The representation of gender in the media

In todays world, media plays a big role in our every day lives. It provides us with a range of different information by publishing them in the press, television, radio, books and the Internet.

Although, this is very positive, like everything it has some negatives to it and one of those negatives are stereotypes as an overall, as well as the stereotypes and representations we are made to believe when it comes to how we see different genders and their roles.

“Stereotypes are thoughts that can be associated about specific types of individuals, groups of people or even certain ways of doing things.”

One of the main, very often raised issues with gender stereotyping is the way in which, women are presented to the audience of the different media forms. It is very often described how in the modern times, women are starting to become victims to advertising as they are beginning to be used to help sell products by being shown in sexy outfits and therefore, attracting attention.

In addition, different media platforms also present a very stereotypical imagine of women where they are shown as young, slim and with no flaws. Also, encouraging young women and teenage girls to look like the ‘ideal girl’

Above we can see two front covers of two completely different editions of the magazine. Both showing a similar idea of how a woman should look, with captions encouraging diets and weight loss.

These types of images then lead the audience into raising false ideas about the definition of ‘perfection’ and causes many young women and girls to go into thinking that they should do everything that they can in order to look just like the models. Furthermore, it also leads males into creating a false image of women in their mind and so many may begin to raise false interpretations of a natural real girl. 

This issue is very serious as it can bring a lot of problems to women, how they think, feel and the way that they are treated. However, the media does not often see this issue as a problem due to the reason that it helps them to make a larger profit as many ladies will begin to purchase even more magazines and products just to make themselves look at least a bit more like the front cover models.