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

'Media images of wo custody and homosexual top executive atomic number 18 eachwhere. From pictorial matter theaters to smartph one and totally(a)s, from video recordings to billboards, society is r place to a natural spring of information suggesting how we should look, what we should wear, and how we should be invite. These substances, whether tangible or subliminal, skeleton the airs in which sex dowrys in America atomic number 18 shaped and perpetuated. Whether lordly or interdict, the images mass take c atomic number 18 of others in the media impact the r out(a)e they view themselves in both(prenominal) take and time to come tenses. As Kruse and Prettyman (2008) claim, media classs influence constructs some education, identity, leadership, and how individuals define themselves. Ultimately, media stereo suits claim the establish workforcet of cultural norms about what is considered universal and natural (452). by television programs render wowork for ce as dowdy housewives to bucks such(prenominal)(prenominal) as Ameri bed reunion which everyplace- innerizes young fe manly persons, media is trustworthy for perpetuating negative stereotypes of dominated femininity and dominating masculinity to families and children in America.\n\n\n\nMedia and communication argon telephone exchange elework forcets of human race flavour, whilst sexual urge and sex activity remain at the core of how we sound off about our identities (Gauntlett 1). Because of the central mapping media dawdles in a 21st degree Celsius humans, it is unaccepted to separate the slipway in which man perceive themselves and their mappings from the media they atomic number 18 receptive to. On a mundane basis, humans of each(prenominal) in any ages be survey to a natural spring of images suggesting that they should be smarter, thinner, sexier, more than(prenominal)(prenominal) athletic, more interior(prenominal), more muscularthe disputat ion goes on and on. seldom does a daylight go by in which one can take out media images of what argon sour to be nonp beil individuals living archetype life ways. As attack aircraft carrier puts it (1984), our politics, religion, news, athletics, education, and commerce have been altered into refreshing adjuncts of show strain (5).\n\nAmericans, then, receive their senti manpowerts of what is and what should be from a media persistence which is largely consumed with bout out as more than stuff and nonsense at as scant(p) pervert as mathematical as pronto as possible. By design, this suggests an industry that pull up stakes stick with what working and resist aspect at damage they may c exclusively in by perpetuating sterile roles of hands and women which originated in the 1950s and 1960s when media was finding its location in the orbit (Collins). Now, some sixty years later, Americans be still face with movies like American Reunion where housewives atomic number 18 domestic creatures intentional for facilitating the activities of the al-Qaida and use suitable for very forgetful else. Young women, all of whom have perfective bodies, atomic number 18 sexual creatures there for the cheer and use of young-begetting(prenominal)s in the written report. Males themselves atomic number 18 sterile into two trenchant categories: those who be ripe providers, maintaining a home with a married woman and children, and the im climb on playboy types who have still to settle down. both(prenominal) anthropoid stereotypes, however, invert an element of the childishness which women ar purported to find attractive and appealing their foibles and misadventures ar seen as an acceptable procedure of obviously beingness male.\n\nThe surliness of the film American Reunion has, at its core, the mockery of male- womanish interactions. workforce atomic number 18 act as near unable to mount and grow out of their boyish tra nce with sex and sexualized women; in many cases end-to-end the film, adult men ar caught behaving in a sexually-inappropriate way of life usually attri scarceable to teens and adolescents. The producers of the film al deplorableer-ranking these activities (such as ogling women and masturbation) as acceptable of the testosterone-driven male stereotype (Biggs, Scott and Hannigan). It bes non to matter whether the men be businessmen, teenagers, or twenty-somethings still intrusive for their own identity, media portrays them all in much the homogeneous dash: men are little boys at their core, looking to channel toys such as fast cars and motorcycles to their possessions in a avocation to retain their late playfulness.\n\nCertainly male stereotypes arent confined plain to the vernal playboy. As with womanish stereotypes, media portrayal of men has chosen other category in which to place males when the boyish blunderer isnt appropriate to the storyline. That snatch c ategory, unfortunately, is rife with personnel. harmonize to Marilyn Gardner (1999), some aim of violence bes invirtually all the movies most ordinary(prenominal) among adolescent boys (Gardner 14). level(p) in sports, the violence mentality is strengthened by commentators who extol germinates and kills in male-dominated sport counterbalancets referred to as battles. Athletes who bind it off the bailiwick injured afterwards a profligate match are the heroes of the game as much as the man who do the winning touchdown or basket. Males are taught by media culture that they can either be buffoons or warriors, but that little lies amid for those who take on to be neither.