Gender Role Expectations and Inequality in Modern Media

I have decided to examine gender role expectations and inequality in modern media and see how and if expectations and norms have changed over the years. I have studied three modern day teen comedy movies and found examples of many things including gender stereotypes, gender role socialization, gender inequality, and heteronormativity. Each movie contained examples of each and I have analyzed them by describing how each example shows what I interpreted it as.

My first movie I viewed was The Internship. This is a comedy about two men who have lost their job and decided to take on the challenge of becoming interns for Google. They have to compete against an army of younger interns to win the jobs at the end of the internship. I saw examples of gender stereotyping during the scene when the interns are picking their teams. Men are expected to be the leaders over women, the team leaders are comprised of mainly males with a few females. Within the interns themselves Graham is a very interesting character as he portrays typical attitudes of a male, he is the leader of his team and picks a member based on looks. Women are expected to be pretty, and attractive to men which is exactly what one of the interns is to Graham, he says, “blonde you’re coming with me on account of your physical appearance.” This shows the stereotype of how women are generally just there for men’s pleasure and looks overpower everything else about her in the workplace. I also noticed gender inequality throughout the movie. When Nick and Billy are first being told that their company is closing, we see Sammy who is the head leader of the company, with many sales positions belonging to men, and the women have the secretarial positions. You also see this th...

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...hat I'll do.” This shows the true feelings of Brandon and how others effect his life and what it does to him, it shows that heterosexuality is the expected and that since he goes against it, his is picked on and out –casted because he goes against the norms.

Even in modern media today, strong examples of gender role expectations, gender role socialization, gender inequality, and heteronormativity are expressed. Movies are a prime example of where they can be found. Even though times have changed and gender role expectations have faded slightly from the traditional ones, they are still expressed in media which we surround ourselves with every day. Due to the amount of examples found in films we are subconsciously being socialized without knowing it. Gender roles and expectations will always exist and even if they are hard to notice, they will always be present.