The female characters were weak, more concern about being attractive, not smart and they emotional during social situations. In regards, to female bias on TV, a 1977 Nancy Signorelli’s "study of Television Shows and Commercials, Movies, Music Videos, and Teen Magazine Articles and Ads,” shows that women play fewer and less significant roles in "television programs.” It further clams that females “are seen working... or cast as professionals" only in limited scenes. Instead, they are presented more as having no occupation and caring more about their relationships. The report further indicates that "women rely on their male… partner to help them solve problems and… achieve their goals;" and that "women in media” do things that describe them as "stereotypical females..., grooming or peering…" The findings by the report are convincing; especially when watching those episodes during the TV
Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s Miss Representation successfully conveys the dangers that are associated with the demeaning methods the media uses to displace women from inspiring, valued positions and the effects of it on the American female population. The documentary explores the negative portrayal of women in the press and Hollywood, lack of female participation in major fields, and the side effects of the antifeminist movements on impressionable, young girls that have become highly visible through the media. The documentary reports of how even the most casual hints of misogyny distort the public’s values and expectations for women. The targeted audience is everyone because society can only right its wrongs by working and empowering together. However, Miss Representation does emphasize that young women in particular were the most important group of their intended audience.
For instance, in a study done by Dr. Katherine Young and Paul Nathanson, they concluded that men are additionally derided, rejected, and even abused in media in addition to being unintelligent, and that these same actions would never be done in the media with female characters in our culture (Abernethy 351). This is a prime example of gender inequality in our TV media nowadays, which shows the lack of television programs with intelligent men and women combined nowadays. This also shows that if a show featured an unintelligent woman and an intelligent man (its vice versa for many shows nowadays), it would be either be heavily criticized by feminist groups or receive no positive support in modern America culture. Astonishingly, even many men would be not in favor for that idea of a show, since it would ridicule a woman the same way the media ridicules men on modern television programs. This is irritating to many men because the modern media allows programs that depict men negatively to air on a regular basis, resulting in gender inequality in the media.
The documentary Miss Representation perfectly mirrors my thoughts and opinions regarding the inaccurate representation of women in the media and under-representation of women in influential positions. It was evident to me through my analysis of the documentary and my observations of the portrayal of women in the media that money is the contributing factor of not only the success of women in this country, but it is also our downfall. Money has prevented us from breaking down the barriers between women and the rest of society which has led to the media stereotyping women and undermining our abilities. Men aren’t subjected to the same criticism that women are in the workplace, films, television, social media, and their homes. Men have the power and respect in society and it seems that power derives from money.
In the book, The Rise of Enlightened Sexism by Susan Douglas, gives insight and knowledge that digs deep into pop culture explaining how the media portrays the appearances of women that are in powerful positions in our culture. The appetencies tent undermines the actual progress of women. Douglas is interested in what these pop culture ideals shows about our culture. The way we react to women in our culture with powerful influence. What do these shows do to the female imagine in our culture?
Get Out is a horror film released earlier this year in February. The film centers on Chris Washington, a black man, and his white girlfriend, Rose Armitage. Rose invites Chris to a weekend trip to meet her parents. When meeting Chris, Rose’s parents are overly accommodating towards Chris and constantly speak about how much they love President Obama and other African-American people. Chris attributes this as awkward attempts to deal with their interracial relationship.
From the research of Melis, she points out powerful women doesn’t seem to be appearing in media much than men. I could tell, because “women make up 50% of the workforce, but the images don’t seem to reflect this.” This means women shown on media doesn’t make others think they have the power over other,
“Ex boyfriends are just like off limits to friends. I mean that’s just like the rule of feminism” (15:15). This famous saying said by Gretchen Wieners from Mean girls is widely known and most of the time ridiculed by people. Mean Girls is a movie that portrays the stereotypical American high school life. The movie has a main focus on the girls of high school, rather then on the boys.
In society, as far as power goes, men are the ones with power and women are the ones with powerlessness, but powerlessness is what inspires great things
Women should not be belittled or objectified just because they are females. In fact women are strong, brilliant, and accomplished individuals who deserve to be in positions of power. Our appearance should not dictate our capabilities. Therefore, if we are able to create more awareness through campaigns and education we will be able to reduce the sexism and discrimination toward women and create an actual democratic society not where the majority is men. If we are able to frame this issue in a way that resonates with others then we will be able to recruit more individuals and create a social movement powerful enough to stop or at least minimize the dehumanization of women.
The issue isn’t that there are more men than women so television logically represents men more so than women; the issue is instead that women continue to be afraid or unable to stand up and demand the representation they deserve because anti-feminist mindsets continue to linger in society despite the fact that this is the age of third wave feminism
Gender Portrayal When comparing men and women under media in romance, women are portrayed more negatively. For example, in the well-known film of Forrest Gump, Jenny (Robin Wright) acted hot and cold towards Forrest, who was loyal and believed that she was the only love in his life. She was depicted to be a bipolar woman who (somewhat) loved Forrest, but every time the topic of commitment came up, she would run away. Even in the last few minutes of the movie, she revealed that she had a son, and Forrest was the biological father. In this sense, you can perceive that Jenny was portrayed as the negative link of the chain.
This is seen through multiple platforms, most notably media, such as advertisements. The 1981 Lego ad is more successful in showcasing young girls as inventors than the modern Heartlake City Lego ad, but neither is truly able to address the stigma that femininity cannot equate intelligence which the recent
Because of the patriarchal control within pop culture, women are being objectified to please the gender biases of society. Women are forced to present a particular image that fits into pop culture standards as shown in Lady Gaga’s music video “Applause”. Applause is a song written by Lady Gaga in 2013 and was created to express how she appreciates performing because of the support from her fans. This song targets the idea that musicians use their audience’s approval to demonstrate how successful they are. It is a common belief that the less clothing one wears, the more successful they will be.
Children and television are a possible root for sexism. It is estimated that kids spend almost 30 hours a week watching T.V (Witt). Since television has a huge opportunity to impact children, they sometimes demonstrate sexism, a lot. Children are taught typical gender stereotypes on expected attitude and behavior. These typical stereotypes make children believe what roles men and women
