving women full voting rights. Fortified by the constitutional victory in 1920, the handful of new women in Congress embarked on what would become a century-long journey to broaden women’s role in government. In the intervening years, the drive for more women’s rights encompassed the lives of the next generations of women. Even today, women are still fighting for their rights and stand up against prejudice. On the forefront of this movement are our women congresswomen who speak on behalf of all women. When Hillary Clinton announced her presidential candidacy, controversial questions immediately surfaced about the role of gender in politics. Through Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2008 and 2016, media is the principal propagator in showing bias and sexism.
When we hear the word sexism most minds automatically associate feminine oppression. I began to wonder why that was. Webster defines sexism as “prejudice based on sex; especially: discrimination against women.” After reading this I had to know why that was.
While studying art and popular culture in class, our class came across a very interesting topic and story. Throughout time everything has changed in humanity, in the way that humans look at one another. Now in the 1980’s when the whole AIDS and HIV epidemic started that’s when the whole world saw the disgrace in each other. Now in class learning about the disgrace that women had upon the world because of HIV and AIDS has really changed in a way that women are not allowed to be free within themselves anymore. The woman of today have to deal with sexism, classism and even racism just in order to survive in this world. But even through all of this women are still strong and fight for what they believe in and never give up, no matter what
In the media we see today, and movies that are continually coming out all have a central idea in common. They all show and represent the idealistic perspective of male versus female in society. From cartoons to chick flicks to romances and comedies we notice identifiable differences and trends represented between the two genders. In the movie I watched, “Clueless,” there are many examples illustrating male superiority over female, ideas of what femininity should be, and female appeal towards the male figures in the film.
The article I read was You’re Sexist. And So Am I from USA Today. This article went into discussing how everyone has internalized sexism, believing in sexism in their head, whether they like to believe it or not. This is because society teaches people norms that women must follow in order for them to be respected. As we have discussed in class, this is the idea of subjectivity because all of these social codes are predetermined and that makes them very difficult to change. One example of this was in the article when it talked about how women often chose their careers around them someday becoming mothers. Women are expected to have children and then take time off from work to raise their children. No one believes that men should be expected to stay at home and raise children because it is not the societal norm. Therefore when a woman chooses a career around impending motherhood, she is falling into subjectivity.
In recent months few topics have gripped the nation quite like the idea of sexism and gender roles. While in the last few decades many strong leaders have stepped forth to reconcile the differences, American still has a long way to go. While we present ourselves as a model for other countries, doing so is unjust considering the misbalance of power, representation, perceived value and respect. While many continue to deny it, sexism is still a major problem in modern American society.
Sexism has been prevalent in our society for generations. It has plagued the views and outlooks on gender, and has molded the populace’s minds to favor one over the other. Engrained within society is the strict framework of binary gender roles, and placing males and females into distinct and rigid categories that they can rarely break free from. While progress has been made with regards to weakening these rigid and unfair gender roles, the prejudice views that run rampant through the minds of the older generations, and into the up-and-coming ones, are difficult to combat. Women are often overlooked and regarded as the inferior gender, and they are often portrayed as individuals who are at men’s every beck and call. This is highlighted through the observations of Paula Rothenberg in her novel Invisible Privilege, she discusses her observations and dealings first hand with prejudice of all kinds. The book recalls her experiences from the mid to late 20th century, which was a time of more blatant sexism, but I will be using other sources in addition to prove that sexism is still a prevalent issue in everyday life. The sources I will pull from in addition to the novel include, “Different but Equal? Inequalities in the workplace, the Nature Based Narrative, and the Title VII prohibition on the Masculinization of the ‘Ideal Workers,’” an academic article by Kristin Housh, which uses statistical information to argue that women are treated differently in the workplace. Secondly, “Gender Bias in Education,” an op-ed by Amanda Chapman, which discusses unequal treatment of women in education, in addition to a visual and song lyrics that also support these arguments. Sexism and unequal treatment of women in the workplace and education is still a problem in society today that needs to be changed.
Gender inequality plays a critical role when it comes to social progress. As a woman,
In Virginia Woolf’s speech Professions for Women, the author tackles the issue of sexism and women’s liberation. Woolf is delivering a speech at the Women’s Service League in 1931 and describes the limitations that sexism presents to women.
Television is widely considered a more racial and gender friendly medium of popular culture. However, prime time television is not nearly as progressive as people believe, and is still a male dominated industry. In a report done by the Institute for Diversity and Empowerment at Annenberg, 11,306 speaking characters were evaluated and 66.5% were male, while 33.5% were female [1]. Moreover, 41.6% of females in television took leading or
Throughout the centuries, sexism has always been a prominent barrier between sexes. Sexism is defined as the discrimination or hatred against people based on their gender rather than their individual qualities. This is often shown through common modern day events, for example, the notion that women are not on the same level as men has always been in existence. Multiple groups/movements make this issue more visible to the public eye and sometimes this assists in bringing light to the matter, unfortunately sexism will continue throughout our world as is has since the beginning of time.
Women make up half of this world’s human population, and with consideration of this fact, who is to say women are lesser of the two genders? Sexism and Women’s Rights are a global issue, that affects more than just woman themselves. Even in the United States, commonly known as the “Land of the Free”, ironically is empowered by the Statue of Liberty, which presents false ideas that women are well respected in this country and provided with equal rights. Throughout history, women have constantly been working hard to prove their strength and ability, it was not until the twentieth century that women started to rise up in society and were slowly beginning to be viewed as an equally capable being in the eyes of the United States. From Cleopatra
Growing up as a child with parents that were both fairly busy with work I often found myself sat in front of a television either waiting for the day to begin or to end. I remember watching shows and seeing how the boys always seemed to be more outspoken, hyper-masculine and the leader in a given situation while the girls were always the passive ones who were depicted as shy followers. Now that I am older I find myself watching even more television, allowing me to see how the media depicts men and women in society. For example, The Big Bang Theory, in its earlier seasons, it only had one female lead, Penny. Her character was very stereotypical in the sense that she was the scattebrained neighbor. The way that men and women are portrayed has
As a Communication major, I spend a lot of time studying the human communication process, which is the exchange of verbal and nonverbal messages between a receiver and sender. This communication process does not only apply to face-to-face interactions but also includes mass media, rhetorical, and technological communication. Through these various forms of communication, the sender not only expresses his/her message but also expresses power hierarchies about race, gender, and sexuality that are present in society. Mass media has a significant impact on socializing gender roles and perpetuating gender stereotypes, and to prove that, I am analyzing mass media messages, such as television shows, movies, and advertisements.