Gender Representations and Sexism in the Media Free Essay Example

Young and old individuals can learn an amount of information from the media depiction of males and female. The media helps form perceptions of gender roles alongside other socializing factors such as family and colleagues, and can shape the behaviors that result from those perceptions. This section reviews the proof from studies into content analysis to determine the most prevalent patterns in gender representations in the media. Traits that emerged more prominently in male images included active, dominant, and independent. Attractive and dependent included those prominent with female consumers.

These results are usually consistent with gender stereotypes observed in previous studies and extend to self-selected social media shows the research on stereotypical gender characteristics exhibited in professional media representations. It then links the topics that arose in the literature on content analysis — women’s under-representation, physical appearance representations, household roles, and professional roles — to research that measure the impact of such media representations. The subjects of gender role socialization and body image disruption are discussed in this process, and the social consequences of such media effects are discussed.

Throughout history, there’s been a distinct difference in gender roles. Some researchers propose that a range of variables, including socialization and biology, as such, gender roles are often expressed through interaction and community. Women and men’s social desirability and gender have often been described in aspects of their bodies in modern press and culture. ‘For women, this has often involved comparing themselves to and even replicating the ‘thin ideal’… altering their shapes to heighten perceived sexuality or youthfulness or conforming to traditional definitions of femininity including qualities such as submissiveness or sentimentality …’ (Rose 589).

For males, gender-based concepts of achievement often involve the presentation or development of their bodies as healthy, youthful, active, and physically dominant.

According to a study, conducted by Lauzen and her colleagues (2008), Males were more probable to occupy work positions on television, while women were portrayed in roles involving romance, friendship, and family. due to the fact of men and women, assuming what was proper societal gender roles traits. In 1989 Wanta and Leggett studied the media images of male and female athletes specifically Wimbledon Tennis Tournament. Depicting and use of their different terms of emotion, dominance, and power. Due to Goffman’s research of how ‘women are pictured in a submissive position while men are depicted as dominant figures on magazine and newspaper photography” (Rose 591). Wanta and Leggett came up with a hypothesis and used these ideas to predict that the photographs on how female tennis player are portrayed as submissive than male tennis players. Goffman believed that due to sports having this specific framework of masculine and competitive it asserts at the male gender is categorically viewed as aggressive and in power. Gender stereotypes also took part in video games. ‘Female characters are represented as highly sexualized while male characters possess exaggerated strength, are hypermasculine, aggressive, and, with the exception of showing hostility, lack emotion’ (Rose 593). A study found that male characters were seen as competitors while females were seen as the victim, and needed the help of a strong man to save her. Based on the studies on gender roles carried out over several decades from the areas of marketing, broadcasting, images, electronic gaming, and cultural studies, it is evident that masculinity often involves power, and independence, while femininity indicates physical appeal. For instance, Downs and Smith (2010) discover in their content assessment of best-selling play station console matches that 41% of woman protagonists carried exposing garments and an equivalent amount were partly or completely naked. And a lot of these females had unrealistically proportioned bodies. “Notably, the researchers rarely found portrayals of either talk about sex or sexual behavior—only six instances of either were observed in 60 video games depicting 489 characters. The games were not about sex, but about sexy women” (Collins 294)

Goffman (1959) asserted that it concerned people with self-presentation during all social encounters. This is because perceptions affect others views, among other factors, irrespective of the motives of an individual. For Goffman (1959), the’ presentation of self in daily life’ and the retained roles are relevant to daily interaction. People perform scenes continually to prevent shame and to fit in with cultural standards. Recent surveys on self-presentation on private pages (Oh, 2004; Cho, 2006) evaluate only the types and not specifically the gender display.

A variety of research, for instance, have shown comprehensive’ A number of studies, for example, have demonstrated extensive ‘gender-swapping’ in ‘avatar’ creation for online gaming and in text-based CMC’ (qtd.Bruckman, 1993; Roberts & Parks, 1999; Suler, 1999. pp.594 ). In specific, modern gaming settings enable gamers to construct or choose’ avatars,’ their digital self in the gaming world, which contain a range of different features such as height, weight, age, ethnicity, clothing, and occupation. In these settings, the avatar becomes deeply connected to their self-performance and commitment in a simulated society. ‘Despite the above-cited studies of ‘gender-swapping’ No scientists have examined the magnitude to which social media consumers ascribe gender stereotypes in their Internet self-representation and self-representation in CMC.’ ( Face It. pp. 594).

Hancock and Toma’s 2009 research on profile images produced and published on internet dating pages with the aim of establishing friendships comes closest to the concentration of the current research, examining the effect of gender on self-presentation and cultural desirability. They found that both men and women ‘edit’ their records by improving themselves to create a greater self-presence. Dominick (1999) investigated how men and women brought themselves to stereotypical gender roles in culture on personal homepages. Based on demographic and private data, artistic phrases and photos, Dominick mapped 500 randomly selected private homepages. He used five image building techniques of Jones (1997): ingratiation (reports of modesty, understanding, and humour).; knowledge (records of abilities and achievements) ; bullying (gestures of anger and disapproval) ; exemplification (private superiority shows) ; and supplication (images of helplessness while operating self-deprecating ; Dominick, 1999. Many of the research in these unique problems concentrate on stereotypical portrayals of females apart from the position of ‘sex object.’ Nine of the assessments that occur in the distinctive problem category for some traditional female stance and find evidence that it often happens in the media. Das (2010) finds no drastic discrepancy between the percentage of women and men shown in Indian TV ads (females were far less likely to appear for voice-over ads).’Of the 627 characters identified and coded in their analysis, 43% were female and 57% male’ (Collins 295). Male – female relationships focus on significant power, interdependence, physical, and psychological differences. Mixing these elements results in ambivalence expressed in the coexistence of positive and bad conduct in the same environment, but also in the same subject (Glick, Fiscke, 1996, 2011; King et al. 2012). The same individual may have a adverse attitude towards the peers of employed women and searching for answers to the kids of his family. The function of sexist ideology is opposite to ‘the voiced hostile sexism. Women are regarded as rivals who, instead of adopting their allocated locations, attempt to go against males, weaken their authority and limit their liberty by means of arms of gender or ethnicity ‘(14) The severe sexism focuses on affirming the ‘ ordinary ‘ inferiority of females, justifying an open hostility towards them. (14) The global analysis of the outcomes contributes to the creation of idea leads to the emergence of the thought that women tend to adapt to the system in which they appear. In a society with a high level of hostile sexism, women find benevolent sexism easier to accept. It is easy to understand why: in most situations, benevolent sexism, thanks to the secondary benefits that entails, is presented as a foothold in front of hostile sexism.

It is very complicated and the multiple elements of personal existence are analyzed briefly. It is hard to bring into consideration the range and peculiarity of the fields, events and circumstances in which being masculine or woman is irrelevant; not to forget the trouble in taking into consideration psychological, social status, social. the interwoven specificities decompose and recompose the perceptions and behaviors of males and females. The effect of economic factors and authority on the possibilities of people of both races, the limitations that force the barriers that stay in the manner, and in particular the disparities that they generate, must also be taken into account.