1.

Sex Role Stereotyping

Roles are sets of norms that define how people in a given social position ought to behave. For
example, people who have a particular occupation are subjected to a set of expectations
concerning the work performed and the style in which it is accomplished. For example, the male
sex hormone testosterone is believed to be the reason why males are considered more aggressive
than females. However differences appear to be based on sex roles that are learned by every
individual. In other words, people are born male or female but are taught how to be masculine or
feminine. Women in some community are stereotyped to be housewives and as such should not
engage in any economically productive activity. Some men who may marry working ladies
demand their wives to quit their jobs and sit at home. The workplace is not the primary area of
women; career and professional advancement is deemed unimportant for women.

2 Sex Trait Stereotyping

Gender roles refer to the set of social and behavior that are considered to be socially appropriate
for individuals of a specific sex in the context of a specific culture, which differ widely between
cultures and over time. There are differences of opinion as to whether observed gender
differences in behavior and personality characteristics are, at least in part, due to cultural or
social factors, and therefore, the product of socialization experiences, or to what extent gender
differences are due to biological and physiological differences.

Sex stereotypes in television

The majority of gender related studies focused their attention on women. women are portrayed
on television as passive, being dominated by men, governed by emotion, overly emotional or
dependant. Women are also depicting as less intelligent than men and generally weak. The roles
which women are assigned tend to be marital and family oriented. In addition, women are rarely
shown to be able to successfully combine marriage and employment. Women are typically
younger than men on television and usually disappear between the ages of 35 and 50.In most
advertisements women advertise soaps, food products

Soap Operas

In Kenya Soap operas are also aired during prime time which draws in a large audience of
mainly women. Soap operas have the continuing story aspect that makes viewers want to watch
the next day just to see what will happen next, or how an issue is resolved. Will they fall in love?
Example Road to destiny on citizen television its all about personal relationships,
sexual dramas, emotional and moral conflicts.

Portrayal of women in advertisement

Everywhere we turn advertising is telling people women especially, what it means to be

desirable. Many of these messages share a common theme which is women must be beautiful.
Women have always been measured against cultural ideals of beauty, but advertising often uses
sexism to make images of ideal beauty more prevalent and increasingly unattainable. Example
Fair and Lovely is the world's first safe skin cream, trusted and used by millions worldwide. It
makes ladies more beautiful hence attracting more men.
Sexist language
Sexist language is language that expresses bias in favor of one sex and thus treats the other sex in
a discriminatory manner. In most cases the bias is in favor of men and against women. The
existence of sexist language is due to sexism in society. As a social phenomenon, language is
closely related to social attitudes. In the past, women are supposed to stay at home, remaining
powerless and generally subordinate to man, whereas men are considered as the center both in
the family and society. In a word, for a long time women have been looked on as the weaker sex
in society. Even in English speaking countries, which hold the claim that everyone is created
equal, discrimination against women exists.
In society, men are considered the norm for the human species. Their characteristics, thoughts,
beliefs and actions are viewed as fully representing those of all humans, male and female. This
practice can make women invisible in language or altogether excludes them. It can also lead to
their portrayal as deviations from the male human norm.

Gender differences in language use

For men, the world is a competitive place in which conversation and speech are used to build
status, whereas for women the world is a network of connections, and that they use language to
seek and offer support. Women seek comfort and sympathy for their problems, while men will
seek a solution to the problem.
1. Dominance approach
Women have a low social status and position therefore, the employment of standard language use
aims to raise their self-esteem.

2. Difference approach
Girls are more physically and neurologically advanced at birth. Boys have more mature muscular
development but are more vulnerable to disease and hereditary anomalies. Girls excel early in
verbal skills, but boys excel in visual. Boys superior mathematic abilities, however, reflect only
a better grasp of geometry, which depends on visual spatial abilities. Boys are more aggressive,
and girls more nurturing. Boys have more reading, speech, and emotional problems than girls.

Children develop gender typed patterns of behavior and preferences as early as age 15 to 36
months. Girls tend to conform less strictly to gender role stereotypes than boys do, possibly
because there is greater pressure from parents and teachers for boys to adhere to the masculine
role. Girls may also imitate the male role because it has greater status and privilege in our
culture. Although some boys and girls receive support for cross gender behavior, most are
encouraged to behave according to traditional stereotypes.

Biological factors that are thought to shape gender differences include hormones and
lateralization of brain function. Hormones may organize a biological predisposition to be
masculine or feminine during the prenatal period. Increase in hormones during puberty may
activate that predisposition. In addition, social experiences may alter the levels of hormones,
such as testosterone.

