Representation Of Gender Roles In The Modern Media
It’s integral to note how media shapes our perception on women. Through media, these messages can be unconsciously woven into how people perceive women and their roles, as media depicts images of the gender through limiting perceptions as it sexualizes, stereotypes and underrepresents women. These perceptions then get deeply imbedded into mindsets and feeds into the patriarchy, thus increasing the discrimination women go through.
Women and their bodies are constantly exploited in advertising, where their bodies are conveniently turned into an object to sell a specific product, such as in a Michelob beer advertisement where the woman’s body is turned into the bottle of beer while she seductively looks into the camera. Michelob takes advantage of the fact that sex sells by equating the female sexual image to their product. Jean Kilbourne, who is recognized for her critical studies of alcohol advertising argues that “by creating a climate within which the marketing of women’s bodies – the sexual sell and dismemberment, distorted body image ideals, and children as sex objects – is seen as acceptable”. The Alcohol industry in particular is known for how demeaning their advertisements are, an example being a Bacardi rum ad which focuses particularly on the woman’s body and cuts her face off, while she pulls down on her pants, while the slogan says “Pussy cat by day. Bacardi by night. These ads cater to the male gaze and by cutting off the woman’s face, the woman is basically dehumanized and rid of any agency she possesses and is suggestive of how women must be ‘released’ at night through getting them drunk where they can be their ‘true’ selves. It’s important to note how these ads send out the message that women must be ‘free’ and ‘easy going’ in order for men to like them and enjoy their company. Several advertisements such as a Burger King ad where a burger is used as a phallic symbol and the woman has her mouth wide open while she looks at the burger with lust simply depicts how Burger King using sex to attract men. In Injuries that Injure, Lisa Wade and Gwen Sharp argue, “Advertisers use a limited version of sex: a nearly uniformly heterosexual version that presents men as active sexual subjects and women as passive sexual objects who perform for the pleasure of men’.
Julie M. Stankiewicz & Francine Rosselli in their research paper titled ‘Women as Sex Objects and Victims in Print Advertising’ conducted a study where they reviewed advertisements from 58 magazines for the study, which included men’s, women’s, news and business, entertainment and teen magazines. Some examples of the women’s magazines that were used included Cosmopolitan, Elle, Essence and Harper’s Bazaar where a total of 4,136 full-page advertisements were reviewed and 1988 featured women. Lindner (2004) defines objectification as “portrayed in such a way as to suggest that being looked at is a woman’s major purpose or function in the advertisement”. The study found that whenever women did appear in advertisements in men’s magazines, they were portrayed as sex objects 75.98% of the time and approximately 73% of the time, women portrayed as victims were also portrayed as sex objects and men’s magazines contained a higher percentage of images of sexualized women as victims. Thus, this proves that women are merely props in the advertising sector and their bodies are objects to be used and exploited in order to sell a specific product. This also adds onto the idea that a woman’s true value lies in her body and how it looks. However, it’s integral to note that men and their bodies are also exploited, for example, evidence shows that unrealistic images of male models increase body dissatisfaction among men and may lead to drug abuse and eating disorders. Women are also negatively impacted by the constant focus being placed on their bodies and looks as the social comparison theory argues that media and how it presents women greatly impacts their perception about themselves and their bodies. The women we see on the covers of magazines and in films are as perfect as one can be, starting from their body type to their skin and hair. These women have a whole army backing them up and helping them achieve that level of perfection, but as the social comparison theory stated, women do tend to compare themselves to women in the media not realizing how heavily airbrushed those pictures are and how toxic the media industry truly is. Tiggemann and McGill (2004) found that women participants' exposure to media images of females led to increased levels of body dissatisfaction and weight anxiety4. Many companies want women to internalize the idea that they aren’t good enough for them to buy their products such as Slim Fit Tea and many more. By using such models and by heavily editing the advertisements, they instill feelings of inadequacy into women.
Women are also widely underrepresented in journalism, where its been noted that although women dominate journalism schools, they don’t dominate newsrooms. Women comprise more than two-thirds of graduates with degrees in journalism or mass communications, and yet the media industry is just one-third women. According to the Women’s Media Center report “The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2017” Men receive 62 percent of bylines and other credits in print, online, TV and wire news and have 84 percent of the last century’s Pulitzer Prizes. In her September 2014 Nieman Reports article “Where are the Women?”, 6 Anna Griffin described how since men have held editorial and leadership roles and only tend to promote men. When women see the lack of opportunities in journalism, they thus tend to leave it. Anne Griffin notes how this is a cycle of institutionalized sexism, where women are also not seen in leadership roles because they are not ‘well suited’ for them. Although some women do make it to top, such as Jill Abramson, the first female executive editor at The New York Times, but she also noted that she was seen as ‘pushy’ and ‘unlikeable’ for her management style while her male colleagues were termed as good leaders for similar styles. She was eventually fired and although she notes that her departure from The New York Times was for several reasons, her gender certainly played a crucial role in it.
