Gender

• Tuchman et al say there is symbolic annihilation of women's achievements, which are ignored or downplayed
• Mulvey says women are reduced to sexualised images that serve the male gaze
• Ferguson identifies a cult of femininity that tells women how to be feminine - relationships, children, domestic work
• McRobbie studied magazines in the 1970s and 90s and found that they used to promote love and domestic tasks but evolved to promote girl power, careers and independence
• Wolf says the media creates a beauty myth that promotes a specific body that all women should aspire to if they want to be attractive
• Bates argued women were mere status symbols in music videos that acted as decorations for male musicians to show off their sexual conquest
• Gauntlett argued there was increasing positive representation of women in domains that were once considered for men
• Connell identified that the media promotes hegemonic masculinity, and men are taught to aspire to this to be a real man
• The pursuit of masculinity may result in toxic masculinity and men being violent towards women and other men to try to assert themselves as 'alpha males'
• Now that women are becoming active consumers, Gauntlett argues men are also being sexualised with idealised body types
• GLAAD analysed media with trans people and found 40% were victims, 20% were portrayed as sex workers, and transphobic language was present in 60% of programmes that featured trans people
• There has been a rise of the metrosexual male and the 'new man' - men who are interested in fashion, emotions, and act respectfully to women - reflected in the media
• There is often contradiction in magazines - men should be progressive, but still sexualise women
• Levi-Strauss: women are the other within the binary pair of gender