Gender Continued

Essay

6% of global news content reinforces gender stereotypes, almost eight times higher than stories that challenge such stereotypes

1 out of 3 girls said they would change an aspect of their appearance - Children Now
2 out 3 girls said they want to be like a character - Children Now

38% of female characters in video games are skimpily dressed
23% baring breasts or cleavage
31% exposing thighs
31% exposing stomachs
15% exposing their behinds  - Children Now

35% of 6-12 year olds have been on a diet at some point in their lives 

Has the mediation of gender changed, and does this reflect changes in society?

Mediation refers to the intervention of media institutions in presenting media to an audience, in line with the agenda of the producer/s. The ways in which institutions do this is significantly influential in affecting the viewpoints of society and the identities of individuals regardless of the realities of a media text. David Buckingham suggests that 'The media do not just offer us a transparent ‘window on the world’ but a mediated version of the world. They don’t just present reality, they re-present it'. Gender is a category that has experienced a plethora of contrasting and similar representations in the media, both historically and in the present day.

In the past, gender roles were binary, meaning that gender was classified into two distinct, opposite and disconnected forms of masculine and feminine. Most frequently, males and females in the media were archetypes of the typical male and female, possessing traits and characteristics that would often be attributed to a stereotypical figure of either gender. For example, males appearing in the media would often show strength, power and dominance, whereas the female would generally be associated with domesticity, femininity, emotion for example, suggesting a hegemonist, patriarchal society. 

An example of this is a Fairy Liquid advert which was shown in the media in 1966. This presented a woman in a typical domestic and maternal role, as she was doing the washing up with her female child. Whilst doing this, she implied that she has the determination to keep her skin soft, suggesting that a woman's role is to be good looking. The way she was teaching her daughter to carry out this domestic role shows that in this temporal context we were presented with a society that conforms to stereotypical gender roles, where even the female children were expecting this role to be theirs in the future. In addition, historically, females were frequently objectified in the media. Objectification is a notion central to feminist theory, and is defined as "the treating of a person as an object or a belonging to another person" often referring to the female being a possession of the male. The objectification of females in the media traditionally took place in a historical pre-feminist society. An example of this is an advert for Ovaltine from the early 1960s. In this printed advert, his advert pictured a female with the shoulder strap of her dress falling off of her shoulder, and used the strap line 'wake up perky in the morning'. This further presents the woman as being an object of the man. Moreover, this is an example of how genders are assigned to specific roles in society, conforming to Giddens' theory of structuration.

In the present day, many people would argue that gender inequality in the media is now obsolete as the extent to which bias texts are produced is smaller and the number of gender-neutral texts has increased - although some of these may be tokenism as a result of societal pressures. Although this may be the case, statistics suggest that 6% of global news content reinforces gender stereotypes - which may sound positive. However, this is almost eight times higher than stories that challenge such stereotypes. In truth, there is still a large amount of misrepresentation in terms of gender in the media. Many companies still use overly explicit images that suggest women to be sex objects for example, as they believe that it engages an audience and therefore leads to sales and the success of the company. Clothing brand American Apparel is an example of a company whose marketing often revolves around the scopophilic sexualisation of the female. There is an image used frequently showing the bottom half of a fully clothed male holding a submissive female's nude legs in the air, perhaps creating the impression that the male clothing sold by the brand causes females to be seduced. This is an example of Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze theory, which states that media is created from the perspective of a heterosexual male. In contrast, in the present day there is a great deal more media which challenges typical gender roles. The Dove - Real Beauty campaign of 2004 is an example of this. Gender roles are being challenged, as the women used in the adverts and marketing campaign do not conform to the archetypes of a female. This is because they do not possess a 'perfect' physique and instead are a normal size. This shows how society has changed and that size 0 supermodels are not the norm, and this is not necessarily expected of a woman as it may have been seen to have been previously.

In conclusion, the mediation of gender has changed, but this doesn't mean that the issues previously seen have been rectified. As aforementioned, there are still many examples of contemporary media, which conform to typical gender roles and could be seen to be from a sexist point of view. It should be noticed however, that in the modern day it feels as though there is a conscious effort being made by the media to challenge gender stereotypes, as the Dove campaign shows, reflecting the way society is changing to accommodate a wider variety of people and to become more accepting of others.

2011 vs. 2013 Nutella Advert

2011 - Woman (mother) proceeding with breakfast routine providing children with breakfast. Absence of man suggests he is away working/she is a single parent.

2013 - Shows a range of people scooping Nutella from the jar. Range of genders/occupations/races, such as a mother and daughter and father and son. This shows a neutral perspective on gender roles.

Tokenism - the practice of making only a perfunctory or symbolic effort to do a particular thing, especially by recruiting a small number of people from under-represented groups in order to give the appearance of sexual or racial equality within a workforce.

Archetypes

Changing Gender Roles in Advertising Images

1999

In this image, the focus of the magazine image challenges the male stereotype. This is because it shows him wearing a dress, suggesting femininity and domesticity. Furthermore, this is not only a normal man, this is Brad Pitt - a very high profile celebrity. This shows how society has changed because such a person would be considered a role model, and Brad Pitt dressed like this would be significantly influential. This therefore conveys the message of self-identity and self-expression on a global scale, whereas this wouldn't have happened in the past as males would be expected to conform to typical male attributes.

http://www.dove.us/Social-Mission/campaign-for-real-beauty.aspx 2004

In this image, gender roles are being challenged, as the women in the advert do not conform to the archetypes of a female. This is because they do not possess a 'perfect' physique and instead are a normal size. This shows how society has changed and that size 0 supermodels are not the norm.

