Gender Representation in the Mass Media - Essay Example

?Gender Representation in the Mass Media Gender Representation in the Mass Media Gender is the perception that the societyhas of men and women in terms of roles, responsibilities, rights, and representation in the community. The representation of gender differences through various media output channels is evident including print, audio, internet, and visual media. There are different accounts on how the media makes a representation of women in society through different films in form of documentaries and movies. This is depicted through characters played by women in this movies and documentaries. This study aims at analyzing the representation of women in Legally Blonde with an analysis of the different gender representation of women by the documentaries the Independent Woman and The Merchants of Cool. The Independent Woman The Independent Woman by PBS is a documentary that analyzes the changes in women roles in American television. It traces how there have been changes in the television particularly analyzing how television has represented gender roles. The Independent Woman uses interviews and characterization to bring about the different roles played by women to show the changes in gender representation. The independent Woman gives the role of women as having developed to complex and at times controversial in terms of the characters women act and the roles they play. The documentary portents that the days of women being portrayed in a white apron cooking and as house maids are long gone and taken over by further complex and fascinating roles. The documentary makes use of a number of movies with all depicting women as independent, a change from the traditional depiction of women. Independent Woman interviews television stars and producers including Roseanne Barr who acted in “Roseanne”, Candice Bergen in “Murphy Brown” Felicity Huffman and Eva Longoria in ‘Desperate Housewives. Felicity Huffman believes that the portrayal of women is about creativity “as it pertains to television and how it gets to be created”. She acted as Lynette Scavo in Desperate House wives where she breaks up with her husband Tom and contends that motherhood can be hard. This is the first evidence as Lynette is portrayed as having been more independent after the breakup and was able to make her on judgment and decisions. Julian Marguilles, Robert, and Michelle King in the “Good Wife” are also interviewed. Julianna Marguilles, in Good Wife, struggles to juggle being a mother, working, maintaining a relationship and keep her integrity. James Brooks and Mary Tyler Moore in “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and Shonda Rhimes and Sandra Oh of “Greys Anatomy” were interviewed in the Independent Woman. The other evidence given are the views of actors, producers, influential people in the television industry, creators, and writers giving their insights on their shows, roles and the main topic on the female portray of women on television. The main reasons for the interviews were to get the opinions from the producers and characters as they give to the life to these characters for the benefit of viewers who identify with the character. The conclusion on the independent women is that the portrayal of women by the media has been changing over history. The change is given as the portrayal of women as independent and equal to men. The Merchants of Cool The documentary, The Merchants of Cool, mainly deals with the commercialization of youth’s culture by marketers through studying their culture and amplified then sold back to them through a reverse loop. It documents the actions of manufacturers and advertisers in ensnaring the youth to purchase their products by making them use these items popular culture hence, augmenting the level of consumption of these products by the youth. The Merchant of Cool presents the idea that the people have the idea that others are good looking or trendy, hence the need for them to purchase for them to fit in the group. The other way the marketers and the media convince the youth is through promoting the act of dressing and acting through creating icons of midriff and mook. Midriff targets the girls through promoting them to act and dress in a sexualized manner. The mook aims at the boys who are encouraged to act and dress in an aggressive manner leading to augmenting of ideas and actions that promote violence and antisocial behavior. This documentary obviously put the media on a bad light as it blames it for the effect of marketing through the media by commercial companies. There is a number of evidence given by the documentary, The Merchants of Cool, to ensure the view on the main argument. The first argument is that the documentary explains the feedback loop in explaining ways through which the media influences teens and how the teens influence the media. The feedback loop is that the marketers use information on youth, create a cool item, and market it influencing the youth as the cool in thing. The teens request money from their parents and us them in the purchase of these products, hence the marketers earn their pay. The circle repeats when the marketers produce a new item and convince the youth. The other evidence given is the interviews conducted in the documentary of people working in marketing and have been very successful in convincing the youth and the public of their products. These people include Tom Green TRL, MTV representatives, Spring Break emphasizing on the measures taken to ensnare the youth through identifying their needs and ways of coercion. This makes the documentary believable and drives the point as the areas and focus discussed is a reality. The article also uses a part in the film of marketers dropping by teens houses to check on their wardrobe