The Representation of Females in the Media It is generally accepted that the media, primarily television, 'lags' behind reality and current social trends (Butler and Paisley, 1980) (Gunter, Television and Sex Role Stereotyping). However, This does not make the way women are portrayed in the media any better. Women are not only under-represented in the media but more importantly are portrayed to be "half clad, half witted and needing to be rescued by quick thinking fully clothed men" (Stereotypes, Adelson 1990). Women are most commonly portrayed as sexual objects and housewives; whose lives revolve around landing the right man. "When women are in the news, their role is often trivialized. World leaders are described in terms of their hats or dress designers" (Benedict, Virgin or Vamp, 1992). Women are portrayed as jealous and insecure, and often neurotic. This type of unrealistic ideal portrayed in the media is being forced upon society today, and is having serious negative effects on the way women are being viewed and treated in society. Most media forms are similar in the portrayal of women (for example, television, magazines, and newspapers), however; the advertising industry takes the stereotype of women to the edge and are branded as being the worst mediums in the portrayal of women. Stereotypes are conventional, oversimplified conceptions, opinions or images. Stereotypes exist as they are of cognitive importance to humans. It may be argued therefore, the process of stereotyping is a necessity, so we can make sense of the world and our environment. They allow people to do less searching when looking for evaluations of peop... ... middle of paper ... ...ents, and Audience Reactions. Retrieved from Sex Roles: A Journal of Research Goodman, E. Grand Rapids for Information Technology. [Online] Retrieved form the World Wide Web: www.griid.org/gendermedia.shtml Gross, Ira & Downing, John & d'Heurle, Adma (editors) (1982). Sex Role Attitudes and Cultural Change. Holland. D. Reidel Publishing. Gunter, Barrie. Television and Sex Role Stereotyping (1986). John Libbey. London. Ingham, Helen. The Portrayal of Women on Television. [Online]. Retrieved September 20, 2001 from the World Wide Web: www.aber.ac.uk/media/Students/hzi9401.html Ruby, J. (2000). Man Bites Dog. Off Our Backs, 12-19 Sex and the Women's Magazine. Retrieved from The Wilson Quarterly (2000). p84. InfoTrac Web. Stereotyping. [Online]. Retrieved September 20 2001 from the World Wide Web:
On September 20, 1984 a show aired that changed the way we view gender roles on television. Television still perpetuates traditional gender stereotypes and in reflecting them TV reinforces them by presenting them as the norm (Chandler, 1). The Cosby Show, challenged the typical gender stereotyping of television, daring to go against the dominant social values of its time period. In its challenge of the dominant social view, the show redefined the portrayal of male and female roles in television. It redefined the gender role in the work place, in social expectations, and in household responsibilities. The Cosby Show supported Freidan in her view of “castigating the phony happy housewife heroine of the women’s magazines” (Douglas 136).
First of all, in The Simpsons, the scene where we get into the actual plot of the story opens with Marge and Lisa walking into a department store that sells dolls. The gender stereotype that girls are only interested in playing with dolls is reinforced here as a huge selection of Malibu Stacy dolls is on display with a throng of screeching, bloodthirsty girls tearing the store apart. Lisa says, “I’m warning you mom, I might get a little crazy.” and immediately knocks down a girl and snatches another in a choke-hold to be the first in line for the new Malibu Stacy doll. In the very next scene we have the whole family in the car with Homer driving. He is baking a cupcake with an easy-bake-oven that he bought from the mall. Marge advises him that he should not be doing that. The stereotype here is that men are more impulsive as demonstrated by Homer and his baking while driving without any concern of his or his family’s safety; and that women like to play it safe and think before acting as demonstrated by Marge. Another noteworthy observation is the fact that Homer completes his gender stereotype as the bread-winner of the family. He works at the Nuclear power plant while Marge plays the role of the proud homemaker who is rarely seen outside the home and who has little friends. Homer on the other hand, is not confined to his domestic role and his frequently shown at Moe’s Tavern with his friends, at work, or doing something that is stupid and dangerous. This enforces the stereotype that women have few friends and stay close to domestic life whereas men have lots of friends, are more independent, and bring home the bacon. Moreover, Bart and Lisa are in accordance with their gender stereotypes as well. For instance, in the backseat, Ba...
