LECTURE 7

Gender and the Media

 Media and the Concepts of Femininity and Masculinity

Lesson Outcomes

At the end of this lesson, you should have:

1. identified reasons why gender is influenced by media;
2. critically examined the influence of media to the definitions of
femininity and masculinity;
3. communicated personal experiences about the influence of media
to gender roles.

Activate

What messages come into your mind when you see women and men
in daring attire portrayed in the visual media? Put your answers on the
space provided.

WOMEN MEN

Your answers show how your mind was conditioned by the media.
Let’s learn more of that in this lesson.
 Introduction

Media is the most pervasive and one of the most powerful influences
on how we view men and women. Media insinuate this messages into our
consciousness at every turns. Media is the actual force exerted by a media
message resulting in either a change or reinforcement in audience or
individual beliefs.

Acquire

All forms of media communicate images of the sexes, many of which

perpetuate unrealistic stereotypical and limiting perceptions. The media
portrays diversity. Below are key points about diversity.

Media – communication outlets or  Diversity means

tools used to store and deliver understanding that each
information or data individual is unique and
recognizing our
Concept – abstract ideas or general individual differences. It
notions that occur in the mind, in
is respect for any
speech or in thought.
person regardless of
Influence – the capacity to have an race, ethnicity, gender,
effect on the character/ behavior of age and disability.
someone.
 It is recognizing
Stereotypical – relating to a widely
people`s rights to
held but fixed and oversimplified
image or idea of a particular type of
pursue their own forms
person or thing. of cultural expression
and lifestyle, including
Perception – the ability to see, hear, alternative ones.
or become aware of something
through the senses.  Defending diversity as a
cultural expression and
the existence of
different lifestyle and
sexual orientation
among women
and men.
How does media represents gender?

1. Women are underrepresented – a primary way in which media

distort reality; falsely implies that men are the cultural standard and
women are unimportant or invisible. There are three times as many
white men as women (Bascow, 1992 p. 159) or children’s
programing, in which males outnumber females in newscasting, in
which women make up 16% of newscasters and in which stories
about men are included 10 times more often than that of women
(“Study Reports Sex Bias”,1989).

- Media misrepresent actual proportions of men and women in the

population.

- This constant distortion tempts us to believe that there are really

more men than women in the population and that men are the
cultural standard.

- The lack of women in the media is paralleled by the scarcity of

women in charge of media. Only about 5% of television writers,
executives, and producers are women (Lichter, Litchter, and
Rothman, 1986). Ironically, while two thirds of journalism graduates
are women, they make up less than 2% of those in corporate
management of newspapers and only about 5% of newspaper
publishers (“Women in Media”, 1988). Female film directors are
even more scarce. Few women are behind the scenes of an
industry, consistently portrays women negatively.

- Some media analysts (Mills, 1988) believe that if more women had
positions of authority at executive levels, media world offer more
positive portrayals of women.

- Social organization and culture have been dominated by men to the

exclusion of women. The exclusion has been accompanied by a
pattern of devaluation and lessening of women`s worth.

2. Women and men are portrayed in stereotypical ways (fixed

image) that reflect and sustain socially enclosed views of
gender.

Stereotypical portrayals of men

- According to J.A. Doyle (1989. P. 111) whose research focuses on

masculinity, children’s television typically shows males as
aggressive, dominant and engaged in exciting activities from which
they receive rewards from others for their “masculine
accomplishment.” Recent studies reveal that the majority of men
or prime time television are independent, aggressive, and in charge
(McCauley, Thangavelu, and Rozin. 1988).
- Television programing for all ages disproportionately depicts men
as serious, confident, competent, powerful and in high status
position.

- Media, reinforce long-standing cultural ideals of masculinity.

- Men are presented as hard, tough, independent, sexually

aggressive, unafraid, violent, totally in control of all emotion, and –
above all – in, no way feminine.

- men are seldom shown doing household (J.D. Brown and K.

Campbell, 1986).

- Men are rarely presented caring for others. (Doyle, 1989).

