Gender Stereotypes Essay
Representation Of Gender Stereotypes Essay
(Core Text: She’s The Man, Related Text: Bend It Like Beckham)
Gender refers to what it means to be male or female in daily life. Gender is different to sex, which is the term used to describe biological differences between males and females. Throughout history, the roles of males and females have changed. A stereotype is an oversimplified and conventional idea or image, used to label or define people or objects. We often have a preconcieved idea of people and think of them in terms of categories, rather than considering their individual differences. Society validates gender roles and stereotypes, encouring and pressuring us to fit into the dominant future. A good example of stereotyping gender roles is to think about how babies are colour coded, girls in pink and boys in blue and also femininity and masculinity, but this is one of many other good examples. The media plays an integral role in influencing the way people perceive gender roles. Magazines such as Cleo, Dolly and Girlfriend are all clearly targeted at a female audience, whereas magazines such as Men’s Health and Wheels appeal primarily to males. Some argue that the differences in behaviour between men and women are entirely social conventions. Others believe that our behaviour is defined by biological universal factors to some extent, but that social conventions also have some effect on gendered behaviour. Messages about gender roles and stereotypes can come from many sources. For example, the media, TV, magazines, war, books, marketing, sports, radio, fashion, commercial advertising, internet, fairytales and toys. In the two spectacular films, She’s The Man by Andy Fickman and Gurinder Chadha’s film Bend It Like Beckham, the directors challenge these female stereotypes by the contradictory actions and behaviour of the female protagonists in each film with these films. This helps question the audience’s assumptions about the equality of each gender and
(Core Text: She’s The Man, Related Text: Bend It Like Beckham)
Gender refers to what it means to be male or female in daily life. Gender is different to sex, which is the term used to describe biological differences between males and females. Throughout history, the roles of males and females have changed. A stereotype is an oversimplified and conventional idea or image, used to label or define people or objects. We often have a preconcieved idea of people and think of them in terms of categories, rather than considering their individual differences. Society validates gender roles and stereotypes, encouring and pressuring us to fit into the dominant future. A good example of stereotyping gender roles is to think about how babies are colour coded, girls in pink and boys in blue and also femininity and masculinity, but this is one of many other good examples. The media plays an integral role in influencing the way people perceive gender roles. Magazines such as Cleo, Dolly and Girlfriend are all clearly targeted at a female audience, whereas magazines such as Men’s Health and Wheels appeal primarily to males. Some argue that the differences in behaviour between men and women are entirely social conventions. Others believe that our behaviour is defined by biological universal factors to some extent, but that social conventions also have some effect on gendered behaviour. Messages about gender roles and stereotypes can come from many sources. For example, the media, TV, magazines, war, books, marketing, sports, radio, fashion, commercial advertising, internet, fairytales and toys. In the two spectacular films, She’s The Man by Andy Fickman and Gurinder Chadha’s film Bend It Like Beckham, the directors challenge these female stereotypes by the contradictory actions and behaviour of the female protagonists in each film with these films. This helps question the audience’s assumptions about the equality of each gender and