Gender

• McRobbie thinks that the apparent greater equality in the media today has been overstated. There is an illusion of equality which is supported by media representations.
• Negative effects the media has on women

  • Women have been represented in the media as sexual objects – male gaze
  • Conflicted working mothers - working mothers worrying about their main role as being a domestic housewife
  • The cult of femininity - women were encouraged to aspire to being a 'domestic goddess', magazines focussed on their appearance, domestic role and raising kids as opposed to possible aspirations
  • Symbolic annihilation – underrepresented in the media
• Symbolic annihilation (Tuchman)


  Describes the way women are effectively left out of the media. Achievements are often ignored/ minimised or condemned by the mass media. Interests and pursuits were often devalued. When women are portrayed, they are generally shown in a limited range of social/occupational roles -- Achievements are often presented as less important than their looks and sex appeal. Mainly represented through stereotypical gender roles ie. doing household chores in detergent ads.
• Symbolic annihilation (Newbold)


  Study on TV sports found that not only do women's sporting accomplishments get little coverage, but they tended to sexualise and underestimate female athletes and their skills/achievements. In the 2018 Olympics only 4.5% of coverage was of women athletes.
• Limited roles (Tunstall)


  The presentation of women in the media is biased because it mainly reports women as busy home wives, contended mothers and sex objects. Tunstall observes that men are often portrayed as active and in positions of power. The male body is rarely sexually objectified in mainstream media and references to domestic status are rare.
• Limited roles ('Just the women report')


  The 'Just the women' report of 11 newspapers over 2 weeks suggested over 1300 news stories portrayed women in limited roles. The press focussed on women appearance and reducing them to sexual commodities to be consumed by the male gaze. 'Womens issues' were often covered in a very stereotypical way and women who had achieved some level of social status ie. as politicians were often degenerated and humiliated by the media.
• Limited roles (Bates)


  Bates argues that the music industry is particularly guilty of sexually objectifying women in lyrics and videos. Bates observes that as consumers of the music industry young girls learn that women are required to bare as much skin as possible when performing while male artists remained fully clothed.
• Media perpetuating unhealthy body image (Orbach)


  Orbach argues that the media perpetuate the idea that slimness equals success, health, happiness and popularity. She accuses the media of encouraging young girls and women to be unhappy with their bodies. She notes that the media creates a potential for eating disorders by constantly encouraging females to be concerned with their weight, shape, size and looks. Magazines use photos of size-zero supermodels to encourage dieting and cosmetic surgery.
• Banyard's research suggested that only 5 mins of exposure to thin beautiful images of women result in female viewers feeling low self-esteem about their bodies.
• Women are now represented in the media as

  • Sexually powerful
  • Independent
• Gauntlett


  Suggested there has been a change from simplistic traditional representations of both men and women to a more diverse and complex representation
• Gauntlett - Postmodern media

  Has had an increasing impact on young people's identities allowing young people to explore topics such as sexuality, gender, relationships through the new media
• Gauntlett - Magazines for young women

  Now emphasise independence and women doing their own thing both in their personal life and careers
• Plant


  Argues the internet is a feminine technology that has the potential to destabilise patriarchy because it allows women to explore and create new identities
• Gill


  Argues the idea of women as 'sex objects' in the media has changed, and women are now much more likely to be shown as powerful, using their sexuality to get what they want
• McRobbie


  Argues that much of the media projected towards young women today constitute a form of 'popular feminism' expressed through magazines that promote the concept of 'girl power'
• McRobbie


  Argues that young women are promoting a new form of feminism and have developed their own language for dealing with sexual inequality which they do through 'shagging, snogging and having a good time'
• Representations of men

  • Traditional representations of men reinforce hegemonic masculinity.
  • Representations of men are moving away from toughness and emotional silence with more male characteristics being comfortable with showing emotions.
  • There has been an increase in advertisement which encourages men to be concerned with body image and appearance.
• The 'Children's now group'

  • Asked 10-17 year old boys about their view of male characters they saw on television.
  • Their results indicated that media representations of men do not reflect the changing work and family experiences of most men today.
  • They found that representations of masculinity were dominant:
  • Males are violent
  • Males are leaders
  • Men rarely cry
  • Men never do domestic chores.
  • More than 1/3 of these boys had never seen a man doing a domestic chore on TV.
  • Masculinity continyes to dominate mass media coverage of men.
• McNamara