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.
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.
Mass media is designed to reach large audiences through the use of technology. Its purpose is
wrongfully. Between media and words or phrases, they can all discriminate another role of gender. In doing so, many corporations have used gender portraying as a tool for advertisements and other useful techniques. Media, advertisement, and phrases all provide creditability towards portrayals of certain gender roles.
Gender in mass media has a stereotypical yet influential role towards teens. Teenagers use social media diverse methods depending on their gender. Males and females not only use the media for networking, but also for reasons that aren’t so stereotypical. Girls and boys compared by underrepresentation and overrepresentation regarding media. A primary way in which media distort reality is in underrepresenting women. As said by Julia T. Wood, “this constant distortion tempts us to believe that there really are more men than women and, further, that men are the cultural standard. In general, media continue to present both women and men in stereotyped ways that limit our perceptions of human possibilities.” As media change our lives, the ways they misrepresent genders may distort how we see ourselves and what we perceive as normal and desirable for men and women.
From an early age, men and women are expected to act in stereotypical ways. Boys should be manly and girls should learn to be lady like; those who brake the social norms face rejection and criticism. As kids grow up, they become exposed to the media. Images, videos, television shows all portray men and women in stereotypical manners. As we get older, things sadly get worse. Things such as the fact that women make up 51 percent of our population and hold no power. Men hold a tight grip on being the majority. A good example for why men have the power is the way they view women. On March 10, 2008, Marc Rudov appeared on Fox news, he was asked about the downside of having a women president. Rudov responded, “You mean besides the PMS and the mood swings, right?" (Ironside) Comments such as this provoked me to look for women in the media organizations; only one caught my interest immediately, making it all the more effective.
The documentary Miss Representation identifies the numerous ways women are misrepresented in the media, including in news, advertisements, movies, and television. The title Miss Representation emphasizes that the way we portray women in the media is a misrepresentation, as in it does not do women justice and oftentimes, has a negative impact on the perception of women. Frequently in the media, women lack leading roles and complexity, are held to an unrealistic standard of beauty, and are subject to objectification and beautification (Newsom, 2011). These misrepresentations lay the groundwork for gender socialization, and therefore, shape how women perceive themselves and are perceived by others.
Prejudice, discrimination, and stereotyping are important topics at the cause of debating within social psychology. A stereotype is a generalization about a group of people, in which certain traits cling to all members, regardless of actual individual variation (Akert, Aronson, & Wilson, 2010). As humans, people assign objects and individuals into categories to organize the environment. Individuals do this for not only organization, but also survival. Is stereotyping inevitable? That is the question; according to Devine (2007), it is, but Lepore and Brown (2007) have to disagree. Devine believes that “stereotyping is automatic, which makes it inevitable.” On the other hand, Lepore and Brown are not convinced that stereotyping is automatic, and have claimed, after observation, that it depends on the individual.
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.
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.
On a daily basis we are subjected to a society that continuously uses stratification to divide members of the population into subgroups, such as; ‘gender, race, ethnicity, class, age, disability, sexuality and location, and in which the privileges, disadvantages and exclusions associated with such categories are unevenly distributed.’ Due to this, we are forced to question if gender stereotypes in the media have a negative impact in society.
Finding a simple or concrete definition of gender maybe near impossible. Gender roles are what men and woman learn and internalize as the way they are supposed to act. These roles are commonly thought of as natural rather than a construction of culture. Gender is thought to flow from sex, rather then being a matter of what the culture does with sex. This theory is widely and exhaustively debated, according to Wood “Sex is based on biology; Gender is socially and psychologically constructed” (Wood 19). This statement suggests that culture’s discourses and ideologies form the complexities of gender and gender roles. It is easy to say that girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice and boy are made of snips and snails and puppy dog tails, but we are actually more intricate then that.
An article by Christina N Baker, Images of Women’s Sexuality in Advertisements: A content Analysis of Black And White Oriented Women’s and Men’s Magazine emphasizes on how women’s are portrayed in media such as advertisements and Magazine. The author analyzes how media has a huge impact in our society today; as a result, it has an influence on race and gender role between men and women.