Media and gender

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Gender (feminine and masculine) is a notion that separates biological realities from sexual identity. According to gender studies, sexual identity is no bound neither determined by biological aspects, but it rather depends on social and cultural construction^[1]. Among social sciences, the theory of constructivism conceived by Pierre Piaget in 1964, shows that individuals can build their own reality, norms and values by themselves. Natural cognitive capabilities enable individuals to understand and apprehend realities around them^[2]. This process is the result of an accumulation of signs, messages and symbols, which surround us. Thus, through the society, individuals shape their identity.

Media plays a significant part in society and that is why it is considered as an important factor in the construction of gender identity. In an era of globalization, people rely more and more on communication in their dayli life and as a consequence, they put a relative trust in the information received^[3]. Widely critized by feminists for the promotion of stereotypes, mass media influence our perception of gender and personal identity^[4].

Different from woman and man, genders are related to an identity rather than biological characteristics. For instance, Robert Stroller analyzes transsexuality, as the fact of refusing to recognize one's identity given at birth and decide to assimilate to another gender^[5]. Consequently, we must discern sexual biology from sexual identity. It involves the separation of woman from femininity and man from masculinity.

According to the International Encyclopaedia of communication, femininity refers to “appearance, behaviour, and practices conventionally attributed to women”^[6]. Sensitiveness, charm and seduction are cases in point. Femininity also embroiled everything, which is pertaining to a woman or a girl – feminine beauty or feminine dress^[7]. A man with a feminine walk will be described as effeminate or womanish. The last example shows that the biological sex is not a unique and sufficient condition to become a man or a woman.

John Money, medical psychologist, is the first person to raise the question of gender in the 1955. He used the expression “gender roles”^[8]. Quickly after, in the 1970’s, feminists of the Western countries blamed the imbrication between gender’s representations and social relations between man and woman. Indeed, feminists fight for being independent from their biological identity and choose their personal identity^[9]. Thus, Simone De Beauvoir wrote the famous quote “We were not born woman, we become woman” in her book “The second sex” published in 1949, where she analyses the discrimination between men and women^[10].

Peter Berger and Thomas Luckman, from the constructivism branch of social science, wrote in 1966 about the social construction of reality. They explain that, since we are growing up within a socio-cultural environment, it is impossible for a human being to develop in isolation^[11]. This construction is based on messages that create ideas. A message is not only determined by its content but also by the medium, which convey the message. Marshall McLuhan developed this theory in his book “Understanding Media: The extensions of man” published in 1967, in which he says “the medium is the message”^[12]. McLuhan explains that a channel of communication is as much importance as the content. Indeed, the channel of communication (the medium) influences on the message itself and how the message is perceived^[13].

Not all media have the same impacts. For instance, affirming that women must be cleaning the house would a different message if a teacher teach it in a school or if a humourist use it for a skit. Considering that different media impacts different people in various ways, then media is a major factor of the gender’s identity construction. Indeed, in 1978 Gaye Tuchman denounced «the symbolic annihilation ». She blamed media for imposing a negative vision of active women and make an apologia of housewives^[14].

Betty Friedan, American feminist and writer of the XXth century, analysed American women revues (Ladies Home Journal, McCall’s, Good House Keeping and Woman’s Home)in her book "The feminine mystique" published in 1963, and identified trends on women representations^[15]. From a modern conception of a blooming woman who finds her own way, to a proud housewife, the rhetoric used in magazines has a corollary in social relations between sexes.

According to Teresa de Lauretis, in her book "Théorie queer et culture populaire. De Foucault à Cronenberg", the representation of gender is its construction^[16]. Indeed, as Pierre Bourdieu underscores, chronological evolutions do not enable people to think differently because massive communication diffuses simultaneously the same information. Thus, mass media give to people an impression of diversity – due to various channels – but for Pierre Bourdieu, this is an illusion lost in a bigger generality, which dominates.

Mass media provides a dual picture of sex. Stereotypes are recurrent in every main media (television, radio, magazines, newspaper). In its final report on the assimilation of sexists’ stereotypes by youths, the French government describes three types of clichés. Firstly, the report points out the systematic behaviour dedicated to women and to men. In cartoons for instance, women are usually fond of shopping and always look at themselves in the mirror. Cartoons display an irresistible and inaccessible representation of femininity, especially for young girls. Almost like small adults with big muscles and generous breast, characters already determine gender at a very early age. The American cartoon “Simpson” is a case in point, but also the Japanese one “Dragon BallZ”, or also a Franco-Canadian cartoon “Totally Spies”. Secondly, the report stresses the way men and women are qualified. In TV shows for instance, even though equality of sex is more and more integrated, they notice that boss is usually a man^[17]. Furthermore, secondary characters often have discriminated status. Finally, the report observes that the shooting technic reflects a biased vision of gender due to redundant camera shots: emotiveness, parents’ parts, seduction… Woman is fetishized in mass media. Her body is highlighted, her face, her silhouette, her thinness, her breast and her legs too. There is a clear purpose to emphasize on her sexuality and attractivness. On the contrary, men have different representations in video programs. The only commune characteristic the report has noted is the musculature.

