Gender Stereotypes and the Media

1: Gendered products 2: The problem with Gender Stereotypes in the media 3: What does it mean to objectify someone? and objectification theory 4: Buffers against the onslaught

What is a gendered product?

a product with a masculine and feminine version, when it doesn’t need to

Market Segmentation

Divide a population up into smaller groups to sell us products and services

• also requires convincing individuals that they belong to a group & convincing us that the group has similar needs, desires, likes

Gender Segmentation

Divide the groups by gender

• requires us to believe that men and women are very different

• promotes/maintains gender stereotypes to sell us products

problems with pointlessly gendered products

1. Gendered products reinforce the idea that men and women are very different (gender differences hypothesis)

2. gendered products reinforce stereotypes. They uphold the narrow media versions of how men and women are supposed to be

3. Gender pricing: women and men are charged different amount for similar products and services. Gendered products frequently end up costing women more money

4. ‘Pink Tax’ — women pay 43% more than men

Gender stereotypes

• beliefs and attitudes about what activities/behaviours are appropriate for men (masculinity) or women (femininity)

• in the media: simplified, recognizable images of the dominant form of masculinity and femininity are constantly reinforced

• explore today: media reinforces the Gender Differences Hypothesis

Main trends in Contemporary Media (gender stereotypes)

Movies

Men: more likely to be involved in violence (themes: violences, inspires fear, risk taking)

Women: twice as likely to be sexualized

Music Videos

Men: more likely presented as aggressive (displayed force, aggressive gestures)

Women: more likely to be presented as s-x objects & fragile

Video Games

Men: hypermasculine (exaggerated muscularity + behaviors (toughness, stoicism, aggressiveness))

Women: sexualized (compared to men, more likely to be partially nuse, unrealistic body image, revealing clothing)

The Gender Differences Hypothesis marketed to children

• in 1975 sears catalogues, less then 2% of children’s toys were marketed as gendered, but by 1995 gendered toys made up roughly half of the offerings

Portrayal of Men in magazine ads

• men on average are still portrayed as dominant to women in magazine ads, but this has decreased over time

• of people portrayed in a ‘sexually explicit/suggestive pose’, 11.6% were males; however the occurrence of men being displayed in suggestive positions shows an increasing trend over time

Portrayal of Women in magazine ads

• magazine ads show an increasing trend over time of more public role portrayals of women but…

• an increasing trend over time of females portrayed in ritualized subordinate poses

Y/N: Does repeated exposure to such narrow imagery affect us?

Yes

Mass media & the Curvaceously Thin Ideal

• two conflicting images merge, an almost unhealthily thin and bony frame, combined with a substantial bust

STUDY

• asked women to pick what they think their body type is and then what their ideal body type is, and then asked them what TV shows they watched

RESULTS

• female students who watched shows with ‘curvaceously thin’ female characters were more likely to choose an ‘ideal’ for themselves that has a smaller waist, smaller hips, and larger bust vs students who watched other shows

• this was the first study to empirically link the ‘curvaceously thin’ ideal to media exposure

Cultivation Theory

• the mass media, and television in particular, present similar systems of stories

• television exposure ‘cultivates’ beliefs, attitudes, and ideals about the real world that match the media-depicted world

• the primary proposition of cultivation theory states that the more time people send ‘living’ in the television world, the more likely they are to believe reality portrayed on television

What is going on?

1. Cultivation Theory

• being more immersed in media/TV you begin to adopt a similar outlook/hold the beliefs of the media you consume

2. Mainstreaming

• opposing groups come to hold similar beliefs from similar TV exposure

Mainstreaming

The typical pattern on worldview change that cultivation, as a process takes

• occurs when groups who are initially divergent in their worldviews come to hold similar views with greater television exposure. Their views converge to reflect the ‘reality’ that is most commonly presented on television

What does it mean to objectify someone? (objectification)

• to turn someone into a thing, an object, a body part; they are not viewed as a whole person

• both women and men can be objectified

What is objectification theory?

