...Media and Gender Reflection #1 I do think that the media has impacted our views about gender, gender roles, and gender expectations. Visual media has had the highest impact. Movies, television shows, and television commercials are the most viewed types of media. The influence is not really age specific. Commercials aimed at children seem be made to be seen as gender specific. Even when you are shopping for toys, they seem to be set up in separate aisles. If you are shopping for a boy, you skip the “pink” aisle. The suggested video shows how our perspective has changed over the last 3 generations. In the 1950’s and 1960’s women were portrayed as: 1. The housekeeper 2. Weak (physically) 3. Unable to problem solve 4. Never getting their hands dirty In the same time frame men were presented as 1. The boss 2. Strong 3. Fixer of problems( both mentally and physically) At this time, sexual innuendos were less obvious and at times taboo. Gradually, with the changes in regulations in the media and desensitization of the general public, women seem to have morphed into objects, objects of ridicule, objects of scorn, or simply, just objects of beauty. Women have been referred to by generations as “the weaker sex”. The unstated assumption, then is men are supposed to be the “the stronger sex.” People do realize these are stereotypes. I think that each generation realizes how much of an effect the portrayal of gender has skewed many people’s...
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...n the American media, gender roles are still prevalent. The adaptation of gender roles has occurred because they are socially constructed. Gender roles are distinct and defined in the media. With great ferocity, gender roles are perceptible in our exposure everyday to the media, such as in advertising. The media demonstrates clearly the imposed and inevitable gender roles. For example, advertising for cleaning supplies consists of a woman stating the difficulty of removing stains. Advertising for motor oil consists of a man and his luxury car, often with a beautiful woman by his side. The function of gender roles are impediments of dreams, hopes and the future. Limitations, among both sexes, are set when gender roles are present in the media. Certain expectations and criteria are involved with gender roles, crippling the individual to act against the status quo because of the...
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...The media plays an immense role in reaffirming patriarchal assumptions of what is expected of society. Humankind is exposed to huge media platforms so often that it goes unnoticed when individuals begin to become like a famous, popular movie character. It is not surprising when a fictional character’s behavior comes to life through the viewers, the more exposure they have towards media. In “Beauty and the Patriarchal Beast: Gender Role Portrayals in Sitcoms Featuring Mismatched Couples,” the authors address that “Patriarchal ideology is so embedded in everyday discourse that it becomes normal to general audiences, and its presence goes easily unnoticed.” Television is such a convenient source of media that the storylines of beloved shows teach...
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...detailed, academically supported body of work, designed to retort the following questions: How and why are semantically sexualised women used as a perceptive marketing stunt’ and ‘what role does the media play in legitimizing gender discrepancies through framing and cultivation strategies? Coaxed by the issue of female objectification in the mass media, the following research was conducted both practically, and theoretically, to overtly annunciate the social and democratic problems associated with advertised female subordination. The relative research involves a semiotic analysis of two sources, coupled with a survey of 40 candidates of varying ages. Furthermore, theoretical mechanisms of media framing and cultivation have been deconstructed throughout this article to uncover the impact of magnified female subordination on the domestic expectations of children and young adults. Through the collection of data, it was able to be conclusively recognized the impact of objectification on social attitudes. Results had shown the many conceptions concerning the female purpose, these include; a woman’s role as a domestic and sexual slave to her male partner. Through the convergence of data, semiotic analysis and academic theory, it may be meticulously understood how female objectification in the mass media is a social complication in the construction of an egalitarian future. ‘Women’s bodies are predominantly valued for its use to others’ Fredrickson & Roberts 1997 During the past decade...
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...Professor Becker Interpersonal Communication Reflection Writing Assignment 1 February 6, 2015 Imagine living in a world where everyone was the same. A world where everyone stereotyped the next person because of their appearance or lack thereof. A world where everyone’s gender was the same, dressed the same way, or even practiced the same religious beliefs. I think most of us would agree that a world such as this would be a pretty boring place to existent in right. Since the beginning of time, gender has played a major determining factor in how someone acts and how they are viewed upon in our society. From a young age children are encouraged to embrace their natural gender roles. Boys are taught to play up their masculinity and ignore the more feminine traits and the girls vice versa. Although in today’s world stereotypes amongst the media has affected the view of gender roles. One of the ways that media and stereotypes have shaped the view of gender roles is by influencing individual’s outlook, attitudes and principles on life; for example, the beer and high heel shoe commercials from the clip. Commercials are the vast source of gender stereotyping, because they are adapted to a specific gender, either male or female characteristics. The purpose of the latest commercial is not only the satisfaction of needs, but also their design. Women are more often presented in commercials more than men because they are perceived as more liable for making everyday purchases. Men...
