How Media Reproduces Gender Identity Norms - Research Paper Example

? How Media Reproduces Gender Identity Norms As a social cultural process, gender refers to the cultural and social attitudes that prescribe shape and sanction feminine and masculine behaviors, technologies, environments, products and knowledge (Ross, 2012). In order to understand how the media perceives gender, it would be tentative to comprehend terms like gender norms, gender relation, and gender identities. For example, there have been numerous empirical observations of the heteronormative roles of women and men in relation to a particular cultural context leading to the social division of labor, and segregated roles (Blasius, 2001). Various media groups have reproduced self-opinionated references to gender identity. They have altered how individuals and groups pick out and present themselves. This happens because gender is context specific. This research paper would analyze that culture is a social assemble, fundamentally linked to the vicissitudes of the social and that gender, race class, sexuality, and other dimensions in the social life get reconstruction socially by media representation. The aspect of media censure is a true picture of the gender inequality in society. This features through print, television, music, and advertisements. For example, it is an overt observation that media perpetuates and reinforces the idea of hetero-masculinity in the society (Durham & Kellner, 2005).They do this by portraying men as the only and ought to be the dominant members of the society. The recent report release about the U.S Media justifies these claims. In U.S, men and women get influenced by the media and this signifies the reinforcing and oppression of women as well as men who do not fall under the concept of heteronormative grouping. The media thus reproduce the gender identity norms and at times reconstruct the social interpretation of the gender relation in a given cultural context. In the context of U.S society, for example, the media has played a detrimental role of influencing the idea of The Beauty Myth. This is an ideological understanding of sociologists but the media takes it on and paints the society with such social construct (Hammer & Kellner, 2009). In this, images of beauty work against women. This is an unrealistic measure of beauty in women. The biggest challenge is on what happens to the children who grow naively in such a society. Instead of embracing and reinforcing their gender roles affirmatively, they found already socially constructed norms by the media within the society, which they ought to fit into in order to fall into the prescribed class. At a time when children grow to the age of two to three years of age, many assume the sense of themselves as male or female. This is a gender identity, which ought to grow intrinsically inside these kids throughout their life span. However, what happens, many of these children, the age slightly that, they develop an awareness of the social stereotypes there in a society (Ross, 2012). Most of these children never get a chance to grow naturally in the socialization theory that allows a straightforward account on how one can acquire the normal gendered identities. The media take advantage of infants, as being blank slates and write down the overtly what the society expects of them in order to fit as a woman or as a man. The media has turned itself into the modern Panopticon, where it acts as the omnipresent watch of the gender social construction (Durham & Kellner, 2005). This is a worrying trend since its effects are devastating, especially to infants. There is also the aspect of consumption and gender identity in the popular media. There are overwhelming discourses of domesticity, sexuality, and authenticity in reference to gender identity and norms. The contemporary argument and representation of masculinity and femininity in the two HBO television series, Entourage and Sex in the City give a clear picture of how media intersects gender and consumption (Ross, 2012). Analysts of these series once pointed out that the fluidity of gender has given the characters the unparalleled freedom and this gives them the audacity of being multi-faceted during their performances. The biggest threat in this series ‘the panocticon’ is the kind of behavior the media try to assume. The media practitioners, especially in the most civilized first world countries are capable of buying space and rights to extend even what appears to be ruinous to the generation behind them. There is a cross-sectional discussion going on within the different series that tries to negotiate the tensions between the prescribed and more traditional gender roles and one’s assumption of his or her gender role with regard to consumption (Schippers, 2013). This is the reason why the characters in the series create ways to concurrently re-establish and reinforce their gendered identities while creating the new roles. This is directly aided by consumption (Hammer & Kellner, 2009).In this category, it is overt that the media brings out the aspect of consumption, which in one way or another seems to go contrary to what the traditional society ascribe as the gender roles. Therefore, through media, one can learn that consumption is sometimes complicit in creating new tensions upon gender identity norms. However, it would be important to comprehend that the social construction of gender is permeated with symbolic acts. This comes through the characters attempt of doing gender, which involves can either reify or destabilize the socially constructed beliefs. It is the manipulation of symbols in order to manage the socially established of the dual presence of masculinity and femininity. These two variables of gender have with age, been evolving constructs. They even consist of numerous masculinities and femininities, in which their construction is historical, cultural, or geographical. There are, however, contradictions and conflicting discourses of gender in the way the modern media is preaching to them. For example, the series portrays an evocative aspect through which the bold, the sophisticated, and knowing voices of the heroes and heroines have gone far to mask their ascribed traditional, and ordinary expected feminine desires (Schippers, 2013).For example, the traditional femininity expectation witnesses division and fragmentation in an overt sexual pursuit and exploration. Through this media program, the traditional identity norms get replaced by aesthetic boundaries, which have largely placed at the forefront consumption as the means through which modern world can express gender (Calvert & Wilson, 2011). At some level, media play an important role since it helps the larger audience to glean prescriptive information about consumption behaviors and gender in the modern world. Through such exposures, it would be clear for one to recognize how the society sees what one calls his or her gender identity norms. One can even gauge himself, as in, at what level is he or she and this helps in self-perception. Media has reproduced a lot about how we see and perceive gender. It has in particular reshaped the perception of women as seen in the reality T.V series Extreme Makeover (Schippers, 2013). In this, the making of feminine subject is deteriorating. What happens to a girl child who grows to see how a celebrity once changed her looks in the name of consumption? Therefore, Media