Preview

Portrayal of Women in the Media

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
3179 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Portrayal of Women in the Media
Portrayal of Women in the Media Gender is the psychological characteristics and social categories that are created by human culture. Doing gender is the concept that humans express their gender when they interact with one another. Messages about how a male or female is supposed to act come from many different places. Schools, parents, and friends can influence a person. Another major factor that influences millions of impressionable females and males is television. Not only does the television teach each sex how to act, it also shows how one sex should expect the other sex to act. In the current television broadcasting, stereotypical behavior goes from programming for the very small to adult audiences. In this broadcasting range, females are portrayed as motherly, passive and innocent, sex objects, or they are overlooked completely or seen as unimportant entities. Stereotyping women is not only rampant in the adult world; it also flourishes in the kiddie universe as well. Here, there are depictions of women and girls as motherly or innocent, silly, and passive. This occurs not only in popular programming on Public Broadcasting, but also on television in other countries. Mothering images on Philippine TV has shown some of the same trends that is seen in the United States. Although "Teletubbies and Barney & Friends display an equal representation in number, each show displays gender stereotyped qualities," it is obvious that these programs are sometimes reinforcing the wrong ideas about gender roles to children, roles that feminists have been battling for almost half a century. "Both programs demonstrated clear gendered roles with males being more active and females being more social and passive. This distinction appeared most obviously in the real-life segments of both programs with women as mother or passive viewer of action. Neither program shows women or men in non-stereotypical roles, indicating at an early age children are exposed to
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Synthesis: Gender Role and Mercury Reader
    • 1288 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Synthesis: Gender Role and Mercury Reader

    A lot of these gender roles start showing up when we’re young which could prove to be more biology oriented than media oriented. For instance little boys tend to play with things like dinosaurs and action figures while little girls tend to play with dolls and houses. Such situations are explained by Deborah Blum in her article “The Gender Blur” when she talks about her oldest son playing with dinosaurs and pretending to gnaw people’s legs off. She then goes on to explain that little girls don’t do that but instead play with their dolls and houses. In her opinion these early experiences influence who we become later in life. (Blum 104)…

    • 1288 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Summary Of Why Street Protests Don T Work
    • 141 Words
    • 1 Page

    Summary Of Why Street Protests Don T Work

    The popular article, “Why Street Protests Don’t Work,” is by Moisés Naím, a contributing editor for The Atlantic, an author of more than 10 books, and a distinguished fellow in the International Economics Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Throughout this article, Naím argues that protests are no longer productive with the popularization of street marches. By explaining how social media has undermined real activism and productive, organized protesting, Naím’s piece is subjectively denouncing social media’s affect on social movements and demonstrations. Naím’s aim is to inform the public about the importance of organized and committed movements rather than the popular movement of clicking to share without sustained action…

    • 141 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Gender Roles In Things Fall Apart
    • 680 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Gender Roles In Things Fall Apart

    “There should be no distinction between typical masculine and feminine occupations, and the traits of character should not be ascribed once and for all one gender.” said Malgarzata Walsh of krytyka.org. Stereotyping and gender roles have played a prevalent role not only in our modern society but throughout history. Webster’s dictionary defines gender or sex roles as “the behaviors, attitudes, and activities expected or common for males and females”. Gender roles have been defining societal norms for both males and females since the beginning of civilization. We view the “normal” to be submissive, emotional women who are useful for nothing more than cooking, cleaning, and staying home to care for the children; while men are looked upon as the proud, strong, manly, and sole provider for the family. While in recent years, certain people and organizations have been working hard to cease the use of these stereotypical roles, they are still very common throughout television, film, literature, and advertisement.…

    • 680 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    About-Face And The Negative Portrayal Of Women In The Media
    • 489 Words
    • 2 Pages

    About-Face And The Negative Portrayal Of Women In The Media

    About-Face tries to change the way that young women and girls view themselves. Additionally, they try to stop the way that women are stereotypically portrayed in the media. Moreover, they take sexist and chauvinist messages about women and girls in the media and turn them into positive and empowering messages to women and girls. About-Face also tries to boost girls’ self-esteem and self-image by promoting self-acceptance and self-love. They also try to educate companies about how harmful certain messages in the media can be when they stereotype women and only promote a certain type of beauty ideal. Furthermore, About-Face are big advocates of media-literacy education for women, girls, and companies. They also offer workshops to help girls improve their self-esteem and their outward image of themselves.…

    • 489 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Sex, Lies, and Advertising
    • 471 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Sex, Lies, and Advertising

    We live in a society where women are expected to behave in different ways than men do. But, how do we learn to act according to our given gender? Most guys like playing football, drinking beer, and cars; while women tend to enjoy make-up, shopping, and jewelry. Parents, family and peers play a huge part in the discovery undoubtedly, but the media tends to be an even more influential means of learning role expectations. In particular, there are tons of stereotypes being represented during a television commercial.…

    • 471 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Influence Of Gender Socialization
    • 134 Words
    • 1 Page

    Influence Of Gender Socialization

    At a very early age, we were taught to be boys or girls by various gender socialization agents. Because of the emphasis of these socialization agents, we can hardly change the images of boys and girls, or men and women. When a baby is born, parents would dress the baby in blue if it is a boy or in pink if it is a girl. At school, teachers may ask boys to do heavy works and girls to do something easy. However, the most powerful gender socialization agent is the mass media. The images of boys and girls, or men and women, presented by the mass media are distinct, and they have had a great effect on the development of our gender roles.…

    • 134 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Media Impact On Women's Image
    • 287 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Media Impact On Women's Image

