Gender Media rr3
Gender Media rr3
Gender Media rr3
Portrayals of Gender
CM-213
Emily Angelo
April 8, 2023
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Gender is something that defines each individual so that they can identify themselves.
This determines a lot of things in our world, and can cause issues in one's life just because of
The first thing that we are taught when we are born is gender identity. In the book entitled
Gendered Lives: Communication, Gender, &Culture, it states that “as children develop their
gender identity, which is a person’s subjective sense to his/her/their gender, it determines which
parent a child will identify and how the child’s psych will develop.” Becoming a woman you
tend to lean more towards the mother figure in your life due to the fact that you can both
associate with the same things. Whereas a male will lean more towards the father figure because
of the similar things as well. By having someone who identifies as the same gender as you allows
you to have a “role model” per say that will guide you through life as such gender. Within this
book it discusses how a child’s development is based on a heterosexual family. It states that “
Today families are increasingly diverse”. There are less than half of families now that have a
mother and father figure. Even though there are different types of families in today’s day and
age, parental communication about gender is very important in a child’s life. According to the
Gender Lives: Communication, Gender, &Culture book within “the first 24 hours of a baby's life
How we view genders is greatly influenced by our media, and what we see online, in
magazines, advertisements, newspapers, articles, movies, etc. What we see in the media is harsh
stereotypes for each gender on how a girl “should” look and how a boy “should” look as well as
how they should think and act. An article published by Women You Should Know, called
Appalled Graphic Designer Shows Girls’ Life Magazine What Their Cover Should Look Like. In
this article it talks about how girls are still being stereotyped in the media. The original magazine
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cover shows a teenager who is all glammed up with curly, blonde hair and makeup on with fancy
clothes being modeled to fit the magazine owner's liking. Along with the way the girl is looking
on the cover are short quotes to grab the reader's attention. These quotes consist of “Wake up
pretty”, “Your dream hair”, “100+ ways to SLAY on the first day”. All these quotes are
convincing girls who see and read this magazine that if they do not look like the girl on the cover
they are “not pretty”, or if they do not act like how the magazine says then they will “not be
liked” by the public. It is giving women and younger girls false information on how to be a girl.
There should be no right or wrong way to act or look. So, Katherine Young, a graphic designer,
took matters into her own hands and decided to create a magazine cover that looked identical to
the one published, but using real photos of girls, and quotes that correspond to the way we
should be portraying girls online. Young’s quotes she used were “Girls doing good, 100 ways to
help others in your community”, “Wake up hungry? Healthy foods to power through your rough
days”, “Be yourself, work hard, and get better grades”. By having these quotes instead of the
ones originally used it allows girls to see that not everyone is perfect, everyone has bad days,
everyone is figuring out their life or finding ways to better themselves. It gives younger girls the
insight on allowing them to express themselves in a way they would like to, and not just in a way
Another point of how women are portrayed in the media is when we are a mother we are
looked at as the “caretaker”. The media has given women the reputation of being the nuterting
gender, the gender that has to clean, cook, and care for the children. Where the media portrays
men as the hardworking, tough, masculine gender. These stereotypes are what is hurting gender
identity greatly. A Tide and Downy advertisement entitled Stay at Home Dad with Daughter
goes against the created stereotypes to show that there is no definition of how a man, and women
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should act. In this advertisement it displays a father to a little girl who is folding the girly laundry
while his wife is at work. This is an important message because it shows a male breaking the
stereotype put in place that men are not as neutering as women, and it also shows that can get the
housework done as well while the women work. In this advertisement the male states that he is a
mixture of “masculinity and nurturing” which makes other males and females become alert to the
matter at hand. Along with the Tide and Downy advertisement of the father doing “mother”
things, there is a Youtube video that is a parody of the song Sexy and I Know It yet it is called
“I’m a Daddy and I Know it”. In this video it is a father singing along to the popular song while
showing how he is able to care for the children his wife and he have. This goes with the Tide and
Downy advertisement because it shows that we should not classify actions by gender. If a male
wants to stay at home and take care of the kids that should be normal. Just as normal as if a
woman were to stay home with the kids. As our society opens its mind up to males taking care of
children more, we break that gender barrier of generations ago only to have “stay at home
moms”. In both the advertisement and the music video the males are clearly showing that they
can fold laundry, clean, feed the kids, and take care of them all day until their partners come
home. I believe this is a step in the right direction to breaking the gender barrier.
