Impacts of the Media on Gender in America

The media is one of the most influential social institutions in the society. As such, the media has a very prime role in the shaping the society in relation to its institutions such as gender, culture, education, commerce, and others. The American Society, having experienced the impact of gender for a long time, has many aspects of the effects of media on its gender. As a developed country, America is among the first countries that felt the pressure of the clamor for gender equality, especially with the rise of the feminist movement in which a number of American women were crusaders. Indeed, even to date, a number of American women identify with the feminist ideas and believe that they should die fighting for a better place of women in the society. Many years after the beginning of the feminist movement, the society remains almost completely biased against gender and gender roles, as evident through the media. A close look at the operations of the media shows that the gender element is very rife, and that part of the operations are planned and carried out with the intention of affecting gender in a particular manner, or with consideration of the place of a certain gender in the society. Instances of gender inequality in many programs in the media have been noted and verbalized. More so, advertisements feature many aspects of gender with the females dominating. Additionally, prime time news has portrayed an aspect of gender consideration characterized by male domination. In many media houses, many interviewees are men, with women being invited only in matters that touch them. Children, in their small ages, are gendered through the media, impacting on them to a great extent, as regards gender issue. In lieu of these observations, this paper looks at the impacts of the media on gender in the American society.

The America media has played a very pivotal role in regard to gender stereotyping in the society. Espinosa (2010: 3) observes that the elements of gender stereotyping in the media has been popularly evident in teen movies, prime-time television events, advertisements, video games, children programmes

The stereotyping behavior of the media sees women as weak and submissive (Espinosa 2010: 4). The women are displayed as people that arwhere nude photos of women are used in their promotion, yet the men play video games more than the women.

The American media has affected the current woman psychologically to an extent of affecting their intended role in the society (Otosson & Cheng 2012). Through the use of slim-bodied women in the advertisements, every woman is rushing to the technicians to have their bodies and skins attended to so that they can be as beautiful and slim as the other woman they saw on the screen. Indeed, the continuous, unending use of selected women in the media has piled a lot of pressure on women to feel like remaining single and captivating. Appearance, as portrayed in the media, has become such a big issue to women such that it can elicit psychological sickness to the women that are not satisfied with their appearance. In the current society, a woman would even opt to forego a pregnancy in order to maintain their shape.

Interviews in the media in relation to career and occupation are another area of gender discrimination as propagated by the media. In many a times, the media personalities interview males in regard to particular job positions such as the chief executives of Fortune 500 companies. Indeed, even the talks in the media, as displayed by the media personalities, portray men as being in more paying and more satisfactory jobs than the women. A study by Ottosson and Cheng (2012: 13) shows that media usually portrays women as occupying roles that are associated with domestic and beauty matters. For instance, in the American movies, the women are usually given romantic roles while the men are given masculine roles such as providing parental protection to the family.

The American media has also played a very prime role in socializing children in regard to gendered roles (Chartshlaa, 2004: 10). In the current era of technological advancement, children have enough time glued to the television where they get affected by the gender content aired through the televisions. Chartshlaa’s study indicated that media content targeting boys showed competition, agency, aggressiveness, and destruction, while the content that targeted girls emphasized gentle feelings and a nurturing attitude. Such elements in the media content have a very pivotal role on gender since children learn through models. As such, the characteristics targeting boys are geared towards showing that the males should adopt such features, and the vice versa is true for the girls. In that sense, the media plays a very prime role in promoting traditional gender roles in the society. Indeed, as women express their feminist views through the media, the impact is not as effective as the many programs and advertisements that promote gender traditional roles.

Apart from stereotyping gender, Wood (1994: 31) observes that the media has underrepresented women, normalized violence against women and pathologized the human body. Wood argues that the American media, and to a great extent, has failed to represent the reality in regard to culture and gender. For instance, it is amazing how the media is sometimes representing the woman as evil and bad. A good example is in children literature, where stepmothers are represented as being villains, and witches who always inflict suffering to a step-child. This can never be true since, in the contemporary society, there are many women who have brought up daughters and sons that are not their biological children. The media has also contributed significantly to the promotion of violence against women. The portrayal of sexual violence in the media, for example, can send messages connoting tolerance to violence against women. In pathologizing human bodies, the media has portrayed some of the body functions and appearances as being undesirable. For instance, some people are very uncomfortable with cramps, pimples, and skin color, courtesy of the misgivings extended to such aspects by media personalities.

To sum up, the media plays a central role in the matters of gender in the American society. The major impact of the media on gender in the American society is in the area of stereotyping, where the media has completely underrepresented the contemporary society. The female gender has been a captive more than the male gender, with the woman being portrayed as submissive, nurturing, and in some instances, evil. The male gender has been portrayed as being aggressive and assertive. The implications of the impacts of media on gender are huge in the American society, hampering the efforts of feminists in the fight for women rights.

References

Chartschlaa, Sarah A. 2004. External influences of children’s socialization to gender roles. Lynchburg, VA: Liberty University.

Espinosa, Danya. 2010. Gender roles in the media and debunking society’s stereotypes: Glee as a pop-culture reflection. Winona, MN: Winona State University.

Otosson Theresse, and Cheng Xin. 2012. The representation of gender roles in the media: An analysis of gender discourse in sex and the city movies. Ames, IA: University West.

Wood, Julia T. 1994. “Gendered media: The influence of media on views of gender.” FromGendered lives: Communication, gender and culture. 1994, PP 231-244.