Gender Stereotypes in the Media

Introduction

In society, the media has a great impact on how men and female are perceived. As a result, this influences peoples' opinions, views, and values, which affect our ideas of gender roles. A gender role is a set of societal norms dictating what types of behaviours are generally considered acceptable, appropriate, or desirable for a person based on their actual or perceived sex. Even without the help of the media, gender stereotypes have been around for a long time. It is the mindset that women and men have roles that they have to fulfill. This does not give much freedom to the individuals who may want to step outside of the gendered role. However, things do seem be shifting in society.

Gendered Roles

Gender roles are based on norms, or standards, that have been created by society over time. In countries such as Canada and the US, masculine roles are usually associated with strength, aggression, and dominance. On the other hand, it is expected that women are supposed to be the ones staying at home, doing the chores, preparing the food, and taking care of the children. Gender socialization begins at birth and occurs through four major agents of socialization: family, education, peer groups, and mass media. The repetition of socialization over a long period leads men and women into a false sense that they are acting naturally, rather than following a socially constructed role. The attitudes and expectations towards gender roles usually have nothing to do with race, but on stereotypes about the attitudes, traits, or behavior patterns of women or men. Gender stereotypes is the basic foundation that forms sexism, or the prejudiced beliefs and attitudes that males have more value than females. In addition, the traditional expectations of gender roles forces transgender, genderqueer, and other nonconforming-gender people to face discrimination, oppression, and violence.

Throughout history, there seems to be a pretty clear division of the roles women and men fit under. Women are supposed to be ones staying at home, doing the chores, preparing the food, and taking care of the children.

Influence of Media

Today, our life is constantly bombarded by the influence of the media. It influence our ideas and thoughts about gendered roles. With social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, it has a profound socializing impact on teenagers and the younger generation. The impact of social media on teenagers’ is that it does not allow them to fully explore their creative minds and find their true identity outside of the gendered norm. Media has a significant impact on children in perceiving gender roles. There are commercials on TV where women are represented to have the responsibilities for the household chores because products such as dish soap, laundry detergent, and child care products all target the female audience. It makes it seem like that men have nothing to do with household chores. Once people develop a sense of attitude or opinion about something, it is very hard to change their way of thinking.

Another example of this would be the idea that many times in the media, women are presented in advertisements as a form of product promotion. Commercials and advertising are a powerful tool used for creating and shaping people’s opinions. Therefore, stereotypes are very often used in advertising and most pop culture, which contributes to our ideas of gender and and other Socially constructed patterns. Females usually appear as sexualized objects, whereas men are portrayed as “real men” who are strong and successful.

Debated Topic

Such as a topic of racial discrimination, gender equality is a topic that can be usually seen or heard about on the news. Since, it is a highly debated topic, people seem to take sides on whether gender equality is good or bad. This is evident in the workplace. Many women who do the same work do not get paid the same amount as their male counterpart. Hollywood actress' have spoken out in recent years on closing the wage gap. Gender equality in the workplace is not going to happen over one day. It will take lots of people to work together, as well as educating the future generations.