- Men typically represented as uninterested in and incompetent at

home making, cooking and child care. (B. Horovitz, 1989).

- It is usually the mother, not the father shown taking care of a child.
This perpetuates a negative stereotype of men as uncaring and
uninvolved in family life.

Stereotypical portrayals of women

- Media images of women also reflect cultural stereotypes that depart

markedly from reality.

- Women are depicted as passive, dependent on men and enmeshed

in relationships or housework (Davis, 1990).

- The requirements of youth and beauty in women even influence

news shows – female newscasters are expected to be younger,
more physically attractive and less outspoken than males (Craft,
1998; Sanders and Rock, 1988).

- Media reiterate the cultural image of women as dependent,

ornamental object whose primary function are to look good, please
men, and stay quietly on the periphery of life.

- News programs that have male and female hosts routinely cast the
female as deferential to her male colleague (Craft, 1988; Sanders
and Rock, 1988).

- Commercials manifest power cues that echo the male

dominance/female subservience pattern. For instance, men are
usually shown positioned above women and women are more
frequently pictured in varying degrees of undress (Masse and
Rosenblum, 1988; Nigro, Hill, Gelbein and Clark, 1988).
 - Non – verbal cues represent women as vulnerable and more
submissive while men, stay in control.

- Rising male voice – overs – reinforce the cultural views that men
are authorities and women depend on men to tell them what to do -
ex. Dominance of men as news anchor (“Study Reports Sex Bias”,
1989).

- Women are caregivers and men are regularly the butt joker for their
ignorance about nutrition, childcare and housework (Horovitz, 1989).

Time Out 1
Apply

Cite two (2) advertisements where women and men play stereotypical
roles. What would be the implications of these advertisements to children
viewers?

1.

2.

Let’s continue…

3. Depictions of relationship between women and men emphasize

traditional roles and normalize violence against women.

Media have created two images of women

 Good women Bad women
- Pretty - Depend from traditional roles –
- Deferential portrayed positively
- Focused on home - Done ether by making their
- Family and caring for others career lives invisible
- Usually cast as victims, angels, - Or by softening and feminizing
martyrs, loyal wives and working women to make them
helpmates. more consistent with traditional
views of feminity.

The rule – a women maybe strong and successful if and only if she
also exemplifies traditional stereotypes of feminity – subservience,
passivity, beauty and an identity linked to one or more men.

- Newspapers and news programming reinforce women`s role

in the home and men`s role in the outside.

- Both, emphasize men`s independent activities (“Study

Report Sex Bias”,1989).

- Stories about men, focus on the work and/or their

achievement (luchke, 1989).

- Few stories about women, focus on their roles as wife,

mother, and homemaker (“Study Report Sex Bias”, 1989).

- Media image of women as sex object, devoted homemaking

and mother buttress the very role in which the majority of
consuming takes place.

- Lana Rokow (1992) analysis demonstrated that much

advertising is oppressive to women and is very difficult to
resist, even one is a communicated feminist.

Women and the media in the global context

 Only 35% of countries produce gender statistics on media.

 4% stories clearly challenge.
 Women only hold 27% of top management jobs in media organization.

Representation

 Media remains to be male-dominated and controlled turf.

 Issues in workplace include lack of equal opportunities in promotion
and training; the conflict between work, childcare and family obligations,
sexual ‘harassment on the job; invisibility in newsrooms and media
boardrooms.
Courses of Action

 Increase the participation and access of women to expression and

decision-making in and through the media and new technologies of
communication.
 Promote a balanced and non-stereotypical portrayal of women in
media.
 Assessment

Name ___________________________________ Score ______________

Course & Section _________________________ Date ______________

TEST I. ESSAY
1. How do media portray women and men?
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2. How powerful is the media in shaping the mind of its viewers and
listeners? Cite an example to justify your answer.
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3. What will happen if there will be more women in media advertising?

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 4. If you were an advertiser and you were requested to come up with an
advertisement for an alcoholic beverage, how will you do it?
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