In radio and advertisement, women are targeted to cosmetics and housekeeping. They receive a vocabulary evoking beauty and are usually judged on physical criteria like the age for instance. Conversely, men are more targeted to scientific topics. Adjectives used for men are usually turned to foolishness and humour^[18].

Stereotypes influence the way we perceive femininity and masculinity. On the one hand, the young girl, tender and sexy, helping her mum in the kitchen; on the other hand, the cute boy playing in the garden with his dad. Those references are appreciated and valued by teenagers during the construction of their sexual identity^[19].

The magazine, Psychology Today, made a survey and observed that “Of 3,452 women who responded to this survey, 23% indicated that movie or television celebrities influenced their body image when they were young, and 22% endorsed the influence of fashion magazine models”^[20].

As Malgorzata Wolska wrote in her article “Gender stereotypes in mass media” in 2011, media create messages that create opinion. Those stereotypes are very much used in mass media because universality and mainstream are seen as a way to reach the larger audience by creating a possible associations with the social life^[21]. And since “What does not exist in the media does not exist in the public mind” according to Castells Manuel^[22], stereotypes used by media become real through people’s construction of reality. Indeed, in the article “The Self Fulfilling Prophecy Of The Gender Education Gap”, the author underlines that media create ideas in people’s mind and because of that the message become reality like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Because we see, listen and watch gender stereotypes, we know them and unconsciously we reproduce them in real life^[23].

A survey conducted by Dr. Smith shows that only 7% of women are directors, 13% are writers and 20% are producers in films^[24]. However,an increasing number of women work in media field as journalist or director. Therefore, they deal with topic tightly related to women needs and tend to provide a positive role for women^[25]. No longer only consumers of media but also contributors of media, they get more involved in decision-making and agenda of activities. This empowerment of women gives them abilities to promot balance in gender representations and avoid stereotypes^[26].

Furthermore,Virginie Julliard and Nelly Quemener remark that even though the dominante conception in media is heterosexuality and construction of femininity and masculinity, diverse versions are used in media which can also be source of identification by the audience^[27].

Considering a media, to be any channels which convey information, Arjen Mulder wrote in his book "Understanding media theory", that "media are means of reaching others"^[28]. As a result, he notes that songs of birds are media and thus the entire universe is a combinantion of media. Veil and headscarf are also seen as media. For instance, to wear a headscarf on the beach in order to covert the head from the sun does not communicate the same message as wearing a headscarf in the office for decency matter. This medium has an important impact on gender identity in France.

Joan Wallach Scott, in her book “The politics of the veil” published in 2007, tries to find a meaning of the French authority’s reaction against the veil. In her interpretation of the topic, we can understand how media builds up gender’s identity. Veil and headscarf are media of religious values and cultural heritage. By wearing it, women accept to hide their body in order to protect it from sexual temptation. Therefore, they fully difference themselves from men and associate their feminine identity to virginity. In a nutshell, veil is a medium carrying the message that biological characteristics cannot be separated from sexual identity. However, the fact that Muslim women wear the veil or headscarf among the French modern secular nation, the medium give a symbol message of women oppression by men and traditions^[29].

According to Lydia Guirous, in her recent article « Femen, best enemies of feminism” published in the Figaro newspaper, the Femen feminist group who claims freedom for women, turns to be seen as sexual objects. They embody a sexual identity of submit women who uses their body in order to be heard and obtain equality of sexes. There is a clear paradox between the information (to free women) and the media (using body displayer)^[30]. The message that the media convey is eventually not the initial information. This raiseS the question of Joan Scott when she says that France claim equality of sexes in a society of seduction – symbol of submission.

On the contrary, Bruno Perreau, professor at the MIT and researcher in Cambridge and Harvard Universities, thinks that media cannot influence gender. Indeed, the gender theory does make sense only for people who think that sex and sexuality can be determined by a speech. He assumes that talking about homosexuality does not make anybody becoming a homosexual. Therefore, the concept of gender should be taught at school because media does not influence on our sexual identity^[31].

Gender representation in video games

Portrayal of women in comics

Femininity in advertising

Exploitation of women in mass media