Gender inequality in media

1. Gender inequality in MEDIA
To
Mrs. RASMI GAUR
Humanities and Social Science Department
IIT Roorkee
VINAY KUMAR
Enrollno. 13115133 EE

2. Introduction-
Gender inequalityis alwaysan major issue faced in world. Now a days,
Media is one of the areasaffected by gender inequality. Media isthe major
source of informationfor the people. The media actsas a messenger to the
people and it is a powerful tool that cannever be ignored. Unfortunately,
inequalityinthisfield hasbeen creating a lot of fuzz ever since. in spiteof
media being tool that bringspeople together, it is one of the areasthat have
pushed gender discriminationtoanother level.
Gender inequality impactsonboth men and women, but women are the
one who gets affected most. it is comeout clear over timethat media lacks
female charactersand fewer number of female are role models. Proportion
of malecharacterstofemalecharactersarejust about 3:1. It is additionally
found that ladieshas depicted moreskin incomparisontotheir male
costars. Thiscan cause body imageproblemstoyoung girls. behind the
scenes during filming and recording processes, women arefound victimsof
nudity. Sincemen are dominatingthemedia industry, a lot of cases of
gender discriminationhavebeenreported.
Our cultureis obsessed with the people we see on televisionand watch in
the movies. media hasthe strongest influence on our culture. It tells us the
ways in which men should behave and how women should behave.
Through movies and music the media targetsnearlyeverybody. Our culture
is so used to gender inequalitymost of it goes unnoticed.
For example: In Advertisement ,theychangethesize and positioning to
makethe male seem more dominant.
Through advertisement womenaremadeto believe “ThinIs More
Attractive”. Eatingdisorderslikebulimia and anorexia aremorelikely to
affect women thanmen. (Bulimia isa psychiatricillness. It is an eating
disorder inwhich personcharacterized regularlybingeeating and also
triesto compensate for this behavior byover-exercising or vomiting).

3. Gender inequality in Television Commercials
Parentsclaim that theydo not introducetheir childrento choose a Gender
role. But Most of the television commercialsimpactgender inequalityon
youth mindsthrough advertisement. Weshould need to understand that
how they affect young girls and boys by viewing these commercialswhich
are madefor adult female and males.
In male commercials-
# we see a strong maleis drinking or dancing or running and we see a
female is sitting and smiling there.
#In bikeadvertisements- weregularly saw a male accomplishingsomething
which requirespower.
#In decisionmaking advertisements- maleisdemonstrated asa boss and
female is on the secondary part.
#when it comesto advertisement insports. There may be a muscular man
running a raceor playing the sport. Whilethe female athleteis shown with
a short skirt and showing her body. Media usuallyportrayed menmore
thanwomen.
Female Commercials-
#Washing machineadvertisement- femaleactsas a wifewho washescloths
for husband and kids.
#Food advertisement-femaleiscooking food for husband and kids and
sometimes it is also shown that a young female child is helping her mother.
Thisshowcase that maleis superior and female is dumb. young femaleand
male areinnocent, they areinnocent and they don’t understand what they
are watching ontelevision. they only understand that father isintelligent,
superior and mother is a fool or dumb.

4. These type of advertisement tellsus that-
#male is the one who makes decision.
#female work insidehome and maleworks outsidehome.
#boys will play with gun and girls play with dolls.
#females do soft work and males do strong work.
#male is the one who do daring jobs and females are supposed to be
homely.
#it is a duty of women to cook food.
#mens can roam barechest but female should wear full covered clothing.
#males canstay out throughout thenight and females should be in home
before 7 p m
Gender inequality in Magnzines-
In 1950swomen were showed in magazinesasa housewife, they showed
them in the kitchenand taking careof children. As thetimepassed , female
were presented in different light. After thefeminist movement women
being changed dramatically. Womenwere idependent and not only belong
to kitchenor home. They were a working lady who don’t necessarily need a
man. But ..now in the present days , womenare considered as objectsfor a
mansexual desires. Thereare manyWomens magazineswhotalk about
Sex or losing weight . such as “10 approachestosatisfyyour man” or “Get
sexy now”. These themes arethe present daystereotypes of women.
Despitethese ,there have been manymagazinesbased on women’s
empowerment asfar as 1800s. During the womens right were not all that
high Sothe development of well known womens strengthening magazine
strikewomen for more and have faith in themselves. Until 1950s,
objectificationofwomen didn’t emergein magazines. Thefirst published
issue of “Playboy” with nude photos of MarilynMonroe . the magazinehad

5. a great successbut it lead to downward spiralof objectifying women. It was
in print as well as in video.
Males protrayed high level of masculinityinmagzines. Maletargeted in
magzinesas a key theme in sports, fitness and health These guys show their
enormous etched bodiesand showing that they areextremeand voilent.
Thisvoilence canbe as in the form of sport, fighting or even as extreme
domestic voilence. Magazinesdisplaymenas a strongest person who
always wins.
Gender stereotyping in Music
In the 90smusicianslikeQueen Latifah, LaurynHill, MissyElliot, Jean
Grae ,Rah Digga, and, Da Bratt were labeled as icons. following them are
women. thereis Beyonce, Nicki Minaj ,Rhianna, LadyGaga, KatyPerry,
and numerousmore ladieswith predominant power but ” at what cost?”
.these women have been exploited their bodies. These women exploit their
sexuality, degradetheir bodiesand changethe mindsof young females.
In country music thereis less abuseof womenyet thisdoesn’t mean it
doesnt exist. Here, ladies arejudged by their appearance. ladies wear high
cut jeans and flanel shirts and they sing their problem in lives.
All of these symbolizes women as a inferior. They protrayed womenas a
weak ,over sensitive and they are paid less. They are judged on the basisof
their apperance.
In a survey -it is found that Out of thetop 500 films from 2010 to 2015
only 30.8% of speaking charactersarewomenand out of that 28.8% of
women have to wore sexually revealing clothes, and 26.2% of women gets
partiallynaked And 10.7% of women featured a balanced cast . roughly a
third of female speaking charactersareshown in sexually reavealing attire
or are partiallynaked. Averageratioof male to female actorsis2.25 : 1 .
Manytop actoressin hollywood complainsthat theyget paid less in
comparisionwith their malecostars. In oct 2015 , Jennifer Lawrence’s
Essay on Gender PayDisparityinHollywood Ignites SocialMedia Debate.

6. Solution to problems
#advertising commercialsneed to clear associatinggender roles to
children.
#there should be Equal TV scope for ladies and men. It canbe
accomplished bygiving morescope to ladiesand speakto ladies with same
measureof insightsof men and other data.
#increasing awareness insocietiesand generalIQ of people about how
Media portraysgender and giving false or negativeimageofwomen
perception.
#Avoiding stereotypesand educating peoplehow such actionscanharm
someones confidenceand self esteem.
#laws should be made to to anticipatesexism.
# attempttomaintaina strategic distancefrom your kids viewing these
thingson TV or analyze these.