Media Representation of Gender - Research Proposal Example

Media representation of gender Name Institution Media Representation of Gender Introduction There is no doubt that media text has a compounding effect on the social construction of various aspects. Today, the orientation of society party depends on message society receive from media making media a powerful force in the social construction of issues. More than before, the world of consumerism has transformed media into a potent tool with the ability to reflect reality not to mention shape and reconstruct societal expectations (Oxman-Martinez, Marinescu, & Bohard, 2009). While society cannot ignore the impact of text media on other areas of society, text media construct media images that affect essential facets of life such as health. Today, health population groups receive arrays of messages that affect their understanding of health matters. This essay details a literature review of media and three media examples and applies Dally, Foucault, and Lupton on the three media on the media representation of gender. On the gender, a wealth of research underscores the role of media text in constructing gender and affecting health outcomes between males and females. Using three media text, is it evident that media creates a new perception about health issues affecting how males and females respond to health issues. This essay reveals the role of media text in reinforcing stereotypes and creating resistance about health issues. Literature Review on Media Representation Media is undeniably the most powerful means of communication humans have ever devised. Text media refers to an important subset of media, which include web pages, magazines, newspapers, animations, documentaries and radio plays (Leaning, 2009). Today, most of these media examples provides society with rich a broad array of information on various topics. Among the functions of media, need to inform, educate, and entertain remain a strong motivator for publishing of media text. Such messages often bear a given dimension that reflect reality and help construct social concepts such as gender. Whereas sex of male and females stem from biological difference of males from females, gender roots from social construct media reinforce. Consequently, media texts have emerged as powerful forces that construct gender by representing males and females in different perspectives. A significant number of media is responsible for raising the standard of female beauty in society. According Polonijo and Carpiano (2008) media has popularized the notion that women ideal should be beautiful giving motivating women to seek beauty options. Because of such notions, many women have procured cosmetic surgery to look better because many beauty magazines consider cosmetics surgery a robust way for women to become beautiful. Even with cosmetic surgery bearing some risks, print media on beauty continue to portray cosmetic surgery as effective approaches women require to attain beauty. Mass media has thus created acceptance of cosmetic surgery among women (Braun, 2005; Maher, Fraser, & Wright, 2010). Evidently, text media such as magazine have succeeded in promoting the acceptance of health issues that bear significant risks, as well. The construction of gender where females more beautiful than men is evident from the outcome of media messages in various media text. The media have also succeeded in establishing male as beauty experts. Chiarella and Fuller (2006) argue that media such as magazine have given men the opportunity to comment on women and beauty creating the notion that men are beauty experts. The representation of men as experts has created a standing point where women rely on comments from males to choice beauty options disregarding any health impacts that accompany the options. Stacey (2006) found out that media such as beauty magazines give males avenues to voice their beliefs on ideal beauty. Stacey (2006) argue that such magazines use perception of males to define females as sexiest given by describing their physique. Arguably, such media constructs the notion of gender and reinforce the stereotypes males hold about females. The media have a significant role in presenting facts about diseases to both male and females who rely on media for statistics on various diseases. A significant number of studies indicate that media has the potential to over represent diseases in one gender or another creating a wrong perception about the prevalence of disease. The media thus offers a gendered portrayal of diseases such as heart disease or breast cancer. According to Wade (2009), some people believe that heart diseases affect males and not females give their overrepresentation in males. The problem of overrepresentation does not surround heart disease, but also breast cancer in men. There are more media items focusing on breast cancer among women than males. Clarke (2010) argues that there are more newspaper items covering breast cancer with high prevalence in women than men. Often, such a representation creates a notion that breast cancer is not a disease that affects men. The impact of reading media such as magazines is a critical evidence to the impact of media on the health issue. Some print media construct gender by setting criteria of an ideal man or women. Frederick, Fessler and Haselton (2005) found out that media representation of male influence the lifestyle of readers. In their study, the trio revealed that men who read an article on ideal male physique became dissatisfied and contemplated using steroids to enhance their looks. More significant, some media overestimate masculinity women report as desirable. Frederick and Haselton (2003) reveal that some men overestimate the masculinity women finds attractive given their media representation of appropriate male physique. Discourse Analysis Media 1 The internet has become a new vehicle for delivery of media text, which users can view using internet enabled devices such as smartphones, computers, and other hand held devices. There are websites such as muscleandfitness.com, which offer content for the male audience with a focus on masculinity. Using the website’s url address, a visit to the website