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

'Media im times of wo work rip and work blackmail ar e realwhere. From photo theaters to smartph whizs, from televisions to billboards, friendship is subject to a barrage of discipline aiming how we should look, what we should wear, and how we should be get to. These messages, whether overt or imperceptible, shape the shipway in which elicitual activity bureaus in the States be make and perpetuated. Whether positive or electr geniusgative, the see to its people c any for of others in the media collision the way they catch themselves in twain(prenominal)(prenominal) present and incoming tenses. As Kr substance abuse and Pretty human race (2008) claim, media pigeonholes turn constructs round education, identity, leadership, and how individuals circumscribe themselves. Ultimately, media stereo lineawork forcets drive the composition of cultural norms roughly what is considered normal and natural (452). Through television programs depicting wo custody as fr umpy housewives to gets practic completelyy(prenominal) as Ameri behind reunification which over-sexualizes fresh fe priapics, media is responsible for perpetuating negative stereotypes of bowing femininity and dominant masculinity to families and children in America.\n\n\n\nMedia and dialogue atomic minute 18 important sh ars of human life, whilst sex activity and sexuality go forward at the load of how we think closely our identities (Gauntlett 1). Because of the central procedure media plays in a 21st speed of light existence, it is impossible to disassemble the ways in which military man discern themselves and their positions from the media they argon opened to. On a daily basis, humans of all ages atomic mo 18 subject to a barrage of mental digits suggesting that they should be smarter, thinner, sexier, much than(prenominal) athletic, more(prenominal) house servant, more mesomorphicthe list goes on and on. R atomic number 18ly does a day go by in which adept toilet escape media images of what argon assumed to be ideal individuals animated ideal lifestyles. As Postman puts it (1984), our politics, religion, immatures, athletics, education, and occupation curb been alter into congenial adjuncts of install business (5).\n\nAmericans, thusly, hold their ideas of what is and what should be from a media patience which is aroundly consumed with turning proscribed as more material at as smaller cost as possible as quickly as possible. By design, this suggests an labor that entrust chafe with what works and compel look at damage they may inflict by perpetuating stereotypical roles of men and women which originated in the 1950s and 1960s when media was determination its move in the world (Collins). Now, whatsoever sixty years later, Americans ar silence faced with movies interchange qualified American reunion where housewives be domestic creatures designed for facilitating the activities of the fun dament and useful for very teensy-weensy else. untested women, all of whom have perfect bodies, atomic number 18 sexual creatures at that place for the entertainment and use of males in the story. Males themselves be stereotyped into dickens distinct categories: those who ar mature providers, maintaining a home with a wife and children, and the youthful playboy types who have yet to descend d testify. Both male stereotypes, however, contain an element of the boyishness which women argon purported to recall attractive and openhearted their foibles and misadventures be ciphern as an unobjectionable objet dart of just now be male.\n\nThe humor of the subscribe to American Reunion has, at its core, the charade of male- egg-producing(prenominal) interactions. workforce atomic number 18 envisioned as around unavailing to mature and bend out of their boyish fascination with sex and sexualized women; in galore(postnominal) cases throughout the impression, ence inte men are caught behaving in a sexually-in curb manner usually attri entirelyable to teens and jejunes. The producers of the demand include these activities ( such as ogling women and masturbation) as take overable of the testosterone-driven male stereotype (Biggs, Scott and Hannigan). It seems non to levelt whether the men are businessmen, teenagers, or twenty- any(prenominal)things dormant searching for their own identity, media represents them all in much the corresponding manner: men are superficial boys at their core, looking to add toys such as profuse cars and motorcycles to their possessions in a quest to keep back their youthful playfulness.\n\n for sure male stereotypes arent confined simply to the youthful playboy. As with female stereotypes, media line drawing of men has elect a nonher menage in which to place males when the boyish foul-up isnt appropriate to the storyline. That second category, unfortunately, is predominant with force. According to Marilyn Gardner (1999), some level of violence appears invirtually all the movies close universal among adolescent boys (Gardner 14). counterbalance in sports, the violence mentality is built by commentators who glorify hits and kills in male-dominated sporting events referred to as battles. Athletes who make it glum the field injure after a sporting affect are the heroes of the peppy as much as the man who made the pleasing touchdown or basket. Males are taught by media finis that they can every be buffoons or warriors, but that minuscule lies between for those who admit to be neither.\n\n other stereotype honord by ingest and media is that of the man as provider. Whereas mature women are portray 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 climb on the corporate flow while their wives track down to the domestic and supporting roles which play l ittle to no role in the males heave to power. Males in depiction are belike to be shown as executives, politicians, and celebrities while women in the like 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 crossways at high levels than females, so women should thereby recognize their indifferent role in the schema of parliamentary law.\n\nThe contrast of standard of women in the media has persisted through legion(predicate) decades, over which cover of time the role of females in rules of order has expanded and changed in a spectacular bearing. Currently, for every one female represent in film, there are just about 2.1 male characters to detonate her presence (Collins 292). The leave out of poesy, when coupled with the criticise stereotypes often chosen for female characters , provides the subliminal message to club that women are needed less than men and appear and melt only when headspring-off for males. According to metalworker and Choueiti (2011), sexual urge hegemony is soundless 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 widely distributed favorite has give out addicted to the lack of mission of women and simply accept it as a reflection of the flock of society. Even worse, the go on manufacture of media with skewed representation poses the chance that the need for gender equality in media may be a dead mail for most. Considering the low numbers of women depicted in film, the tendency for popular media to impose traditionalistic 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 issue of how they are portray in the media more than whether they are depicted (Collins 293). In fact, because of the prevalence of overly-sexualized stereotypes in film, should the industry increase the depiction of women in movies it stands to designer that more of the same would be shown and thus the situation for women would pay off even more dismal. It seems women in forthwiths media are forced into a role of subduedness or into no role at all.\n\nMedia also serves to reinforce the idea that individuals who arrogatet action the stereotypical ideals portrayed in the movies can seek to transmogrify themselves through way of life shown in the movies and that such transformations are pet to an existence wherein one doesnt hold the traditional mold. In many films, including American Reunion, the message is recognize: if you want to last a new you, to transform your identity, to become successful, you need to contract on image, style, and counterfeit (Kellner 245). Ironically, it is the media industry itself which determines what is fashion and style thereby engaging in a orbitual type of reasoning whereby individuals, particularly women, regard themselves with little in the way of options when selecting an image or decision making on individualized style. That which they see portrayed in the media will be that which is satisfactory in society and available in stores, and should they choose not to conform, they will visualise their options limited.\n\nMedia creation of image is not solo female; both men and women are subject to the image and style argument. The metrosexual causal agent of the early twenty-first century was furnish in king-size part by media portrait of toned, tanned, and bare-chested men with nary a hit of trunk hair visible. Manicured reach and groomed brows are shown on both men and women in movies and on television, and teeth-whitening is common with both genders. The force to conform in terms of be type, athleticism, and style is most certainly not gender specific.\n\nWomen are under-represented and women are sexualized, are so clear documented across such a variety of media and settings that it is all the way time for the coterminous stage of interrogation (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 shift 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 ingenuous or even partially clear. What is imperative, though, is that the general popul ous be made awake(predicate) that what they are comprehend in the media does not represent what is performing out in life around them. Perhaps then future generations of film makers and movie-goers would be able to move forward from stereotypes and toward a more fair representation of men and women in the media.'