Representation of gender in media

Gender is perhaps the basic category we use for sorting human beings, and it is a key issue when discussing representation. Essential elements of our own identity, and the identities we assume other people to have, come from concepts of gender - what does it mean to be a boy or a girl? Many objects, not just humans, are represented by the media as being particularly masculine or feminine - particularly in advertising - and we grow up with an awareness of what constitutes 'appropriate' characteristics

The Norm…

Male Female

• Muscular • Object of desire

• More authoritive • Minimal clothing

• Supports family in terms of money

• Vulnerable (in most genres)

• Aggressive • Mother figure

• Heterosexual • Heterosexual

• Lacks emotion • Very emotional

…The Other

Male Female

• Geeky • Femme fatal

• Scrawny • Kills of male (but dies herself)

• Homosexual • Homosexual

Muscularity