\n\nAnother stereotype rein agonistic by film and media is that of the man as provider. Whereas mature women are represent as blasé homemakers, men in their thirties and forties are more lots shown in roles of power and high-prestige positions. Men are shown as those who successfully climb the incorp orated ladder trance their wives tend to the domestic and supportive roles which play little to no role in the males ascent to power. Males in film are likely to be shown as executives, politicians, and celebrities eyepatch women in the same age sort out are teachers, homemakers, or clerks, thereby reinforcing the ascendant male-supportive effeminate stereotypes (Gardner 14). Children exposed to this type of stereotype see the meat as being one of high quality: males are able to achieve at higher levels than females, so women should thereby bonk their inferior role in the synopsis of society.\n\nThe dis relation of original of women in the media has persisted done many decades, over which span of judgment of conviction the role of females in society has expand and changed in a dramatic fashion. Currently, for every one female envisioned in film, there are approximately 2.1 male characters to offset her carriage (Collins 292). The pretermit of numbers, when pair wit h the disparaging stereotypes often chosen for female characters, provides the subliminal contentedness to society that women are deficiencyed little than men and appear and disappear only when convenient for males. check to Smith and Choueiti (2011), gender hegemony is still alive and well in the movie business. simply 29.2% of all harangue characters are female across 122 G, PG, and PG13 films theatrically-released between 2006 and 2009 (5). These statistics suggest that the frequent public has rifle accustomed to the lack of example of women and simply accept it as a reflection factor of the circumstances of society. still worse, the continued render of media with skewed representation poses the risk that the motivation for gender comparability in media may be a non-issue for most. Considering the low numbers of women portrayed in film, the disposal for popular media to chat handed-down stereotypes on those characters is all the more disturbing.\n\nEven with th e low number of women in popular film and media, it seems as though it is more a matter of how they are portrayed in the media more than whether they are portrayed (Collins 293). In fact, because of the prevalence of overly-sexualized stereotypes in film, should the industry emergence the portrayal of women in movies it stands to reason that more of the same would be shown and thus the government agency for women would become even more dismal. It seems women in todays media are forced into a role of submission or into no role at all.\n\nMedia too serves to reinforce the idea that individuals who dont meet the sterile ideals portrayed in the movies can hear to transform themselves with means shown in the movies and that such transformations are preferable to an existence wherein one doesnt fit the traditional mold. In many films, including American Reunion, the message is clear: if you indirect request to become a new you, to transform your identity, to become successful, you need to focus on image, title, and fashion (Kellner 245). Ironically, it is the media industry itself which determines what is fashion and musical mode thereby zesty in a circular type of reasoning whereby individuals, peculiarly women, find themselves with little in the way of options when selecting an image or deciding on personal style. That which they see portrayed in the media will be that which is acceptable in society and useable in stores, and should they choose not to correct, they will find their options limited.\n\nMedia world of image is not exclusively female; both men and women are arena to the image and style argument. The metrosexual drop deadment of the earlier twenty-first century was fueled in large part by media portrayal of toned, tanned, and bare-chested men with nary a hit of body hairs-breadth visible. Manicured hands and educate brows are shown on both men and women in movies and on television, and teeth-whitening is prevalent with both genders. The pressure to conform in harm of body type, athleticism, and style is most for sure not gender specific.\n\nWomen are under-represented and women are sexualized, are so clearly documented across such a change of media and settings that it is clearly sequence for the next symbolize of research (Collins 296). The point 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 shift in the stereotypes used 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 actual percentage of women in society, it would in addition force a re-examination of how media portray women in submissive or overtly-sexualized manners. As to how to run parity and earthy portrayal of both genders in media, the result does not seem straightforward or even partially clear. What is imperative, though, is that the general thickly settled be make aware that what they are seeing in the media does not represent what is playing 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 becoming representation of men and women in the media.'