• a framework for understanding the negative effects of objectifying men’s and women’s bodies in our society

• it predicts the objectification of others only has negative consequences

• one negative consequence: self objectification

Self-Objectification

• objectification of others influences us to adopt a peculiar view of self — to treat ourselves as objects to be looked at and evaluated

• individual adopts an observer’s perspective on their physical selves

• this is a ‘conscious or unconscious strategy mediated by repeated exposure to an array of subtle (and not subtle) external pressures to be an look a certain way

• self-objectification leads to habitual monitoring of the body and negative health outcomes

Negative Consequences of Self-Objectification in women

in women, linked to negative health outcomes, such as

• shameful feelings out the body

• eating disorders

• depression

• perfectionism: a maladaptive pattern of behaviors that involved inappropriate levels of expectations and a constant lack of satisfaction

Evolution of Male body images

up to mid 1990’s: media images of men foused on face not body; or showed men in action shots or sports

Mid 1990’s onwards:

• male body moves to center stage

• trend over time of males increasingly positioned in suggestive ways in magazine ads

“Mens grooming products” market

• one of the fastest growing new markets

• “there has been a pivotal shift in male pampering culture… based on current trends, it is only a matter of time before a full portfolio of men’s makeup becomes part of daily ablutions, too”

• a key occurrence happened in 2013, when for the first time, men spent more cash on male-specific toiletries than on shaving products. More and more men, it seems, are putting higher stock in looking good”

The challenge (mens grooming)

• it is not consumer driven, it is a top-down industry push

• hard to get men to buy products as self care has been gendered feminine

marketing strategies companies use to convince men to buy their producs:

• repackaging products as ‘masculine’

• mens sections in cosmetic department

• use sports sponsorships as a marketing vehicle

To sum up: What is going on?

In a nutshell: We are conditioned to think that our self-worth comes from our appearance (body-as-self), + we are conditioned to compare ourselves to unrealistic/unattainable images & gender stereotypes (an outcome can be self-objectification).

• take home point: manufactured insecurity is a maladaptive process that has negative outcomes, such as self-objectification > which has negative health outcomes, such as perfectionism

Consequences of self-objectification for men

exposure to media images of ‘ideal’ body associated with:

• negative body satisfaction

• negative self esteem

• increased likelihood of experiencing negative psychological outcomes (depression) & negative behavioral outcomes (including bulimia, excessive exercising)

• perfectionism & self-objectification are also positively correlated in men

Perfectionism is on the rise

• a study of canadian, british, and american students found that today’s college graduates feel greater pressure to be perfect than previous generations

social prescribed perfectionism (external pressure): increased by 33%

other-oriented (pressure we put on others): increased 16%

self-oriented (pressure we put on ourselves): increased 10%

Making us feel bad about ourselves is good for business

• intense pressure to look and be a certain type of man or women

• Illusionist: how corporations are getting richer by making us feel insecure about the way we look

• our insecurities/creating insecurities is good for business = ‘manufactured insecurity’

Misery-is-not-miserly effect

the tendency of sadness to carry from past situations to influence economic decisions

• sadness increased the amount of money that decision makers give up to acquire a commodity

• ther instance, sad condition participants (in experiment) were more likely to opt for an immediate $50 amazon gift card vs waiting 3 months for a $100 one

• author suggests sadness increases impatience/makes people more ‘present biased’

WHY:

• bcs sadness rises from a sense of LOSS, which triggers an implicit goal of ‘reward replacement’

Is there a way to buffer ourselves against this media onslaught?

Do we actually identify with these stereotypes of masculinity and femininity? Does the data support gender polarization?

1. gender similarities hypothesis

• males and females are similar on most, but not all, psychological variables

2. Evolutionary theory predicts few differences between men and women

• differences that occur are relative, not absolute

• compared to other species, both men and women have high levels of paternal investment in offspring, likely ‘smoothing’ out further differences that do occur

3. Gender Polarization doesn’t exist in all societies

• Vanatinai: small island in the south pacific, between papua new guinea and australia

• largely egalitarian (women and men equal) society

Gender Arrangements

• Division of Labour in subsistence tasks

  • largely overlapping: horticultural tasks shared, hard work valued

• division of labour in ceremonies

  • Largely overlapping: (1) Youth: both sexes participate in ceremonies (2) Adults: power/fame accessible to both sexes as ‘givers’ of prestige and ritual feasts (giagia)

• Vanatinai women and men are values for the same qualities. The most admired individuals of both sexes were described to me as strong, wise, and generous

  • there is no principle of male superiority or female weakness

  • island opportunities grant all adults, female and male, equal opportunities to manage their own lives, and influence others

T/F?: A less regid distinction between masculinity and femininity in our society would be BAD for advertisers and others in the media & other institutions who rely on gender steretypes

True