Gender Stereotypes In Media

Stereotypes are evident throughout all forms of media. Television shows and movies in particular use stereotypes to eliminate the details of a character, this allows the audience to know them without needing to spend vast amounts of time developing the character. However, stereotypes often create characters that poke fun or marginalize the group the stereotype represents. Since media stereotypes are used so often, the same stereotype being repeated over and over again, they become the only way an audience views the marginalized group. Stereotypes can have many different effects on the ways the real being marginalized in the stereotype live: they may feel ashamed to branch out from activities defined by their stereotype, they may be forced
The average American woman cannot possible relate to the stereotyped women in STEM fields shown in the media. These stereotyped characters are “inconsistent with how many women see themselves and how they want others to see them.” They discourage women from pursuing these fields at the risk of also being seen in the same negative portrayal, as being looked down upon as cold, distant, frumpy, unsociable, and on the fringe of society. There cannot possibly be a discussion to increase women’s interest in STEM fields without addressing the American medias portrayal of women that choose those fields. The media can include women in STEM fields without marginlizing the entire group and misrepresenting them. Other countries media outlets already do a very good job at this. Toshiko Sato from Torchwood, which is a BBC show, is a hacker and engineer for a secret government agency. She is smart, resourceful, and very much a woman of science. Toshiko also has friends, is sociable, and goes on dates. She is versed in pop culture and is witty without being insulting to real women who follow similar careers. Toshiko dresses and acts like the average woman. She doesn’t dye her hair, or act and dress in unconventional ways. Toshiko represents the average British woman, and she also happens to be a scientist. If American media represented women in STEM fields the same way across media, it could have a drastic effect on women’s interest in science. They would not see an awkward scientist on the screen, they would see someone very much like them. Someone who bright, strong, passionate, and most importantly,