Running Head: WOMAN AND MEDIA

Woman and Media Literacy Review

Eberardo Sanchez

University of Texas at El Paso

WOMAN AND MEDIA

Abstract
We are a society composed of two genders. We have our physical differences but in the e
nd we are the same. We are equal. If men underestimate women, then men are going to lose pers
pective. Two genders think better than one. We need to realize that we are totally equal. Just bec
ause the media portrays woman as housewives that lack mathematical abilities doesn't mean it is
necessarily true. This literacy review will explore the answers to three questions. These questions
being: what are the roles of woman in the media, how are women represented in the media, and
are woman affected by stereotypes? The results of this investigation bring to light how stereotype
s create a gap between genders and how it affects women in their day to day lives.

WOMAN AND MEDIA

In times when man used to live in caves, the only way of getting food for the tribe was thr
ough hunting. Men, the strongest and more capable for killing, were the ones who left the cave in
search of food to kill. Later when they returned with food, women that stayed in the cave were i
n charge of making all the preparations so the meat could last longer. Because the womens job
was less demanding they received less food than the men. Centuries later in ancient Rome, a mor
e advanced civilization, woman could not hold political office. Furthermore, they couldnt even v
ote because of their perceived lack of intellect and strength. Time passed and in more contempor
ary times like the 20th century the laws in England and the U.S. declared that by marriage, husba
nd and wife were the same person in law. Thus, putting in suspension the legal existence of the w
ife. Before the husband was in charge of all the legal affairs of his counterpart. Now times have c
hanged and women can be independent. They can have their own job, be part of the government,
and if a woman gets married she doesnt despair, legally talking. Even more woman are not requi
red to be married to be successful. Most importantly women and men are now considered equal
.
Even when both genders are considered equal in law and society, there are still some be
haviors that are supposed to be full-filled by a man. A real man is expected to be stoic, decisive,
direct, athletic, strong, driven and brave. If a man doesnt full-fill all of these behaviors he will n
ot be considered a real man until he proves his masculinity. On the opposite end of the spectru
m, womens behavior needs to be emotional, nurturing, affectionate, home-oriented and forgivin
g. Depending of which of these characteristics she is lacking she can be called numerous names
by both women and men. All these gender roles and behaviors survive and are perceived through
the media. In the past the media used to portray women in obvious stereotypes, where women w

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ere inferior to men in almost all disciplines. Today the media keeps stereotyping women but muc
h more subtlety.
To truly be a gender equal society, we need to realize that even today both genders are vi
ctims of different stereotypes. These stereotypes are just the reflection of the media and the socie
tys interpretation. Because of this we will try to highlight the stereotypes that affects the female
gender and consider what effects they have on society. The following three questions will be ans
wered:

1. What are the roles of woman in the media?

2. How are woman represented in the media?
3. Are woman affected by stereotypes?
This literature review will describe the roles that woman represent in the media, how thes
e roles portray different skills and behaviors woman have, and will also analyze how these stereo
types can affect woman in their personal lives.

What are the roles of woman in the media?

The roles that women represent in the media have evolved. Today we can observe that w
omen take different roles in films and TV shows. There are many: the house wife, the strong and
independent woman, business owner, single mother, wife, the adventurer, and the heroin. There a
re many examples that can be listed but for the purpose of analysis we can analyze these roles in
four different groups: #1 valued for their appearance, #2 short sighted aspirations, #3 One-Dime

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nsional love, #4 not damsels in distress, (Smith, 2008). Located in the first group are all the role
s which the characters principal, and sometimes only attribution are their appearance, physical be
auty. For these characters everything revolves around their physical attributions. One example of
this kind of character appears in the movie, Miss Congeniality. The whole film is about how t
he main character uses her physical attribution to solve a problem. The second group are the char
acters with short sighted aspirations. These kind of roles consist of passive female leads. She doe
sn't seek to pursue all her goals, rather she just reacts to changes in her environment and these ch
anges are what define the whole story. These kind of roles are often presented in romantic films a
nd TV shows where the female character makes unimaginable sacrifices. The next group are char
acters where their only goal is to find a romantic relationship. The difference between the last gr
oup and this one is that these characters also search to achieve their personal goals, where love is
the most important, and in some movies it's the main plot. The subject in these films are generall
y young love, with teenagers or women in their early 20s. Our last group consists of the damsels
not in distress, these female protagonists are shown in heroic acts to save friends, family membe
rs, and society. But they have to pay a huge price like their freedom or sometimes their lives. Sar
ah M. Coyne describes, this kind of female characters can be shown with good physical attri
butions that make them able to perform the hero role, but never forgetting their very impressive b
eauty, (2004). Because no matter what group these roles are taken from they are always describ
ed as beautiful women. Even though the roles that women can have in the media have varied, the
only thing that women have not been able to change is the need to be beautiful.

