Commercials

         As we have learned, media plays a prominent role in our society.  Media in many ways is a reflection of our community.  One of the main ways media tries to influence the masses are through the use of advertising.  Many ads are formed around gender scripts and stereotypes.  In a previous post, I analyzed the different ways cleaning supplies are marketed towards men and women.  Women are pictured cleaning, doing housework, usually with kids around.  Typical women’s work.  On the other hand, the “going into battle” approach is a masculine way to sell products to men.  Masculine verbs, such as destroy and kill, are used to describe the cleaning products.  This style of selling aims at attempting to make cleaning a manlier task rather than women’s work. 

      This gender segregated approach to advertising is evident as we analyze more and more commercials.  For example, car commercials are presented differently depending on the audience.   With female viewers, the car is described with words such as flexible or sleek in the commercials.  However, with male audiences, the car is described as tough or powerful.  Flexible and sleek are generally labeled as more feminine qualities; tough and powerful refer to masculine traits.  Other advertisements, such as for beer and food commercials, use the same gender segregated approach.  This approach to selling products has been quite successful. 

Outnumbered

Women make up roughly half of the population.  Yet, since the 1950’s male characters have outnumbered female characters in all forms of media.  Women today are still underrepresented.  As George Gerbner explains in the “Electronic Storyteller”, there is one woman for every three men on television.  An example of this would be Seinfeld.  When women appear in media they are always stereotyped and usually highly sexualized for a heterosexual male viewer audience.  Female characters are always on the sidelines, rarely seen as the main character.  Some believe this absence of well represented women on television is due to the lack of women in the high status positions, such as director or producer in media.

To deal with backlash, media moguls have created shows and movies with female protagonists.  We see gender role reversal in many of these.  Some examples of media with female leads are American Horror Story, the Hunger Games and Million Dollar Baby.  In American Horror Story:Coven, women greatly outnumber the amount of men in the show.  Also, the males are seen as the sexual objects or passive submissive helpers rather than the women.  Here, the females hold the power.  In a recent GRIID film study of the top 67 films of 2012, 55 of the lead characters were male and only 12 of the characters were female.  Strong, empowered female protagonists are far and few between. In movies with female leads, the young women are not portrayed as sexual objects but rather have their own objectives in mind.  These shows counter the overtly sexual submissive stereotype normally played by women.  

Indecency

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The media industry has changed greatly since the invention of the television.   We are beginning to see increasingly sexualized images on TV these days.  With the lines between porn and mainstream becoming more and more blurred, it is hard to decipher what is indecent and obscene in the media.  We, as a society, seem to become gradually normalized to images of sex and violence that constantly flood into our homes.  Early media moguls recognized the influence media can have over the public.  They needed a way to regulate the images being broadcast throughout society.   Production codes of censorship have become more lax over time.  The Production Code of1930, which lasted until 1968, required that programs involve no profanity, no lust or excessive kissing, no suggestive postures or interracial romance.

 Due to the rise of cable TV, these “indecencies” are now recognized as normal.  TV and movies are continually pushing the limits of graphic sex scenes.  Female nudity has become extremely common in media.  Yet, male nudity is almost unseen, but always assumed.  From “Game of Thrones” to “American Horror Story” sex scenes are essential to the episodes.  Usually, the women in these shows are depicted as sexual objects for men.   The female body has become hyper sexualized and expected to fit into an unrealistic beauty standard.  These shows are marketed not only to men, but to the women who seek to fulfill the fantasy they portray.  In conclusion, media has changed greatly since the 1930's.  We are seeing more sex, violence and objectification everyday.  Through this visibility comes normalization and validation.