Media, Media, Media.
Well, it took me long enough to write this. I kind of want to talk about gender stereotypes.
I was watching T.V. the other night and I see an ad for insurance (or some insurance thing, I don't quite recall). I saw an old married man and woman and the commercial was something about teaching your grandchildren skills they need for the life ahead. And of course...
Grandpa is teaching grandson how to work on a car.
Grandma is teaching granddaughter how to sew and make food in the kitchen.
Kind of annoying right? Children are basically seeing that men do manual labor on cars and women stay in the kitchen. It just caught my eye and kind of bugged me.
Men can make food too. Well, I can and I enjoy it.
I don't really know if this is a way of knowing or not, but I get emotional about these kinds of things. It bugs me...
Why does media have to embrace these stereotypes (and I shouldn't forget that women can't be beautiful if they aren't a size 00, have blue eyes, and blonde hair.)
Yeah, kinda bugs me.
P.S. On the same subject, it must work because advertising companies still use these tactics.
Depending on the scenario, some things are more adaptable to be translated to another gender. We could perhaps picture the grandpa teaching how to cook, but we would laugh at grandma working on a car engine. Why we would laugh at this juxtaposition is simply ingrained in our culture, but it is fairly factual that few current older women (Baby Boomers) did manual labor like that in their time.
ReplyDeleteMedia embraces stereotypes either (a) completely ignorantly through the "smog of racism/sexism/other prejudice" or (b) consciously with the hopes that their audience will not notice or care. Advertisers often think that white people are the "default" for example, and that using minorities as spokespeople sends some sort of message.
Everything aspect of media can be criticized for it gender implications, however we have to analyze whether it is the main message that is being portayed or a sub-message being taught
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