media impact on gender stereotypes

The dreaded advertisement break. I don't hate it because it breaks me away from a show (that's just a small annoyance), but I do hate adverts because they perpetrate some of the worst gender stereotypes that I have ever seen outside of the views of ignorant individuals. It's mostly adverts for cleaning products or other products geared specifically toward one gender or the other, like "mens'" shampoo. Frankly I don't see why men and women need separate shampoo, apparently because "womens'" shampoo fragrances are too feminine. In reality its the same exact shampoo with just a different scent, and usually not as good smelling either. But men who put on this shampoo will get all the girls roaming after them in the streets (ego much?).

But it's not only advertisements that are full of stereotypes, they are just the most overt. TV shows are often full of stereotypes from the housewife to the effeminate gay man to the criminal black gangster. And while these characters are not one-dimensional like their advertisement counterparts, they have problems and they try to solve them during the course of an episode and we can see more than just their stereotyping image.

Because the media is so full of stereotypical images, and we are a nation full of major TV consumers, children, teens, and even adults often try to portray themselves how they see people in their group are on TV.

At school for instance girls are seen at being better at english and social studies while boys are better at science and maths (though experience has shown me that girls are often much better then boys at...well basically all of the subjects :P). Jocks might often dumb themselves down in order to portray the sporty image (one of my friends has often talked to me about a friend of theirs that has dumbed themselves down in class).

In politics we punish those who stand up for their political beliefs, like candidates who stand against the death penalty by saying that they wouldn't want somebody who raped their wife subject to it (that question seems very personal and out of order anyway), and that reinforces the image that men with wives or husbands should be so overprotective of their partner that they go mad with murderous rage like an ape. If a woman cries in politics, like Hillary clinton during the 2008 primaries, she's seen as strong for being able to show her emotions, while if a man were to do it, while there wouldn't be calls of "he's weak!" we've at least moved beyond that point, he wouldn't be seen as a stronger man for it, the media, and society wants male politicians to tote their guns. Yeah! You put your finger on the button to release that nuclear bomb and you show those dirty terrorists!

The Media controls how we interact with eachother everyday and it almost never leads to a better society, it leads to more problems with how people relate to eachother. The media has to be conscious of the images it is showing and try to show more strong, positive minorities so that people, especially minorities, have a positive model to try to follow instead of the negative stereotypes that are often shown.