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...Introduction The issue of gender stereotyping is a prevalent global concern. When people apply gender assumptions to others, regardless of evidence to the contrary, they are perpetuating gender stereotyping. Many people recognize the dangers of gender stereotyping; yet continue to make these types of generalizations. Traditionally, the female stereotypic role is to marry and have children. She is to put her family's welfare before her own; be loving, compassionate, nurturing, and sympathetic; and find time to be sexy and feel beautiful. The male stereotypic role is to be the financial provider. He is also to be assertive, competitive, independent, career‐focused, and always initiate sex. These sorts of stereotypes can prove to be harmful; they can suppress individual expression and creativity, as well as hinder personal and professional growth. Children learn gender stereotypes from socialization. Gender socialization is the process where children learn to develop behaviours regarding what constitutes being a male or female. Beginning at a young age, parents, school, peers and the media highly influence the gender behaviours children replicate and ultimately internalize. My compilation of media entries focuses on the progression and adaptation of gender stereotypes in the media. Over time, perceptions of gender roles have changed, causing the media to modify traditional marketing tactics to conform to them. I chose to organize my entries into three sections....
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...In 2014 over 6,000 hate crimes were reported. 5, 642 were single bias incidents and 6,418 were reported hate crime offenses. According to the FBI’s report on their database, 47% of hate crimes were racially motivated. 18.6% were a result of the victim’s sexual orientation and another 18.6% were a result of the victim’s religious beliefs. 11.9% were because of the person’s ethnicity. 1.8% was a result of gender identity, and 1.5% was because of disabilities. 0.6% was because of the victim’s gender. (Gender research) Media plays a large role in creating social norms due to the fact that various forms of media, including film, television, and advertisements, are present almost everywhere in current culture. As a result, gender roles exist solely...
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...Gender Roles in Media A man might say that women are not meant to serve in the military, while a woman might say that men do nothing but watch sports. These expressions are examples gender stereotypes, which is an oversimplification about how an entire group of people are characterized based on gender. Many women over the last few decades have served in combat, which means they are perfectly capable of doing so, and not all men watch sports. Categorizing people into gender stereotypes have become more problematic in the sense that traditional social standards and expectations on gender have become more criticized in modern society. While gender stereotypes are still common in media, there are also representations that challenge these stereotypes....
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... | | | INTRODUCTION In society, they expect different attitudes and behaviors from males and females. Socialization is the process whereby individuals learn about the culture of their society (Mustapha, Nasser, 2009); this process occurs from the moment individuals are born and continues throughout adult life. Sex refers to the biological characteristics with which we are born. Gender identity, usually learned in early childhood, refers to one’s perception of him or her as either masculine or feminine. Gender socialization is the tendency for boys and girls to be socialized differently. Boys are raised to conform to the male gender role, and girls are raised to conform to the female gender role. A gender role is a set of behaviors, attitudes, and personality characteristics expected and encouraged of a person based on his or her sex. There are many factors in which male and female socialization are influenced by in...
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...been a switch in gender success throughout education; coming into the late 1980’s underachievement by girls was common; girls were less likely than boys to obtain one or more A-levels and were less likely to go on to higher education. Coming in to the next decade of the 1990’s there was a sudden reversal; girls were now doing better than boys who were now underachieving. In 2006 10% more females were obtaining 2 or more A-levels than males. Women are now getting better degrees than men. Sociologists have looked into this gender diversion from a social perspective. What made this reversal so sudden and why did it occur? Feminists believe that the education system is patriarchal and dominated by men, just like the work force is. Feminists argue that the education system is just a primary preparation for leading into the future work force. They believe there are still gender differences in subject choice in schools. Sociologists Heaton and Lawson (1996) argue that the ‘hidden’ curriculum is a major source of gender socialisation; within education, various subjects are aimed at a certain gender group; for example cooking would be aimed at girls doing house work and cooking. While most schools now title this course, Food Technology, feminists believe that the subject is still designed to 'snare' girls into adopting a mode of behaviour a patriarchal society accept and that the gap between girls and boys is still there in today’s society. Feminists also believe that gender stereotyping...
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...Sociologists suggests, there exists difference between sex and gender. Sex is the biological classification and gender is the outcome of social construction of separate roles of males and females. “,,what we call ‘men and ‘women’ are bodies that have generally been trainedin either the interruption of desire (women) or its free flow (men)..” – Halberstein (Gaga Feminism 2012: 12) Masculinity and femininity, or other gender roles such as androgyny, are not inborn that is children are taught these traits. As soon as a child is identified as being a male or female then everybody start treating him or her as such. Children learn to move in gendered ways through the support of their environment. They are taught the gendered roles projected by someone who is female or male. As the child grows up, he develops his identity, to know how to interact with others and learn the role to play in the society. (Lorber, Judith. 2005.) There are many drivers involved in the socialization process, which transfers the traditional role to the children and henceforth leading to occupational segregation later on. One set of gender socialization occur between parents and offspring, parents are considered to be the primary agency in the process of socialization, they are inclined to interact with boys and girls in a discrete manner. One of the most influential driver of the socialization process is the mass media. In mainstream media, stereotyping is a standard way of characterizing people, leading...
