Representation of Gender

Representation of Gender

•Feminism has been a recognised social philosophy for more than forty years, and the changes that have occurred in women's roles in western society during that time have been nothing short of phenomenal. Yet media representations of women remain worryingly constant. Does this reflect that the status of women has not really changed or that the male-dominated media does not want to accept it has changed?

•Representations of women across all media tend to highlight the following:

•beauty (within narrow conventions)

•size/physique (again, within narrow conventions)

•sexuality (as expressed by the above)

•emotional (as opposed to intellectual) dealings

•relationships (as opposed to independence/freedom)

 

•Women are often represented as being part of a context (family, friends, colleagues) and working/thinking as part of a team. In drama, they tend to take the role of helper (Propp) or object, passive rather than active. Often their passivity extends to victimhood. Men are still represented as TV drama characters up to 3 times more frequently than women

 

•The representations of women that do make it onto page and screen do tend to be stereotypical, in terms of conforming to societal expectations, and characters who do not fit into the mould tend to be seen as dangerous and deviant.

 

•Discussions of women's representation in the media tend to revolve around the focus on physical beauty to the near-exclusion of other values, the lack of powerful female role models, and the extremely artificial nature of such portrayals, which bear little or no relation to the reality experience by women across the planet.