In our world gender plays a huge role in many aspects of our lives. One of those aspects
is gender intimidation. The book entitled Gendered Lives: Communication, Gender, &Culture,
describes gender intimidation as their “sex, gender, or sexual orientation, are treated in ways that
lead them to feel vulnerable or unsafe.” Things that fall under gender intimidation are stalking,
sexist comments, and groping. One of the popular examples of this is the stereotype of comments
made by men towards women that are sexually made about their bodies. As this book describes
the actions made by women when these types of comments are made results in them avoiding
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certain areas in public, taking longer routes, and always looking around to make sure a male isn't
following them. Whereas for males they do not have to even think about this type of behavior in
public. It is made out to be the “women’s fault”. Although another sensitive subject to talk about
is sexual assault. Sexual assault victims “may be of any sex, gender, sexual orientation, and
gender identity.” (pp. 267) A surprising fact according to Gendered Lives: Communication,
Gender, &Culture was that before 2012 the United States “defined rape as carnal knowledge of a
female forcibly and agasint her will.” The United States never spoke about if a male got raped
what it would be defined as. Then in 2012, “the FBI’s definition was revised to define rape as
“penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral
penetration by a sex organ of another person without the consent of the victim.”” From this you
can see that the United Stated refined their meaning of rape to better fit the gender
indentifications of individuals which is something that our world needed for all to be counted for
and included. Portrayal of gender is something that I believe is very important when discussing
anything sexual. Our society in the past has only ever talked about females being assaulted, or
abused, etc. They never listened to a male figure if they were to say they got assaulted, or
abused. When in a relationship it is crucial to be aware of things that can be considered abuse. As
this book also states “intimate partner volence cuts across many demographics- it is experienced
and prepertated by both sexes, members of all races and economics classes, as well as by gays,
lesibians, bisexuals, straights, cisgender, and transgender people.” (pp.272) By including all
genders instead of only speaking about females it allows for a better portrayal of genders in our
media.
The final topic I want to speak about is how gender is portrayed in our lives towards the
younger generation. When growing up everything is categorized as for boys or girls. This
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includes things such as clothes, toys, games, athletics, etc. We are taught at a young age that
things revolve around what gender you are. One of the biggest gender portrayals is in toys. The
New York Times wrote an article entitled Sweeping Away Gender-Specific Toys and Labels. As
young generations are portrayed through pink “girly” dresses, and sports and blue themes it can
give the wrong impression to younger generations. In this article they go into detail about how
marketing companies have gone to change the way they are classifying toys by making them
gender neutral. The article stated “ Not only are toymakers more wary of marketing some items
only to boys or only to girls, they and major store chains are creating gender-neutral or
androgynous labels.” As this article states, many companies and stores have already changed the
way they market their products. For example, Target changed their sign labels to “all kids”
instead of gender specifics as well as the Disney Store, and Amazon. Jim Silver who works for a
toy reviewing company stated that “The industries learned that you shouldn’t be labeling for a
specific gender. There are so many girls who want to be Iron Man and Captain America, and
boys who want to play with Easy-Bake.” (Silver, 2015) Our world has come a long way since
this article was published, yet it does make a good point stating that “the most significant shifts
in gender categorizing- and certainly the most debated- have been in children’s merchandising.”
By changing the way we portray gender to younger generations earlier on, then they will feel
more comfortable if they would like to play with or wear the “opposite sexes” items.
In short, as always our world still has many more steps to take on this matter, but from
the past decade we are striving towards the right path. With the continued help of older
generations, and younger generations we will be able to fully change how gender is portrayed
within everything in our lives. This is an important matter that I feel everyone should come
Work Cited
Kelly, Gretchen. “The Thing All Women Do That You Don't Know About.” HuffPost,
know-about_b_8630416.
Tabuchi, Hiroko. “Sweeping Away Gender-Specific Toys and Labels.” The New York
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/28/business/sweeping-away-gender-specific-toys-and-
labels.html.
Tabuchi, Hiroko. “Sweeping Away Gender-Specific Toys and Labels.” The New York
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/28/business/sweeping-away-gender-specific-toys-and-
labels.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share&_r=0.
Tamblyn, Amber. “Amber Tamblyn: I'm Done with Not Being Believed.” The New York
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/16/opinion/sunday/amber-tamblyn-james-woods.html?
action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-
region®ion=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region.
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Vanstone, Ellen. “How Has Rape Become Such a Common Trope of Television Drama?”
The Globe and Mail, The Globe and Mail, 16 Sept. 2016,
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/television/how-has-rape-become-such-a-common-
trope-of-television-drama/article31931181/?
post_id=10213161863020677_10213161868180806#_=_.
Wysk, et al. “Appalled Graphic Designer Shows Girls' Life Magazine What Their Cover
https://womenyoushouldknow.net/appalled-graphic-designer-shows-girls-life-magazine-
what-their-cover-should-look-like/.