1 ABSTRACT
Past research found that media culture, particularly magazines,
present stereotypical notions of gender. Gender stereotypes are not
inflexible, like a barometer stereotypes change to reflect both
societal and cultural values.
This research set out to study current gender stereotypes types in
four popular magazines (Marie Claire, GQ, Shape and Men's Health). The
advertisements were categorised into gender specific and gender
neutral adverts. The results found that the mode for gender specific
adverts for both men and women's magazines related to female specific
related adverts.
Although the findings did not support the prediction of stereotypical
gender specific advertising, the research itself was characterised by
a number of weaknesses.
2 INTRODUCTION
Advertisements have appeared in print media since the invention of the
printing press in the 1500s. The usage of the term magazine itself
first came about with the publication of 'The Gentlemen's Magazine'
and 'The Lady's Magazine' in the 1730s by Edward Cave (1691-1754)
(Connor, G 2001).
Different types of magazines exist for just about every age and social
group, for any interest, hobby and lifestyle. Advertisers make use of
information gathered by agencies like ABC (Audit Bureau of
Circulation) and the NRS (National Readership Survey), who categorise
consumers by age, gender, occupation and socio-economic status. This
knowledge enables advertisers to design ad campaigns specific to their
target audience through the types of magazines they read (cited in
Magazines and Gender, 2004).
Even though adverts are designed with a specific audience in mind,
they are still developed to appeal to the vast majority within that
target audience; there is no resource, finance or capability to market
each unique individual. Advertisers exploit stereotypical gender types
to produce advertisement to have the widest appeal.
Societies have always had ways of differentiating between both men and
women, between masculinity and femininity through the assertion of
different attitudes and behaviour patterns onto each gender (as cited
in Gender and Identity, 2004).
It is therefore essential to distinguish between sex, gender and
Sex and Gender was the subject of the two movies Dreamworlds 3 and Further Off The Straight & Narrow. In Dreamworlds 3 Sex is portrayed as a status of life and happiness in the media. This media displays people as objects that can be manipulated for sexual pleasure. As the media is populated with sex it tiptoes around gender, specifically that of gays or lesbians. The film Further Off The Straight & Narrow emphasized the movement through media gay and lesbian topics. This text analyzes iconic television programs and how they reflect the societal stance during that time. As a member of a generation that has had the topic of these issues prominent I believe they are important but are banal. In this reflection I will be responding to two questions, what would woman driven Dreamworlds look like? And Do you agree with the statement that if you are not on television you don’t exist?
The gendered patterns in advertising that Craig outlines in his essay still exist today, in commercials of how men and women are portrayed. In Steve Craig’s, “Men’s Men and Women’s Women,” it is stated that large advertisers and their agencies have evolved the pseudo-scientific method of time purchasing based on demographics, with the age and gender of the consumer generally considered to be the most important predictors of purchasing behavior. Therefore, Craig argues that computers make it easy to match market research on product buying patterns with audience research on television viewing habits, eventually building a demographic profile of the “target audience.” According to an article titled Web Advertising: Gender Differences in Beliefs, Attitudes and Behavior, previous research suggests males and females exhibit different beliefs about and attitudes toward traditional media advertising along with different advertising-suppressed consumer behaviors. Craig talks about how in John Fiske’s book, Television Culture (1987, Chs.
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.
Advertising has become a means of gender socialization because it is a way for people to learn the “gender map” that lays out the expectations for men and women based on their sex.
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:
The clusters of social definitions used to identify persons by gender are collectively known as “femininity” and “masculinity.” Masculine characteristics are used to identify persons as males, while feminine ones are used as signifiers for femaleness. People use femininity or masculinity to claim and communicate their membership in their assigned, or chosen, sex or gender. Others recognize our sex or gender more on the basis of these characteristics than on the basis of sex characteristics, which are usually largely covered by clothing in daily life.
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):
The role of women in media is based upon traditional gender roles and are seen as being empowered only sexually and through the use of their bodies. Males are depicted as dominate and controlling only relinquishing power to women before and during sex, but not after. The music video for the song “Candy Shop” by 50 Cent shows the nature of these relationships in popular culture.
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.
Advertising surrounds the world every second of the day. This form of influence has had the power to influence how society views gender roles ever since men and women began to appear in advertisements. Through the exposure to many different gender portrayals in advertising, gender roles become developed by society. This stems from how men and women are depicted, which forms stereotypes regarding the individual roles of men and women. People often shift their definition of an ideal image towards what they see in advertisements. From this, they tend to make comparisons between themselves and the advertisement models. Advertisements tend to be brief, but impactful. The different portrayals of men and women in advertising show that advertisements
middle of paper ... ... “Three in four Americans (76 percent) say that a woman's appearance on the job is likely to affect whether she is taken seriously. Eighty-four percent of women and 68 percent of men agree with that statement”. To sum up, it is often said that advertising is shaping women gender identity, and some have argued that the statement is true, because of the higher amount of sexual references of women that advertisements show and the damage that occurs to women’s personality and the public negative opinions of those women.
Throughout history when we think about women in society we think of small and thin. Today's current portrayal of women stereotypes the feminine sex as being everything that most women are not. Because of this depiction, the mentality of women today is to be thin and to look a certain way. There are many challenges with women wanting to be a certain size. They go through physical and mental problems to try and overcome what they are not happy with. In the world, there are people who tell us what size we should be and if we are not that size we are not even worth anything. Because of the way women have been stereotyped in the media, there has been some controversial issues raised regarding the way the world views women. These issues are important because they affect the way we see ourselvescontributing in a negative way to how positive or negative our self image is.
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.
The Representation of Men and Women in the Media Men and women are both represented differently in the media these days. Then the sand was sunk. Ironically it was even represented differently in the title of this essay. Men came before women! I am writing an essay to explain how men and women are represented in the media.
Portrayal of Women in the Media Gender is the psychological characteristics and social categories that are created by human culture. Gender is the concept that humans express their gender when they interact with one another. Messages about how a male or female is supposed to act come from many different places. Schools, parents, and friends can influence a person.