Gender Representation In Media Products

In different forms of media products, gender is represented in many different ways, which is especially true depending on whether you're male or female. In print media, the representation of men and women is usually very contradicting, however recently the media has become fairer to regressing gender stereotypes and has started to treat men and women equally, compared to examples from the past (eg 1950s). Stereotypes usually play a huge role in the representation of men and women in media. Women are usually given the stereotype of the housewives, the ones who are kind, caring, emotional, and stay at home to care for the house and the children. Whereas on the other hand, men are given the opposite stereotype. Men have the stereotype of being the ones who go out to work and who are emotionless and are the ones who never help out with anything in life. These stereotypes have changed throughout the years, more for men than women, however, some of these stereotypes are still prominent in today's society. Representation of gender in sport is an example of where these gender stereotypes are still a very prominent feature in print media. Currently, especially in "The Sun" newspaper, men's sport is very well represented, this being a result of the newly started football season, whereas women's football is being pushed to the side as a sort of afterthought, bring forward the ideology that women's football is seen as less important in the world of sport. If female sports like football are ever represented in sport, it isn't really focused on as the main sport, pushed to the side columns whilst the male sports industries are taking over all the news headlines. For example, currently, the only example of female representation in the sporting section is used to enhance the male sporting stories, using them to draw more readers to the stories. This shows that the news media still believes that women are meant to be used as talking points (eye candy) for the news stories, using the male gaze to draw attention to the male sports industries, instead of actually focusing on female footballers and what they are doing for the women's sporting industry. On the other hand, men (even though they are usually fairly represented in the media) stereotypes are still used to structure the news stories around male masculinity. In print media, as men are usually represented as emotionless and hyper-focused on their masculinity, we are forced to see this representation, rather than stories about their emotions and feelings about different subjects. This side of men is usually very rarely represented in media, as the other kind of stories draw in more attention as they are seen as more interesting to audiences. Unfortunately, this means the media can easily create many more false stereotypes of men which can be used against them, creating the idea that all men are the same and putting them under one'umbrella'. This is particularly harmful to men as a whole, as it's putting them into a group that most of them don't even fit into, harming their self-confidence as a result of stereotyping. Unfair gender representation doesn't just limit to newspapers like 'The Sun' and 'The Guardian', it also occurs through over forms of print media like magazines. Magazines are usually geared towards male or female audiences, rarely ever being aimed towards both, which gives the magazines a chance to show a lot of stereotypes of each gender, whether that be intentional or not. Let's take women's magazines for example, they usually have very stereotypical headlines, stories, and pictures of what would be expected to be associated with women. Headlines in women's magazines (fashion magazines mainly) have features on the front page that are usually very emotion-based, for example how women feel/ what they should feel about a certain subject. Other feature stories placed on women's magazines place a certain emphasis on women's sexuality and relationships, whereas the main image in the magazine connotes the typical stereotypes that women are placed under. The images usually present women in heavy make-up, dresses, high heels and are placed very either revealing clothing or compromising positions, sexualizing them, and using the idea of Mulvey's 'Male Gaze' to make them look a certain way. Even though they use this to make more people drawn to their product, it uses the typical stereotypes of women to their advantage, shutting out other people who make not want to look that way and making them feel excluded as they don't fit into the 'typical image' of women. Sexist stereotypes of women appear in films, less in more recent movies, but are predominant in other films such as all the James Bond franchise. In all the James bond films, there is always the main character and what is known as a 'Bond Girl'. This female character usually fits all the traditional stereotypes of a woman, skinny, very beautiful and usually wearing make-up, using them for eye candy during the movie instead of what they are doing in most of the modern day films. For example 'The Hunger games' and 'Divergent', use the femme fatale character to empower women and make them seem more important in the films they're featured in. These reinforced stereotypes from films make women who don't fit that 'model women' look feel underrepresented in films, as they are portrayed as only being used for the pleasure of men. In contrast, however, these modern films subvert these stereotypes, showing women as powerful and unstoppable, showing a much fairer representation for both men and women in films. A similar problem also occurs in men's magazines too. More recently, an image of the 'new man' has started to occur in magazines and other media products, one that is in touch with their feminine side and show an interest in fashion, health and fitness, and romance. However, the main image of a man is still being based on male stereotypes. These stereotypes include being strong and heroic, much like characters in movies like James Bond. These stereotypes of men and women are seen as unrealistic for some men to achieve, and even though (the same as women) they sell more this way, it excludes a big proportion of men from the magazines as most of them don't follow typical stereotypes. The features of the magazines usually talk about how to talk to women and also display men like the ones that should be in a position of power and the quote on quote 'strong alpha male' not focusing on their emotions and the emotions of others. This reinforces the typical male stereotypes and doesn't distance itself from these, making some men feel like they have been left out because they (like women) don't fit into the 'typical' image that a man should be. These stereotypes also appear in other forms of print media, especially film as the main male protagonist is perceived as a (usually) 'strong white male'and focuses on other stereotypes like hypo masculinity and being emotionless unless it is towards women, who are usually used as eye candy. These stereotypes prove to be harmful to the male image, as they make others feel like this is how all men are meant to act in order to'be a man', excluding most men because they display their emotions and maybe don't fit into the body type that men are represented as.