    Even though, the modern media has had many positive impacts on our lives, when it comes to women’s image, especially in commercial advertisements and programs, it usually has such misleading interpretations about the perfect images of beauty and the happiness of women. Thus, many women who have already been struggling with their uncertain self-identities have become even more insecure and unsatisfied with their “imperfect” physical appearances and their unrealized “ideal” life styles. Therefore, the conflict about who they really are and whom they wish to be has caused such confusions that some women would lose touch with reality, and make decisions which can never bring them true happiness. In this paper, I will discuss the impact…

    • 287 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Rigid Media Portrayals Of Gender
    • 236 Words
    • 1 Page

    Rigid Media Portrayals Of Gender

    Rivers and Barnett suggest that the rigid media portrayals of gender are damaging and that without intervention children will end up stuck in gender straitjackets, is this true? Is rigid gender damaging?…

    • 236 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Portrayal of Black Women in Media
    • 1639 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Portrayal of Black Women in Media

    The stereotypical misrepresentations of African-American women and men in popular culture have influenced societal views of Blacks for centuries. The typical stereotypes about Black women range from the smiling, a sexual and often obese Mammy to the promiscuous Jezebel who lures men with her sexual charms. However, the loud, smart mouthed, neck-rolling Black welfare mother is the popular image on reality television. These images portrayed in media and popular culture create powerful ideology about race and gender, which affects daily experiences of Black women in America. With few healthy relationships portrayed in the media, Black women are left to make decisions based on the options they have and the options they perceive. Therefore, it is not difficult to understand why Black women are the least likely to marry in the climate of the over-sexed woman and a pimp.…

    • 1639 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Gender Stereotypes In The Media
    • 1888 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Gender Stereotypes In The Media

    Staying true to oneself is a concept that most people continuously struggle with as they grow up. From the moment we are born, we are assigned a gender role based on our biological sex. We are then expected to conform to these sets of “rules,” these so called gender norms, that tell us how we should or should not act based on our sex. I believe that our society definitely exaggerates the stereotypical male and female behaviors not only in the United States, but also around the world. We see these stereotypes portrayed and reinforced everywhere, especially in the media. According to the documentary, Miss Representation, “American teenagers spend 31 hours a week watching TV, 17 hours a week listening to music, 3 hours a week watching movies,…

    • 1888 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Gender Representation In Media
    • 189 Words
    • 1 Page

    Gender Representation In Media

    The most sensitive and controversial topics from time to time is gender representation. Gender representations in media often portray male and female stereotypically, in which they are depicted differently (Doring 2006, p. 173). Even though the representation of gender in media has already been developed lately, but women’s representation in media are still portrayed stereotypically in various ways. According to Amancio (1993), he stated that gender stereotypes are seen as social representations or collective ideologies defining model of behavior. Media do not simply reflect the reality in society about the gender stereotypes; it supports the ruling class’ ideology of patriarchy which controls the issue of gender all over the world by producing…

    • 189 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Gender Stereotypes In Children
    • 1585 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Gender Stereotypes In Children

    In today’s culture gender stereotypes and biases are created on the daily and children learn to adopt their gender roles based on these stereotypes. As children grow up they are exposed to factors that have major influences on their behaviors regarding their gender roles. During children development, children’s surroundings shape them into who they are. School, television, advertisements, friends, parents and many others impact these children and brainwash them into following these gender stereotypes. A study found that kids at the age of two and a half use gender stereotypes in negotiating the world, therefore in a number of activities they generalize these stereotypes to apply (Witt, 1997). For instance, girls are encouraged to play with dolls and engage in feminine activities, boys are pushed to play with cars, trucks and be involved in sports. From a very young age these children are experiencing these stereotypes first hand being that they are so vulnerable and are much easier to shape. Television also plays a huge role in children developing gender roles. Disney Channel is only one of many influences on children about male and female roles in society. It has been found that preschools spend nearly 30 hours a week, on…

    • 1585 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Sexism: The Portrayal Of Women In The Media
    • 333 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Sexism: The Portrayal Of Women In The Media

    You can argue whether or not the media is sexist, about how women are portrayed and used in the media, and how it makes us feel about our selves and how we should be. In my opinion I think the media is sexist as they portray and advertise how women ’should be’.…

    • 333 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Advertisements and Their Affect on Gender Roles
    • 1033 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Advertisements and Their Affect on Gender Roles

    Gender is defined as the behavioral, cultural or psychological traits typically associated with one’s sex. But how are these traits decided and perpetuated? Children aged two to five years old see an average of 22,228 commercials on television. Bu the time a person is 40 years old, they’ve seen up to one million commercials. Psychologists believe we learn gender traits through social learning; through observing others and then modeling their behavior. If this is so, then T.V. ads play a large part in transmitting messages about gender norms in our society. Children, especially, are influenced by this type of social learning. Adults, however, also continue to observe and model others and then modify their behavior of gender norms accordingly as they compare themselves to others.…

    • 1033 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Sexism In The Media
    • 398 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Sexism In The Media

    Sexism can be described as discrimination or unfair treatment to a person based on gender, typically against women. We live in a society where sexism is so prevalent that it has become part of the norm. Sexism is constantly in the media, it can be casual, and although mainly seen in regards to women it can also been seen with men. Between magazine covers to song lyrics and television women are told daily how they should act, speak, and look. Women have to be a size zero with full lips and big hips, in order to please a man we need to be a “lady in the streets, but a freak in the bed”. Young girls are showed from day one that they should desire to look like the perfect plastic Barbie, and in order to be complete she needs her perfect plastic…

    • 398 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics