The Influence of the Media on Gender

The Influence of the Media on Gender The media plays a great role in influencing the opinion of the society. The strength of the media’s influence is seen when a female celebrity wears a new trend of fashion and this trend, however mundane it may seem, is imitated by women throughout the world. Another example is when a rapper creates a new slang which may refer to a women’s body part and this new slang term is used by the youth, all over the world, on a regular basis. In my collage, I included some of the cast from the Jersey Shore. I think this show displays a modern example of gender stereotyping. The male characters in this show conduct themselves as “thugs” with an obvious macho attitude. The slang term used to describe such males is “Guido.” The women in this show are portrayed to have a high interest of how they appeal to the opposite sex and “hooking” up. In the music industry, especially in hip hop, we see rappers rap about women in terms of sexual objects, and how they know the behaviour of women well. In many movies (Transformers) and books (James Bond Series), we see how women are forced to use their body to survive from the domination of men. In a lot of designer brand ads, we see men portrayed as strong, fierce and dominating, while the women are portrayed as innocent, seductive and dominated. In magazines, women are encouraged to be fit, develop some curves and wear make-up to please their husband/boyfriend. The body of women are used to sell objects in ads. In video games and comic series, the male character is usually fully covered up to make his muscles stand out – displaying his muscularity and therefore, strength. The female character, however, shows a lot of skin to use her attractiveness to her advantage. The bottom line is that the media stereotypes men as much more powerful than women. In my opinion, the media makes a huge difference in the lives of people all around the world. In fact, I believe that a lot of problems happening around the world is because of the example the media sets- the man as the more powerful. I’m sure a lot of people would, given the chance to contemplate fully, have a negative view towards the media.

“The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses.”
-Malcolm X
(Source: http://thinkexist.com)