The Sociology of Mass Media

Representations of Gender in the Media

Introduction

- Throughout the 20th century, and to a great extent still today, representations of gender in the media reflected (and caused) the hegemonic reality…

patriarchy

.Whilst the family is generally seen as primary gender-socialization agent, media plays a

key role in teaching and reinforcing these cultural expectations

.ACTIVITY: can you think of some characteristics of this patriarchy and how it might be

represented in the mass media?

.

Men as central to the world of employment;

responsible breadwinners

and household heads; these are all reflected in movies, soap operas, advertising etc.

.

Masculinity as….

independent and individualistic

Good men should be more strong-minded and truly independent than most women

.

Competitive

Good men should never be happy with second best

.

Brave

Good men should have a far higher fear-threshold than most women

.

Ambitious

Good men should want to go far in life; and

increasingly, good men should be a “high-achiever” in numerous areas e.g. sport, employment, sex life than most women

.

Aggressive

A good man should never back down from a physical or emotional challenge, and should be much more eager

to risk his safety or reputation than most women

.

DependableUnlike most women,

good men can be relied upon during the most difficult of circumstances.

Women need men

.

Without openly-displayed emotion

.

Femininity as …

DomesticatedA woman’s place is in the home

Cooking and cleaning in the home is the responsibility of the female members of the household

.

Maternal, caring and emotionally supportiveA good woman should be willing and able to care for all loved ones, in every way

.

Normal women place a higher value on personal relationships,

gossip and the latest fashions than most men

.Subordinate and inferior

As with all the characteristics mentioned, there are always many exceptions; but women are most often portrayed as being of slightly less

intrinsic worth than men in most times, spaces and situations

Emotional

Most women are more emotional than men- and lack the ability to control themselves

Representations of femininitySymbolic annihilation (this is the term of Tuchman et al, 1978)

- Women’s achievements under-reported, condemned, trivialized

- Women more likely to be presented in a sexualised or infantile manner

.Tunstall (2000)

- More than 50% of British women are in paid employment; and we’re seeing continuing progress in the proportion of leadership positions filled by women

- yet this is under-rep’d in the media; instead, women’s role as

mothers, housewives and consumers is over-rep’d

- Only around half of all sexual activity involves a woman, yet women

are far more likely to be portrayed in a sexualised way

.The ‘Just the Women’ report ,2012

- Study of rep’n of women, and violence against women, in British newspapers

- Part of the Leveson Inquiry (2012), more widely known for its

investigation of unethical journalistic activities e.g. phone-hacking

- For two weeks, 11 national newspapers were subject to a content analysis:

1,300 reports contained “sexism”

ACTIVITY: What were some other the findings of Just the Women?

.The ‘Seen but not Heard’ report, 2012

- Random sample of front pages of 18 national newspapers

- 78% of people mentioned in headlines were male

- 84% of people mentioned in the stories were male

- Very few stories about female expertise or professionalism; instead, most of the “experts” (e.g. scientists, psychologists, economists) were male

.Cochrane (2011): content analysis of BBC productions

- 72% of BBC’s Question Time panelists were male

- 92% of guests on BBC’s Mock the Week were male

- 84% of reporters and guests on BBC radio’s Today programme were male

.- Males even dominate children’s TV; the Bristol Fawcett Society (2008) found that only 30% of characters on BBC’s CBeebies were male, ALL narrators were male, and most presenters were male

ACTIVITY: The Bristol Fawcett Society specialises in studies

using content analysis; can you recall any specific CA studies?

.• Computer games routinely under-represent women numerically, and in the

way they are portrayed

• Women’s sexualisation and

marginalisation is, according to Ivory (2006), most extreme in this media format

Magazines and femininityMagazines are a particularly interesting format as they are even more likely than TV shows and movies to be aimed at one particular sex e.g.

“women’s magazines”, “Lads’ mags”

Sociologists have long argued that both men’s and

women’s magazines promote very rigid ideals of masculinity and femininity; playing a key role in the reproduction of patriarchy

The Cult of Femininity?This term is that of Ferguson (1983)

• Ferguson (1983) : content anal. of women’s magazines (e.g. ‘Good Housekeeping’ and ‘Women’s weekly’) from between 1949 and 1980

• A “cult of femininity” prevailed; high value on women attaining

excellence through care, family, marriage and physical appearance

.Ferguson also looked at current magazines and found some change; but often this was

superficial and not a sign of genuine equality

focus still on “him, home and looking good (for him)”

.• The Bristol Fawcett Society (2008) analyzed

front covers of magazines (that featured people), finding the same prevailing ideals and images