The Portrayal of Young Women on Television
Television is widely known to represent and reinforce the mainstream
ideology of contemporary western culture. While television's
representations of women has changed greatly in the last twenty years,
in order to accommodate the changing role of women in society. one is
left to ask how much the ideology has changed behind the more modern
representations of women. "Television is regarded by many viewers to
be the most 'real' form of media". If this is the case, then it is
important for us to question how real the representations of women are
on television and how this affects the attitudes of those who watch.
As mentioned above, there is a higher number of women in the
population than men, so if television is more realistic, this should
be reflected. Yet women are typically seen less often than men on
television and much less frequently in central dramatic roles. For
example, figures show that in television drama women are outnumbered
by men 3:1. In cartoons women are outnumbered 10:1 and in soaps women
are outnumbered by as much as 7:3 which is quite surprising when one
considers that this genre of television viewing has a very high
proportion of female audience. Even children's television is dominated
by males: 70% . Men also dominate the production side of television,
so it is hardly surprising then, that the masculine or patriarchal
ideology is presented as the norm, when women are so outnumbered by
men on screen, and behind the scenes in television.
Gunter argues that televisions sex stereotyping occurs in relation to
various roles in which men and women are portrayed and which have a...
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...or people to gaze through, and believe what
they see. Television allows people to see more things and so choose
what they want to be.
But unfortunately that choice for girls is often one full of
impossible contradictions in what they are shown, meaning that
television perhaps confuses further an issue which it could help to
resolve with more equal and less stereotypical portrayals of women.
Bibliography
· DINES, G. & HUMEZ, J.M. (Eds.) (1995): Gender, Race and Class in
Media: A Text Reader. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
· DURKIN, K. (1985): Television, Sex Roles and Children. Milton
Keynes: Open University Press.
· FISKE, J. (1987): Television Culture. London: Methuen
· WOOD,R(1998): Sexual Politics and Narrative Film
· GUNTER, B. (1986): Television and Sex Role Stereotyping. London:
Libbey.
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.
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Throughout the century, the ideal image of a woman has changed drastically, which can be directly attributed to the powerful persuasion of media. This ideal image has transformed from a voluptuous, size 14, 1950’s Marilyn Monroe to a 5’9, 100 pound, 1990’s Kate Moss. The most shocking aspect is specifically what young girls are now doing to achieve this “Kate Moss” image. Through the utilization of advertisements and stars on the big screen, this female portrayal directly targets the physical and mental well-being of females in cultures across the globe.
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