The Influence Of Media On Gender Identity

The television industry is not influential in forming gender identity in our Children’s formative years.

This boy’s family forces him to watch Sunday afternoon football each week. What then lures that five year old boy to his grandmother’s bedroom to play dress up with her makeup and high heels the moment the football game ends? Could the media make this feminine boy into a masculine man? Or is it something that is already a part of the brain that defines what our gender will be? Transgender men and women know at a very early age what gender they are and no amount of television or sports will change what is in our heads. After listening to many transgendered men and women talk
of their childhood, they knew that they were not the little boy or girl their parents thought they were. They were not the gender; that their genitals categorized them to be. Just as young girls who are born feeling like a boy, in their minds they are boys. No amount of influence by the media is going to change this. Unless you conform to society, you’re an outcast. It does not matter how much dress up or action movies that a child will watch. The media will never be able to sway our minds into thinking differently. A child’s gender is in their minds not what the media portrays a man or women to be. There is something in us that makes us the man or women we grow to be. Although I do believe that the media can influence our minds in the direction that we know our place and what is expected of us as men and women in society. Yes the media may influence our behavior or what we perceive it to be, but not our real selves in terms of gender identity. Influencing what is already there is a bit different than forming one’s gender identity. Beyoncé, who is one of the most beautiful, feminine women in the world, loved being a tomboy in her young adult years. So it shows how the media can influence an already biological woman that thinks a bit boyish, into the epitome of femininity. However, it does not decide whether we view ourselves as male or female. The framework for how a girl or boy should behave is something the media definitely influences; the media can never take away our true gender. The gender we feel that we should be is an imprint in our minds. No amount of the media’s influence can take that from us. Dr. Sidney Ecker says “The groundwork in brain gender identity is gene-directed and takes place by forming male and female hormone receptors in the brain before the gonads and hormones can influence them. Multiple genes acting in concert determine our sexual identity. The human brain continues to make neurons and synaptic neuronal connections throughout life. This contributes to Gender Role Behaviors making individuals in the continuum of gender identity.” Gender identity is not formed by looking backwards into one’s life and reviewing what the media has portrayed as the stereotypical man or woman, or by looking at what each of us has, as our own interpretation of how a man or women should act.
The limbic and anterior part of the brain that has us as little boys, lying in front of the television watching actresses and dreaming if we could only be them, the manual used by psychologists and psychiatrists is called the Diagnostic and Statistical manual, it is used to identify mental disorders. Gender identity disorder is someone that has strong and persistent cross-gender identification. Feels a persistent discomfort with their sex and this discomfort is not due to being intersex or hermaphrodite. The discomfort causes significant distress or impairment in their life, this may teach a child what their role as a male or female is in society as through the eyes of television and the media industry. Parents of a transgender child had a quote that I found to be so endearing. It is a monumental quote from Renee Jennings; for young transgender children across the globe. “You’re special. God made you special. There are not many little girls out there who have a penis.” Does that sound like it could have been influenced by any form of the media? No amount of gender oriented media is going to form our children’s gender
identity. That little five year old boy and all of the young boys and girls out there need to be supported by the media, not made to try and conform to what the industry wants us to be. That piece of the brain that is gene directed is what causes us to take on the gender we will become. The media is not influential in forming our children’s gender identity in their formative years. Let our children be children and let nature take care of the rest. The media will go on trying to influence young boys and girls into believing what is trending at the time. I know that this is true, given this information I have provided. You will be more able to defend what exactly the media does influence. Hey, that little boy sitting next to you in a restaurant may actually be a little girl! Think about that next time you strike up a conversation with a young child!

Reference page:

“I’m a Girl!” (2012), “I’m a Girl!”-Transgender Children, Retrieved on April 29, 2012, from http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=3088298&page=1 Fluther.com, (2012), Fluther.com tap the elective, Retrieved on April 28, 2012, from http://www.fluther.com/94895/gender-is-it-between-the-ears-and-not-between-the-legs/ A.E.BRAIN, (2010), A.E.BRAIN, Brain Gender Identity-a presentation by Dr. Sidney Ecker, MD FACS, Retrieved on May 4, 2012, from http://aebrain.blogspot.com/2009/05/brain-gender-identity-presentation-by.html