Gender Stereotypes in Culture

1. Describe our cultural gender stereotypes, objectification, and media portrayals of women and how these lead to violence against women.

Gender is the psychological characteristics and social categories that are created by human culture. Doing gender is the concept that humans express their gender when they interact with one another; it is done every day without thinking about it. Messages about how a male or female is supposed to act come from countless places. According to Helen M. Eigenberg in Woman Battering in the United States, “Gender construction starts with assignment to a sex category on the basis of what the genitalia look like at birth. Then babies are dressed or adorned in a way that displays the category because parents don’t want to be constantly asked whether their baby is a girl or a boy” (2001, p. 32). Schools, parents, and friends influence a person. Treatment of one gender differs from those in another. Gender roles also change.

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 exceptionally young 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.

In the United States, as well as throughout the majority of the world, people are bombarded with commercials, ads, and articles on a daily basis. The information is used to appeal to the masses. Society perpetuates violence against women through the use of the medi...

... middle of paper ...

...d forcing villagers to carry their food, ammunition, and gear into the jungle. Women cannot even walk to the market without being grabbed by the throat and raped.

Domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, rape, and so on all intersect with one another. Many forms of violence are used in combination with one another to establish power and control over the victim. In addition, gender stereotypes, objectification, media portrayal of women, and victim blaming increase and cause the use of violence against women.

Works Cited

Eigenberg, H. (2001). Women battering in the united states. Prospect Heights, Illinois: Waveland Press, Inc.

Herbert, B. (2009, August 7). Women at risk. The New York Times , p. A19-A20.

Russell, D. (1993). Pornography causes violence. Against pornography: the evidence of harm (p. 149-151). Berkeley, CA: Russell Publications.