Gender Stereotypes: Gender Roles In Media

Music. Magazines. Movies. These words all have one thing in common: they are all forms of media. Media is found everywhere we look at all times of day. The purpose that media serves is to communicate information to us, whether it be an advertisement trying to sell a product, or the news on television communicating breaking news. In order to do this, media producers use men and women like us so it will feel realistic enough to peak an interest in it. However, the men and women that are used in media are not always portrayed equally or in a realistic way. As a result, gender roles and portrayals in media are the most powerful and influential because the media is in many places and communicates what it wants people to do regardless of

When one logs onto the internet and social media, it is highly likely that he or she will see some post or search result regarding music, most likely being modern music. When people click on these posts or entries to listen to music, one may just listen to the rhythm and instruments in the songs, and not what the lyrics of the song are saying. If someone were to listen to the lyrics in songs nowadays, their reaction may include being surprised and shocked. For example, the songs Love the Way You Lie by Eminem ft. Rihanna, Father by LL Cool J, and Hush by HELLYEAH have one thing in common, they all are about domestic violence. Domestic violence is a huge issue in today’s society, and it is primarily caused by men. The reason that men are the primary cause of domestic violence is that men feel that, “To Keep Manhood, [They] Must Remain Aggressive” (Dye). Men want to feel like they are the one’s in charge, and sometimes they don’t, so they feel that being aggressive will show their partner or spouse that. This message of men being aggressive and violent towards women is not a good message to be sending to others. When people hear these types of messages in these songs, they feel the need to act and copy those actions because they heard it from a famous, catchy, overplayed song and figure that it is okay to do, when really, it is

It is extremely crazy that people will see or hear something and then imitate it even though it may harm themselves or others around them. This makes a huge point of why the media hasn’t realized that a huge amount of the problems in America connect to what it puts out. The only way these problems will stop is for the media to rethink what messages they are sending out to the public, and seeing how they act now, it will not be