remains as an important avenue through which people can observe social reconstruction and new dimensions of gender identity norms. This is all over in channels of information, a repetition, and legitimate performances of gender. Moreover, Gigi’s research on Girls, Media, and Negotiation of sexuality helps to highlight the study of race, class, and gender in adolescent peer groups (Durham, 2013). In the article, the media plays a lot in defining gender identity norms for girls. The study tries to highlight how peer group involvement and the available social context impact maturing girls’ interaction with mass media. It thus concluded that what the girls perceive as their bests gender identity comes through the consolidation of references as per the mediated standards of femininity and masculinity in the media fraternity (Calvert & Wilson, 2011). This is all through media literacy efforts in the informing of the peer group functioning around issues of race, class, and culture. In such cases like the generalization in the USA culture that adolescence is the most vulnerable and destructive age for girls, mass media comes to improving the cultural socialization of the girls (Durham, 2013). Media is a crucial symbolic vehicle helping with construction of the meaning of life to younger girls. In the wake where the existing data paint a disturbing picture of adolescent girls, the media also instills some destructive virtues about the whole issue (Cramer & Creedon, 2007). They have influenced the perception of adolescent among the growing girls. This makes girls feel and appear vulnerable. Therefore, it would substantive to conclude that media representation of gender identity norms of femininity and masculinity is wanting. What they disseminate is restrictive, unrealistic and only pays attention to the physical beauty. This has erupted internal contradictions in understanding the prescribed social identity norms of gender. Moreover, analyses paints that the girls have difficulty in living or fitting in these overflowing media interpretations of their state hence the information passed across ultimately misdirects them (Durham, 2013). In this respect, the media reproduction of these issues of adolescent breeds to girls struggle with self-esteem, academic challenges, negative body image, contradiction surrounding sexuality, and all other avenues involving girls growth and development. Even though Gigi’s research focused on the upper class white girls, the mediated concepts have a global influence on the race, ethnicity, and class of other girls globally (Durham, 2013). This may though differ depending on the context or the environment the girl is growing at but as long as they get access to the media, which is the dominating culture, the impact is unavoidable. In addition, Media and cultural studies engage in critical interrogations of the politics of representation, and this draws upon feminist approaches and the existing multi-cultural theories, which try to analyze the full function of gender, class, identity, nationality, class, and sexual preferences in the media. For example, many gay and lesbian theorists decry the way that the media portrays and promotes homophobia (Schippers, 2013). They do this by highlighting a negative representation of gay sexuality. The impact of this is that, corporate media culture defines and frames sexuality in a manner that leaves the gays and lesbians marginalized. This automatically obliterates their perception of life. The media creates the boundaries of the moral order. In the context of any given society, the media have preached that heterosexuality is not a man’s or females gender norm. This stereotypical depiction of the gays and lesbians as though abnormal suppresses any positive image in the individuals (Schippers, 2013). It is thus unexceptional portrayals as the media is serving as the police, the agency through which gender consumption ought to receive authentication. At the end of the day, the message trickles down to the traditional society, and as much as this bisexuality is not a common nod for all, labeling and stereotyping will have resulted from what the media began. At the end of the day, there ought to be an alternative representation. On another perspective, media reconstruction of feminine gender and their social challenges and problems is that they are victims and objects. They never present a positive image, even when women have ganged up in movements to agitate for their rights and awareness of their socially benefitting norms (Blasius, 2001).Media rather would focus on individual social problems faced by women like rape, domestic violence, and neglecting. However, many scholars have come out to challenge these media hegemonies and asymmetries of power in their critical cultural studies. These messages cripple the innate nature of a girl child as mostly they depict themselves as vulnerable, not able to be in a particular place or a job, and thus succumb to their fate in fear of being victims. Media thus would have reproduced a different section of gender identity and norm contrary to what and how such a girl child would have grown to become. Both men and women face oppression in the media. For example, what happens if media zones repetitively air music discussing violence, distrust and the over exaggerated inferiority to men (Schippers, 2013)? In this, men learn how to be ultra-masculine. A growing boy would work towards being violent, desensitized, and physically strong since his gender ought to exemplify such characteristics. This is the trend in adverts, beer commercials, and this has ultimately encouraged men to oppress other men if they do not relate to the aspect of heteromasculinity (Cramer & Creedon, 2007). In conclusion, in the current era, with the world already wired, the information environment is expanding from radio, television, computers, print media, and so many others. As much as they play a crucial role in disseminating information in the society, by informing, educating, warning, and encouraging, the media have largely changed the way the traditional gender identity norms operated. This has consequently, changed even the perception of our gender roles as the media surveillance is deconstructing everything norm that tradition ascribed as the measure. References Blasius, M. (2001). Sexual identities, queer politics. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press. Calvert, S. L., & Wilson, B. J. (2011). The handbook of children, media, and development. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. Cramer, J., & Creedon, P. J. (2007). Women in mass communication. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications. Durham, G. M. (2013). Girls, Media, and the Negotiation of Sexuality: A study of Race, Class, and Gender in Adolescent Peer Groups. Retrieved on, 28th November, 2013, from: http://jmq.sagepub.com/content/76/2/193.short Durham, M. G., & Kellner, D. (2005). Media And Cultural Studies. Oxford: John Wiley & Sons. Hammer, R., & Kellner, D. (2009). Media/cultural studies: Critical approaches. New York: Peter Lang. Ross, K. (2012). The handbook of gender, sex, and media. Malden, MA [etc.: Wiley-Blackwell. Schippers, M. (2013).The Social Organization of Sexuality and Gender in Alternative Hard Rock: An Analysis of Intersectionality. Retrieved on, 28th November, 2013, from: http://gas.sagepub.com/content/14/6/747.abstract Read More