It is well understood that the mass media holds the power to reinforce dominant social understandings of males and females, producing discriminating social systems (Ott, 2010,p. 180).This is done through the media’s ability to abuse female chastity to be ideally pure and reserved. Consumers being known as the secondary audiences allow media messages to influence them and they would then disseminate the information (Ott, 2010, p.220). Stereotyping can occur when a “misleading or simplified representation” is produced, usually by blending realistic aspects of life, material conditions and social roles (Ott, 2010, p. 180). These categories of gender stereotyping can be identified through the popular novel known as: Fifty Shades of Grey.
Media’s continuous manipulation of incorrectly labeling what’s right versus what’s wrong has held dramatic consequences on the women of today. It’s seen as abnormal when a woman wants to be sexually active and explore her options with her sexual life. While a man is given all the freedom in the world and doesn’t get judged; media and society place a strong emphasis on a woman's chastity. As a result, as soon as a girl has been with more than two guys, she becomes “used”. Women are expected to fall into certain categories that society had created a thousand years ago, and if change doesn't occur, the world is going to continue to remain in that mindset. It’s not right, to judge someone’s character based on their virginity. When the author of 50 Shades of Grey, decided to do something new, she was heavily judged by everyone. This is due to how media portrayed woman to be, creating a tainted ideology of how they should act and think. Her message of why she wrote the book was obviously different, but it shows how the audience can misinterpret based on what media places as acceptable and unacceptable.
Fifty Shades of Grey, is displayed as an erotic book but has gained popularity worldwide. It has been