The Crucial Role Of Feminism In Mainstream Media

In "Where the girls are: Growing Up Female With the Mass Media," Susan Douglas analyses the effects of mass media on women of the nineteen fifties, and more importantly on the teenage girls of the baby boom era. Douglas explains why women have been torn in conflicting directions and are still struggling today to identify themselves and their roles. Douglas recounts and dissects the ambiguous messages imprinted on the feminine psyche via the media. Douglas maintains that feminism is a direct result of the realization that mass media is a deliberate and calculated aggression against women. While the media seemingly begins to acknowledge the power of

Equality means to treat everyone the same. Everyone should have equal opportunities and access to resources and services regardless of their individual needs or differences. For example equal access to a building for wheelchair users.

Equality is the term for treating people fairly and offering the same chances, it’s not all about treating everyone in the same way, but recognising everyone is different, and they all have very different needs, but making sure they are met.

Equality is about making sure people are treated fairly and given fair chances. Equality is not about treating everyone in the same way, but it recognises that their needs are met in different ways.

To me, equity means that everyone is treated the way they should be. Women are just as important as men are. We are just as capable of doing certain things as they are. That calls ethics into play. Is it right to treat us women different or weaker just because of estrogen? Many people feel this way. I do not think they have no ethics or morals. I think they believe that equity is not important. Without equity or ethics, the world would be in trouble. That is what equity and ethics means to me.

Equality is about making sure that every individual has the same opportunities in life and that no one has more than the others.

Equality means treating people fairly, where everyone can participate and has an equal opportunity to fulfil their potential.

What is equality? To many people equality is the equal treatment of race, gender, sexuality, and religion. Let’s call this group of people Group 1. Group 1 are basically activists in the world, living so that one day everyone will be equal no matter of their race, gender, or sexuality. To others equality is nothing, the only ones that receive special treatment are the ones with the highest power or the ones with the most money. Let’s call this group of people, Group 2. Group 2 is denying service and many other things to people that don’t deserve to be treated that way. The people of Group 2 are doing this because people aren’t white, a man, or straight. People of Group 2 do this because other people aren’t white

Equality is word that can be interpreted in many different ways.Each Person has their own view on what it means.Their view on equality is shaped by their culture, people around them, and beliefs.In 1963 Martin Luther King’s idea of equality was “that all men are created equal”(King,1963).He wanted whites and blacks to be able to have equal opportunities in all aspects of life. In modern day we have made steps to reach this, but we have not met absolute equalty.In modern the idea of equality is more widespread than just white and blacks.There are websites,petitions, news coverage on the idea of equality for women and the LGBT community. There seems to be more steps to achieve their equal rights ,rather than, equal rights based on

From the view of the traditional feminist lens without delving too far into intersections of theory at this point, feminists broadly agree that sexism of this nature is unacceptable. Feminist theory seeks to restore balance between the genders through breaking down and eradicating the patriarchal norms that have bound society for thousands of years. One of the main examples of patriarchal norms in practice is the way in which the media, and news outlets in particular, talk about female politicians in comparison to the way that they discuss their male counterparts. In an article by the Daily Mail, Theresa May was described as “fashion forward” and “quirky” (Daily Mail, 2014) due to her taste in clothing. On this day, she spoke in Parliament

The traditional media is a mixed blessing for feminists; on one hand, they educate the American public about issues like wife-beating and the gender gap, and on the other, both synthesize feminism into a homogenous mold and reinforce “post-feminist” repudiation of feminist wins. Traditional mass communications impose a gender dualism that made no room for gray - “bad” feminism versus “good” masculine norm - ignore marginal (feminist) voices, distort feminism, and delimit the spread of feminist principles (Beck 140). Media backlash typically follows women’s efforts to make significant strides towards independence and equality - perpetuating binaries of bra-burning “dykes” and subservient (and thus attractive) women, likening philosophical disagreements amongst feminists with “catfights” and mud-wrestling women (Beck 144). This portrayal causes women’s hesitancy to own their own movement, which is then perceived as petty and confrontational. The media ignores the fact that feminism is multi-faceted and thus subject to internal disagreement, and instead sells the entertainment value of fighting women while maintaining the status quo of cool-headed and right male codes (Beck 142). They pass cultural codes - generally white and heterosexual male - for ‘raw’ reality. Reality is never a universal concept; the basic concept of “woman” is riddled with cultural codes conveyed and interpreted in media texts. There

My analysis of major themes and how the media participate in the construction of attitudes about gender and sexual orientation is predicated upon 16 articles drawn from three major news sources: Newsweek, The New York Times, and The Advocate. The articles were published in the months of January, February, and March. The selection of the articles was not random; I specifically chose articles whose titles and introductions were of particular interest. The three news sources, particularly the Times and The Advocate, published many articles related to LGBT issues—typically greater than a dozen for each weekly search—from which I selected only two per week. In sifting through the 16 articles, I identified three important

Gender inequality is the idea or situation that men and women are not equal, and is a problem in countries around the world. I will be focusing my research on this type of inequality in Canada. It is an issue for both men and women that they are exposed to at birth, is fed by the media as a teen, and continues in their everyday life as an adult. My approach to this issue is examining three topics that are related to my assignment: childhood, everyday life, and the media. Acts of gender inequality can be found within these broad points that negatively or positively affect males and females. For childhood, there will be toys, clothing, and child advertising. In everyday life, I will cover the workplace, travel, and costs. Media will include celebrities, television/movies, and social media. My thesis statement is: gender inequality is evident in many stages of human development through childhood, teenage years, and adulthood. Gender inequality is a real thing and it is proven in childhood, as a teenager, and adult.

The mainstream media is one of the most popular, prominent ways people get their information about social issues, government action, and the general knowledge about what is happening in the world. A topic that has received a quite a large amount of media coverage in history, throughout the years, and currently, is gender inequality. Specifically, the issue of women being stereotyped into traditional “home” roles and not being able to join the work force or, rather, being pressured not to attempt to join. This particular issue has definitely lost much of its ammunition with the breaking of traditional gender roles in the past few decades, the successes of women’s movements and the overall national attitudes. However, not all of the stereotypes have been destroyed, and while women have entered the workforce, they are still being paid less than men for the same work. The lingering inequality of the past and the pay gap are huge issues covered by mainstream media in mostly constructive ways, and it should be receiving much more attention than it has in the past.

What is equality? Is it just a political nomenclature or an ideological concept? Or is about working towards creating a fairer society in which each individual can enjoy his/her rights and freedom without any judgement considering that “[w]e will never have true civilization until we have learned to recognize the rights of others.” Will Rogers (1924, p210).