Hong Kong Culture Today: Biological Sex As Fundamental Identity
The Hong Kong electronic environment culture affects the values for the public. First, Hong Kong is a modern society and media saturated environment. The media plays a significant part in the construction of appropriate or inappropriate gender roles and that can be found at everywhere. For example, the colors of clothing and toys are usually the first means of assigning them into boys and girls; “Boys cannot cry”, or “Girls should wear dresses”, all are the gender stereotypes of the particular sex in the society. Through observing the messages in media content, young people are able to follow the gender roles from the media images carried even they do not want to do.
People in Hong Kong are exposed to images, ideas and stereotypes and the sources go well beyond the perceived singular dominance of television that is found in media effects. Young people, and particularly teenagers and tween people, are exposed to messages that tell them what clothes, behaviour and makeup should they have. Primary among these messages are advertising tells us that advertising is filled with gender stereotypes and role definitions that may or may not be consistent with social or cultural norms and the development of the woman or man according to their potential. These all tell us the messages which have an effect on the individual’s sense of self and behavior, and encourage me to see my biological sex as fundamental to my identity.
As Hong Kong is a modern society, the stance of mass media on various possibility of sexuality will affects the view and opinion for the public. Therefore, mass media provide a message that people deviated from gender or gender norms, people were defined as strange, then societal stereotypes of sexuality were made. That incites the public to talk about our sexuality in bad aspect.
I am a heterosexual, I am a women. I will wear dresses and high heels, voice and walk feminine to express I am in female. As societal stereotypes of sexuality were made, what gender expression or sexual behaviour I do is a “normal person” and “correct” things. However, when I or just someone others tell others they are sexually attracted to people of their own sex, or they wearing makeup but they are boys, or dressed like a man but they are women, they may be defined as strange and “inappropriate” and “incorrect” behaviour.
Take the death of Leslie Cheung, a renowned queer celebrity in Hong Kong, as a example. Leslie Cheung claimed himself having a homosexual. And he suicided due to depression. However, the mass media explore the reason of Leslie Cheung’s death and depression is his sexual orientation. Then, media (newspapers and magazines)specifically to talk about the dangerous of having depression, and the ”wrong” sexual orientation, which will explore the message that homosexuality was deemed as incorrect by the public. Moreover, some people may definite that homosexuality was a disease, infecting people with wrong sexual orientation and lifestyle. Leslie Cheung’s suicide was came as a violent act of homosexuality.
So, we can see that there are bad stereotypes and discrimination to LGBT (Lesbian, Gays, Bisexual and Transsexual) from media coverage in Hong Kong and that lets the public talk about sexuality in something bad. Therefore, the increasing and expanding usage of the Internet, and the effect of the mass media, that “incite” others to talk about our sexuality in bad aspect.
