Gender and the Media - Essay Example

Gender roles Many people usually ask themselves whether the media create, reflect or maintain the gender-based roles saturating the environment. It is clear that gender roles have been consistently promoted carefully and consciously. People are being taught the gender roles all through their lives. The social setup has defined roles as well as behaviors meant for a particular gender and others for the other gender. However, the gender roles tend to vary from one culture to the other. The society tends to recognize two distinct gender roles namely the masculine and feminine. The masculine is attributed males while the feminine to the females. The document below analyzes the way media displays husbands as commercial or entrepreneurs while wives are always linked with kitchen or home matters (Carter 2). Mixed sentiments always feature concerning this matter some aiming to support while others stands to condemn it. I wish to counter this statement. Discussion Media is vital in creating social norms. This is because various media forms including television, film and advertisements are available everywhere in the world today. The existence of gender roles is solely as a result of the society choosing to accept them. However, the media tends to perpetuate them. According to Carter (2011), mass media like news industries, entertainment and advertising tends to portray men as well as women with stereotypes whereby ladies or wives are placed in deprived situations such as submissive and passive roles. Men or husbands, on the other hand, are usually revealed to have a likelihood of succeeding and always concerned with their occupations. Consequently power relations and the traditional gender roles have become deeply interiorized in the sub-consciousness via the mass media. Biblically as well as according to the social set up, men are obligated to provide for the family. They are, therefore, required to be aggressive so as to put something on the table for their wives and children. The scenario of husbands being revealed as commercial oriented persons while wives as people dealing with domestic matters is an understandable fact. This is because for husbands to provide, they have to be entrepreneurs or focused on their occupations (Warren 2). Wives on the other hand, have the right to be at home minding the domestic matters since the husband is providing. It is hence justifiable to say that husbands are commercial while wives are only meant for the kitchen matters. On the other hand, the Bible insists that every person is equally important irrespective of his or her gender or race. This statement shows that locking ladies or wives from doing commercial related things, men or husbands will be missing some marks. This is because they will be acting contrary to the will of God. It is the will of God every person to express him or herself. Stereotyping roles will deny a particular gender the opportunity to exercise their potential. Wives can also be having entrepreneurial knowledge that can play a pivotal role in advancing the business of the family. Locking the wife in the home affairs will automatically lead this potential into waste. This is one area that gender roles are messing up the society in the world today (Carter 6). Husbands are left struggling with business matters that can be easily handled by their wives if given a chance to intervene. This scenario indicates very well how the stereotyping the roles can easily complicate easy things. The ultimate result of these complications is failure to utilize the resources as they ought to. The husbands will also be subjected to work overloads while else their close allies are just there willing to help but they cannot because of the temporary gender barriers created by people and emphasized by media (Warren 4). It is very essential for husbands to welcome their wives’ assistance in the business as well occupational affairs for an easy flow of things. The media stereotyping the gender roles has made the issue a big mountain to climb over. The media need to be careful in addressing the gender roles. A good example of how media stereotypes the gender roles is by the manner in which the actors perform their television commercial roles that have been scripted. One of the analyzed commercials is the La Quinta Inns commercial series. The commercial script has four distinguished scenarios. It shows the profiled businessmen who after taking a comforting stay at La Quinta, made an exquisite performance well in the business preparations through taking out the entire stops, or through thinking outside the box, or by getting back in personal row or through bringing home the bacon (Warren 3). As for one, there is no woman or wife of any man there featured in this commercial script. The script, therefore, sends a clear message to the entire society that ladies and commercial things are incompatible. The truth about it is even wives or women had all it takes to feature the in the script. However, it is hard to determine why the director of the script failed to consider the women. Assuming it was just by mistake is something out of order, and this clearly shows the mentality people have in terms of the gender roles (Warren 3). It is evident that people in the entire society as well as the media fraternity perceive commercial aspects as exclusively for men and women are entirely out of it. This is a mentality that needs to be highly condemned and dealt with head on since every human being has got some strength to do several things and therefore ladies were supposed to feature somewhere there as a sign that they are represented. In the ultimate scenario, the businessman in the script bowled literally and buried his expectant and waiting wife with a huge truck land of bacon. The script perfectly reveals the real gender stereotyping in the media in the world today. The husband is purely on the real business while the wife is eagerly waiting for her at home. The wife is not only waiting for her husband, but she is also expectant. The whole scenario teaches the public that wives are only meant for home-based chores (Carter 8). To stay at home, bear children and wait for their husbands to bring the food on the table. One can argue that the wife’s condition could limit her to carry out the commercial activities and, therefore, the man had to take that responsibility. The argument makes some sense, but entire setup of the script reveals that it was an intention act to involve men in the commercial sector and the lady to feature in the home background. The message conveyed there is that men have their area of operation and wives or women have their area of operation as well. The script was formulated with a high level of gender stereotyping (Warren 5). It raises concerns on the way the young children will perceive the script and the mentality they will obtain. There is a great a possibility that the young people, who watched the script, cultivated that mentality and might carry it all along their lives. Another example of the gender stereotyping is a real life witnessing. In my community, a certain man working in as a government official had his wife working in a bank. It has been set that wives should be passive and submissive and hence the man took the advantage of that to let the wife resign. There is no good reason at all for having the wife resigned, but it pleased him to have the wife mind the home affairs rather that earning. Based on his argument, he believed that what he was earning is enough for the upkeep of the family; this denied the wife the right to work. The man finally succeeded, and the wife had to quit the job to comply with her husband’s wish. She is more or less a mere housewife despite of her credentials. The entire scenario shows the mentality people have on the roles of the women. The knowledge the wife has is lying in the kitchen helping no one. This whole mentality has been triggered by the media to a great extent. This is through the manner in which they portray women in their scripts. In a number of films women are revealed as easily seduced by the male workmates. Such scenarios has just escalated the matter and made the men to believe the best place for the wife to be is at home. The media have also been showing men as the real entrepreneurs and hence equipping men with that mentality to a point of dismissing their wives’ intervention (Carter 13). Conclusion It is evident that media has been in the frontline in stereotyping the gender roles. The act is against the humanity and needs to be highly condemned. It has reached a time when husbands need to understand that wives have some potential and they can offer a helping hand. The media showing the scripts and films that reveals men and women equally important for the progress of the society and the entire world. By so doing, the generation to come will allow women to offer a helping hand in building the world and the life will be better. Gender roles stereotyping should be dealt with head on. References Carter, C. (2011) “Sex/Gender and the Media: From Sex Roles to Social Construction and Beyond,” in Ross, K. (ed) The Handbook of Gender, Sex and Media. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. Warren J. (2013). Examining Medias Socialization of Gender Roles. Boston: University of Massachusetts Amherst Read More