Everyone is innocent and pure at birth
but with time, as one grows, they gradually become aware and skilled in accordance
to the culture they are born in. In the midst of this culture, individuals are
then assigned to their roles as defined by their way of life.These roles are
passed on from generation to generation mainly through the media which tries to
enforce and drive towards these roles either actively or passively as suggested
by the magic bullet theory and the two step flow theory. The current representation
of gender in the media is evidence of this drive towards the cultural prescribed
roles which highly defines and differentiates between a male and a female.
The
media enforces the idea that women are neither strong nor masculine but these
are qualities possessed by the males. Women are expected to own soft and tender
bodies with no visible scars or scratches as portrayed in the media.One of the Sun Daily reporters
even said “real women are not that fast that strong that masculine” while the journal
of media arts culture defined her as hermaphrodite, a disorder in her sex development.
Clearly with this the media condemns the cross pollination of body characteristics
in gender but rather support those
initially prescribed by our cultures. But who are the media to tell us how we
should look like what is a woman and what is a man? Most of all do we passively
agree with what the media tells us without even putting our own thinking
capacities. This is a suggestion that while the males go out to look for money
to provide the family with their needs and conquer their sweat on a tot of
whiskey,the females stay at home to clean cook as suggested by the McCain advert
where the male complains of hunger to the woman instead of making for himself
something to eat. But really has the media ever heard of female headed families
with a study carried out by T. Machiikaire showing that 99.9% of child headed
families are headed by the females ranging from as young as eight years.
M [2005] even argues that
the body is the basis of identity of a woman and a man.This can even be noted
from the potrayal of Caster Semenya 
Shifting
to the video games, which seems to to be also popular in females, women are
presented as significantly helpless and sexually provocative. In the game Tomb
Raider the females are sexualised to appeal to the male audience with the way
they are scantly dressed and their over done features such as big breasts and hips
and extremely small waists. Quite frankly in real life you can never find such a
woman those are just exaggerations. The director of the video game, Dead or Alive
5, Yohei Shimbori even recalls that some of the male players were asking for
bigger breast for the women.What l lament about is the way women are so relaxed
about this. Culture demands that women do the indoor chores such as washing and
cleaning.
A study revealed that 75% of all advertisement on television who had
female in the cast were products to be used in the bathroom or kitchen. An
illustration is the adverts of the washing powders such as Maq, and Sunlight who have their main protagonist being a female while adverts to do with liquor
and providing for the family such as insurance policies and Johnnie Walker whiskey
have a male protagonist. as if they agree to this near to insults presentations.
Are you telling me that you approve what you see, are you happy and is it really
a true reflection of what you women are? You cry about equal rights yet you do
nothing about the way society and the media degrade you. As l finish this piece
my heart is afull of anger not at the media not towards society neither the
men but at you women.You say you are the condemned in the media but are you really the condemned or you are the creators of the injustice of women in the
media. Food for thought till next time arios amigos.
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