The Women’s Media Centre Report also noted that Newspaper editorial boards are on average made up of seven men and four women, along with how the overall commentators on Sunday morning talk-shows are more than 70% male. This stems from the idea that women have no agency and do not possess the ability to think for themselves and articulate opinions. As noted by the Women’s Media Centre Report, the irony lies in how 2016 election could be the first time a woman presidential candidate gets a major party nomination, men reported 65% of political stories. Furthermore, Men also continue to dominate science coverage (63%), world politics coverage (64%) and criminal justice news (67%). However, there were some positive points to be noted from the report, such as how 53% of contributors to the Huffington Post are women and in the top grossing films of 2013, the number of movies in which teen girls were hyper-sexualized dropped from around 31% to 19%. There is still a long way when it comes to women playing active roles in journalism, such as in sports journalism where there continues to be a lack of inclusivity where female sports journalists remain the least represented in all types of journalism today. According to the Women’s Media Centre, only 11 % of women in the United States cover sports, while men cover 89%. There are several reasons for the decline of women in this field, but one reason that stands out the most is the backlash that women get on social media as noted by Concordia University journalism professor Linda Kay, who is the first-ever female sports journalist at The San Diego Union-Tribune. Kay states that there is constant fear of dealing with sexist, racist, violent or sexualized social media backlash if they present a wrong fact or a difference in opinion also makes this field daunting. Although men do face criticism, they’re criticized on their intelligence, not their gender. However, there is room for growth in sports journalism. Shireen Ahmed, a Pakistani freelance sports journalist notes that although sexism and racism will be hard to eradicate from the sports workplace overnight, Ahmed feels that it is important to form a “sisterhood of other sports writers that are female and are important to your career.”
Media has also effectively created stereotypes for women and associated those characteristics to them. For example, in most Pakistani cooking oil advertisements, it is the women who are cooking away while their in laws/husbands wait for the food at the table and the women wait for them to validate their cooking skills. This reinforces the notion that a woman’s primary duty is to serve her family and that her place is in the kitchen. These stereotypes are so deeply imbedded that they have even seeped their way through into children’s cartoons, such as Scoody Doo. Scooby Doo has two leading female characters, Velma and Daphne. Their only similarity is that they both wear skirts. Daphne is the stereotypical pretty girl who appears to display feminine traits, has a thin waist, arms and legs along with long hair. Velma has glasses and has a broader body structure than Velma. While Daphne isn’t the smart girl and constantly needs to be saved by Fred, Velma is the smart member of the group. However, she is constantly overlooked by the group members and Daphne is the more desirable one, supporting the notion that only pretty, delicate, thin girls are desirable. Fred is the desirable male of the group and is seen to have masculine traits and a built body while Shaggy is not the desirable male member of the group. Shaggy’s hair is disheveled most of the time and his shirt is very loose on him due to his thin body structure. Fred acts as Daphne’s love interest and her savior most of the time. In the second part of the Scooby Doo movie, Daphne gets Velma ready for a date and completely changes her look. Velma is seen to be wearing a latex jumpsuit, a lot of makeup and her glasses are off. This shows the viewers what Daphne’s image of beauty is and makes us question as viewers, why isn’t Velma good enough the way she is? Why must she have to wear a tight fitted jumpsuit in order to be attractive?
An animated film that depicts the stereotypical relationship between men and women is ‘The Little Mermaid’, where the mermaid gives up her whole identity to be acceptable for the prince. Media also holds the power to reinforce notions of love. Chuck and Blair of Gossip Girl are the epitome of romance for some; however, their relationship is extremely toxic. Chuck is willing to get Blair to sleep with another man so he can keep his hotel and is a horrible person throughout the series, from trying to rape Jenny in Season 1 to trying to ruin Dan’s career just because he was involved with Blair. Thus, Chuck and Blair should not be any teenage girls’ depiction of what an epic romance looks like, nor should be the popular Friends relationship between Ross and Rachel. Ross was constantly controlling and jealous, for example his irrational jealousy over Rachels colleague, Mark Robinson. Rachel and Ross are toxic for each other in several ways yet their relationship is admired by many. Thus, this depiction of love should not be idealized. In my opinion, there is a lot of gender disparity and misrepresentation in journalism and the entertainment industry. Women must be empowered and given the opportunities they deserve and must be given accurate representation. There must be diversity in their voices and the power to make their own choices instead of settle.
