Representation of Gender and Sexuality in Media essay
Historically, media represented gender and sexuality in the way that matched the dominant public view and mirrors the evolution of gender-related biases and stereotypes and views on sexuality. In the course of time, gender relations and sexuality evolved and changed and all these changes found their reflection in mass media (Bonvillain, 1995, 210). Mass media, in their turn, portrayed gender relations and sexuality according to the dominant cultural view on gender relations and sexuality. This is why it is possible to trace the evolution of those views through the analysis of films, for example, created in different time. At the same time, media have always had a considerable impact on the society, its cultural norms and values, including the development of gender-related biases and stereotypes which were accepted and promoted by media and this trend persists today making mass media a powerful tool that determines, to a significant extent, gender relations and perception as well as representation of sexuality in the modern media and society.
Traditionally, media had a considerable impact on the society and socialization of individuals. Today, the impact of mass media has become even more significant because people are always exposed to the impact of mass media. The exposure of individuals to mass media from the early childhood leads to the formation of their worldview under the impact of mass media.
The impact of media on individuals is significant because individuals develop their ethic values, norms and standards of behaviour as well as their worldview through learning from their social environment and their social experience. Mass media shape the system of values of individuals because they communicate key values and norms of the mainstream culture to the audience. As a result, individuals exposed to the impact of mass media from the early childhood acquire cultural norms’ and values promoted by mass media.
At the same time, cultural norms and values promoted by mass media and imposed by them on people may not always be obvious as is the case of gender-related biases and stereotypes or views on sexuality. In this regard, it is possible to refer to the case of women, who were traditionally perceived as sexual objects and were respectively portrayed by media (Storey, 2001, 114). In the past, women were traditionally discriminated by the male-dominated society. They performed secondary part in the life of the society and media revealed their inferior, secondary position in the society.
Researchers (Basile, 2004, 182) have developed the concept of “male gaze” in regard to mass media. This concept implies the depiction of women in films and other media from the male perspective. This is why female performers in media and films emphasized their sexuality. In fact, this trend persists today as well. The depiction of women as objects and emphasis on their sexuality leads not only to the development of respective gender-related biases and stereotypes but also to the discrimination of women working in the media industry (Basile, 2004, 182). For instance, women that did not match commonly accepted standards of female beauty, which were, by the way, grounded on the male view on women, could not find a job in the media industry or their career opportunities were much worse compared to women that matched the commonly accepted standard of female beauty and sexuality. Moreover, many female performers, including contemporary one, exploited and keep exploiting their sexuality and femininity to create a sexually appealing female image or character that will contribute to the enhancement of their personal brand. As a result, they can increase their earnings and improve their social standing exploiting their sexuality.
Moreover, Sanjay Newton insists that male view and male ideology dominates in mass media, including Disney films, while the objectification of women is a norm (Newton, 2007). As a result, gender inequality emerges as women are depicted as objects that serve to pleasure men. However, such gender representation is discriminatory. In fact, Disney films and characters, like Disney princesses are manifestation of gender discrimination and objectification of women (Disney and Sexism, 2011).
In the past, the male domination in the society was more obvious and could be easily traced in mass media portraying women as housewives and mothers above all (Arriaga & Foshee, 2004, 199). However, the rise of feminism contributed to the change of portraying women in mass media. Feminism has opened the way to a different, non-male-dominated view on women. Instead, feminism promoted the idea of the oppression of women by men, against which women should rebel. Such rebellion involved the growing demand to mass media to change the conventional depiction of media. Many female directors have started to show feminist films. Mass media have increased their attention to problems of women. As a result, the rise of feminism contributed to the steady change of the public opinion and the attitude of the public to women and their role in the society.
Nevertheless, the gender inequality and biased attitude to women still persists (Hardisty, 1999, 124). Women are still discriminated but such discrimination is not so obvious and strong as it used to be in the past. For instance, contemporary mass media still tend to the biased representation of women as housewives, as is the case of many sitcoms. But such biased representation is not as frequent and strong as it used to be several decades ago.
On the other hand, the emergence of feminism still contributed to the change of gender-related stereotypes and respective changes in the depiction of women by mass media. Today, mass media attempt to be more tolerant in relation to women and depict them as equal to men. Mass media contributed to the steady change of the public perception of gender roles and sexuality.
However, the male gaze or its elements still persist because female sexuality is still intentionally emphasized in the contemporary mass media. Moreover, some industries, like porn industry, still stand on the ground of male chauvinism. In such a way, mass media are still vulnerable to the impact of biases, stereotypes and prejudices of the male dominated society that still affect mass media.
At the same time, today, the new problem has emerged, the problem of the depiction of sexual minorities by mass media. Similarly to women, they were discriminated and often misrepresented by mass media. But, in the course of time, the trend to the wider representation of sexual minorities in mass media has grown stronger and today they comprise a part of the general media coverage in terms of gender relations and sexuality. In this regard, Judith Butler (Hartley, 2011) supports the idea of the violation of rights and abuse of representatives of sexual minorities along with their under-representation in mass media. As a result, gender relations and perception of gender in the modern society does not admit the homosexuality as a norm but the society perceives it rather as a challenge to social norms.
Thus, the development of mass media mirrored changes that occurred in gender relations and perception of sexuality by the society. The discrimination and misrepresentation of women as weak objects with the explicit emphasis on their sexuality have started to disappear along with the rise of feminism. Feminism contributed to the change of the public image of women and stimulated the change of the role of women in the society. However, mass media just mirrored profound social changes that took place and changed gender relations in the society.
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