  • Media representations of men and boys generally failed to portray the reality of masculine life.
  • Found that 80% of media representations of men were negative.
  • Men were routinely showed as wife/girlfriend bashers, violent thieves murderers and perverts.
  • In reality only a small proportion of men act out these behaviours.
  • Men were also shown an irresponsible risk tackers and incapable of communicating their feelings or controlling anger.
  • Men are demonised by media representations of masculinity.
• McNamara also found that 20% of media representations of masculinity focusses on men and boys who were in touch with their feminine side and expressed this through self care and their appearance, the meterosexual male.
• Gauntlett - men and magazines

  • Suggests that mens media such as 'mens health' transmit heterosexual values because they portray men has fundamentally caring, generous and good humoured.
  • Magazines are often centred on helping men to be considerate lovers, useful around the house, healthy, fashionable and funny.
• Gauntlett - men

  • While Gauntlett generally sees the choice of masculinities that boys can choose from to be a positive feature of contempory society, there is a danger choice leads to confusion and conflict, feeding the crisis of masculinity.
  • Gauntlett does acknowledge that the images of the super-independent, extra strong macho man still circulate in popular culture.
  • He talks about retributive masculinity, there is a lot media out there that very much reasserts traditional masculine traits such as Top Gear. 
• Connell

  • Hegemonic masculinity is the masculinity of being a 'real man'.
  • In the gender hierarchy real men are above women and boys would aspire to become 'alpha males'.
  • This measure of manliness is centred on physical strength, competitiveness and success.
  • This masculinity is clearly shaped by the media.
  • Although magazines have encouraged men to take more interest in fashion and appearance, there is still and emphasis on traditional masculinity and the objection and sexualisation of women in media aimed at men.
• Crisis of masculinity

  • Positive aspects of masculinity have been eroded by society ie. hard working, providing for your family.
  • This relates to the crisis of masculinity as there is no precise role for men in society.
  • Men don't need to do all the work to provide for the family.
  • For this reason hegemonic masculinity may be replaced with toxic masculinity.
  • This means that all that is left is negative aspects of masculinity ie. aggression and violence.
• Feminist perspective

  • The media emphasis on females as domestic goddesses and sexual objects is seen as problematic because it is believed to have a limiting effect on young females’ behaviour and aspirations.
  • Liberal feminists argue that media representations are slow to change in response to women's achievements in society.
  • This 'cultural lag' is due to the fact that women rarely achieve high positions in media organisations.
• Marxist feminists - TV

  • Believe the roots of stereotypical image of men and women in the media are economic.
  • Media professionals who are mainly men aim to attract the largest audience possible in order to attract advertising revenue.
  • This means TV often reflects the idea that men and women should occupy traditional domestic roles.
• Marxist feminists - magazines

  • Magazines make profits from advertising rather than sales and therefore it is in the interests of magazines to promote 'false needs' around beauty and size in order to attract advertising revenue from diets, cosmetics and fashion industries.
  • By presenting an ideal that is difficult to achieve and maintain, it encourages women to invest in the beauty market and this causes an increasing emphasis in media content.
• Radical feminists

  • Wolf believes that the media deliberately dupe women into believing in the 'beauty myth'.
  • This is the idea that women should adhere to a particulate ideal in terms of looks, sexiness, shape and weight.
  • Women are strongly encouraged by the media to see these goals as central to their personal happiness rather than competing with men for positions of power.
  • This creates a form of false consciousness in women and deters them from making the most of the opportunities available for them.
• Postmodernist perspective

  • Gauntlett focuses on the relationship between the mass media and identity and argues that in contrast with the past, men and women no longer get singular messages that suggest there is just one type of masculinity or femininity.
  • The traditional view of women has been kicked boxed into successful girl power icons.
  • Suggested there was a new emphasis on mens emotions and problems, which has challenged masculine ideals such as toughness and emotional resistance.
• Pluralist perspective

  • The concept of symbolic annihilation underestimates women's ability to see through gender stereotyping and manipulation.
  • They claim that there is no real evidence that girls and women take ant notice of media content or that it profoundly affects their attitudes or behaviours.
  • The media simply reflects attitudes and tastes (public demand).
  • They argue that the media are both meeting both men’s and women needs and that if women were really unhappy at the way they were being represented, they would not buy media products such as women’s magazines.