if it is cool and advising them on getting the wardrobe believed to be cool. In general, the Merchants of cool involve a segregation of the population to their specific gender of male and female. Then the marketers use ideas and believe of the females and males as a means of getting to convince them to purchase their products. They create icons of midriff and mook for the realization of their goals when these teens identify with these groups and will do anything to achieve the status. Gender, therefore, is a tool used to improve the marketing and success of their revenue generation activities for both the males and females. Legally Blonde The society has a number of instances in every culture and region in the world that show male dominance in the choice of work type where jobs are considered masculine and feminine and the difference in the professional world of choice. This could aid in explaining the difference in the number of women in high level offices that are less women presidents and prime ministers in the world to boot this reality. The instances of these differences in gender and the practices and roles of men and women in the world is also reflected in the media as shown in the movie Legally Blonde that forms the main aim of this part of the study. Legally Blonde is a movie mainly aimed at enumerating this differences in gender perspectives and roles through the use of a beautiful girl and the creation of the perfect girl in the society. Reese Witherspoon’s role as Elle Woods, the perfect girl, is tall, has blonde hair, thin, and has blue eyes serves the purpose well. Despite the good looks, Ellen is portrayed as being dumb and lacks common sense from the Legally Blonde portrays women as being submissive and dependent as displayed by the actions of Elle. The difference between Elle and Warner is clearly visible as Warner is portrayed as being rich, handsome, tall, and intelligent and always in control of his decisions. The other portrayal of women in legally blonde is that of being dumb and unintelligent. She comes out as dumb owing to the various instances where she lacks common sense through the various decisions and the expectations she has on society. This is seen from the manner of how she dresses, speaks, and her love for shoes and cars. She has an expectation of Warner Huntington III making a marriage proposal as the movie begins but is disappointed when she is dumped on the precinct that she is not intelligent and not good for his image in the society. “Elle, if I'm gonna be a senator, I need to marry a Jackie, not a Marilyn” (Legally Blonde). Despite this, she does not appreciate herself and move on with her head held high. Instead, she applies for a space to study at Harvard with the sole intention in order to be with her boyfriend. Elle applies to go and study at Harvard just for to meet with her boyfriend showing that she cannot be there for herself and respect, her values and achieve her dreams. The portrayal of women as being independent is also envisaged by the difference in the way Elle’s mother and father are shown in the video. Elle’s father at the start of the movie has a martini and appears rich but her mother is apparently beautiful but is expected to be there for her husband at all times and be the ideal trophy wife. Elle has to work extra hard to prove the society wrong as she goes to Harvard and wedges a life struggle to be accepted and make it in the law profession. She manages to win a case at the end of the movie, only because of her knowledge of women hair care and not intelligence. These reinforce the dumb personality she portrays in the movie from the start to the end. Paulette is very dependent on men as depicted in the movie by her desolateness after the divorce. Callahan does not employ any female lawyers in his law firm showing the difference in the position of women in the society yet he is shown as successful and on top of the law profession. Legally Blonde does not strengthen the argument in independent women owing to the portrayal of women as being dumb, dependent, portrayed as house wives and not represented in some professions, as less are lawyers. Legally Blonde supports the argument in Merchants of Cool where gender segregation is done and there are different goods and roles for males and females. Legally Blonde in term of their roles in the society, the types of jobs they do, separates the men from the women in form of the products and marketing strategies. Elle is a dependent woman because she makes decisions not because she wants to but for other people’s benefit and please society. All her decisions are either anchored at proving others wrong hence augments the main idea in the independent woman. Elle is a midriff, as she loves the choice of clothes chosen by the midriff and is portrayed in the movie as premature and loves appearances. Masculinity in Legally Blonde is represented as being rich, tall, good looking and in control of situations with all the decisions being, as displayed by Warner who believes is more intelligent than Elle. Masculinity is also represented by power and control as well as being the head as shown by the representation of Elle’s father compared to how Elle’s mother in Legally Blonde. Masculinity is also represented by being above the women and having women for their use as tools and not as equals. Elle manages to prove all wrong that men are always smarter than women through winning her case. However, gender disparity is so evident in the movie. The movie manages to bring out gender issues, stereotypes, and the portrayal of women in the media. Works Cited Legally Blonde. Dir. Robert Luketic. Perf. Matthew Davis. 2001. DVD. 2001. “Stereotypical Gender Roles in Legally Blonde” Retrieved from < http://www.diigo.com/05ldh> on 12 December 2012. Read More