Gender Stereotyped Portrayals in Media

Description

Page: 553-557

Ritika R. Vonguru and Madhavi Menon (Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, College of Psychology, Nova Southeastern University, College Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL)

The influence of antiquated gender stereotypes in the media has had tremendous impact on our society. This paper explores a plethora of reinforced negative and sexist archetypes that appear in the media and how these can perpetuate gender role expectations and predispose harmful stereotypes in young children. Specifically, this paper narrows down the media’s influence of specific behavior and qualities based on gender by recounting how Disney movies often show profound character development in men, while the heroines, often depicted as princesses, are shown repetitively with generic and unrelieved characteristics. The paper further explores the media’s influence of specific gender-based parental roles which reinforce harmful gender stereotypes by playing on a paradigm arrangement of men and women’s behavior that often belittle women. Additionally, this paper explores the media’s influence on gender-based career choices by typically portraying men in high impact business roles such as CEOs, doctors, lawyers etc., and continuing to relegate women to ‘supportive’ and hypersexualized roles as the love interest or merely as an extension of the primary male character.