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Essay on the portrayal of women in mass media
The impacts of the gender stereotype
Men and women in society
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Gender stereotypes are basically rigid, oversimplified, exaggerated beliefs about masculinity and femininity that misrepresent men and women alike. Our perceptions are shaped by the culture in which those stereotypes lie. Those expected behaviors often become the expected realities of people. How do said expectations change when encountering people that do not quite fit the dichotomous binary? How do they differ across cultures and through various social prisms? Seeing as how gender is quite complex as opposed to static, how are they incorporated into the intersections in which they relate to? While I completely agree that gender stereotypes are rigid, I do see that their meanings can be altered in response to the social contexts and patterns that they are existing in. …show more content…
Gender Stereotypes exist because of constructs that allow for constant reinforcement. First of all, in order to get away from the notions of stereotypes, one must examine gender as something that is not universal or static. Notions like the fully masculine man or feminine female are not possible. The reason being that masculinities and femininities varies across cultures. Not only that, but it is possible for them to change over time. Secondly, at least in the West, gender roles are present since before the moment a person is born. Blue-Pink Syndrome states that everything is and can be gendered. For example, expecting parents decorate their baby's room with things that coincide with their sex. Pink frills and cute images for girls, and blue sporty images for boys. Lastly, gender stereotypes are shaped in the three levels of organization: by the individual, through interaction, and in institutions. Individually people choose how they want to act, as well as how they would like the rest of the world to see them as. They may emulate the gender stereotypes that best expresses their own identity. Through interaction people
These gender roles, however, do not just apply to children. These roles are still very prominent in “grown-up” society. Traditional gender stereotypes are a big concern in today’s society, as well as throughout history. Insurmountable evidence has been posed stating the idea of gender stereotypes is largely accomplished through social factors.
Nowadays women should be treated equally, but some very common stereotypes are still used. For example, in my last birthday, I received a gift from my friend in a pink bag. Then, I asked my friend, why he picked a pink bag, he simply replied "all women like pink," but actually he did not know that my favorite color was blue, and that does not mean that I am a boy. On another occasion, I was taking care of my little cousin, he began to play soccer, and when I asked him if I could play with him, he answered me, "not because girls do not know how to play football," his answer surprised me, so I take his soccer ball, and I showed him that he was wrong, because women can play different sports.
There are hundreds of gender stereotypes in the culturally constituted world, which tells individuals what is appropriate and what is not. These items of appropriateness or ones that are not appropriate transfer meaning to the individuals and products that are associated with it. Most male stereotypes focus on the male being strong, independent and the breadwinner, mostly those attributes are for the all American white male. I do believe that these stereotypes change if a male is homosexual or a different race. For example, a stereotype of a homosexual white male would be to be flamboyant and emotional while a heterosexual Asian male would be seen as smart and good at math and music.
Sure, the rooms that children grow up in are a start, but the color of a room can’t determine how they will act their entire lives. Gender roles are learned in various places, such as school, church, from parents, and on television. As a child, a common game to play is, “House.” It is easy to see that even early on, a little girl knows that she is the mother and stays home to take care of the baby while her husband goes off to work (“List of Gender Stereotypes”). It is believed that these behaviors are majorly learned from parents, but can also be taught through television. Many common t.v. shows highlight typical gender roles within the home, allowing children to believe that it is “normal.” This is not even the extent of where these behaviors are learned- many come from school as well. From an early age kids learn in school what famous men in history are famous for, and what famous women are famous for. Children also learn the typical occupations of men and women in history. Most women that are nurses or teachers, while the men are lumberjacks or politicians. These are just a few examples of how many places children are drowned with information about gender stereotypes, and the pressure there is to follow
There are a variety of perspectives which are used in Gendered Worlds to examine gender. First, the androcentric perspective views male as being the moral norm. Creating this standard creates a society in which women are seen as deviant since in theory women do not fit the standard. Examples of this would be using words such as “mankind” or using “he” when talking about both females and males (Aulette, Wittner, p. 60). Another example would be using male-oriented words such as “guys” when referring to a classroom full of diverse students. Another perspective is gender polarization which refers to the way that diverse aspects of the human experience are linked to sex differences. Men are supposed to be withdrawn, unemotional, and dominating, while women are supposed to be emotionally submissive and irrational. Certain traits are imposed upon individuals because of their specific sex. If society had decided that pink was a color that was for males and blue for females then that would be the new social norm, and that would be the new characteristics of gender. An alternative viewpoint of gender would be essentialism which views gender as a fixed biological or psychological trait that does not vary among individuals over time. However, a female might start adopting behaviors that are considered masculine such as having short hair or walking with hands in the pockets to avoid the harassment she might encounter on the streets. This female would be doing gender according to
Gender stereotypes are a critical factor in this study, and they include hyper-femininity, traditional feminine roles, hyper-masculinity, and traditional masculine roles. Hyper-femininity is defined as a depiction of subordination and sexualization of a female, while traditional feminine roles involve
Girls are supposed to play with dolls, wear pink, and grow up to become princesses. Boys are suppose to play with cars, wear blue, and become firefighters and policemen. These are just some of the common gender stereotypes that children grow up to hear. Interactions with toys are one of the entryway to different aspects of cognitive development and socialism in early childhood. As children move through development they begin to develop different gender roles and gender stereotypes that are influenced by their peers and caregivers. (Chick, Heilman-Houser, & Hunter, 2002; Freeman, 2007; Leaper, 2000)
A common belief among a lot of cultural communities is that the differences between girls and boys, and between men and women, are natural and innate. Babies are distinguished at birth into males and females. On the basis of the sex which they belong to, their community will deem them qualified to do certain things and expect particular attitudes and behavior of them creating what we call gender roles and stereotypes.
