Representations of Gender...

Gender is a key issue when discussing representation. As children we grow up with an awareness of what the 'appropriate' characteristics of gender are; the media shapes our ideas of what it is to be male or female.

Representations of Females

Media representations of women remain worryingly the same over time, even though there has been a huge shift in the way that women are viewed in society.

Women are often shown to be:

• beautful and delicate
• small in size/physique
• weak/little power and strength
• emotional and intouch with their feelings
• in relationships (opposed to being independant and free)
• part of a family.

Women in the media tend to be very stereotypically represented and anyone differing from this is seen as weird or dangerous (this could oppress inidiviuality).

Representations of Males

Strength, power, attractiveness and independance are just a few common representations of males in the media. Men are shown as dominant over females; they often have to rescue the weak, little female from distress which gives them a hero-like quality in a lot of circumstances. On the other hand, sometimes males are shown as the 'bad guy' and use violence, but this is all part of the macho bravado that defines what it is to be 'male' and never harms their reputation (like the negative representations of females do).

We briefly looked at one edition NEW! magazine. The males were largely shown as the boyfriend who cheated. There was a severe lack of independant males and it felt like the males were only there to make the women feel better about themselves. Also the women were being provided with an unrealistic image for them to try and achieve because of all the beautiful and thin women featured in the magazine. Finally, we noticed that all of the articles were about either hair, fashion, make-up, weight or relationships. These articles all included the stereotype of the typical women and a negative portratyle of a man.

Wire in the blood II

This series was written by a woman so we felt it would be interesting to see if the representations of women were any different to all the other media we are exposed to (which are laregly produced by males).

• A women brought food to a man - slave. She then got locked away in a room - she was a prisoner and powerless.
• A male was a doctor wearing a suit which meant he was wealthy and successful.
• The women had mundane, low skill jobs when they were included at a work place.
• All the other women had no jobs, looked after the children and went shopping.
• There was a male pathologist which is a highly skilled and well paid job.
• The victim was a woman and the antagonist was a man.

We found that even though this series was indeed written by a woman, it did not challenge the idea of the stereotypical woman. This may have been because the writer did not want to lose viewers because the programme showed women in a way we are not used to.

And finally, we came up with an acronym to identify gender in the media.

Purpose within plot

Actions

Ratio

Treatment

Interaction with others

Extras

Social postitions