In every t.v show or film, there is always a storyline based on a single hero character, and it is usually a man. Women are under-represented in many ways and the way they are portrayed is often shown as stereotypes and is related and seen through the male gaze.
Audience demographics:
It was more likely for male characters than female characters to be identified by a work-related role for a movie or a t.v show (that is 61% of males and 34% of females). However, it was more likely for female characters to be identified by a personal life job or a role rather than males, ( that is 58% of females and 31% of males). Both female and male characters however had something equal, they were both likely to be identified in both work and personal life related roles which leads to 8% of both females and males.
Virtual muscularity.
Female masculinity is when a female is not scared or guilty of showing the masculine side of her and enjoying something that is usually known and viewed as masculine.
Why is femininity in men less accepted than masculinity in women?
It is known that women are becoming more masculine however men are also becoming more feminine. There are a small variety of females that wear make-up, cutting their hair short, some are even choosing to wear oversized shirts that are designed for men. Also, they get jobs and careers by getting involved in things like the armed forces, computer sciences, and mechanics. This does not mean that gender stereotypes does not exist anymore, as we are the gender that we are born as and the society still argues and dictates how both females and males should look like and how each gender should behave.
These days, women are still sexualised by the fact that femininity and the idea of being pretty seen through TV programmes and films, they show women with revealing clothes and ‘irritating giggles’ which is also shown on social media. However men are stereotypically shown as strong, hard-core masculinity and not scared of anything that gets in their way.
Portrayal of women, objectification and sexualisation in films and dramas.
The way that films are put together, there are many feminist film critics that have pointed to the ‘male gaze’. The sexual objectification of women in film has a big effect on young women and girls, it is known that when girls were exposed to films when a female super hero was dressed in over-sexualised costumes, that is when they became more aware of their own body image and experience.
This scene from Star Trek Into Darkness of Alice Eve standing in her underwear has caused bad reactions for this movie. Alice walking around in her underwear has got nothing to do with the storyline and the plot and is simply just an exploitation of the actress herself. The person that co-wrote the script was Lindelof and he apologized by saying “I copped to the fact that we should have done a better job of not being gratuitous in our representation of a barely clothed actress”.
This is another example of Angelina Jolie in the film Mr. and Mrs. Smith.            Her character is a suburban housewife doubling as a secret assassin. This movie is another example showing how they use women as a sexual object instead of just a character with real depth.
The movie American Hustle is another example of the objectification of women. This film is set in the 1970s and the costumes that the women were told to wear is wrong. They are dressed in revealing and sexy outfits for the most of the film, it is not likely that women would wear a revealing, low-hanging dress for a meeting with a diplomat as Amy Adam’s character does in this film.
Powerful female characters in T.V and film.
Olivia Pope:
Olivia Pope has become the go-to-gal for D.C. politicians and also public figures in crisis. After her successful help for Fitz Grant by winning his campaign for President of the United States, Olivia launched her crisis management. She is not scared of breaking and bending the rules to help her clients.
Daenerys Targaryen:
In the Game of Thrones, she went from a fearful, scared teenager with a very aggressive brother to becoming the wife of a king, to the leader of her own empire. She is also known as strong and powerful when she climbed up onto her husband’s funeral pyre in order to hatch three dragons.
Peggy Olson:
She is a character from the movie Mad Men, she is known as ‘tenacious and smart’ she was learning in the movie to navigate through a man’s world in a way that was not possible in the 19960s in New York. Whatever she worked for or asked for, even if she did not get whatever it was she would not give up and she would still get props for asking.
Santana Lopez:
She plays as a character in Glee, she may come off as a rude or blunt, however she is a woman with a tough spirit and has fierce loyalty to the people that she cares about. She went head-to-head with one of her roommates in a way that you would not expect from someone who speaks as roughly as she does. She is known as one of those people who you have to pay attention to her actions more than her words.
Implications of stereotypes and the possible social and psychological impact on audiences.
Even when the media targets at adults, women still tend to be victims of many different stereotypes. For example ‘Orange is the new black’ this show follows a group of inmates at a women’s prison. Most of the women come from a variety of different backgrounds and ethnicities in terms of race, sexuality and class. All the women are presented as as complex characters. There are male guards that are shown abusing their power by sleeping with the female inmates, or questioning the ability of the women to do simple tasks.
Moreover, men are usually seen in advertisements to do with cars, gym, business, and somewhere in an outside environment. However women are usually seen in cleaning advertisements, hair products, cooking etc. There is a difference between the representation of women for their age and occupation rather than the male’s channels as they are more stereotypical than the female’s channels as men are seen doing less than the women.
Media that supports gender roles especially females and stereotypes can affect the children’s sense of self, their relationships and future careers. There are about 75% of people that say girls are “very influenced by TV shows and movies when it comes to how they look” in comparison to the 45% of the boy when it comes to “how to act in a romantic relationship”. Gender stereotypes that are supported by the media have both economic and social consequences, this limits how children can see themselves which professionally hurts us all economically.
Rihanna said this in March 2017 in the issue of Harper’s Bazaar. Another good quote that someone else has written is Gloria Steinem and she says “A feminist is anyone who recognises the equality and full humanity of women and men”.
Caren Lamaa 