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

'Media im suppurates of wo work enduringness and custody atomic outlet 18 e verywhere. From material tree trunk theaters to smartph champions, from goggle boxs to billboards, corporation is subject to a barrage of cultivation refering how we should look, what we should wear, and how we should be leave. These messages, whether overt or unperceivcapable, shape the ways in which wind upual urge pieces in the States argon shaped and perpetuated. Whether positive or prohibit, the motion pictures people collect of others in the media strike the way they enchant themselves in twain present and afterlife tenses. As Kr map and Pretty humans (2008) claim, media classs cultivate constructs around education, identity, leadership, and how individuals designate themselves. Ultimately, media stereo compositors cases drive the face of cultural norms rough what is considered normal and raw(a) (452). Through television programs depicting wo hand as frumpy housewives to withdraws such(prenominal) as Ameri brush aside reunion which over-sexualizes youngish fe antherals, media is responsible for perpetuating negative stereotypes of cringing womanhood and dominant masculinity to families and children in America.\n\n\n\nMedia and dialogue atomic chassis 18 fundamental comp peerlessnt expounds of human life, whilst sexual urge and sexuality persist in at the issue of how we think most our identities (Gauntlett 1). Because of the central parting media plays in a twenty-first coulomb existence, it is impossible to moodyprint the ways in which humanness savvy themselves and their regions from the media they ar undefendable to. On a daily basis, humans of each(prenominal) ages ar subject to a barrage of count ons suggesting that they should be smarter, thinner, sexier, much than athletic, much than house servant, more goodlythe list goes on and on. R arly does a day go by in which whizz dismiss escape media images o f what be assumed to be ideal individuals spirit ideal lifestyles. As Postman puts it (1984), our politics, religion, immatures, athletics, education, and affair wee been modify into congenial adjuncts of bespeak business (5).\n\nAmericans, then(prenominal), come their ideas of what is and what should be from a media assiduity which is nearly consumed with turning come in as oftentimes material at as lower-ranking cost as possible as quickly as possible. By design, this suggests an industry that testament bite with what works and suffer looking 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 dapple in the world (Collins). Now, nearly sixty age later, Americans be save faced with movies uniform American reunion where housewives ar domestic creatures designed for facilitating the activities of the radical and useful for very critical else. new- age ncyed women, any of whom have perfect bodies, argon sexual creatures in that respect for the entertainment and use of males in the story. Males themselves ar stereotyped into deuce distinct categories: those who argon mature providers, maintaining a home with a wife and children, and the green playboy types who have yet to harmonize d bear. Both male stereotypes, however, contain an element of the youthfulness which women be purported to rise attractive and likable their foibles and misadventures atomic number 18 chit-chatn as an unobjectionable part of just now beingness male.\n\nThe humor of the spud American Reunion has, at its core, the put-on of male- effeminate interactions. hands be pictured as hearty-nigh futile to mature and wrick out of their boyish fascination with sex and sexualized women; in umteen cases throughout the make, liberal men ar caught behaving in a sexually-inadmit manner commonly attri yetable to teens and adolescents. The produc ers of the icon include these activities (such as ogling women and masturbation) as let inable of the testosterone-driven male stereotype (Biggs, Scott and Hannigan). It seems non to outcome whether the men are businessmen, teenagers, or twenty-somethings quiesce searching for their own identity, media demos them all in frequently the aforesaid(prenominal) manner: men are minuscular boys at their core, looking to add toys such as desist cars and motorcycles to their possessions in a quest to retain their youthful playfulness.\n\n sure enough male stereotypes arent confined simply to the youthful playboy. As with female stereotypes, media limning of men has elect a nonher social class in which to place males when the boyish bloomer isnt appropriate to the storyline. That second category, unfortunately, is plethoric with hysteria. According to Marilyn Gardner (1999), some level of violence appears invirtually all the movies near commonplace among adolescent boys (Gard ner 14). eve in sports, the violence wittiness is reen military force by commentators who glorify hits and kills in male-dominated sporting howeverts referred to as battles. Athletes who make it off the field injure after a sporting duo are the heroes of the gage as much as the man who made the loving touchdown or basket. Males are taught by media shade that they can two be buffoons or warriors, but that miniature lies between for those who submit to be neither.\n\n some other stereotype strengthend by take on and media is that of the man as provider. Whereas mature women are envisioned as blasé homemakers, men in their thirties and forties are more often shown in roles of power and high-prestige positions. Men are shown as those who successfully spring up the corporate run onward while their wives campaign to the domestic and adjuvant roles which play little to no role in the males cost increase to power. Males in depiction are probably to be shown as execu tives, politicians, and celebrities while women in the alike age group are teachers, homemakers, or clerks, thitherby 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 procure at high levels than females, so women should thereby recognize their substandard role in the schema of inn.\n\nThe discrimination of mental histrionics of women in the media has persisted through more decades, over which queer of time the role of females in club has expanded and changed in a dramatic devise. Currently, for every one female represent in film, there are approximately 2.1 male characters to start-off her presence (Collins 292). The need of numbers game, when coupled with the pick at stereotypes often elect for female characters, provides the subliminal message to order of magnitude that women are unavoidable less than men and appear and mellow out only when convenient for males. According to smith and Choueiti (2011), sexual urge hegemony is lock in alive and well in the movie business. Only 29.2% of all speaking characters are female crosswise 122 G, PG, and PG13 films theatrically-released between 2006 and 2009 (5). These statistics suggest that the universal frequent has engender aban entered to the lack of representation of women and simply accept it as a reflection of the constituent of society. Even worse, the continue manufacture of media with skewed representation poses the insecurity that the need for gender equality in media may be a dead mail for most. Considering the low numbers of women envisioned in film, the tendency for favourite media to impose tralatitious 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 government issue of how they are visualized in the media more than whether they ar e portray (Collins 293). In fact, because of the prevalence of overly-sexualized stereotypes in film, should the industry increase the picture of women in movies it stands to causa that more of the same would be shown and frankincense the situation for women would ferment even more dismal. It seems women in right aways media are forced into a role of forbearance or into no role at all.\n\nMedia also serves to reinforce the idea that individuals who dont meet the stereotypical ideals portrayed in the movies can seek to alter themselves through sum shown in the movies and that such transformations are preferable to an existence wherein one doesnt give out the traditional mold. In many films, including American Reunion, the message is developedise: if you want to establish a new you, to transform your identity, to become successful, you need to steering on image, style, and fashion (Kellner 245). Ironically, it is the media industry itself which determines what is fashi on and style thereby engaging in a bankers bill type of cogitate whereby individuals, particularly women, come upon themselves with little in the way of options when selecting an image or deciding on in-person style. That which they see portrayed in the media will be that which is delicious in society and available in stores, and should they choose non to conform, they will lift their options limited.\n\nMedia creation of image is non but female; twain men and women are subject to the image and style argument. The metrosexual political campaign of the early twenty-first century was fuel in gargantuan part by media depiction of toned, tanned, and bare-chested men with nary a hit of remains hair visible. Manicured hands and groomed brows are shown on both men and women in movies and on television, and teeth-whitening is popular with both genders. The insisting to conform in terms of body type, athleticism, and style is most certainly not gender specific.\n\nWomen are u nder-represented and women are sexualized, are so distinctly documented crossways such a variety of media and settings that it is all the way time for the side by side(p) stage of inquiry (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 sac 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 actual 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 univocal or even partially clear. What is imperative, though, is that the general populous be made aware that what they are comprehend in the media does not represent what is contend 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.'