Social inequality is something that has been alive and well in for decades now. And it can be agreed upon that the media plays a huge role in that, especially when it comes to promoting gender roles and a set sexuality. But could it be that we are starting to see TV shows, movies and even video games challenge that notion? I will break down many shows, movies, and video games that have challenged how women and men are told to think, dress and act in comparison to those who do not. There are two sociological perspectives, the Symbolic Interactions perspective, which “emphasizes that human behavior is influenced by definitions and meanings that are created and maintained through symbolic interaction with others [and media],” (Mooney, Knox & Schacht, …show more content…
It started in 1998, when they released Mulan: a Chinese woman who disguised herself as a man to serve in the war in place of her father. This very much challenged the gender roles that the old Disney has conveyed, which was the typical princess/damsel in distress who needs a man to rescue her. But with Mulan, she cuts her hair, walks and talks like a man, and even performs the same physical activities as the other soldiers. But she still was able to show a feminine side and occasionally was shown in a dress and still had her happy ending and saved all of China, without a man doing it for her. More recently, in 2012, the movie Brave, was released and also defied gender norms and roles with Princess Merida refuses to choose a husband to marry and decides to take her own hand and rule the kingdom when it is her time. It also showed constant conflicts with her mother and how she tries to make her more “lady-like,” so she can be seen as a fit queen. Also in 2013, Disney released their movie Frozen: where two sisters, Queen Elsa and Princess Anna, defeat an evil prince without a male figure doing it for them, nor were they rescued by a prince. Looking through the feminist perspective you can see how this is a win on their side because it 's denoting that damsel in distress, dependent role; along with subtly showing young girls that they do not need to be that dependent, girly princess, or in the real world, that dependent, dainty, stay-at-home, gal in
Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and many other Disney movies all have one thing in common, they feature a female lead who needs a male figure to save them. However, things started to change after the release of Mulan in 1988. Movies that were only representing female leads as weak and always needed to rely on someone, started to feature females who showed off their more masculine side. Mulan was one of the first animated films that had started to dive into that, not to mention it was based on a true story, making it even more powerful. In the article “Post-Princess Models of Gender: The New Man in Pixar/Disney”, authors Ken Gillam and Shannon R. Wooden explore Pixar movies show male characters who were not afraid to show their emotions
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.
Since its inception, American mass media and entertainment has had an indelible impression on how our culture develops our collective identity. Mass media’s grip on cultural perspective has unprecedented power in molding how society communicates, why we communicate and what the communication ultimately means in our everyday lives. Say what you will about television, but what has been made excruciatingly clear over the past few decades is that the small screen is a teacher and what it teaches us more than anything is our roles in civility. Representation is key in this respect. Generally, much of television is concerns heterosexual, white males and their constituents, most of which are too white, heterosexual and male. In the age of being able to access television shows with a few clicks of one’s phone or computer, media’s presence continues to envelope the lives and perspectives of everyone. Young people who are growing up with new technologies that beam copious amounts of mass media influencers by the second are especially affected--their identities become cookie-cut before they even enter kindergarten. The AMC drama series, Mad Men is a marvel that has won four consecutive Emmy-awards for Best Drama Series and continues to receive glowing reviews every season. The wildly popular and critically-acclaimed television drama series expresses every concerning aspect of media’s representation of “US”, our history, our ideals and beliefs. What is perhaps most interesting about this award-winning show is how it always generates a dialogue about the state of our current cultural identity, saying so much about the nature of gender roles, sexuality, race and more. It is a reminder that whilst we are being entertained, we are also having our...
According to Human Sexuality in a World of Diversity 's gender role is a “learned role by observing behaviors of their parents, peers and media” (Rathus, Nevid, & Fichner-Rathus, 2014, p. 25). Research shows how gender roles in America have evolved and have changed over the last centuries, although there could be many reasons for this change I will examine some causes for the change in gender stereotypes. The following topics were studied during my research: Increased technology and access to internet, violence and explicit content in video games, movies and television shows resulting in gender stereotypes. In addition, the media can have a large influence on societies perception on how women and men are should look like which are sometimes
There are many opportunities in America that can improve one’s wealth and power, thus leading to the mass amount of immigrants coming to American. Most immigrants that come to American usually are categorized as the lower class immigrants, but they take any opportunities to improve their economic status. In an article by Howard P. Chudacoff, it states “immigrants generally chose upward paths that led from manual labor into small proprietorships” (Chudacoff 1982: 104). This explains the reason why immigrants choose to come and stay in America. They start out small as laborers then over time they will work to own a small business. Even though immigrants gets to grow to move from the lower class to the middle class, the natives will be always
"The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist. And poof-he was gone" (Usual Suspects). Today's devil is not a physicla being, but a metaphorical one. That of inequality on a worldwide scale. Although people would like to think that social inequality has been all, but destroyed in modern society it is still featured heavily within our media. Social inequality is the process of society limiting or harming a group’s social status. Prejudice can be based on class, race, and gender. It exists in all levels of media and reality. To Kill a Mockingbird and The Hunger Games show classism while The Little Mermaid and Antigone display sexism. Racism can be seen in The Hotel on The Corner of Bitter and Sweet and Black Like Me.
