Gender Issues in Business - Essay Example

?GENDER STUDIES Before starting to write this paper I had a look at the commercial of Victoria Secret – Being a feminist, the commercial was watched by me from feminist perspective. I was disturbed to see the way women were presented in the commercial. Not a single woman was presented in a dignified manner. No one of the women was in decent costumes. Not a single woman was shown representing the intellectual status of a woman. No one was shown as handling a high profiled position in the office, but all of them are just sex-dolls with minimum dress on their bodies, half naked. This picture is not new to us as long as female representation is concerned. This kind of image building of women has been performed by our media. In contemporary society, media plays a very crucial role in shaping public opinions. With the advent of new media such as internet smart phones, media has now been constantly around us, drilling into our head with the messages, which sometimes are very damaging. The major target of media these days is the body of woman which is worst and perverse. The representation of women in media has always been stereotypical. They are always represented as sex objects. It is an opening dialogue from the documentary film Miss Representation, “There is no appreciation for women as intellectuals. It is all about the body and never about the brain...” If we peep into the history of English literature for example, many facts of gender issues appear in front of us. There was no place for women writers in literary circle. Bronte sisters published a volume of poetry by adopting male names such as Curre, Ellis and Action Bell. The one and only reason was to conceal their feminine identity. The social, intellectual and psychological suppression of Victorian women is portrayed by Alfred Tennyson in his poem “Lady of Shallot.” The contemporary society had a very biased attitude about the female writers. The society was not ready to accept that the women have intellectuality of being writer. Twentieth century witnessed the breakage of this bondage by rebellious feminists through their literary work. Many women writers carved a niche for themselves through their outstanding writing skills. The women have proved themselves, but still the society is not ready to accept their brains, their logical, analytical and intellectual capacity. When there is a question of choosing body or brain of the woman, it is always body which is preferred object. Right from video games or children’s cartoons, women are represented as inferior, always caught by the demons and then are rescued by a brave young gallant. In short the children grow up with the upbringing that women are always inferior sex and men have to protect them and impose authority on them. Miss Representation is the documentary, which throws light on how the image of the women is always spoiled by media. A UNESCO report describes the litany of common image of women in the media. Women are always sex object for media. “the glamorous sex kitten.” (World Savvy). Dietz (1998) made four possible female stereotypes, which were based on their appearance and their behaviour. 1. Female as a sex object 2. Females as victims 3. Females as heroic or action characters Dietz in his research found that 41% of women in video games were shown as a sex object, 21% were portrayed as victims or ‘damsel in distress’ and only 15% women were portrayed as heroes or action characters. The male dominated media is not ready to accept woman as warrior, saviour, and protector but they like to portray her either as a victim or sex object. This report is really benumbing. In India, there are vernacular daily soaps, where the women are shown as being victimized by the members of their in-laws house. They are either physically or mentally tortured by their husbands and family members. When asked producers and directors about it, they comment carelessly that we show whatever is the demand of the public. According to them the majority of viewers of these serials are women and they like the helplessness of the female protagonist. They are sure, the moment they start showing powerful, careerist lady, the TRP of their serials will come down. So they do not want to take any kind of risk. This presentation is the assured product or commodity for marketing according to the advertisers. While arguing on feminism and gender issue, Simone de Beauvoir, a feminist claims, “one is not born, but, rather, becomes a woman.” It means that when the baby is born, it has no other physical differences except the sex organ. It is completely unaware of its existence. In English we commonly use the pronoun ‘it’ for describing a baby. It means that the baby is out of any gender framework. The distinction occurs later during the process of socialization of the baby. It is the identity that is constructed through time. As Butler says that the natural and material body is distinct and separate from the cultural meaning it comes to bear. As said by Judith Butler ‘gender is no way a stable identity or locus of agency.’ She further says that it constitutes in time. When the baby starts growing up, slowly the gender conscience is imbibed in her by the society. In the childhood, the sports and games played by boys and girls make them familiar with their gender identity. Video games also are one of the popular forms of media. It is majorly consumed by males so it can be called as male dominated media. In video games for example many women are shown partially nude, wearing sexy clothes, and disproportionately shaped. Here disproportionately means in an exaggerated way. The body is exhibited in such a manner that it will be the attraction for male audience. Many powerful women also are portrayed in video games no doubt. But even if they are self sufficient, empowered and confident, they had to be sexually promiscuous. The bodily behaviour is also expected in gender identity. If certain gesture shown by a certain person, is contradictory to the gender, it is blamed or condemned by the society. In some culture, women can cry but men are not allowed to cry. If a man cries, the other people tease him that he is behaving like a woman as if crying is the phenomenon associated only to a certain gender and that is female. Judith Butler’s essay “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory” argues “gender identity is a performtive accomplishment compelled by social sanction and taboo.” The body of women is valued and judged by the media. If certain paradigms of beauty have decided by media, they influence on the people in their day today life on such a level that sometimes drastic and desperate actions are taken by women, who have not possessed those feminine qualities. There are sound bites of some of the high school students. The stories of their torture depicted by them were really heart-touching. They had no physical appearance as sanctioned by media which is accepted in society. One of the students called Maria was crying and telling how her sister was blamed for not having a perfect body and how she cuts herself under depression. When watching the interview, the sensible viewers like me must have had the first question in their mind, is body that important? Hasn’t there any value for the brain and intellectual capacity of a woman? The documentary Miss Representation has appropriately depicted the gender biased view of media. It remembers us that irrespective of the significant progress made by women in media and politics, still men hold most positions of power in both of these fields. Both of these fields are still dominated by men. In a statistic of this documentary a shocking fact appears and that is only 34 women have ever served as governors as compared to 2319 men. The documentary also throws light on the fact that 67 countries in the world have had female presidents or prime ministers but unfortunately United States yet does not have any female president. So if we want to bring the change in the mindset of media, firstly it is necessary to reshape the minds of men. The documentary also conveys message to the audience that when the images of sexualized and subjugated women will stop appearing in media, things will improve certainly. In this documentary one more shocking information is given and that is “53% of 13 years old girls are unhappy with their bodies.” This is the retrospective subject and everyone should think why female body has become the burden to women. Again the pointer is towards media. The main thing I also found in children’s shows that boys are always involved in kinaesthetic activities such as outdoor games or playing videos etc, whereas girls are always shown playing with dolls, reading fairy tales etc. It is a typical mindset of the society that the girls always are involved in playing with dolls, involved in cooking and other household chores and their games also are related to their traditional role as housewives. The picture is still not worst and that much pessimistic, When I watch cartoons such as Doraemon or Kiteretsu, the girls were represented in a very positive manner. Shizukka in Doraemon and Miyoko in Kiteretsu are represented as intelligent and sincere girls and are always ahead in their study, whereas the protagonist of Doraemon Nobita, is shown as an insincere, fidget who has no interest in study. In the novel “Hunger Games” the protagonist Katniss Everdeen is portrayed as a brave rebel, who fights for the justice of people. So in future we can hope of better representation of women in media. Sources: 1. Butler Judith “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory” 2. Dietz, T.L. (1998) “An Examination of Violence and Gender Role Portrayal in Video Games: Implication for Gender Socialization and Agressive Behaviour, “Sex Roles” 38:425-442 3. Miss Representation: A documentary directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom. 4. Victoria’s Secret Website: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmNEG8IFd_Y&feature=youtu.be Read More