Gender differences in the organization of the brain may be reflected in the greater lateralization
of brain functioning in males, which may help explain male success at spatial and math skills. It
may also explain female tendencies to be more flexible than males and to withstand injury to the
brain more effectively.

Women and politics

Media coverage also exploits womens families, criticizing if they will be able to undertake the
role of a politician and still be a good mother and raise a family. In comparison male candidates
are rarely scrutinized for being fathers or questioned if they can balance politics and family.

Political culture pushes women away from the real politics, where important decisions are made
behind closed doors a place women are not permitted. This political culture makes it difficult for
women to get involved. Political practices like this and the negative, stereotypical messages of
the media are creating barriers for female politicians to get to the top. Also, most of the
production of media is in the control of men. This is yet another barrier that makes it difficult for
female politicians to receive equal treatment compared to male politicians. Example Martha
karua a candidate in the 2013 election race faced different stereotypes, but the campaign
exhibited the prejudices that are entrenched in our media today.

Politicians are the most powerful and influential people in the world. Until female politicians
receive respect and equality from the media, women in other professions and other media
coverage of women will continue to be negative and discriminatory. Women have made great
strides, but there are still improvements to be made. Young women should not be discouraged
from participating in local governments and politics. Also, to change the manner of the media,
women need to be more in control of their representation. This means more women in leadership
positions of newspapers, news shows, and magazine editors. There are still battles for female
politicians, but I am positive for the future. I do believe in my life time, there will be a female
president.

Women and Sports

The media shapes the public's perceptions of the accomplishments of women playing sports and
whether women in general can be strong, confident and highly skilled. The media also shapes the
dreams and aspirations of girls. Boys grow up watching television, bombarded by heroic and
confident images of themselves playing sports and being revered for their
accomplishments. They know they are expected to play sports and are encouraged to do so by
everyone around them. Girls do not receive these messages.
Television carriage is also a critical ingredient for the success of professional women's sports and
competitive professional sport salaries and purses. If women's pro sports cannot tap into big
advertising athlete salaries and purses will continue to be depressed and the financial success of
women's pro leagues and tours will be more difficult to achieve. Currently, television coverage of
women's sports is inconsistent at best and nonexistent most of the time. While the exposure of
female athletes improves during the Olympic Games and World Cup soccer where they
demonstrate ratings successes, these are only quadrennial occurrences.

Girls see a double standard in covering women's sports. When male athletes receive media
attention, such coverage is primarily focused on their skilled performance. When female athletes
receive media attention, the media is much more likely to focus on their physical attractiveness
or non-sport-related activities.
Effects of media messages on women

Many women, the media has a profound effect on how they view their bodies from a personal
perspective. From the mass marketing of advertisements that depict thin women, to how
behaviors of females should be, there is clearly a trademark being developed by the media on
how women should look and feel. This is contributing to an extreme, as well as a versatile image
on the characteristics of women today.

The women that are portrayed in these advertisements are not actually vindictive of women.
Even though its true that there are positive influences as well as negative ones, the fact is,
the media is playing a tremendous role in how any female perceives her own identity. Whether
the media realizes it or not, they hold the power to build a woman up or to break her down, in
this respect it can lead to a lot of negativity. Nevertheless, for a female who feels in control of
herself, and is proud of her own body image, the media simply exemplifies these feelings for her.
Even so, it needs to be kept in the forefront of the mind that for some women, these ideals set up
by the media are destroying womens natural ability to cope with how they feel about
themselves.

Women are viewed constantly in society. They are far more closely scrutinized than their male
counterparts are. Because of this, there is more of an emphasis on how they are generally
evaluated and sexualized .The media has a role to fill in this area as well. it is believed that
women have problems sexually due to how they have begun to feel about their bodies because of
the medias projection of images into their minds and lives. Women have a great fear that if their
bodies arent up to par to the medias projections of how they should be, then their partners are
not going to be sexually attracted to them. This is not necessarily true as the idea of love is more
powerful than an image on the television screen or in a magazine. Nevertheless, it is hard for
many women to move past this philosophy of how they should look and it severely impacts how
they carry out an intimate relationship in their personal life.
NAME: BETTY MUTUA
REG NO.COM-1-3774-3/2015
UNIT TITLE: ETHNICITY, GENDER AND MEDIA
UNIT CODE: BACJ 353
LEC NAME: MISHAEL MOSSES