Representation And Characterization Of Gender In Media

If you type the words ‘objectification’, ‘exploitation’ and ‘misrepresentation’ into a search engine, these words would be accompanied by ‘women’, ‘female’, or ‘girls’. Representation and characterization of gender in media is commonly misconceived as being customarily directed only towards the females of society. However, this may not be the case.

Media of today plays an outstanding role in society. Media informs us with various news and issues and provides basic conceptual structures to marshal interpretations and arguments. Additionally, it represents our predominant culture and society. Fair gender portrayal in the media should be a respect for honesty, fairness, and accuracy. Yet, there is ubiquitous amounts of unbalanced gender portrayal in today's media. Let's compare examples of gender stereotypes and representations in magazine covers. As you can see, both genders are portrayed with stereotypical representations. The photograph on a women's magazine shows a photograph of an ‘ideal’ or ‘perfect women’. Its features often focus on emotions and emphasise on sexuality and relationships. The photograph on the cover of a men’s magazine is of an ‘ideal man’ with perfect hair and a defined six pack, accumulated with texts discussing physical strength, position of authority and independence, dominant roles in relationship, etc. Both magazine covers portray the two genders with unrealistic and aspirational standards, moreover, it is perceptible that men are now under a similar pressure to women.

Female stereotyping impacted by the cultural and sociological modifications in society has evolved over time. However, representation of women continue to appear in numerous media texts. According to the Global Media Monitoring Project, women are more likely to be featured as victims in news stories and are also less likely than men to be featured in the world’s news headlines, and be portrayed as pundits or spokespeople.

Representations of women are often determined and defined by the societal expectations of a woman's appearance and behaviour, as well as how the men of society see women. Many representations of women identify women in relation to their family and marital status; others concentrate on sexuality and emotions, misrepresenting and objectifying women to ‘to satisfy the male gaze’.

Men are equally subjected to stereotyping in the media. Exemplification of the male character traits are manifested in media, such as being powerful, righteous, smart, heroic. Even with the emergence of the ‘new man’ or ‘metrosexual’, where a man is affiliated with femininity and is interested in romance, fashion, health and fitness, society is yet incapable of ‘unsiring’ to the traditional ideas of masculinity, allowing little to no room for alternative perceptions of masculinity. In addition, the media often demeans men with domestic solicitous roles, or those who oppose ferocity and violence. As a result, men to have to continue facing unrealistic and aspirational representations of men depicted in media. Such portrayals not only influence society’s perceptions of gender roles, but also of one’s self-expectations. Thus the indoctrination and promotion of unrealistic gender representations in media, caused both males and females of society to conform to ideal gender characteristics.