will reveal that the site contains more pages about men with varying levels of masculinity. There are sections of the website with articles on workouts and others have photos of body builders (Muslceandfitness.com). The website dedicates its resources to showcasing muscle and fitness of men. The representation of men as masculine is general on the muscle and fitness website. Michel Foucault focused on the relationship between language and power (McKay & Huber, 1992). The Muscle and fitness website display a significant use of language that reinforce the power of men. Apart from the use of pictures to underscore the masculinity of men, the website make use of language that describe masculine men as ideal and creates a sense of dominance. Using Dally’s model allows identification of some gaps in the representation of men in the website. Dally focused on identifying missing interest in media. The muscleandfitness.com website does not provide women with the opportunity to identify with faintness. Instead, it highlights men only leaving out women with regard to physical fitness. The missing of women in the website represent a gendered view of power where male appear dominant, unlike women. Lastly, Lupton offers another approach to deconstruction of the muscleandfitness.com Website. The choice of headlines, words, and photos clearly underline the objective of the website—distinguish masculine men idea. The muscleandfitness.com reinforces some of the notions about men such as masculinity. In the literature review, it was evident that some media focus on masculine aspect of men. For instance, the website make careful use of words such as “better physique,” and careful of photos to praise masculinity. However, the website does not represent women or other men with little masculinity. Consequently, visitors to the website tend to develop a conscious that ideal men are masculine further reinforcing the use of steroids among men as the literature review details. Media 2 With increased dependence of male and female audience on print media, some media text continue to represent gendered views. Between men and women, beauty remains as one of the concepts with varying interpretation. Chiarella and Tuller (2006) wrote an interesting article on How Men Really Feel about Breast Implants. The article provides a discussion of men’s attitude towards breast implant. At a time when a high number of women receive breast implant, the article shed light on the perception of men on women who go for breast implant. At the core of the article is the notion that men do not care whether breast are real or implant, but the looks of breast. In the article, Chiarella (2006) reinforce the tendency that men are visually motivated, and all they care are the looks women wear. Much of Foucault focus is on power and subjectivity, which can easily describe the representation of male in women. With a focus on gender representation, we can argue that Foucault focus on subjectivity is present in media such as Chiarella (2006) article where the author underscore the fact that women are subjects of men. For instance, women are subject to the comments men make. Dally’s model offers an interesting perspective, as well. From the article, it is evident that some perspective are missing from the article. For instance, the article does not factor what women think about breast implant. The lack of representation of women’s thoughts about breast implant makes the article incomplete in expressing the reality about breast implement. Moreover, Lupton offers a robust way of reading between the lies. The article packs careful selection of works and the heading reveals a lot about the topic. The article aligns with Lupton’s argument that what makes into media headline must have some characteristics such as emotions, interest, and unusual story. Perhaps this is the main driving factor in the publishing of the information in the website. Media 3 One aspect of media is underrepresentation of various diseases among men or women. In the article Breast cancer (female), readers get the notion that breast cancer is predominantly a female problem. The article highlights on the prevalence of cancer in the United Kingdom where close to 48,000 Britons discover having breast cancer. While the article describes breast cancer among women, there is hardly any mention about breast cancer among women (NHS Choices, n.d.). The discourse analysis of the breast cancer article reveals the role of media in portraying breast cancer as disease of the weak. There is an issue of power is in the article with little mention on men who could also suffer from breast cancer. The article reinforces the idea that breast cancer is a gendered disease and affect only women and not necessarily men. Dally’s model offer a plausible analysis of the text, as well. There is a missing link between breast cancer and male population. The article does not refer on males who have breast cancer. The leaving of information on male persons is a clear indicator on stereotyping that breast cancer is a female issue (Talbot & Verrinder, 2010). In addition, Lupton’s text also explains the motivation behind the text. The article does offer statistics that overwhelmingly underline breast cancer as an issue facing women and not men. These mediated messages create a negative notion about the prevalence of breast cancer given the gendered perspective it bears. Health Promotion Framework Health promotions relies on an array of principles such as diversity and supportive environments, which is grounded on social justice. Today, there are many health disparities arising from lack of social justice that denies communities with equity. Among the reasons for the lack of equity is the reinforcement of beliefs and stereotypes, which skew how society understands various issues with healthcare implications. The media, which has a profound impact on society, has been instrumental in buttressing negative understanding of various health issues. Media representations have a significant influence on health issues because they shape the perception of people on various health issues. Despite the influence of mediated messages in creating negative realities about health