Gender Stereotypes in Media

Mya Oyler

Throughout my life, I have been exposed to media, but as I have gotten older, the amount of
media and toxicity of it has drastically increased. In my personal experiences, mainstream media has
reinforced negative gender stereotypes.
In the Bobbie Harro’s ​The Cycle of Socialization,​ Cultural and Institutional Socialization is the
second stage. This is the messages we receive from school, sports teams, media, etc. Within these
institutions, cultural norms are reinforced which creates stereotypes. I’ve been exposed to a plethora of
stereotypes through media, but the ones that always stood out to me were gender stereotypes. Identifying
as a woman, female stereotypes such as being submissive to men and being a homemaker, have always
had an exponential effect on me, but in our society, there is also an incredibly unrealistic beauty standard
that is expected of all women. In reality, there are very few people that actually fit into this category, but
we still believe it to be the norm.
We are trained to believe that our worth lies in our appearances, so when we don’t meet the
impossible standard, we are under the impression that we are worthless. By doing this, we are not only
objectifying and dehumanizing women, but also discrediting their accomplishments. Our president is
guilty of this saying, “The look obviously matters... you wouldn’t have your job if you weren’t beautiful.”
This is incredibly degrading considering he directed this insensitive comment towards a female reporter.
Examples of this extreme dehumanization are everywhere in our media. This includes movies,
television, advertisements, and music. Being a lover of music, I constantly hear songs with degrading
messages regarding women. I particularly hear this in rap and hip-hop music. The lyrics include things
like talking about women's bodies in a demeaning manner and treating them like sex objects that are
purely for a man’s pleasure. It is outstanding that we let our society get away with severe dehumanization
of women. This only makes the cycle of socialization continue which further normalizes the oppressive
nature of our society.
From a very young age, I felt a pressure to confine to our toxic stereotypes. These ideas were only
reinforced when I started to be exposed to more media in the cultural and institutional socialization stage.
One of my first experiences with toxic media was not the shows and movies I watched, but rather the
advertisements in between them. There was an incredible amount of gender bias in these children’s
advertisements. I would see adds for “boy toys” and “girl toys”. The male-targeted ads would usually be
marketing toys like cars and toy weapons such as guns. These advertisements would always tend to be
more serious and portray the actors as very masculine characters. This gives into the stereotypes in toxic
masculinity. The female-targeted ads would always be for something like a doll or robotic animal. The
color scheme for these ads would always include bright, traditionally feminine colors such as pink and
purple. They portrayed the girls in the advertisements as hyper-feminine characters with nurturing
qualities which demonstrates the idea that women should be homemakers. These girls also are always
dressed very feminine wearing dresses including “feminine colors”.
After watching these ads, I was presented with the idea that I had to like dolls and other
traditionally feminine toys. I was exposed to toys such as Barbies, that met all traditional female
stereotypes such as having the ideal body, liking feminine colors, and having jobs that are more
traditionally feminine. Although the Barbie brand has made steps in the direction of change, my early
exposure to them did have an effect on me.
I felt like in order to be accepted in our twisted world, I had to look like Barbie and do the things
that she did. By exposing children to gender ideals when they are in their most critical stages of
development, we are okaying and normalizing them. We are teaching them that they must conform to
these stereotypes in order to fit into our society. In terms of the Cycle of Socialization, this discourages
people from wanting to alter our oppressive society by taking a direction for change.
As I have gotten older, I see gender ideals in the media every day, but one of the most impactful
places I see it is on social media. Although I do think that there are positive aspects of social media, I
generally see it as a popularity contest, and the most popular are the ones who fit into our societal beauty
standards. As much as I do try to defy the stereotypes, I do find myself falling into their vicious trap.
When I post pictures of myself on my Instagram, they are always cherry-picked from a wide array. I make
sure that I look the best in the one that I choose to post. When I post these pictures, I also tend to think
about what my peers/followers will think of it.
In the Cycle of Socialization, this would be the enforcements stage. In Bobbie Harro’s words,
“People who try to contradict the ‘norm’ pay a price for their independent thinking, and people who
conform (consciously or unconsciously) minimally receive the benefit of being left alone for not making
waves...” In terms of social media, this could translate to the number of likes and followers you get
depending on what you post and how you look in your posts. The consequence of contradicting this norm
is losing in social media’s twisted popularity contest. Because of this negative sanction, people tend to not
defy the norm which only results in reinforcements of stereotypes.
After watching the documentary Missrepresentation, I saw how our societal stereotypes can affect
women’s body image. A statistic showed that by the age of 13, over 50% of girls are unhappy with their
bodies, and by the age of 17, that number takes an alarming jump to over 70%. This is undoubtedly what
leads to roughly 65% of women struggling with eating disorders at some point in their life. One of the
main reasons this happens is because of the messages we receive from our society about our bodies. The
women that we see portrayed in movies, television, and advertisements often have the ideal body which
puts pressure on young girls to look like them.
One of the worst things that I see in the media is the over-sexualization of women. This not only
objectifies women, but it teaches men and young boys that women are sexual objects purely there for their
pleasure. I have particularly noticed this in NFL cheerleading. I have been fortunate enough to attend
multiple professional football games and I am always hyper-aware of the degrading cheerleaders. They
are always wearing very skimpy clothing and dancing in a provocative way. This not only reinforces the
over-sexualization of women, but also send men the message that it is okay to treat women as objects.
My mask represents gender stereotypes. There are symbols for both male and female stereotypes.
I chose to include the male stereotypes because I never felt like I perfectly embodied everything that girls
are “supposed to”. I definitely feel like there are aspects of my personality that could be considered more
traditionally masculine such as the way I dress, my sense of humor, and the activities I am interested in. I
do identify as a woman and I am proud of it but I don’t fit into the traditional ideal for women.
As a self-proclaimed feminist, I try to defy these stereotypes in order to make waves and make an
effort to end the cycle of oppression. In spite of this, I often feel discouraged by my activism and feel
pressure to merely let the cycle continue. This is where the tape over the mouth with the word “weak” on
it comes in. I often feel like I am silenced.
 After we begin to notice the results of socialization, we have two options; we can begin to take
action and move in the direction of change, or simply let the cycle continue and proceed to let our society
get away with its oppressive nature. In order to create change, we must realize the magnitude that our
actions have on young girls. Mainstream media needs a drastic makeover to break the female stereotypes.
 Works Cited

Adolescent growth. “Eating Disorder Statistics 2017.” ​Adolescent Growth​, Adolescent Growth, 8 Aug.
2017, adolescentgrowth.com/eating-disorder-statistics/.
Bahadur, Nina. “18 Real Things Donald Trump Has Actually Said About Women.” ​The Huffington Post​,
TheHuffingtonPost.com, 10 Oct. 2016,
www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/18-real-things-donald-trump-has-said-about-women_us_55d356a8
e4b07addcb442023.
“Eating Disorder Statistics • National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders.”
National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders​,
www.anad.org/education-and-awareness/about-eating-disorders/eating-disorders-statistics/.