Changes in society have brought issues regarding gender stereotype. Gender roles are shifting in the US. Influences of women’s movement (Firestone, Firestone, & Catlett, 2006) and gender equality movement (e.g., Obergefell v. Hodges (2015)) have contributed to expanding social roles for both genders. Nevertheless, gender stereotypes, thus gender stereotype roles continue to exist in the society (Skelly & Johnson, 2011; Wood & Eagly, 2010). With changes in gender roles, pervasiveness of gender stereotype results in a sense of guilt, resentment, and anger when people are not living up to traditional social expectations (Firestone, Firestone, & Catlett, 2006). Furthermore, people can hold gender stereotype in pre-reflective level that they may
Gender stereotypes are ideas simplified, but strongly assumed, on the characteristics of men and women, that translates into a series of tasks and activities that are assign in each culture. Along life, family, school, and environment, Society thought us what is right and what is not in being men or women. Starting with the form we dress, talk, express, behave, to what we can play or what sport to participate. The margin of the biological endowment differences males and females; the fact of being women or men implies a long process of learning and adaptation to the rules established starting with work, personality, love and desires. In the movie "The Ugly Truth." you can see different situations that reflect what society is teaching us for
The work's topicality is characterized by the existence of the gender stereotypes in society, having generalization, and does not reflect individual differences in the human categories. Meanwhile, there is still discrimination on the labour market, human trafficking, sexual harassment, violence, women and men roles and their places in the family. Mass media offers us the reality, reduces the distance, but we still can see the negative aspects too. TV cultivates gender stereotypes, offering ideas about gender, relationships and ways for living. Such media ideas attach importance to many people in the society. Consequently, it is quite important identify gender stereotypes in the media, in order to prevent false views relating to gender stereotypes.
This stereotype affects the mindset of women making them believe that only men can dominate important matters and occupy those positions of power. This affects the females in negative way making them doubt their chances and making males think these positions only belong to them these stereotypes are spread by the media and movies . In movies women are more likely to be shown doing housework and cooking because females are expected to be housewives. This thinking limit the chances women have in the society because, men are more likely to be shown with distinguished career or occupation of high office this makes females believe that they cannot achieve much out in the society. The roles in media have influenced people’s thinking. The differences between male and female expectations of genders are big. The costs of production of movies with males as the main cast have a higher budget than those with female main cast. It’s proved that expensive movies produced are more successful therefore this favors movies with male as main cast. In the movies females are portrayed to be showing only their sexuality as their greatest assets and their potential. This influences society making them think that women cannot exhibit their own potential in job markets or other important fields. It doesn’t allow them to compete with men and make them rely on their sexuality only. The types of
Why is it that people stereotype males and females no matter what nationality they are? Because we are all the same in the end but the media makes many people think differently. The general public thinks that all females like doing their hair, makeup, dolls and love light colors like color pink. Males on the other hand likes cars, playing video games, sports and like dark colors like blue. Advertisements are gender stereotyping whether people notice or care. Females are mostly openly stereotyped compared to the males because of our lack of abilities that males have. Stereotyping damages both genders but females more than males because of advertisement’s constantly reminding females on how they should act and be like all the time.
In elementary school one of the most common phrase used was, “You can’t do that you're a girl.” Society puts gender stereotypes and expectations on children at a very young age. I never really understood these stereotypes and expectations until later in my life. I couldn’t figure out why it was that boys were not allowed to like the color pink, and if the girls wanted to play “boy” sports it was seen as unusual. My family consists of my parents, my sister and I; so I never had sibling of the opposite gender in my life. I didn’t have someone to compare gender differences with. I was given toys no matter what gender they were geared towards. I remember receiving hot wheels cars and baby dolls the same year for Christmas and never thought anything thing of it. I think that these experiences has really shaped who I am today.
Gender stereotypes are very prevalent in today’s early childhood classrooms with societal expectations playing a significant role in generating the negative outcomes of both sexes (National Union of Teachers, 2013, p. 4). These societal expectations perpetuate inequality and become apparent through various interactions, messages and materials as well as through professional documentation such as the Australian Curriculum or the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) (Siraj-Blatchford, 2004, p, 22). This type of inequality disadvantages students creating restrictions on the possible opportunities they can encounter throughout life as well as impacting on their self-esteem and relationships (Siraj-Blatchford, 2004, p, 22) (National Union of Teachers, 2014, p, 3).