Gender Stereotypes In Society

This essay will argue that films and other media cultures represent an element of modern life, whilst gender ideologies and stereotypes still remain as a question of how society thinks about gender identities. With so many films that deliver messages and images about men and women today, it is inevitable that it would leave the audiences with no impact about these ideas whether directly or indirectly. However, people live in a modern life that keeps changing and thus the traditional stereotypes and generalisations that existed before about media and gender might not be as relevant in today’s world, as the society keep changing which gradually affects the media and people’s attitude to change. Douglas Kellner phrase that media culture “constitutes a common culture” (Kellner 1995, p.1) about gender is not entirely true. This essay will argue that media images do not fully represent the gender roles in today’s society. Using the film Mr. and Mrs. Smith as an example, where the gender roles have been switched, it will examine on how the gender roles are represented in the film (Mr. and Mrs.Smith 2005). Traditionally, men would be seen as more dominant than women, but in the film, one could see that the female character, Jane Smith is more dominant compared to her husband, John Smith.

At the beginning of the film, when the police are looking after Jane, John was at the bar and Jane was the one who approaches John in order to get saved by him (Mr. and Mrs.Smith 2005). John has taken the role of a man that protects the woman in which shows that women are vulnerable and inferior who often has no control over themselves and rely on men (Firestone et al. 2003). The film does show the generalisation about man and woman ideology on the societ...

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...als of which we forge our notion what it means to be male or female” is becoming less applicable as many films are becoming less predictable and taking up challenging roles by allowing women to act as a more dominant character in order for the movies to succeed. Therefore, film does not constitute common culture, as movie makers will create fascinating stories out of what is actually happening in the society for the film to be exciting to watch for the audiences. The film may deliver or represents certain aspects and stereotypes of gender in the society but does not fully represent the society itself. As a result, every viewer would be left with their own thoughts and opinions without judging what the movie is presenting are totally right. Therefore, films do give people an insight about our society but it does not control the way people should behave in the society.