Response The documentaries Tough Guys and Killing us Softly, really brought to light the way masculinity and femininity are represented in our society. The characteristics and associations that are made when these words are thought of are bizarre and not natural. I strongly believe that both masculinity and femininity are learned characteristics from the human environment. I often wonder if people would even have these ideas and characteristics that are associated with gender in the beginning of time, or if people have slowly began to define and differentiate the genders throughout the evolution of time.
Today's society is constantly besieged by the media, through advertisements and extolling the importance of female beauty and discrediting other virtues such as
In Generation Me: Misogyny in Media and Culture, this documentary explained how and what is causing us to see gender in a certain way. Misogynist ideas will continue to exist because it’s motivated by the idea of masculinity and femininity. We are repeatedly being taught and raised by these ideas. The media is using it to sell on the market, while the kids eat it up like it’s normal. As long as we follow this ideal, nothing will change for generations to come.
The themes of masculinity and American ideals heavily influence this film. Men are presented to be powerful in this film, and that power derives from the fact that they carry guns and commit acts of violence. In the film, almost all of the males have either a pistol or a shotgun. This depiction is inaccurate, as most people in the west didn’t own a firearm. In contrast, women in the film are portrayed to be the weaker gender, being present only to take care of their partner.
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick Dewitt is set during the gold rush era. This novel is a tale of two brothers, Charlie and Eli, who work together as contract killers. Right from the beginning it is unmistaken that Eli does not share the same eagerness for killing as his brother Charlie. As the novel advances Eli’s sensitive side becomes more familiar. He starts to watch his weight, brush his teeth, and even starts to search for love.
While the men were the protectors and enforcers, the women on the other hand, were the quite opposite. Romero’s film portrays the cast, women and men alike, in their stereotypical behaviors. Most noticeable were the stereotype of Barbra. The movie opens up with her and Johnny, her brother, visiting their father’s grave. As it were their customs to do, every year.
Relationships help us through tough situations. In the film, Bridge to Terabithia, we are presented with many recurring issues, for example, Jesse Aarons’s bullies, Mr Aarons and Jesse’s relationship and most importantly, empathy and understanding between one another. The characters face many problems in which they rely on others for help. With these strong bonds, the protagonist, Jesse, is able to overcome these difficulties. After Leslie’s death, Jesse doesn't accept her death and is in denial.
Stereotypes of African American Women in Media The media is a powerful force of American pop culture that it affects what people see. It leaves an enduring impression in the minds of children, teens, and adults by setting the tone for the values, morals, and images seen on television. According to article, The Media as an Agent of Gender Development, 2017, gender-related images presented in the media might influence children’s views of boys, girls, men, and women by what they see (397). The media has negatively affected African Americans by forcing stereotypes that have been deeply rooted ever since the age of slavery, African Americans have been treated as second-class citizens and stereotyped as stupid, lazy, irresponsible, cowardly, submissive,
The director uses hyper masculinity and tyrannical control as the catalyst to the perspective that their identity is a subconscious power struggle for self-identification.
37% of women were working because of World War ll. The female characters in the film are often depicted as weak and helpless. In other terms, a Femme Fatale,
This removes entire generations from the media. The news also misrepresents women as sex objects with short skirts and fluff pieces. Women are rarely given serious news pieces, styled with tousled hair and low-cut blouses. This allows women to not be taken seriously and hired for looks instead of based on merit. The roles women typically play in movies and shows are lower and subordinate.
In horror movies, for example, the victim is more often a woman than a man, simply because of the stereotypical idea that women are scared easily and scream when they are in a scary situation, and just as we expect, they go to a man for help, because the proximity of a male figure is comforting and safe. In movies, brains never go well with beauty. The hot, popular girl is often not very smart and usually mean, while the smart girl is not at all attractive to the opposite sex and nerdy. We all know the typical teenage movie in which the boring girl has to be transformed into a babe in order to become attractive and desirable for men. In movies, women are almost always changing themselves to please men.
Mass media represent a powerful force in modern societies as they shape public discourse and influence public opinion by transmitting social, political and cultural values. For decades, women’s representation in mediated popular culture has been a central problem because of the gendered ideologies it circulated. From the 1880s to the 1970s, American women’s magazines played a significant role in disseminating the dominant ideology and patriarchal order, perpetuating the myths of female disposability and domesticity, maintaining traditional images of femininity. They promoted the idea of women’s emotionality, vulnerability and beauty ideals.
The existing asymmetry in terms of social power between men and women was strengthened through these images, as the stereotyping of women in these categories was associated with lower degrees of social and control. In his book ‘Gender Advertisements’ Erving Goffman describes how feminity and masculinity displayed within western media. In his analysis, Goffman addresses several trends and patterns in how feminity (and masculinity) is portrayed as well as the messages this conveys to the viewer. According to him women are portrayed as soft, vulnerable, fragile, powerless, dreamy, childlike and submissive . Goffman described a number of symbolic ways in which indicative behavior displays the subordination of females to males, the ritualization of subordination is accomplished by using social connotation associated with elevation, location positioning, and body posture .
The representation of gender in mass communications has been a hugely debated topic for years and will continue to be one for many more years to come. The media plays a big role in how they want to portray a gender to the public. They create certain stereotypes through the role of a gender in order to attract a large audience and interest to sell a product, brand or image. Media is so important in today’s society, people spend hours and hours each day watching TV, browsing the Internet and reading magazines. There are so many images of men and women in the media today that it certainly has an impact on the viewer’s thoughts and sense of identity.
