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What Are The Stereotypes Of Women

648 Words3 Pages

In todays globalization, mass media plays an important role in our society. Mass media includes all those media technologies that are intended to reach a large audience by mass communication. Those media technologies include, for instance, television, radio, internet, magazines, books, newspapers, etc. Mass media is the most effective medium of communication., They have the power to influence one’s opinions, thinking, sentiment and reactions. Indeed, as Gerbner highlighted mass media main goal is to sell something. In particular, television is the most efficient way for business industries to achieve this goal. In fact, television media tries to sell a particular mindset of how one is expected to live in todays society. Indeed, television was …show more content…

Media constantly represents both men and women in stereotyped ways. It promotes the traditional gender conformity, where men are portrayed as as active, adventurous, powerful, sexually aggressive and largely uninvolved in human relationship and the women are demonstrated as passive, dependent, incompetent and dumb. The way media misrepresents genders distort our perceptions of our self and what seems to be normal. For instance, movies like Lethal Weapon, Predator, Days of Thunder, Total Recall, Robocop Die Hard, and Die Harder depicts men as serious, confident, competent, powerful and in high-status positions. Accordingly, the message theses movies convey is that young boys and men need to be hard, tough, independent, sexually aggressive, unafraid, violent and totally in control. It is very rare that boys and men will be represented as nurturing and caring. Those are strictly, feminine characterisations (Wood, 1994). Surely, this is the result of male’s domination in our society. Newspaper Research Journal by Lester Paul Martin mentions how most of the politicians and experts are males. In particular, the mass media business is predominantly run by males. Consequently, the content of their movies or shows correspond with their concepts of how the society should be (Young, 1998). In addition, media portrays also stereotypical relationship between men and women. It demonstrates female’s dependences on males for identity. For example, in the little mermaid, Ariel is willing to lose her mermaid identity to find true love with the Prince, a human. Which conveys the message that little girls should give up their identity if it means they will find true love. Another current misrepresentation of men and women relationship is the fact that men are always rescuing the women. For example, in order for sleeping beauty to wake up Prince Charming must kiss her. Which

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