One role that woman have in the media is the role of audience. From all TV shows and fil
ms only 39% are aimed directly for woman, and of that little part are soap operas, making the

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soap operas the only TV shows aimed for woman and enjoyed by woman. Recent studies have sh
own that woman from all social classes enjoy soap operas. These woman are usually married and
between the ages of 18 and 35. Using these statistics TV shows learn about aspirational middleclass values and behaviors. These studies have shown that audience of soap operas are more educ
ated than previously. These studies have also suggested and characterized their audience as being
isolated and watching soap operas to escape the tedium of their dull lives. Some scholars have ar
gued that soap opera in itself is a subversive genre, since its staple ingredients of broken marriag
es, casual sex, unintended pregnancies, domestic violence, and petty crime are directly antithetic
al to the socially acceptable norms of romantic love contained within the domesticated marriage
arrangement. The audience unknowingly watches alternative stories and characters in order to su
bvert sex-role stereotyping. Soap opera fans principal enjoyment was precisely in experiencing t
he emotion provoked by the story lines, there is good reason to believe that daytime serial audie
nces . .provides useful gender role correctives and respond to soap opera with joy and devotion b
ecause they are relieved to have an alternative to the dominance-subordination film narratives, (
Byerly 2006). Similarly they might be relieved to see, in the case of strong female characters wh
o also happen to be lesbian or old or black, a reflection of their own reality rarely glimpsed on T
V. Thus grateful for the opportunities for identification, no matter how flawed the character may
be, this makes the role of woman as audience also stereotyped.

How are woman represented in the media?

Media represents woman in many different ways, where there is no ugly women, overwei
ght, poor, toiling, or physically or mentally disabled. The media make assumption about how peo
ple are supposed to be and behave, this assumptions leads to the many different images for both

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genders, images known as stereotypes. One of the most used and harmful representation of wom
an in the media is called the provocateur, Anthony Cortese said the provocateur is not human;
rather, she is a form or hollow shell representing a female figure. Accepted attractiveness is her
only attribute. She is slender, typically tall and long-legged, (2008). This concept leads us to ob
serve different things about how the media portrays woman, the media represents woman as the
perfect definition of sexual desire and seduction. They are portrayed as woman with perfect skin,
slender bodies and gorgeous faces, when not even the model and actresses look that way in real l
ife. This makes our society sexually objectify the female body, making the body the most import
ant attribute of any woman.
According to the Sexualization of the female body we can make an example of the stereot
ype of the dumb blonde. Since blondness is viewed as a positive characteristic in woman, they
fall in the category of attractive woman. The media has reinstated that blond woman have a lowe
r intellectual level than that of other woman, Robert Frank writer in the new York times, makes 4
interesting proposition (1) men generally place greater emphasis on looks; (2) women generally
place greater emphasis on income and status; (3) more intelligent men tend to achieve higher inc
ome and status;(4) both an intelligence and physical attractiveness are traits with significant inhe
ritable components, (2007). With these assumptions, Robert frank wrote that if being blonde i
s perceived as more attractive, then being blonde may create valuable opportunities that do not re
quire onerous investments in education and training. The dumb blonde stereotype may thus stem
from the fact that blondes rationally choose to invest less than others in education and other form
s of human capital. (2007). This example creates a path to two different ideas (1) beauty it more
valuable in our society than intelligence, and (2) if a woman married a successful man, she woul
d be successful as well. This is also represented in the media, where just a small part of all the su

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ccessful female characters are more successful than their male counterparts. In almost all the TV
shows and films the most successful and powerful character are male; and when this is not the ca
se those successful and powerful women would show traits and behaviors that are most likely ma
nly. To be successful in the media you need to behave and show behaviors that correspond to me
n. These are just a couple of the many ways that the media represents women as sexual objects, n
othing more than a pretty face, or in order to achieve success and be successful they need to beha
ve like a man.

Are woman affected by the stereotypes?

