How the Media Constructs Gender Norms.
Media tends to play a huge role in the way people look at the world, and more often than not, it shapes our beliefs and behaviours concerning gender. There is much more to gender and the media than we think; often, “gendering” differences between boys and girls, men and women, are perpetuated and reinforced through multiple forms of media. Historically, through the lenses of sociologists, sex and gender are distinct from one another. Sex is the biological genitalia one is born with, and gender is the socially constructed perception of what is deemed masculine and feminine. Gender involves social norms and standards that society deems appropriate for these two genders that continue to be constructed and practised in society. Since mass media is one of society’s critical agents of socialization, we can see it transmits norms and values significantly. In essence, this essay will argue that mass media plays a significant role in constructing gender to objectify women, shown through cleaning advertisements, youth television shows, and Teen Vogue magazines.
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The mass media appears to have a lot of advertisements directly targeted towards women and are good at presenting products that, in reality, objectify women and further construct gender roles. These gender roles are based on how a woman should be, including the responsibilities of raising children, sending them to school, and being predominantly the caretakers of all chores in the home. When looking at Dawn dish soap and other cleaning ads, they almost always have women as housewives using them as the only ones responsible for keeping things clean and tidy (Tiffany, 2019). Occasionally, men are seen, but almost always, as the ones that created the mess in the cleaning ad. A man always spills something, and his wife grabs her cleaning supplies and remedies the problem. The man, depicted as helpless and incompetent, smiles as his wife does her job, demonstrating that cleaning is only for women. Advertisers have skewed advertising for female customers because women are more likely to do grocery shopping and make household purchasing decisions. Confident marketers are still promoting stereotypes that are deceptive and offensive. These gender stereotypes cause harm and widespread offence (Tiffany, 2019) as they continue to construct women as homemakers. This point of view in advertisements essentially says that it is not a man’s job to clean dirty dishes and toilets or fold clothes. We know this is far from true because men do engage in household chores and fulfil simple parental and household duties. This is demonstrated by when we see stay-at-home fathers who do domestic tasks and help around the house just as much as women do. Not only do they help out, but they are also good at ensuring they have cleaned their home thoroughly so on (Wang 2016). But these advertisements go out of their way to display a woman’s role versus a man’s role when we see women displayed cleaning more often than not. Furthermore, women are used as sexual objects to sell products to men, which have women posing in men’s cologne ads very seductive and sensual to appear more desirable to the male gaze. Typically, these women have little to no clothing on, and the consequence of using such images of women in advertising is that women have been objectified as objects of sexual pleasure. Women are reduced to their mere bodies, thus ignoring the personality and dignity of a woman. Through this, advertisers infer the most powerful tool is male dominance over women (Wang, 2016). This is the kind of scheme that divides the sexes into different genders and perpetuates gender constructs. This is demonstrated as they teach the audience a wide variety of meanings of learned constructs of masculinity and femininity. Some men display their dominance in these commercials by standing over a woman as she sits or appears vulnerable and feminine, while the man seems to appear muscular and manly, which shows that women are submissive and weak while men are strong and dominant.
Both women and men are portrayed in stereotyped roles, as women are more often seen as homemakers for men, and men are interested in women as sexual objects.
Television shows and movies are also guilty of casting women in subservient domestic positions that can influence the way young audiences see how these acting boys from girls on television are supposed to be. The Disney movie “Sleeping Beauty” offers a perfect example of this as the prince was eager to meet the princess; however, she had split a mess and had to clean it up upon the arrival of the prince (Geronimi, 2014). She did not only have to clean up the floor but was also ordered to dress up and look presentable, including a dress that she wore and a full face of makeup to doll up. This tells young women they need to wear a dress and apply makeup in order to be a girl, look beautiful, and please a man. Sleeping Beauty and many Disney movies convey the idea that a woman cannot fulfill their dreams without the aid of a man. In this movie, Aurora, the princess, is awakened from an enchanted sleep by a kiss from the prince, which is the only way for the spell to be broken (Guo, 2019). Young girls and boys learn these behaviors and attitudes when they are highly involved in watching their favourite television channels, and they see many ideals that boys and girls are expected to uphold. While society enforces these expectations through television, which is primarily viewed on a daily basis, these learned behaviors from television shows and movies could be carried over to social settings such as classrooms. Children socialize with what they see on television with their peer groups, and girls and boys are already expected to behave in such ways, which are shaped by their parents and reinforced by the media. Boys have blue bedrooms that are not maintained and stay messy, while girls have pink bedrooms that are clean and tidy. Kids recognize these resemblances to themselves and feel happy and connected because their favorite television show actors and actresses appear like them. This makes them want to imitate and be like the people they see on television who look like them. In addition, this film reinforces the belief that girls should be concerned about their appearance and should regard their bodies as sexual objects for the consumption of men. The manner in which Aurora dolled up was not for her own self but for the prince. Usually, female characters gossip about romances and compete for a guy, all of which promulgate the belief that they will be content once a woman follows the patriarchal society where men are dominant (Geronimi, 2014). It is, therefore, possible to draw the inference that popular fairy tale movies, as such, will teach children the values and how to act in accordance with what it means to be a boy or girl.