Gender/HW

Poldark 1975
The Male Gaze Theory can be applied to this image to some extent. This is because the male appears to be trying to take a dominant role. However, the female in the image does not appear to be submissive due to her body language; her folded arms suggest that she is not necessarily consenting. This could mean that the image does not 'represent the interests of the heterosexual male' as the Male Gaze Theory would suggest.

Poldark 2015
The modern version of Poldark contrasts significantly from the 1975 version. In this image, the male rather than the female is sexualised. This can be deduced from the fact that he is topless and has a very 'masculine' physique. This conforms to the Female Gaze Theory (Hanson 1984). This is because the male is sexualised, introducing the idea that the image is to be enjoyed by a heterosexual female viewer.


Body Image - The way we think and feel about the size, shape, weight and overall appearance of our bodies.
Dysmorphia - A mental disorder characterised by an obsessive preoccupation that some aspect of one's own appearance is severely flawed and warrants exceptional measures to hide or fix it.

• When most people think about problems with body image they think about young women.
• Historically, women have been subjected to greater objectification in the media - girls are constantly fed the message that the only way to succeed is by being attractive.

• 1.6m people in the UK are affected by an eating disorder, of which around 11% are male. - BEAT eating disorder charity/ The rising amount of males suffering from eating disorders and abusing steroids is linked to media representation of men

• To limit the body image pressure men feel, we need to promote the idea that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes for men, just as we do for women.

Representations of men: Masculinity is a concept that is made up of more rigid stereotypes than femininity. Representations tend to focus on:

Representations of men:

- Physical and Intellectual Strength

- Power 

- Sexual Attractiveness

- Independence
- Dominance

Representations of Women: 

- Beauty

- Size/physique
- Domesticated
- Submissive

- Sexualised

- Emotional

- Relationships
- Maternal/Motherly figures

Archetype : a very typical example of a certain person or thing

Gender Binary: Describes a system where a society splits its members of male and female sexes into gender roles, gender identities and attributes.

"The existence of transgender individuals is an indication that binary sex is refutable. A person can exhibit both traits that were rendered exclusive to a boy or girl" Anne Fausto-Sterling

What is your view on the male Body Image to what extent do you think that the representation of male body image is changing.

Write a 500 word essay on this using visual references in support of your views
Use information gained from the viewing of

Reggie Yates' Extreme UK to help support your arguments and other sources of magazines.. GQ magazine, Men’s Health, etc.

Include at least two theories that you think applies in you analysis
Include examples a range of texts contemporary (within the last 5 years) and older texts.

'Body image' refers to the way we think and feel about the size, shape, weight and overall appearance of our bodies. Although socially, it may be assumed that this is more typically an issue associated with females as historically, women have been subjected to greater objectification in the media, the representation of the male body image is also undergoing significant change. According to the Eating Disorder Charity, BEAT, 1.6 million people in the UK are affected by an eating disorder, of which 11% are males - suggesting that the issue of body image acceptability is an issue spread across both genders. A new study of a national sample of adolescent boys, reveals that nearly 18 percent of boys are highly concerned about their weight and physique. They are also at increased risk for a variety of negative outcomes: Boys in the study who were extremely concerned about weight were more likely to be depressed, and more likely to engage in high-risk behaviors such as binge drinking and drug use. This is known as dysmorphia: a mental disorder characterised by an obsessive preoccupation that some aspect of one's own appearance is severely flawed and warrants exceptional measures to hide or fix it.

In the modern day, males are now feeling pressure from society to possess as much lean muscle as possible and to acquire the big-built, masculine six-pack body. This can lead to males taking part in dangerous activities in order to achieve this. For example, steroid use, plastic surgery or by using hazardous work-out techniques such as wrapping household cling-film around the abdominals during exercise in order to promote over-sweating, which can cause the body to dehydrate. Each of these pursuits can be seen on 'Reggie Yates' Extreme UK' - a TV programme that documents the extent that the males can be affected by media representations and the lengths that they are willing to go to in order to achieve their desired bodies.  Much of this pressure comes from representations of the male in the media, most notably from advertising and marketing publications, TV and Men's Magazines.

The image above, which can commonly be found in Men's magazines such as Men's Health and QC, is an example of the way the male body image is often represented in the media. This Calvin Klein aftershave advert presents a male model who appears to have the 'perfect body'. When seen by a male, this may create the impression that this is the norm amongst men and therefore create pressure for the male to adhere to this body image. 

In terms of TV-based media, the series Poldark shows two contrasting representations of the main male character when comparing the 1975 version to the more recent 2015 re-make of the programme.   The contemporary version denotes the main male character to be muscular and well-built whereas the initial edition depicts a more 'average' looking man. This change in male representations over the 30 year period suggests how society has changed. Not only are males under more pressure in the modern day to adhere to the male body image, but they are also more frequently objectified than they were previously. This could conform to Hansen's Female Gaze theory (1984), which suggests that 

women are also able to view male characters as erotic objects of desire - also subsequently creating personal pressures for males in society. The Diet Coke advert of 2013 is also an example of this as it denotes a group of females watching a male gardener taking off his clothes.