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In what way does media contribute to gender roles? BY Shaw In what way does media contribute to gender roles/ gender stereotypes? Gender stereotypes are created because of mainly two reasons, first reason is to rapidly establish a recognition towards a diverse and general group of people, which in this case are the two genders. Second reason is to portray a suitable image for the function of society and subconsciously affect people’s behaviors. From these two reasons, media uses different methods to use gender stereotypes as a way to reach
In China, gender stereotypes greatly changed for the last few years when its target. The economy and interaction with foreign countries especially western countries, South Korea and Japan are rapidly developing. At first, out of the need of woman participating in the revolution and later the construction of China, women are portrayed as equally useful as men. In this time period, media is mainly controlled by government, so it always deliberately shaped men as workers who are strong, diligent ND masculine, and women as good wife who support family and bear babies.
These images helped government to maximize need for productivity. Later, after 1979 reform and opening-up, more commercial advertisement and foreign film works are introduced to China. In those commercials, women were more feminine, and aware of outfit whereas men were more gentle and clever. During these two time periods, people passively accepted gender stereotypes presented in those media, but after 2000, after communication throughout the country and emphasis on education, most f the public realized that people are able to have multiple personalities, and it should be determined by themselves.
Therefore, from 2000 till now, though gender stereotypes still exist, but there have been variety within a gender stereotype, and people are more willing to find the kind that suits them. As a Chinese student, I only have limited knowledge towards the issue about how media affect the formation of gender roles. Personally, I think the influence of media is much more than that in China. From a lot of commercials and movies I saw, it mess that gender stereotypes represented in Western media portrays lives that most of the targeted audience pursue, especially for teenagers.
Men should be masculine, handsome, humorous and independent. Women are mostly creative, smart, independent and pretty. Media created gender stereotypes both caters to male and female audiences. We can say that, gender stereotypes come out of publics portrait of the perfect representative in each gender, which are then strengthened in media and affect future generations that watch them.