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media and gender

gender role

gender inequality

Another consequence of portraying aging women in the media, is that in most TV shows, actresses who are playing characters in their 40's and 50's tend to have a body type of someone much younger than them. Midlife women have grown accustomed to seeing their age group portrayed in a seemingly unrealistic way, and this had led to an increase of eating disorders among this group.

Annotated Bibliography for "Media and Gender" Wikipedia Article

1. My first source is called "Gender Roles in Advertising" and it is written by Silke Knoll and Martin Eisend. This article can be considered credible because Knoll is a PhD student at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt, Germany, and her research focuses on how marketing can influence the life of the consumer. The other author, Eisend, is a Professor in marketing at the same university as Knoll, and his studies focus on marketing communication. Both of these authors are able to assess how advertising can influence a viewer, because it is what they spend their time researching.They wanted to see if there was a difference between how genders are presented on German TV between private and public channels.In order to do this, they conducted a study in which they examined the Age, Location, Credibility, Product Type, and Role of the genders and how they differ when represented in advertisements. They conducted this study to figure out whether gender stereotyping was different between public and private TV channels, and then in what ways do they differ? After conducting their study, they realized that women are often depicted as younger, using domestic products, and are usually depicted at home taking care of the house. In contrast, male figures are typically represented as authoritative figures, and are more likely to be portrayed outside the home and without domestic products. This resource will help me because it provides a study showing just how much genders are stereotyped and then the difference between each gender and how much they are stereotyped.

2. My second source is called "A Couple of White Guys Sittin' Round a Table Talking" and it is from Pennsylvania State University. The author of this paper is Nathaniel Frederick, who is an assistant professor of Mass Communications at Winthrop University, and he has also taught at Claflin University. Another reason this paper is credible is because it is a conference paper written by the College of Communications from Pennsylvania State University, and it was written for the International Communication Association. This paper uses the example of the characters on the show Frasier to show the idea of the "new man", which is a shift in how men are represented on TV. This "new man" shifts the portrayal of men from distant and emotionless to men who care about their emotions and are more likely to have emotional relationships with those around them. This paper examines the transition from the original image of the "macho" man which was very common among TV shows until the 1980's, where there was a shift to men portrayed as "metrosexuals". Metrosexual is a term designed to describe men who seem to take on qualities that only women had had until this point. these qualities included being emotionally open and even starting to do housework. The final transition came with the idea of the "new man", and this paper claims that the show Frasier represents this ideology extremely well. Some of the reasons this is is because of Frasier's occupation, considering he is a psychiatrist, and does not have a normally common job, like a businessman. They are able to back up their claim that Frasier represents the idea of the "new man" with several other reasons throughout the paper. This source will help me because it will give me an insight on how men are represented on TV shows and how it has changed throughout the years, and how that can affect the younger generation that watch the show.

3. My third source is called "The Influence of Television and Film Viewing on Midlife Women’s Body Image, Disordered Eating, and Food Choice" by Veronica Hefner. This article can be considered credible because it comes from the Department of Communications at Chapman University. The author, Hefner, is also a professor of communications at Chapman University. This paper describes how women in their 40's and 50's are often portrayed as thin, gorgeous, and often look like they should be twenty years younger. This constant imagery of midlife women who don't look like they are their character's age has started to take an effect on the midlife women who watch these shows. These shows include Cougar Town, Desperate Housewives, and movies like The Blind Side. This paper conducts a study to figure out if there is a relationship between these images and the increase in eating disorders in midlife women. Their claim was that these TV shows and movies that are portraying midlife women in an unrealistic way has an effect on the body image of women who watch these shows. They were correct as their study yielded results that there has been an increase in eating disorders, negative body image, and stricter food choice among this age group, due to the images they are seeing on TV and in movies. This source will help me because it shows how a different age group is impacted by this issue, and sheds a new light on eating disorders and how they affect different groups.

4. My fourth source is called "Weighing Women Down: Messages on Weight Loss and Body Shaping in Editorial Content in Popular Women’s Health and Fitness Magazines" by Laura E. Willis. This article comes from the School of Communications at Ohio State University. The author, Willis, also received a PhD in communications from Ohio State University, and is currently teaching at Quinnipiac University. Since weight loss has become such an important topic in today's world, this article wanted to figure out if there was a correlation between weight loss and the images presented in weight loss magazines and advertisements. People are naturally prone to comparing themselves to others, and this paper suggests that all of the images that are portrayed as "perfect" are leading to an increase in negative body image and even eating disorders. Their claim was that women's health magazines tended to focus more on appearance than health, and these magazines also refer to exercise more than caloric reduction in their headlines. They conducted a study by looking at 28 issues published by five different magazines and compared them to see if they were correct. After the conclusion of the study, they realized their claim was correct. This source will help me because it gives an outlook on the impact of body image through magazine ads, and then how the wording of the articles and ads, can negatively impact the audience and reader of the magazine.