There is a high degree of social inequality within the United States. Of most modern industrial countries, the United Stated has some of the richest and some of the poorest people to be found. That fact is very disturbing, however, explains why much of the inequality exists in the US. In the following essay I will explain to you about the inequality in our country and why it occurs, based on the theoretical perspectives of a functionalist, conflict theorist, and social interationist.
For centuries now, males and females have never been viewed as equals. Males receive better wages, more opportunities, and greater praise compared to women. Equality is a goal throughout society, yet we are very far from achieving it. It is evident throughout society that women are not yet equal to men, when women are constantly objectified by people in our society. Gender inequality refers to unequal treatment and perceptions of individuals based on their gender (Trevino). The state of the problem plays a large role in how women are treated throughout our society. It is seen throughout countries all over the world. According to the World Economic Forum (WEF) report, the 2013 Global Gender Gap Report measured the disparities between men and
Instead, women are being discriminated and treated as inferior due to the stereotypes that are portrayed in the media. The media creates and reproduces ways of seeing that at a minimum reflect and shape our culture. We can look at the media to understand more about a culture’s values and norms, if we realize the limitations of looking at the media. For example, one may ask, does the news based in the United Sates represent what the American culture is like, or only what stands out from everyday American culture? The answer to that is no. Instead, the media represents what it thinks it will be able to sell and is supported by advertisements. This includes violent acts, the sensationally and inappropriate. Jhally reminds us that “it is this male, heterosexual, pornographic imagination based on the degradation and control of women that has colonized commercial culture in general, although it is more clearly articulated in music videos” (Jhally 2007). Therefore, “media content is a symbolic rather than a literal representation of society and that to be represented in the media is in itself a form of power—social groups that are powerless can be relatively easily ignored, allowing the media to focus on the social groups that ‘really matter’” (Gerbner,
Institutions are crucial for our society to be successful because it is a social and academic construction of a community in that institutions help us interact with each other and promote scientific research and findings, regardless of the cultures and values that each individual believes in; without institutions, there would be no order and stability in society. However, in the essay “Rent Seeking and the Making of an Unequal Society” by Joseph Stiglitz, Stiglitz disagrees by arguing that institutions actually prevent scientific research to evolve into scientific discoveries because monopolists and dominant forms such as Microsoft suppress innovation; however, this statement is unconscionable
Societal artifacts give valuable insight into the ways in which feminism, sex, and gender are portrayed in culture. The three artifacts that I have looked at and examined over the past semester have been an online advertisement for the 2017 movie Wonder Woman, the cover art for the action/adventure video game Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection, and the portrayal of a transgender FBI agent in the early 90s tv show Twin Peaks. While all three artifacts highlight different issues that infect society, together they show a complete picture of how feminism, sex, and gender is and how it could be if societal values progressed. At the center of these artifacts lies the concept of giving people agency to be the person they can be, and in order to
Clare Booth Luce, a woman who broke the gender barrier herself as the first abroad female ambassador, once said “Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, "She doesn 't have what it takes." They will say, "Women don 't have what it takes"”. As a country, the United States of America has come leaps and bounds from where it began with women’s rights. Women were not allowed to vote, and now we have women running for president. But, women are still not always treated as equally as men. Women still cannot hold certain positions in the military, or even wear what they want without being told it is too risqué. Gender inequality is still astronomically prevalent in today 's society and can be seen throughout mass media, career opportunities, and in
Disney promotes sexisim by forcing young girls to live in a patriarchal world. Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The little mermaid, Aladdin, and Snow White are all examples of popular Disney movies that encourage young viewers that they need a man to save the day. Yes, it’s true that there are recent movies such as Moana and Frozen that prove otherwise, but how long will it take to completely get over the fact that women are mainly viewed as secondary citizens compared to the men? There are countless examples of how Disney movies influence this theme, and how much the female characters’ actions, ideas and thoughts are not included in a Disney movie.
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.
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.