Summer Task 3

Discuss the role the media plays in shaping our views and opinions on any one group in society; is this representation positive or negative?

I think the media especially in terms of advertisements plays a big part in gender roles and how we see men and women, and what we expect from them. I feel like the media is slowly de-masculinising men,  as the media makes it okay for women to wear masculine clothing and still look feminine, whereas men can’t wear what the media and society portray as feminine clothing as they can be seen as feminine. I feel like these force men to think, act and dress in a certain way and what’s interesting is that it does the exact same thing for women, only society is starting to break that down for women but no so much for men. For instance, in the popular Always adverts you often see women playing football, this goes against society’s belief that football is a men’s sport. If you look at a Gillette advert you will see a man playing football and acting masculine and something you will never or very rarely see is a man in these adverts doing something that society perceives as feminine like shopping or even going to a spa and getting a face mask, I mean if you’re going to save to make your face smooth it makes perfect sense to get a face pack to make it even smother, right? What makes this even worse is you very often see women in TV adverts relaxing wearing face masks and we as society see nothing wrong with it, but if you were to see a man doing the same it would seem as odd.

Advertisements also target women with weight problems, which is funny because the media were the ones who helped create this problem in the first place. For example, most teenage movies with a female protagonist who fall in love and have a happy ending will show a actor who is very skinny and pretty, this gives young girls the opinion and view that if they are skinny and pretty they will get everything in life and even fall in love. This also puts the idea into girls heads that if they are ‘fat’ (or think they are), have the wrong body type and/ or think they are ugly than they will not have the perfect life. You could take the teen/kids movie high school musical for example, a girl called Sharpay is adored because she is pretty and not to mention very skinny, also the Gabriella the protagonist is also very slim and pretty and gets the guy. The interesting thing is that this movie also contains girls at a healthy weight but can be seen by society as slightly chubby, these girls get little to none attention from some of the male charters, as all the male characters seem to be interested in Sharpay. This idea that you have to be skinny and pretty to get what you want is installed in kids (especially girls) at young ages. It is encouraged by models in magazines and other forms of media as mentioned earlier. The media then targets women to buy certain products to become these beautiful slim women like they see being adored as a child and as an adult. Such products are all over the media and include: make-up, weight loss tables, weight-loss diet plans, hair dye and weight loss/ fitness DVDs.  Granted that some of these are to benefit women’s life and make them heathier, it can also make them question the way they look as they seem to be bombarded by media saying you must have this to look like this because that’s what every girl should want.

On a completely different note I think the media is trying really hard to make gays feel more comfortable and accepted in our society. For example programmes like goggle box include a gay couple to add diversity into the programme and to also show the public that it’s okay to be gay and that they live just as normal a life as anyone else.  Also the money supermarket advert to men dancing in what society might call feminine ways. I like this because it shows that some media is trying to break down what society says it’s okay and not okay for men to do.

Overall I think that the media in the past has had a bad impact on societies views on what men and women should do and look like. Also I feel like female stereotypes are being broken down more by the media than men’s.  Although I feel that the representation of both men and women portrayed in the media is getting better, I think that there is still more that needs to be done to break down society’s views and opinions. I’m positive that the media, if it changed its approach, can help do this.