The stereotypes that are shown in the media can seriously affect the perception we have o
f ourselves and how people around us see us. Since we were kids we started to develop images of
ourselves, these images are also constructed by all the information that we receive from outside
sources. Boys have their dad to use as an example, and girls their mother, but sometimes we also
have other figures we look up to and want to be like, most of the time they are superheroes. Boys
and girls love to watch these kind of TV shows and films, but an examination of super heroes i
n the media reveals that they portray strong gender stereotypes for males. Superheroes are genera
lly portrayed as strong, assertive, aggressive, fast, powerful, leaders, and as portraying a muscula
r ideal body type, very few gender differences in regard to gender stereotyping for male and fem
ale superheroes, with even the females adhering closely to traditional male stereotypes, female su
perheroes tend to be more emotional and overexcited, (Coyne, 2014). Superheroes are examples
that model the behavior of our little kids. But they are drawing a path of violence and aggression
for boys, and making the statement that powerful woman have to act and behave like men.

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As Naomi Berman said on her report Refusing the stereotype, the media play a signifi
cant role in shaping cultural norms and attitudes, concomitantly reinforcing body and beauty
ideals and gender stereotypes, (2013). Reinforcing the ideals of beauty and body shape directly
attacks the subconscious creating a huge impact on feelings of body satisfaction, self-esteem, and
confidence. These feelings directly affect our interactions with the ones around us, with society,
and can develop a decrease in our development of any task, individuals find themselves having t
houghts of anxiety, worry, and self-doubt that not only directly distract attention from optimal pe
rformance, but that also signal active attempts to push these un wanted thoughts out of mind., (S
hmader, 2011). These stereotypes can affect not only our minds but also possess the ability to hol
d us back on our way to success.
We can take the presidential election of 2008 as example, when Sarah Palin became the v
ice-presidential nominee on the republican ticket, one of the most important concerns of her cam
paign directors was how the stereotypes of the media would affect the campaign. Hypothesis 1:
Frames about Sarah Palin that highlight stereotypically feminine traits and issues should cause v
oters to perceive her as possessing higher levels of feminine traits., (Burns, 2013). And because
voters perceived female candidates as more compassionate and capable of compromising than m
en(whereas men were seen as more decisive, strong, and aggressive), they were seen as having a
dvantages in areas like health and education. The problem comes when women run for higher lev
els of government office, where all these traits could be perceived as a weakness and could decre
ase the chances of success. The stereotypes in the media affect woman professionally and person
ally, making them feel insecure and diminishing their opportunities of success in life.

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Conclusion
As human beings we have always valued the aggression and the physical strength exhibit
ed in men, demonstrating a clear differentiation between woman and men. Because of this men, i
n the past, believed women were inferior. Their rights were taken in the name of their inability to
do anything by themselves. Men assumed that women lacked intelligence and their roles in life
were to fulfill mans necessities and use their body solely for procreation. The times have change
d and even though woman and men are legally and socially perceived as equal, we still teach wo
men that they need to have a perfectly shaped body and a gorgeous face to be loved. We teach th
em that if they want to be successful and professional in life they need to give up their femininity
and start to behave like a man. We convey all these things using the media; it is how stereotypes
are being kept alive and strong, and why society is accepting them.

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References

Berman, N., White, A., (2013). Refusing the stereotype Decoding negative gender imagery through a Sch
ool-based digital media literacy program. Youth Studies Australia, 34(1), 38-47
Burns, S., Eberhardt, L., Merolla, J.L., (2013). What Is the Difference Between a Hockey Mom and a Pit Bu
ll? Presentations of Palin and Gender Stereotypes in the 2008 Presidential Election. Political Rese
arch Quarterly, 66(3), 687701.

Byerly, C. M., Ross K. (2006). Women & media: a critical introduction. Carlton, Australia: Blackwell Publis
hing Ltd.

Coyne, S. M., Linder, J. R., Rasmussen, E. E. (2014). Its a Bird! Its a Plane! Its a Gender Stereotype! : Lo
ngitudinal Associations between Superhero Viewing and Gender
Stereotyped Play. Sex Roles, 70(no issue number), 416430

Cortese A. J. (2008). PROVOCATEUR, Images of women and minorities in advertising. Lanham, Maryland:
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD publishers, INC.

Frank, R. H. (2007). Despite the Dumb Jokes, Stereotypes May Reflect Some Smart Choices. Th
e New York Times. Retrieved from Http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/07/business/07scen
e.html?fta=y&module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Ar%2C%7B%222%22%3A%22
RI%3A15%22%7D&_r=0

Schmader, T., Croft, A. (2011). How Stereotypes Stifle Performance Potential. Social and Personality. Psy
chology Compass, 5(10), 792806.

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Smith, S. (2008, November 13). Gender Stereotypes: An Analysis of Popular Films and TV. Gee
na Davis Institute on Gender in Media. Retrieved on 2014, October 24. From http://seeja
ne.org/wp-content/uploads/GDIGM_Gender_Stereotypes.pdf