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The portrayal of young people in the media
The portrayal of young people in the media
The need for a comprehensive sexual education
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The way media displays gender stereotypes affects the development of children. Children grow up watching television and listening to music. These factors lead children to act and behave a certain way in what is displayed. For example, if a show demonstrates a young girl acting dumb in her class, a young female viewer may believe she is dumb since it is how her gender is displayed. Furthermore, these gender stereotypes in the media can lead to identity crises, lower self-esteem, and issues in relationships. Thus, children should be educated on gender stereotypes that exist by family and peers while others as a society try to omit these stereotypes.
Gender stereotypes starts back when Elvis Presley, an American icon that sang and acted ("the king"), performed his signature move thrusting his pelvis. According to "'Shake It Baby, Shake It': Media Preferences, Sexual Attitudes and Gender Stereotypes Among Adolescents", the performance of Elvis was seen
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For example, in The Harms of Crime Media: Essays on the Perpetuation of Racism, Sexism and Class Stereotypes discuss the issue with gender and school shootings stating, "However, gender-oriented dialogue will never be integrated into the media’s discourse about this issue if the media do not even recognize school shootings as a gender-specific problem — one that is perpetrated almost exclusively by boys and young men"(Bissler & Conners 54). Today school shootings are a huge problem in the United States and is a problem because of the media showing most of these school shooters to be male can be a motive for it. Clearly, one should not state that all men are potential "school shooters", but to bring awareness that the gender bias can influence the youth. Gender bias meaning to be in favor of a certain gender. Gender stereotypes in the media lead children to the discussions based on what is
The media, through its many outlets, has a lasting effect on the values and social structure evident in modern day society. Television, in particular, has the ability to influence the social structure of society with its subjective content. As Dwight E. Brooks and Lisa P. Hébert write in their article, “GENDER, RACE, AND MEDIA REPRESENTATION”, the basis of our accepted social identities is heavily controlled by the media we consume. One of the social identities that is heavily influenced is gender: Brooks and Hébert conclude, “While sex differences are rooted in biology, how we come to understand and perform gender is based on culture” (Brooks, Hébert 297). With gender being shaped so profusely by our culture, it is important to be aware of how social identities, such as gender, are being constructed in the media.
Tristani, Gloria. (1998). Children are watching stereotypes in the media. Tri - State Defender. 47.
Leaper, Breed, Hoffman, and Perlman (2002) reiterates Junn (1997) findings that compared to women, men are overrepresented (Leaper, Breed, Hoffman, & Perlman, 2002). Leaper et al. conducted a time-based structured observational study by evaluating a total of 12 different child target television shows. They selected 3 shows from each of the following categories: traditional adventure, nontraditional adventure, comedy, and educational/family (Leaper et al, 2002). In addition, Leaper et al examined the number of characters in each film while also looking at the amount of time each character exhibited predetermined behaviors (talking fear, negative, physical aggression, victim, romantic, directive, politeness, and support) throughout the show (Leaper et al., 2002). At the conclusion of the study, Leaper et al. reaffirmed that female characters are underrepresented. In addition, however, Leaper et al. found that one genre, traditional adventure (“emphasizing a central male hero”) was more likely to contain gender stereotypical behaviors (Leaper et al., 2002, p. 1655). Ultimately, Leaper et al.’s conclusion can suggest to children that male characters’ overrepresentation in child-targeted media is because men are at the top of the hierarchy and are more important in society than women (Leaper et al.,
The media fail to acknowledge and educate the public about the relationship between the two, which in turn fails to stop the men from engaging in violent activities. For example, after a series of school shooting at Jonesboro, Pearl, and Columbine in late 1990’s (whom the perpetrators were all young schoolboys), media de-gendered the gendered nature of the events; the documentary shows newspaper headlines speaking of “youth violence,” and of “kids killing kids,” not “boys killing girls and boys”. By refusing to see violence as a gender-related issue, the media reinforce the existing norm of “boys=violence”. It is also important to note how the perpetrators of the shootings saw themselves bullied by the popular Jock Culture that celebrated toughness and muscularity, and shot the guns as the means of heightening their social status. (The perpetrator of Pearl Shooting stated that “I killed people because they were mean to me… murder is gutsy and daring.”) Not only the media reinforces the violent masculinity image, it creates a dominant peer culture that pressures the boys to use violence to assert their manliness. Media, hence, both creates a subset of and reinforces the existing violent masculinity
When you think of American history, do you think of war, slavery, or segregation? Something that these have in common is gender equality. Gender equality is something that has been an issue in America since the first day it was inhabited. This is a problem in America. A more particular time period would be, World War II. During this time, women were being used to do men’s jobs and duties but, they still had to have a feminine aspect to them. While most men were at war, the women picked up jobs playing baseball, and working in factories to build the necessary items for war and daily living. During World War II, it was necessary for women to work. The government statistics prove this:
This essay discusses censorship and the way in which social media and consumer products affect and model an appropriate societal ‘literacy’ or view in particular regards to gender and race, to young children. A summary of the stereotypes displayed in several videos viewed on YouTube, as well as student’s own identified stereotypes, both in regards to race and gender, are displayed below (Alexander, 2011; BrokenXLoner, 2012; Lac, 2013; Walt Disney Pictures, 1998, 1994, 1992, 1967, 1955, 1953, 1941):
Media plays a significant role in determining the perception students have on attending school. For instance, if the media portrays the environment in a junior high to be harsh and ruthless, the students will assume a similar situation will occur. The media can change our perception on various levels of issues therefore, we must stay vigilant on the types of programs we allow our youths to watch. From the types of clothing TV actors/actresses wear could be a factor on the type of clothes a student wears to school as well as the stereotypes placed on race and ethnicity based on what the media portrays.
