GENDER STEREOTYPES IN MEDIA

Gender Stereotypes!

In media such as magazines and adverts there is always evidence of gender stereotypes. Women are always depicted as objects who want the attention of men and men are shown to only want to look good and impress women.

The general stereotype for women in magazines and adverts are that they have to have a good body to look attractive or that women are only there to impress men. This is a negative stereotype as it is suggesting that women only want to look good for men. In men magazines women are often shown to be naked or wearing little clothing, this is because the magazine is in the male gaze and men want to look at the women. This is a bad representation of women as it is suggesting that women have to be naked to look beautiful. Another stereotype that is featured in magazines is that women are objects. For example in the Lynx advert it suggests to men that if you wear Lynx then you can get any girl. This is suggesting that women don’t care about who the person is but that they are just objects for men to have. Although this is a negative representation, it is still effective because people believe what they hear and see in the media. If a perfume adverts tells a women that she will become more attractive when she wears the new perfume, women will by it because they are forever trying to reach the expectations of others. These expectations are normally made by the magazines and adverts. Although that most of the women stereotypes in the media is negative, there are some positive ones. For example: “this girl can”. In the “this girl can advert women are portrayed to be active and fun as it is suggesting that women work out for themselves and not anyone else. This is a positive representation as it goes against the other, more common, stereotypes that women only want to look good for men.

The general stereotype for men in the media is that they need a partner. They normally link a certain product with attracting girls, for example again the Lynx advert. If they wear the lynx spray all the girls will come to them. The negative side to this representation is that men have to appear stronger and attractive in order to get the attention of women. Although negative, this is still an effective method as men believe that if they use the spray they will become manlier. There are more positive gender stereotypes in the media towards men, for example in the Adidas advert. In this advert it shows a man training by pulling a heavy tire. This suggests to men that men are already strong. The advert shows that men don’t need women to make them stronger. This is a positive representation as it is saying that men can still be independent and do not need to have a partner in their life just to prove themselves.

Overall men have a better representation in media than women do as women are often portrayed as objects but men are portrayed as strong. Both men and women have negative representations in the media but all media could have a positive message within in them. For example, by women being shown to be beautiful in magazines suggests to the audience that all women can be beautiful.