Another form of mass media that tends to construct gender is Teen Vogue magazines which are directed toward women and teenage girls on how they should look physically to be successful at dating. Being successful at dating with tips that help girls and women understand how to win over a guy heavily involves the emphasis on one’s physicality. A girl must dress to impress and look her best to make sure she catches his attention. This is exactly what these magazines give women which are tips and advice on how to look more appealing to the male gaze. Relationship advice given in some of these magazines stems from “let him be the man and put in the effort to please you” or “show off a little bit of skin; men love that” (Vaes, 2011). One must be obsessed with their physical appearance to make a man stay, which is essentially what these magazines emphasize. Not only are these messages explicitly written, but some women, such as celebrities and influencers, are represented in provocative clothing as decorative objects in ways that highlight their body parts and sexual readiness to put forth these messages (Vaes, 2011). With that being said, women are portrayed in ways to target men, which typically involves men making sexual comments about a women’s body parts, hair, face, and attitude, which objectifies a woman based on her appearance (Szymanski & Moffitt, 2011, p-10). For instance, Hooters is a restaurant known for having attractive young female servers who wear short skorts and a low-cut crop top as the uniform with the Hooters logo across the chest while serving finger food. A dangerous line can be crossed as men who look at these women’s photos may be more likely to feel as if the real women serving them are just poster girls coming to life instead of “real” women (Vaes, 2011). Numerous posters and photos of the scantily dressed Hooters Girls are displayed in the restaurants, which are always available to the male gaze. These images also show up in magazines directed to men that encourage events such as waitress swimsuit contests where the main focus is to stare at and judge women (Szymanski & Moffitt, 2011, p-27). This is the main cause of the disrespect shown to women because men forget women are real with feelings and dignity, not just objects of sexual pleasure and gratification. This highlights gender roles and focuses on the women’s appearance which is a male-dominated trait that elicits the male gaze. These magazines also influence women’s outlook on beauty and gender roles by giving them images or targeted ads that sway their thoughts on how they think they should act and be in order to be feminine enough. Ads also target men and do just the same; they have men who are photoshopped to look muscular, which signifies their masculinity, to make other men that view these magazines feel as though this is how they should look to be considered men and masculine enough. This is a way of doing gender in which men and women are made to feel as if they have to be a certain way in order to achieve gender; magazines that give out information that heavily revolves around this is toxic and is far from the truth because “doing gender” creates differences that are not natural or biological. These differences have rather been constructed and reinforced through media such as magazines that perpetuate these constructions (West & Zimmerman, p-39).
From this, we can see that gender constructs between men and women and boys and girls have been reinforced through the mass media to create differences. These differences are unnatural and intend to show what it means to be masculine and feminine. Advertisements, television shows directed for children, and Teen Vogue magazines all demonstrate these socially constructed ideals. It is furthermore clear that mass media plays a significant role when it comes to constructing gender to objectify women; this has been shown through cleaning ads directed to women, television shows and movies such as Disney, and magazines that have sexualized images of women.
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References
Geronimi, C. (Director). (2014). Sleeping Beauty: Diamond Edition Blu-Ray Movie CLIP – Love’s First Kiss [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=DbGQJ9xKx3M
Guo, J. (2019, August 07). Researchers have found a major problem with Disney movies.Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/01/25/researchers- have-discovered-a-major-problem-with-the-little-mermaid-and-other-Disney-movies/
Szymanski, D. M., & Moffitt, L. (2011). Sexual Objectification of Women: Advances to Theory and Research. Retrieved from https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search? q=cache:KOuHujBliV8J:https://www.apa.org/education/ce/sexualobjectification.pdf+&cd= 6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca&client=firefox-b-ab
Tiffany, K. (2019, June 18). Gender stereotypes have been banned from British ADS. What does that mean? Retrieved from https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/6/18/18684088/uk- gender-stereotype-ad-ban-sexism-advertising-history
Vaes, J. (2011, June 11). Are sexualized women complete human beings? Why men and women dehumanize sexually objectified women. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary-wiley- com.ezproxy.library.yorku.ca/doi/full/10.1002/ejsp.824
Wang, Y. (2016). Sexual objectification of women in advertising. Retrieved from https://www.grin.com/document/337767
Zimmerman, D. H. West, C. (2015). Doing Gender. (Ed.), The Gendered Society Reader (3rd Canadian Edition ed., Oxford, pp. 35-39). Michael S. Kimmel.
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Question 
In this activity, you will examine how the media constructs gender norms.
How the Media Constructs Gender Norms.
Pick from one of the following forms of media, and examine the gendered images and messages created about what it means to be a man and woman in society: magazines (American Girl and Scout Life are great choices), television advertisements, a film, or social media.
As you examine your form of media, write your answers to these questions:
What messages are being conveyed about what it means to be a boy or man or girl, or woman in society?
Do the images and messages you see maintain the gender binary, challenge it, or redefine it?
How are people “doing gender” in this form of media?
Be sure to respond to at least one of your classmates’ posts.