Women have been historically misrepresented, or underrepresented in media, as a reflection of unfortunate dominant social values ("The Symbolic Annihilation of Women by the Mass Media" by Gaye Tuchman). But the values represented in television shows or advertisements are lagging behind factual truths about our current economic system...even while more women began entering the American workforce, television continued to depict them as confined to traditional roles of wife and mother. A good example of harmful stereotypes supported by television in its early days is the show "I Love Lucy". Lucy's only successful role was in relation to her husband, as a stay-at-home wife, and she only got into trouble if she attempted to venture out into the workforce.
Another serious symbolic annihilation of women in television is sexualization, which is a form of trivializing a woman's presence by belittling her into a sexual object to be used by men. Advertisements are clear examples of this, specifically those aired by companies such as Miller beer and Axe body spray. Here is one such advertisement:
This is an extreme example, but similar forms are far too common on television screens today. Television shows portray women mainly as either sexualized, successful only within the home, or as important only in relation to their male coworkers or relationships. Tuchman summarized it well by saying: "What can the preschool girl, the school girl, the adolescent female and the woman learn about a woman's role by watching television? The answer is simple...To be a woman is to have a limited life divorced from the economic productivity of the labor force."
I think it is important to not ignore the relatively recent television advertising trend that portrays males and fathers are incompetent, foolish, and eager to do whatever they can to please their wives and their petulant offspring. This portrayal is almost exclusively foiled by the responsible and intelligent female figure / wife remedying the situation. Just off the top of my head I can reimagine the ad where the husband is blatantly too stupid to prepare a meal so the wife orders Paga Gino's or something, or the husband is utterly incapable of repairing the kitchen sink so the exhasperated wife calls the plumber. One of my personal favorites is where the kids are busy and don't pay attention to their parents so the father goes out and gets them new phones in order to placate them... the examples are too numerous to count. That they so often take place within a marriage and family environment makes the portrayals all the more harmful. I'm not suggesting that the negative portrayals of men in these ads is comperable years of systematic, as you put it "trivialization and sexualization," but right now not many people are watching I Love Lucy. Most people do watch commercials though, and I think its something worth noting.
ReplyDeleteAndrew
The point is that men have so many different representations in media...in the article I mentioned, it also states that there is a 2:1 ration of men to women, which is obviously disproportionate to the current population. Men are represented in a multitude of different roles, ranging from successful businessmen to absurd lazy stereotypes. The danger of misrepresentation of women is that the few roles actually given to them are confined ONLY to those stereotypes.
ReplyDelete