... For example, teenage girls might be labelled by the media as whole yet they may also individually battle to remove the stigmas attach to them, whilst finding a place in their social capital (Barkhuus, 1999). As a result, this could impact teenage girls since the transition to adulthood is often associated with an increase in responsibility yet at the same time they are labelled in the media because of the preconception of how females should behave (Cieslik and Simpson, 2013).
The work's topicality is characterized by the existence of the gender stereotypes in society, having generalization, and does not reflect individual differences in the human categories. Meanwhile, there is still discrimination on the labour market, human trafficking, sexual harassment, violence, women and men roles and their places in the family. Mass media offers us the reality, reduces the distance, but we still can see the negative aspects too. TV cultivates gender stereotypes, offering ideas about gender, relationships and ways for living. Such media ideas attach importance to many people in the society. Consequently, it is quite important identify gender stereotypes in the media, in order to prevent false views relating to gender stereotypes.
Throughout society, men and women have been expected to live by guidelines consisting of media generated ideas and ways of living out life. Both men and women’s thinking process are being altered the negative effects of society’s mass media. For both sexes, this repeating negative exposure causes a constant downfall in self-image and creates media influenced decisions that lead to unhealthy lifestyles. The media effects the thinking process of both men and women in negative ways therefore media needs to be heavily regulated.
Cultural beliefs shape gender by classifying males and females by using traits and expectation in order to show dominance. For example, .males are superior than woman because they have a higher status based on strength .This shows that men have higher authority .This causes for men to use their authority in order to decide how media should portray woman to be. Ridgeway states” Many of these interactions are structured as status inequalities, due to both the inequalities in the institutional roles they occupy and the status attached to gender itself.”(Ridgeway ,66).This shows us that stereotypes are based on gender inequalities .Therefore, by not following social
In their pieces on the Smurfette principle, Pollitt and Ellis both discuss the idea that gender representations have intense effects on the children who absorb certain types of popular entertainment. Although we are hesitant to accept it, we are all influenced by the media in a very powerful way. Whether it be through TV shows, billboards, movies or the news. One thing that we commonly wonder about is if the adult female population is as influenced by the stereotyped gender roles present on TV or are we shaped at a young age and carry that perspective with us throughout our lives. This Smurfette principle has been around for almost two decades. It was introduced by Katha Pollitt and is unfortunately still present in our current 21st century.
Despite some opposing ideas, the stereotypes in the media have negative impacts for both men and women and also children. I personally think that the media should not place a huge barrier in between the genders because it only creates extreme confinements and hinders people from their full potential. Overall, it is evident that the media has had an important role in representing gender and stereotypes in our
From the youngest age I can remember, everything I had seen in the media, altered my perception on gender - what it was, what it meant, and what society saw as fit. Gender has often been confused with having to do with biology, when in fact, gender is a social construct. In today’s society, gender has mixed up the construction of masculinity and femininity. This plays an important role in many individuals lives because they define themselves through gender over other identities such as sexual, ethnic, or social class. Identity is shaped by everyday communications, such as what we see through the media, therefore as society continues to evolve, so does the way we perceive identities and select our own.
Another major factor that influences millions of impressionable females and males is television. Not only does the television teach each sex how to act, it also shows how one sex should expect the other sex to act. In the current television broadcasting, stereotypical behavior goes from programming for the very small to adult audiences. In this broadcasting range, females are portrayed as motherly, passive and innocent, sex objects, or they are overlooked completely or seen as unimportant entities. Stereotyping women is not only rampant in the adult world; it also flourishes in the kiddie universe as well.