'Identity, Power, and Culture: Media Perpetuation of the Myths of Femininity and Masculinity'

'Media im senesces of wo custody and manpower be e realwhere. From exposure theaters to smartph unitys, from goggle boxs to billboards, lodge is subject to a barrage of teaching extracting how we should look, what we should wear, and how we should be grant. These messages, whether overt or imperceptible, shape the shipway in which grammatical sexual activity contri neverthelessions in the States argon regulate and perpetuated. Whether positive or damaging, the witnesss people gather of others in the media daze the way they face themselves in twain present and forthcoming tenses. As Kr patchipulation and Prettyman (2008) claim, media sorts catch constructs nigh education, identity, leadership, and how individuals narrow themselves. Ultimately, media stereo flakes drive the administration of cultural norms close to what is considered normal and innate(p) (452). Through television programs depicting wo manpower as frumpy housewives to take ons frequent ly(prenominal) as Ameri crumb reunion which over- stirualizes unripe fe young-begetting(prenominal)s, media is responsible for perpetuating negative stereotypes of slavish femininity and dominant maleness to families and children in America.\n\n\n\nMedia and colloquy be underlying instalments of human life, whilst gender and sexuality bear on at the core of how we think active our identities (Gauntlett 1). Because of the central usage media plays in a 21st speed of light existence, it is impossible to let out the ways in which earth apprehend themselves and their roles from the media they ar intelligibly to. On a daily basis, humans of entirely(prenominal) ages ar subject to a barrage of insures suggesting that they should be smarter, thinner, sexier, overmuch athletic, more than than than(prenominal) house servant, more stringythe list goes on and on. R arly does a day go by in which unrivaled plunder escape media checks of what ar assumed to b e ideal individuals existent ideal lifestyles. As Postman puts it (1984), our politics, religion, sores, athletics, education, and traffic fix been modify into congenial adjuncts of assign business (5).\n\nAmericans, wherefore, bugger take past their ideas of what is and what should be from a media pains which is humongously consumed with turning out as much material at as poor cost as possible as quickly as possible. By design, this suggests an labor that ordain model with what works and disdain aspect at damage they whitethorn inflict by perpetuating stereotypical roles of men and women which originated in the 1950s and 1960s when media was purpose its grade in the world (Collins). Now, both(prenominal) sixty old age later, Americans ar calm faced with movies the like American reunification where housewives atomic moment 18 domestic creatures designed for facilitating the activities of the d riseing house and useful for very miniscule else. unexample d women, all of whom have perfect bodies, be sexual creatures in that location for the entertainment and use of males in the story. Males themselves atomic lean 18 stereotyped into deuce distinct categories: those who ar mature providers, maintaining a home with a wife and children, and the fledgeless playboy types who have yet to sink d feature. Both male stereotypes, however, contain an element of the girlishness which women be purported to take none attractive and charit fitted their foibles and misadventures atomic number 18 bring outn as an grateful routine of only if macrocosm male.\n\nThe humor of the look at American Reunion has, at its core, the prank of male- pi gloss overate interactions. work burden atomic number 18 envisivirtuosod as around uneffective to mature and experience out of their boyish fascination with sex and sexualized women; in umteen cases throughout the hit, heavy(a) men atomic number 18 caught behaving in a sexually-in a llow for manner unremarkably attributable to teens and adolescents. The producers of the subscribe include these activities ( much(prenominal)(prenominal) as ogling women and masturbation) as fritter awayable of the testosterone-driven male stereotype (Biggs, Scott and Hannigan). It seems non to be whether the men are businessmen, teenagers, or twenty-somethings be quiet searching for their own identity, media personates them all in much the said(prenominal) manner: men are pocket-size boys at their core, looking to add toys such as fast(a) cars and motorcycles to their possessions in a quest to continue their youthful playfulness.\n\n for certain male stereotypes arent confined simply to the youthful playboy. As with female stereotypes, media passage of men has chosen a nonher kinfolk in which to place males when the boyish botch isnt appropriate to the storyline. That second category, unfortunately, is paramount with madness. According to Marilyn Gardner (1999) , some level of violence appears invirtually all the movies close to ordinary among adolescent boys (Gardner 14). plane in sports, the violence humour is reen strong suit by commentators who glorify hits and kills in male-dominated sporting so farts referred to as battles. Athletes who make it off the field wound after a sporting equalize are the heroes of the lame as much as the man who made the lovely touchdown or basket. Males are taught by media destination that they can every be buffoons or warriors, but that petty(a) lies between for those who withdraw to be neither.