5. My fifth source is called "Representations of Female Scientists in The Big Bang Theory" by Heather McIntosh. This article can be considered credible because the author, Heather McIntosh, is a professor of communications at Notre Dame University of Maryland. This article uses the show The Big Bang Theory to discuss how female scientists are represented in the media, mainly in TV shows. McIntosh first describes scientists on TV shows and talks about how these characters are usually portrayed as awkward and less willing to open up to those around them, than other professions on the same shows. She then claims that not only are women represented less in the scientific field on TV programs, but when they are represented, they are portrayed as "naive experts". Being a "naive expert" means that their intellectual abilities are usually overshadowed by their emotions, and then they are usually shown as being dismissed by their male colleagues in projects. She also claims that women scientists are portrayed as struggling with finding a balance between their work and home life, and never being successful at both, only having true success with one of them. She uses evidence from other studies conducted on the same topic in order to back up her claims. This source will be useful to me because it is describing how men and women in the same field are portrayed with different values, and how these portrayals can affect those that watch the shows.

6. My sixth source is called "Women Are On, But Not In, the News: Gender Roles in Local Television News" by Roger Desmond. This article can be considered credible because the author of this source, Desmond, is a professor of communications at the University of Hartford, and he also received his PhD from the University of Iowa. Over the last forty years, women have started to really come on to the scene in news media, and so the author wanted to see if there was a difference between the stories that men and women were assigned to complete. If young female viewers are constantly seeing the same stories only done by women, then they might start to think that their choices in a future career in broadcasting are limited and could be discouraged from choosing that career. Their claim was that there is a strong association between the gender of the reporter and what stories the reporter is assigned. They also claimed that male experts and non-experts on certain topics will be cited more than female experts and non-experts on the same topics. Their study included looking at different news programs, and seeing how often women and men reported on certain issues, and then also looking at how often men experts are cited vs. women experts. Through their study, they came to the conclusion that women often report on more docile issues like health and human interests, while men did the politics segments. Their claim was correct once again when they realized that men are cited more as experts than women are. This source will be useful to me because it talks about the difference a person's gender makes in the world of news media, and how the news can uphold stereotypes of men and women.

7. My seventh source is called "Gendered Issue Depictions in Commander in Chief versus The West Wing" by Shane M. Semmler. This article is credible because the author is a professor of communication studies at the University of South Dakota, and he also received his PhD from the University of Oklahoma. This article talks about how women are still trying to make their mark in the world of politics, and how there is a great underrepresentation of women in government when it comes to their male counterparts. This article talks about how the media can influence the stereotypes associated with women in government and so therefore they can also influence the amount of women in government. This article examines two TV shows: West Wing and Commander and Chief, and how these shows represent the presidency, considering one has a male president and the other a female president. Their claim was that the male president in West Wing would be presented with more masculine issues, and the female president in Commander in Chief would be presented with more feminine issues. Some examples of typical masculine issues are national security, domestic terror, and taxes. Some examples of typically feminines issues are the environment, health care, and women's issues. Their claim was proved somewhat correct in the fact that masculine and feminine issues were present at about the same ratio to both presidents, but masculine problems were presented most overall in both shows. This source will help me because it talks about the stereotypes for men and women in politics, and how the media can influence and perpetuate these stereotypes.

8. My eight source is called "Sexist Games = Sexist Gamers? A Longitudinal Study on the Relationship Between Video Game Use and Sexist Attitudes" by Johannes Breuer. This article is credible because the author received his PhD in psychology from the University of Cologne and now works at the Leibniz-Institute for the Social Sciences. This article talks about how even though women make up about half of video game players, their representation in the games they are playing is still not realistic. Women are either not represented as main characters in video games, or they are represented, but they are usually hyper sexualized. This not only discourages women from playing these video games, but also negatively affects how the men playing these games see women. Their claim is that playing more video games can increase sexist attitudes in the players everyday life. To test their claim, they looked at a sample of about 4,500 people and asked how often they played video games, and then used a questionnaire to determine sexist attitudes in the participants. From this study alone, the authors claim was not proven correct, but they did come to the conclusion that focusing on certain video games might have worked better, and there are of course family and cultural factors to consider when looking at sexist attitudes of the players. This source will help me because it gives another, and not as common, form of media in which women seem to be misrepresented.