Media Portrayal of Sexes Babies, When Born, Term Paper

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Media Portrayal of Sexes

Babies, when born, have no inherent knowledge about how girls and boys, men and women, are "supposed to act." They learn their cultural roles from the culture around them -- their adult and older-child role models, and more and more, through the media. As one writer quoted Blum, "Nothing in biology labels behaviors as right or wrong, normal or abnormal. Any stereotypes we impose on children -- and by extension, adults -- are purely cultural, not biological" (Abels, 2002). Depiction of males and females in popular media is in a constant change of flux, partly based on inaccurate stereotype but partly reflecting the very real diversity seen in both sexes.

Experts in the field believe that children begin to learn what gender role is expected of them early in childhood, and that these expectations are communicated to them both purposefully and in unintended lessons. Part of this influence is undoubtedly from the mass media. Even very young children may watch up to four hours a day of television (Abels, 2002), giving it many opportunities to contribute to how children come to perceive the two sexes.

One researcher looked at two television shows specifically aimed at children very young -- ages two through five. This researcher did see some changes in how the sexes are portrayed on both shows. Interestingly, she found that while the shows broadened presentations of acceptable behavior in boys, girls tended to remain stereotyped (Abels, 2002).

Throughout childhood many influences play on the developing child's opinion of how boys and girls, and men and women, should act, but historically, the path for equality of many types has been through sports.

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Jim Thorpe, a Native American, achieved real prominence as a football hero. Many young African-American men demonstrated equality in various sports arenas, and many would argue that these successes helped change public policy as well as individual negative opinions of that race and culture to something much more accepting. So it shouldn't be surprising that when the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team excelled at the Olympics, they garnered much attention, praise and commentary. Unfortunately, much of that descended into stereotypes.

Looking on the media coverage of these young athletes after it took, researchers saw unmistakable evidence of what they called the "babe" factor -- various kinds of sexualization of the athletes. Many of the people who did this thought they were reflecting feminist views as they did so (Shugart, 2003). While several of the team members were viewed as attractive as well as outstanding athletes, such as Mia Hamm, One player was described in terms often reserved for male athletes: "gutsy," "brave," "dominant, "driven by vengeance," relentless" and "reckless. One described her as "a lioness," and she was said to have "unsurpassed strength." (Shugart, 2003) What the researchers noted was that she seemingly could not be described in such terms and also seen in the more sexualized terms for other team members (ex: "attractive," something having nothing whatsoever to do with athletic skill). Her appearance, although she was obviously female, was described as "muscular." It seemed that even at the end of the 20th century, a woman could not be….....

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