Gender Stereotypes in Films Essay

Erwin Goffman (1959) in â€Å"The Presentation of Self,† asserts that â€Å"when an individual plays a part he implicitly requests his observers to take seriously the impression that is fostered before him. † That is, individuals tend to behave according to the accepted norms and behaviors of the culture or society they are a part of, and in turn reinforce and reproduce these set of norms and behavior by acting according to them. Accordingly, each individual actually â€Å"believe that the character he or she sees in him/herself or in another person actually posses the attributes that he or she appears to posses† (Goffman 1959) which is how individual and collective identities are formed. Likewise, symbolic interactionism, espoused by Herbert Blumer(1969), asserts that â€Å"human beings act toward things on the basis of the meanings they ascribe to those things,† wherein â€Å"the meaning of such things is derived from, or arises out of, the social interaction that one has with others and the society. † Thus, society is able to create, enforce, and reinforce gender segregation through the construction of a set of standards that define what femininity or masculinity is within a particular culture which is propagated and learned through social interaction of individuals. Unfortunately, the norms and codes for accepted behavior are mediated upon not only by the individual and the society he or she is a part of, but also by issues of power and control over the instruments of cultural production and reproduction such as the mass media. The mass media as a powerful vehicle of prevailing attitudes and norms therefore plays a tremendous role not only in the propagation of value systems but also in the creation and maintenance of oppressive and disempowering standards. An examination of gender stereotyping in the mass media, particularly in film, would reveal that the media perpetuates and continues to reinforce sexist beliefs on men and women’s experiences of romantic love and sexual desire. This is shown in the portrayal of women in music videos, where the identities of women are portrayed either as damsels in distress or sex kittens—in both ways pining and waiting for the male’s sexual desire. Some songs even carry outright masochistic tendencies, such as Shaggy’s â€Å"Hey, Sexy Lady† video which portray women as deserving of, or even asking for, undue sexual attention or violence from the male by objectifying their bodies for men’s sexual purposes. Even in songs that purportedly carry empowering messages for women, the female is still rendered subject to the loneliness and despair of looking for Mr. Right despite the illusion of giving the character the freedom to choose her partner, as illustrated in Leann Rime’s video â€Å"Something’s Gotta Give† or â€Å"Can’t Fight the Moonlight. † In the latter video, women’s hapiness is shown to be largely dependent not on herself but on the attention of the male population. On the other hand, men continue to be depicted in the media as the stronger sex, often shown as the virile and aggressive sexual animal, the predator on the prowl for his prey in contrast to the more subdued dating expectations of women. This is shown in Shaggy’s video, â€Å"It Wasn’t Me† which show graphic sexual scenes of the male character cheating on his girlfriend, which insinuates that infidelity is alright for men if they don’t get caught and perpetuates the notion that men are made macho by their promiscuity. Thus, it comes without surprise that despite the rise of feminist and gender theory, gender stereotyping remains pervasive as ever. This is due in part to the fact that stereotypical gender roles have become deeply ingrained within and to a large extent, have been established as a norm, in today’s modern culture and in part to the continuing enforcement and reinforcement of these stereotypes by the mass media, which clearly validate Goffman’s theory on identity formation as well as Blumer’s theory of how individuals only interpret things and actions from the perpective of the culture they are in . As Goffman observes, individuals are shaped not only by the impressions they create for others but also by the impressions and meanings that others create and at the same time prescribe for them. Through the images of women portrayed by the media, young girls are led to believe that they should learn to present themselves in exactly the same way as the socially contructed image of women: beautifully made-up, submissive, and often desperate for the attention of men. On the other hand, the media also mirrors and at the same time prescribes its ideas and concepts of what should constitute maleness: dominance, power, virility, and aggressive sexual desire . Music Video Links: Rimes, Leann. â€Å"Can’t Fight the Moonlight. † http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=YO_7XLdtaI8 Rimes, Leann. â€Å"Something’s Gotta Give. † http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=_tgf7MpQ0c4 Shaggy. â€Å"It Wasn’t Me. † http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=cQ4axo9rmJY Shaggy. â€Å"Sexy Lady. † http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=PG2h0NgJN9s&feature=related