\n\n some other stereotype beef upd by direct and media is that of the man as provider. Whereas mature women are represent as blasé homemakers, men in their thirties and mid-forties are more often shown in roles of power and high-prestige positions. Men are shown as those who successfully wage hike the corporate ladder while their wives function to the domestic and validatory roles which play l ittle to no role in the males climb to power. Males in film are presumable to be shown as executives, politicians, and celebrities while women in the identical age group are teachers, homemakers, or clerks, thereby reinforcing the dominant male-supportive female stereotypes (Gardner 14). Children exposed to this type of stereotype see the message as being one of superiority: males are able to come upon at high levels than females, so women should thereby recognize their middle-level role in the schema of baseball club.\n\nThe dis mirror symmetry of delegation of women in the media has persisted through umpteen decades, over which mates of time the role of females in purchase order has expanded and changed in a salient mood. Currently, for every one female envisioned in film, there are just virtually 2.1 male characters to trigger off her presence (Collins 292). The pretermit of amount, when coupled with the belittle stereotypes often chosen for female characters , provides the subliminal message to night club that women are necessitate less than men and appear and vanish only when expedient for males. According to metalworker and Choueiti (2011), gender hegemony is still alive and well in the movie business. Only 29.2% of all speaking characters are female crossways 122 G, PG, and PG13 films theatrically-released between 2006 and 2009 (5). These statistics suggest that the habitual mankind has require wedded to the lack of federal agency of women and simply accept it as a reflection of the dowry of society. Even worse, the move manufacture of media with skew representation poses the fortune that the need for gender equality in media may be a dead mail for near. Considering the low numbers of women envisioned in film, the tendency for favorite media to impose conventional stereotypes on those characters is all the more disturbing.\n\nEven with the low number of women in popular film and media, it seems as though it is more a matter of how they are visualized in the media more than whether they are portrayed (Collins 293). In fact, because of the preponderance of overly-sexualized stereotypes in film, should the industry increase the personation of women in movies it stands to spring that more of the same would be shown and thusly the situation for women would puzzle even more dismal. It seems women in nowadayss media are forced into a role of conformation or into no role at all.\n\nMedia also serves to reinforce the idea that individuals who usurpt assume the stereotypical ideals portrayed in the movies can seek to vary themselves through message shown in the movies and that such transformations are preferent to an existence wherein one doesnt survive the traditional mold. In many films, including American Reunion, the message is clear: if you want to release a new you, to transform your identity, to become successful, you need to tension on image, style, and forge (Kellner 245). Iro nically, it is the media industry itself which determines what is fashion and style thereby engaging in a airman type of cerebrate whereby individuals, particularly women, denudation themselves with little in the way of options when selecting an image or deciding on own(prenominal) style. That which they see portrayed in the media will be that which is unexceptionable in society and available in stores, and should they choose non to conform, they will baring their options limited.\n\nMedia creation of image is not entirely female; both men and women are subject to the image and style argument. The metrosexual endeavour of the early twenty-first century was render in large part by media portrayal of toned, tanned, and bare-chested men with nary a hit of automobile trunk hair visible. Manicured pass and groomed brows are shown on both men and women in movies and on television, and teeth-whitening is paramount with both genders. The twinge to conform in terms of remains type, athleticism, and style is most certainly not gender specific.\n\nWomen are under-represented and women are sexualized, are so clear documented crosswise such a variety of media and settings that it is clear time for the succeeding(prenominal) stage of search (Collins 296). The question becomes not whether or not media reinforces negative stereotypes but what to do about it. If women are to be accurately portrayed in film and television media, it would force a substitution in the stereotypes utilise for male characters in male-dominated story lines. If the number of women portrayed in such media were to be brought to parity with the real percentage of women in society, it would also force a re-examination of how media portray women in submissive or overtly-sexualized manners. As to how to accomplish parity and realistic portrayal of both genders in media, the solution does not seem candid or even partially clear. What is imperative, though, is that the general populous be made apprised that what they are sightedness in the media does not represent what is vie out in life around them. Perhaps then future generations of film makers and movie-goers would be able to move away from stereotypes and toward a more fair representation of men and women in the media.'