Gender in Communication in Social Institutions: Media

Chantal WoodDecember 10, 2012

CMS498Maureen Ebben

Media is Always Changing

Television shows, magazines, celebrities, fashion, etc. is always changing.

Years from now, celebrities that are famous now may not be.

THEN & NOW

Media is Contradiction

“Popular culture and its media of transmission present “inescapable levels of contradiction”. (Gauntlett, 2002, p. 255)

• Gender contradiction is apparent in movies such as Mulan, where she is a woman who wants to be a warrior.

Media is too Complex

There are multiple forms of mass media that shape our society such as television, internet, magazines, books, music, etc.

Media as a Social Institution

Institutions are a support system for individuals.• Media is the newest form of a social institution.• Anything from Facebook, Twitter, match.com, online chat

rooms, etc. can be considered social institutions for people to be members in a group.

Media Economics

With media as a social institution, there is a focus on media economics and its content.

There are a great deal of commercials that sell their economic medium.

Example:

Commercial

There are also websites that increase consumer demand such as Ebay, Amazon, Pintrest, Wanelo, etc.

These websites are updated to the latest fashions, music, etc. and allow people to feel the need to buy.

Media Economics Continued

Television shows mainly aim to viewers who have money.

Most television shows have main characters that have money and power. You rarely ever see a show based on a poor person.

Example: In the television show, Gossip Girl, the main characters all have money, wear designer clothes, attend Ivy League colleges, and shop in Paris.

Gossip Girl Episode

Media and Power

“Institutions are organized in accord with and permeated by power.” (p. 238) Media influences social norms and the way people identify themselves and

provide what it is like to be feminine or masculine. Beauty products, fashion, etc. are always changing and making people

believe they need the new and improved things.

Media and Power in Films

There is also power shown in films such as V for Vendetta, The Godfather, and Schindler's List.

Media and Hegemony

Media and hegemony is the way people perceive and evaluate social reality.

“It must be maintained, repeated, reinforced, and modified in order to respond to and overcome the forms that oppose it.” (p. 239)

With the hegemonic understandings, gender is viewed as women acting like women and men acting like men.

VS

Opposite of Gender Hegemony in the Media

In Alias, Jennifer Garner plays a woman who is a double agent that fights against men and knows how to carry a gun. She uses aliases to complete her tough missions.

Media Polyvance and Oppositional Readings Every person may interpret media differently than others. Although males and females may get different interpretations of

media, for the most part, there are some similarities. The similarities reveal things about gender, identity, etc. We believe that women should wear heels and men should wear

suits.

Interlocking Institutions

From all institutions, media is the most interconnected. People learn what a family is, what school is, what being

a teenager is, what work is, etc. People learn from the mediated messages that filter

through their heads and give them a sense of self and identity.

Differences Among Women

In television shows and films, women can either be looked at as the stay-at-home mother or the sex symbol.

In the first Youtube commercial, the woman brings her kids to hockey in the “mom van”.

Example: Hockey Mom

In the second Youtube commercial, Rihanna is wearing barely any clothes and clearly the sex symbol. She is wearing Armani Jeans, representing that women will feel and be sexy wearing these.

Example: Armani Jeans

Differences Among Women Continued

“Although all women may be held to beauty standards, the standards is not the same for all women.” (p. 242)

In different cultures, women may be viewed differently. What is beautiful to one person, may not be beautiful to another person.

Similarities Between Women and Men

With the media, there will always be body image pressures and the pressure to look beautiful or handsome.

Women target other women to look skinny and beautiful while men target other men to look fit and buff.

People often forget that what we see on a magazine has been digitally altered or fixed so that person on the cover looks great.

Similarities Continued

Men strive to be the alpha male, the all-star male or the breadwinner. Women strive to be the “it” girl, the beautiful, skinny woman who gets the

man.

This is an example of Lebron walking around like he is the “man”. Everyone knows him, he’s a great dad, has a great job, he is the alpha male.

Lebron Commercial

Media Content & Media Effects

“Media content analyses imply that because media has particular content, a particular effect follows.” (p. 244)

The way people view television, the way they see women, the way children see violence, etc.

When children watch television and are involved with the media, they are provided with ideas about what the social norms are and what is expected from each gender.

In that case, boys play with cars and girls play with Barbies.

The Gaze

The Gaze mainly focuses on the women and how she is represented in films.

“The way the camera, the audience, and the male character (with whom all spectators– male and female– identify) look at women reinforces the male as active and the female as passive.” (p. 250) This goes back to the polyvakent feelings where the men think like the men in the movie and the women think like the women in the movie.

The cinematic gaze is usually from the male.

Men act and women appear or the man sees what he wants and gets it.

An example would be Pretty Women, where Edward sees Vivian and has to hire her. At the end of the movie, he falls in love with her and ends up getting her.

Media as Always Liberatory and Constraining The first theme is gender is

constructed and thus is always in flux.

Years ago, there were never magazines for men. Now there are GQ, Men’s Fitness, etc. for men.

The second theme is resecuring gender’s borders: “masculinity in crisis”.

In movies now a days, it shows men using psychological or physical violence. The man is in crisis.

The third theme is progressive representations rescue traditional gender norms: Mr. Mom and Ellen.

More men are becoming stay-at-home fathers whether they are heterosexual or homosexual.

In 1997, it was the first time a homosexual person had their show on prime-time.

The fourth theme is old technologies replicate old gender norms.

Media as Always Liberatory and Constraining Continued

The internet has taken over our old gender norms. The internet replaces and even talks about race, sex, and gender.

With the use of chat rooms, Facebook, Twitter, and any other social media, the old norm of talking face to face has disappeared by the new technologies.

“The creativity and artistry involved in media creations opens spaces for creative performances of gender– within limits.” (p. 260)

As time goes on, the way we see gender is changing.

When more people become engaged in the media that they are consuming, they can take what they’ve learned and apply it in unpredictable ways.

We now know that both men and women are at times ridiculed in terms of gender and the way they perform it.

References

DeFrancisco, Victoria L., and Catherine Helen. Palczewski. Communicating Gender Diversity: A Critical Approach. Los Angeles: Sage Publications, 2007. Print.

All images from Google Images.