The Media: Media Representations: Gender

Question 1

What brand could be argued to have greatly influenced perceptions of gender?

Answer 1

Disney. For example the idea that a woman needs to be saved, emphasis on marriage, beauty standards, men represented as strong and masculine.

Question 2

What did Ferguson come up with?

Answer 2

She conducted content analysis between 1949 and 1974. She found that the media promoted a cult of femininity, which promotes traditional ideas such as caring, family marriage appearance etc.

Question 3

Whats a critism of conducting content analysis?

Answer 3

It leaves things open to the bias of the person observing these things.

Question 4

What did Wolf find?

Answer 4

The images of women used by the media demonstrates the beauty ideals which suggested that women should constantly improve their bodies. This can be seen in things like social media and face tune.

Question 5

What study did Girl Guides do in 2020?

Answer 5

48% of girls and young women who participated in their survey said that they use filters to make themselves look better online. 39% of girls and women reported feeling unhappy that they cant look the way they do online.

Question 6

What did Orbach suggest?

Answer 6

The media creates anxieties in young people about their body image. She suggests that this can lead to beating disorders for example how the media will critis celebrities who put on weight. This can also be supported by social media things like what I at in a day and work out routines.

Question 7

What did Tuchman come up with?

Answer 7

Symbolic annihilation.

Question 8

Whats symbolic annihlation?

Answer 8

Women’s achievements are not reported or are condemned or triviliased by the media. Often it is not seen as important as their looks or sex appeal. It can be seen in the fact that women are hardly ever in the news, the coverage of women’s sport and women’s video games.

Question 9

What did AKAS find about women in the news?

Answer 9

Although women make up half of the population, only 39% of journalists are women, and globally 26% of journalistic leadership. On high profile topics such as the economy men’s share of choices was up 31 times higher than a woman’s.

Question 10

What did Girl Guides find about women in sports?

Answer 10

A third of girls 7 to 21 are turned off by sports by the way that the media portrays women’s athletes, focusing on how they look instead of their talents.

Question 11

How can the male gaze in sports be critised?

Answer 11

The attention that the women got during the football euros, showing that there is a rise in interest in women’s sports.

Question 12

What did Girls guides find about women’s video games?

Answer 12

81% of girls and women 11-21 play games online. A third think that gaming companies shouldn’t make games that use sexist or gender stereotypes.

Question 13

What did Connell find about gender differences?

Answer 13

Gender differences are in part constructed by the media reproducing hegemonic femininity and masculinity. The norm of a typical man and a typical woman.

Question 14

Whats retributive masculinity?

Answer 14

Collier found that mens magazines usually contradict themselves in their view of masculinity. He notes that they define success by work and salary. This is an attempt to researt traditional masculinity by celebrating males concerns in content. By promoting masculinity, they end up becoming misognistic.

Question 15

What did McRobbie suggest about gender stereotypes?

Answer 15

In a postmodern society, there is much more flexibility in the representations of men and women in the media. There is now a growing expectation that men and women be treated equally.

Question 16

What did Gauntlett suggest about gender stereotypes?

Answer 16

The media presents a wide range of gender identities beyond traditional stereotypes, the media is now a force for change.

Question 17

What did Mort suggest?

Answer 17

The rise in consumption of designer labels and beauty products for men reflect the changes in gender. He calls this the metrosexual man.

Question 18

What are Marxist feminists?

Answer 18

They believe that the root of the stereotypical images of men and women are economic.

Question 19

What would a Marxist feminist say about media representations of gender?

Answer 19

The male dominated media aims to attract the largest audiences possible in order to make the most profit. The content of women’s magazines create false needs. For example the diet industry in the US is estimated to be worth 100 billion dollars a year. Women are no longer exploited by the mother/house wife roles instead by beauty standards.

Question 20

What’s a radical feminist?

Answer 20

They argue that the media reproduces patriarchy deliberately to keep women oppressed into a narrow range of roles.

Question 21

What would a radical feminist say about media representations of gender?

Answer 21

The media dupes women into believing a false consciousness whereby they value the beauty myth. Mens magazines encourage retributive masculinity which are aimed at conspintating for a crisis of masculinity as men’s social and economic status has declined. The way that men relegate women to mere sex objects can be seen through the backlash of males.

Question 22

What would post modernists say about the representation of gender in the media?

Answer 22

There has been a new emphasis on men’s emotions and problems as well as a feistier representation of femininity portrayed by girl power icons.

Question 23

What would pluralists say about the representation of gender in the media?

Answer 23

They claim that critiques of the media actually underestimate a woman’s ability to think critically, they say that women are not so easily influenced. There is no real influence of the media on girls and women. The media simply reflects the social attitudes and tastes and in doing so are meeting both men’s and women’s needs.