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...Gender, Class, and Race Stereotypes in American Television A Content Analysis Gender, class, and race stereotypes abound in contemporary society, much like they have done throughout human history. With the advent of television, however, stereotypical assumptions have become so pervasive, and so diffused, that some call for a serious and purposeful scrutiny of television's contents. On the following pages, various content analyses of television programs will be addressed, followed by discussions on the greater implications race, class, and gender stereotypes have on society. The research method most often used in studying media images is called content analysis. Content analysis is a descriptive method in which researchers analyze the actual content of documents and/or programs. By systematically counting items pertaining to a specific category, researchers are able to conceptualize a larger theoretical framework based on their observations of media content (Wiseman 1970). Content analyses of television programming show, that during prime time hours, men make up the vast majority of characters shown. Furthermore, women characters found during that same time frame are mainly in comedies, while men predominate in dramas. Thus, the implications are that men are to be taken serious, while women should not. (Tuchman 1978). Similarly, content analyses on soap operas reveal highly stereotypical representations of the genders. In soap operas, strong, willful women are predominantly...
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...Gender equality means men and women are equal in society in terms of rights, roles, responsibilities, and opportunities. Thailand’s ranking on the gender inequality index is 92 out of 138 (UN Women Thailand Country Programme, n.d.), which means that there are many inequalities that remain in Thailand. There are two causes of, many examples of, and two solutions to the problem of gender inequality in Thailand. In term of sexual violence, as recently as 2008 domestic violence against women was a serious problem in Thailand. According to a study, many Thai police also do not take an interest in domestic violence crimes (US Department of State, 2009). Moreover, from 2005 to 2008, domestic violence against women and children happened in 10,816 cases, and there were on average twenty-nine cases for each month, most often committed by family members. Statistically, the most reported incidences of violence against women in Thailand occur in Bangkok (Corporal, L. L. 2009). In term of politics, Thailand from its inception allowed equal rights for men and women, according to the first constitution. In 1932, Thailand changed the form of government in the land from an absolute monarchy to a parliamentary democracy system. In doing so, both men and women would have equal rights to vote and work (UNDP, 2006). However, the number of women who participate in politics by holding an elected position in Thailand is merely 4 percent. Moreover, the number of female politicians in the parliament...
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...recognizable performances of roles and gendered and sexualized performances (Giltrow 276). According to Delph-Janiurek, voices are limited within the confines of certain societal hegemonic norms. He explains that the relationship between voices and bodies is not necessarily physiological; voices are vocal “performances”. There exists a pre-established gender duality within society, in which masculinity and the “male” voice is associated with the male body, and femininity and the “female” voice is associated with the female body. Thus, what is considered to be a “natural” voice is merely a choice made by an individual as to which of the two sides of duality they identify with more (Gamson). This choice is a representation of a gendered and sexualized identity that is influenced by discourse. Gender norms dictate that males identify with the more masculine voice, with a lower pitch and only slight increases in intonation. The stereotypical female voice, on the other hand, is more high pitched, with more variation in intonation (Bonds-Raacke). With this in consideration, Delph Janiurek’s thesis is that voices have a “geography”, and that they can be authored in a certain way within certain societal “spaces” (Giltrow 276). In other words, certain situations demand misperformance of hegemonic gender roles in the form of voice alteration. Delph-Janiurek’s argument is limited in the sense that it does not conduct enough research into different types of social roles in order to properly consider...
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...Gender roles in the 21st century Introduction Gender roles are a set of social and behavioral norms that are generally considered appropriate for men or women in a social or interpersonal relationship. We are not sure when this practice started but pink and blue begins this lifelong process in the 21st century (Lindsey, 2005). As my research evolves, I plan to examine gender roles in various aspects of 21st century life: workplace, relationships, parenting, voting, consumer behavior, etc. Since this is such a broad topic, my research will likely lead to a paper with a more narrow focus. For now, I've chosen references which are established articles on this broader topic. This research will likely become more focused as I develop the paper. Origin of Gender Roles The gender roles have evolved a great deal from the onset of the human civilization which started as hunter gathers. The males were primarily responsible to provide food, shelter and protection while the women looked after the offspring and took care of the tribe. The Functionalist perspective explains this fairly non-overlapping segregation of gender roles in the pre-industrial society. Evolution of Gender Roles For a considerable period of time there was little or no interaction between the different civilizations and therefore each society developed its own distinct culture and the socialization process. The local socio-economic factors, religious beliefs, legal and political factors had huge impact of the...
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