Gender Stereotyping: Media
According to the Social Media Today, mass media is a remarkable characteristic of
contemporary society; its growth has been followed by a rise in the scale and
sophistication of societal acts and commitments, accelerated social transformation,
technical advancement, increasing personal wealth and standard of living, and a
decrease in certain conventional modes of power and authority. However conventional
mainstream media have changed from the few to the majority.
As far as beliefs are concerned, media shift our mode of thinking and functioning, but it
also facilitates the development of character and the creation of new ideas by the
guidance of educators, the distribution of information, and other means. It has a positive
effect. For example, online classes help us to learn more about immersive lessons from
other schools or nations, which allows us a lot of choices to discover different ideas and
to encourage ourselves. The lessons we have learned from the online class is part of
our new beliefs. In brief, in the course of communication society, the media executes its
educational role for us. Culture can be impacted both positive and negative ways, thus
media can get the same effect on our standards and characteristics. There are a variety
of aspects in which media developments have enhanced our society.
The phrase “what we see” shapes our beliefs about ourselves and others through
media. All and sundry are knowledgeable that the media presents a variety of things
visually. Also, the media produces things that are trendy or new. The first part of our
body to react is our eyes, once our eyes capture something, it already delivers a
message to our minds. We as normal people are being influenced by what we see and
intend to apply it to ourselves.
One step we should do to minimize these negative consequences is to reduce the
length of time we allocate on the internet. Shift social media applications off your home
screen. Schedule precise hours to update social media or schedule a timer to be limited
to twenty-thirty minutes. Place your phone in quiet. If we do not hear a noise or buzz
any moment, or we get a message, we are quite likely to be interrupted. Take a break
from the internet or restrict the number of applications you are using. It also aims to
reduce the negative impacts of being a responsible user on social media. Note, what
you see is normally anyone else's highlights show, because it is not common in
anyone's daily life.
The trend that is emerging in modern media and entertainment is the objectification of
women in public. Especially in films, music videos, literature, and advertisements, there
is a massive emphasis on women as sexual objects. This is harmful to society because
the media is generating gender stereotypes about both men and women which can lead
to unhealthful social and physical behaviors. The problem is highly prominent because
the more women's pornographic imagery is used by the media, the more people tend to
buy into it. As a result, the media will influence the culture's view of dating, romance,
sex, and what is “ideal” in society. The sexual preferences of society are influenced and
have consequences that can influence all dimensions of society. This media activity is
permitted to continue because the sale of pornography and the objectification of women
is what culture has shown it needs to see in the modern media.
Gender stereotypes can be positive or negative. For example, the saying "Gay men are
naturally fashionable.", has a positive effect which is the stereotype tends to be strongly
linked to media. The coverage may emphasize gay men in fashion since it is assumed
that gay men are "typically" androgynous and thus more likely to think about clothing "as
a woman would." The complexities of gay culture have changed significantly over the
last fifty years whilst the negative effect is that not all gay men are stylish, much like not
all heterosexual men groom or smoke cigarettes or hunt. This kind of stereotype can
lead a gay man to deal with how he can show himself to everyone else. The tradition of
measuring a book by its cover should be discarded, wherever it can be seen. We should
want, as much as appropriate, to consider people in the way they want to show
themselves, according to their premises and in their way.
In the documentation “Miss Representation”, I learned that we are getting fed up with
the media. We always want to be what we usually see from media and forget the reality.
The media is very powerful that it can affect us that easily. The part from the
documentation that stood up to me is the way the media objectifies women and the way
they represent things very different from reality.
The huge contradictions that I see in the media are that women who are being
represented in the media are thinner and looking like an anorexic person which is called
sexy and hot while real girls do not look like that, real girls have flaws and imperfections.
It is claimed that it is simply the opinions of the establishments, but for the viewer to
understand and interact with the content of the media, creators have to use stereotypes
thus it is this perception of the audience that will be recognized. Perhaps that is why
stereotyping is being used in a wide variety of media. In comparison, the media utilizes
stereotyping because it produces more income. Nevertheless, more and more unusual
elements are being incorporated into texts to provide a more modern portrayal of the
youth of stereotypes in total. However, with the dominance of these establishments,
stereotypes will still play a large role in the content of the media.
If I will be given a chance to change the way media does business, I will create my own
beauty business and promote it using the real concepts of men and women. I can post
my products with a caption of truthfulness and I will use real men and women to model
my products. In this way, young girls will not be insecure because what they see in the
media is all reality and will encourage everyone to love the way they are.
In conclusion, the trend of women's objectification in the media continues to endure
because it is lucrative and amusing. Conversely, for physical and mental purposes, this
media activity is detrimental to society. Men and women are left struggling to refine their
appearances just as the media portray the 'ideal body,' but at the cost of their overall
health. Men and women are threatened with depression and eating disorders linked to
the portrayal of beauty in the media. The problem of women's objectification is also
being perceived by younger generations across time. In our society, it is not desirable to
feel inferior or dysfunctional because of the portrayal of women in the media, but that is
what is happening. It is therefore fair to think of the rise in pornographic exposure and
its proliferation in society as a factor in the growth in sexually transmitted infections,
earlier and unintended pregnancy, and intensified sexual abuse.