issues, health promotion framework such as the Ottawa Charter provide an essential approach to promoting health in society (Fleming, 2006; Piper, 2006). The Ottawa charter identifies public policy as a means of promoting public health. Where media message misrepresent heath information, creating public policies that reverse that trend is necessary to reduce message with stereotypes on health issues. Policy makers have a critical role to influence health by creating policies that support social justice. With media being instrumental in wrong in portraying gender related health issues, development of policies that reverse such trends are not only necessary, but important in checking negative representation of health issues. In addition, the Ottawa charter focus on creating supporting environment. The need for a supportive environment stems from the notion that gender issues pits men against women, yet there is a need for mutual understanding between different genders. By developing reciprocal maintenance, the media could represent both genders appropriately and reduce the impact of propagating negative representation. This could be through education where society gains new insight about diseases, which is essential in fighting stereotypes about diseases. Most important, the charter emphasizes on advocacy where community members work to improve health awareness and reduce the impact of unrealistic notions about health. Conclusion The media play a significant role in providing society with various message on many topical issues such as health. Today, media text provide readers with many mediated messages that have a profound impact on health awareness among the readers and society as a whole. This essay found that media such as magazines, newspapers, video games, and radio play portray certain realities that can reinforce or distort actual realities. One such area is gender where media has provided a skewed representation of how health issues connect with gender. Polonijo and Carpiano (2008) argue that media has reinforced the notion that women must impress men with beauty and that beauty options, such as cosmetic surgery are of little impact. Fraser (2003) agree that such media promoted the acceptance of cosmetic surgery with little regard to its impact. Other media have established me as experts in commenting on women further promoting unhealthy lifestyles and health options (Stacey, 2006). According to Wade (2006), some media over present diseases such as breast cancer among women than men. This creates a tendency among men to ignore seeing themselves as a vulnerable population. A review of the three media shows media representation as central in portraying negative message. This finding aligns with Dally, Lupton, and Foucault arguments on discourse. Of the three media, Foucault work underscore the role of media in reinforcing power and influence of men over women. Lupton’s work, however, identifies the lies that such media have while Dally’s work shows deliberate exclusion of significant issues. Despite the negative representation, the Ottawa charter could help reverse such impact by empowering society and tearing negative messages about gender. The Ottawa charter underscores the value of creating supportive environments where both genders take care of each other’s interest. The charter also identifies creating of policies as central in reducing the impact of health consequences. Developing sound policies could help reduce the number of mediated messages with profound impact on health matters. In addition, the charter offers a robust framework for strengthening communities and promoting control over health issues while paying less focus on negative media messages that create wrong realities on health with regard to gender. References Braun, V. (2005). In search of (better) sexual pleasure: Female genital ‘cosmetic’ surgery. Sexualities, 8, 407–424. Clarke, J. (2010). Heart disease and gender in mass print media. Maturitas 65:215-218. Fleming, L. M. (2006). Health Promotion: Principles and Practice in the Australian Context. Santa Rosa, California: Informing Science Press Fraser, S. (2003).Cosmetic surgery, gender and culture. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. Frederick, D. A. & Fessler, M.T Daniel, Haselton, M. G. (2005). Do representations of male muscularity differ in men’s and women’s magazines? Body Image 2: 81– 86 Frederick, D. A., & Haselton, M. G. (2003). Muscularity as a communicative signal. Paper presentation at the International Communications Association, San Diego, CA. Leaning, M. (2009). Issues in information and media literacy. [Vol. 1] Criticism, history, and policy. Santa Rosa, California: Informing Science Press. Maher, J., Fraser, S., & Wright, J. (2010). Framing the mother. Childhood obesity, maternal responsibility, and care. Journal of Gender Studies, 19(3), 233–247 McKay, J. & Huber, D. (1992). Anchoring media images of technology and sport, Women's Studies International Forum, 32(4): 296-304 NHS Choices - Your health, your choices. "Breast cancer (female) - NHS Choices." Accessed October 9, 2013. http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Cancer-of-the-breast- female/Pages/Introduction.aspx. Oxman-Martinez, J. Marinescu, V. & Bohard, I. (2009). Shades of violence: The media role. Womens Studies International Forum, 32 (4): 296-304, 2009 Piper, S. (2006). Health Promotion for Nurses: Theory and Practice. New York: Routledge. Promoting Health: The Primary Health Care Approach Talbot, L. & Verrinder, G. (2010). Promoting Health: The Primary Health Care Approach. Australia: Elsevier. Wade, J. C. (2009). Traditional masculinity and African American men’s health related attitudes and behaviors. American Journal of Men’s Health, 3(2), 165–172. Polonijo, A. N., & Carpiano, R. M.,(2008). Representations of Cosmetic Surgery and Emotional Health in Women's Magazines in Canada, Women's Health Issues, 18(6):463-470. Chiarella, T., & Fuller, W. (2006, July). How men really feel about breast implants. O: The Oprah Magazine, 7(7), 121. Stacey, M. (2006, August). Are butts the new boobs? Cosmopolitan, 241(2), 154–157 Muscle & Fitness. Accessed October 9, 2013. http://www.muscleandfitness.com/. Read More

Stacey (2006) found out that media such as beauty magazines give males avenues to voice their beliefs on ideal beauty. Stacey (2006) argue that such magazines use perception of males to define females as sexiest given by describing their physique. Arguably, such media constructs the notion of gender and reinforce the stereotypes males hold about females. The media have a significant role in presenting facts about diseases to both male and females who rely on media for statistics on various diseases.

A significant number of studies indicate that media has the potential to over represent diseases in one gender or another creating a wrong perception about the prevalence of disease. The media thus offers a gendered portrayal of diseases such as heart disease or breast cancer. According to Wade (2009), some people believe that heart diseases affect males and not females give their overrepresentation in males. The problem of overrepresentation does not surround heart disease, but also breast cancer in men.

There are more media items focusing on breast cancer among women than males. Clarke (2010) argues that there are more newspaper items covering breast cancer with high prevalence in women than men. Often, such a representation creates a notion that breast cancer is not a disease that affects men. The impact of reading media such as magazines is a critical evidence to the impact of media on the health issue. Some print media construct gender by setting criteria of an ideal man or women. Frederick, Fessler and Haselton (2005) found out that media representation of male influence the lifestyle of readers.

In their study, the trio revealed that men who read an article on ideal male physique became dissatisfied and contemplated using steroids to enhance their looks. More significant, some media overestimate masculinity women report as desirable. Frederick and Haselton (2003) reveal that some men overestimate the masculinity women finds attractive given their media representation of appropriate male physique. Discourse Analysis Media 1 The internet has become a new vehicle for delivery of media text, which users can view using internet enabled devices such as smartphones, computers, and other hand held devices.

There are websites such as muscleandfitness.com, which offer content for the male audience with a focus on masculinity. Using the website’s url address, a visit to the website will reveal that the site contains more pages about men with varying levels of masculinity. There are sections of the website with articles on workouts and others have photos of body builders (Muslceandfitness.com). The website dedicates its resources to showcasing muscle and fitness of men. The representation of men as masculine is general on the muscle and fitness website.

Michel Foucault focused on the relationship between language and power (McKay & Huber, 1992). The Muscle and fitness website display a significant use of language that reinforce the power of men. Apart from the use of pictures to underscore the masculinity of men, the website make use of language that describe masculine men as ideal and creates a sense of dominance. Using Dally’s model allows identification of some gaps in the representation of men in the website. Dally focused on identifying missing interest in media.

The muscleandfitness.com website does not provide women with the opportunity to identify with faintness. Instead, it highlights men only leaving out women with regard to physical fitness. The missing of women in the website represent a gendered view of power where male appear dominant, unlike women. Lastly, Lupton offers another approach to deconstruction of the muscleandfitness.com Website. The choice of headlines, words, and photos clearly underline the objective of the website—distinguish masculine men idea.

The muscleandfitness.com reinforces some of the notions about men such as masculinity. In the literature review, it was evident that some media focus on masculine aspect of men.

Read More