Popular culture is important in forming the social and cultural attitudes. Gender and sex have been the bases of most movies and popular media in demonstrating the social perceptions of the respective genders or sex. Before the 1960s, women in arts and creative platforms were depicted as passive and sexual objects for male consumption and pleasure. The nude portraits used demonstrated that women nudity for the male to enjoy demonstrated the dominance of men and the submissiveness of the women. The world has since then changed with gender equality gaining much emphasis as advocated by different feminists over the years.
The film and other mainstream media have played a key role in enhancing gender equality by empowering women through making them as the major characters or empowering their roles from the housewives characters to professional career women (Eisend, 2010). The empowerment may seem enough but Betty Friedan argument, 'We need to see men and women as equal partners but it is hard to think of movies that do that?' Calls for determining whether the claims are justifiable or not. This argumentative essay concurs with Betty’s claim by using scholarly studies on the women in popular culture to prove that women empowerment strategies employed by the entertainment industry are still discriminating women. This study intends on using movies or TV shows, music videos, and mainstream news shows and advertisements to argue for or against Betty’s argument.
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Arguments For
Since the 1960s, gender equality has focused on empowering women. The rapid growth and development of the entertainment industry and its role to influence cultural beliefs and social norms have made it one of the most influential platforms for change. The roles of women as passive has changed with women taking center stage or main character roles in the films, but the roles played still depict women as inferior to men. This section uses gender stereotyping, and effects of media exposure to support Betty’s claims.
Gender Stereotyping and Roles
According to Polivy, & Herman (2004), individual identities are formed by the society. He argues that the influence of the popular culture in shaping the social norms directs the behaviors of people and shapes their identities. The entertainment industry through creating the different roles for the women and focusing on the roles that traditional society agree or conforms in continues to perpetuate the gender inequalities that dominated the society. The patronage society tends to depict women as sexual, weak, submissive, cooperative, sensitive to others, gentle, and nurturing. In most films and music videos, women’s sexual appeal is of great influence.
Nudity is propagated by the sexy women be it in high careers or the dances whereas men tend to enjoy the romantic and nudity of women. These depictions and the use of women as main characters in romantic films emphasizes the need for beauty in women and their need for approval from the opposite sex. The feminine smooth and sexy body of the women prove that sexual appeal is center of the character. It is difficult to separate the roles played by women from the sexual appeal. For instance, Claws TV series main characters are women who work in fashion but also engage in crime. The women are depicted as independent due to their high income. However, the women will even kill to get men’s attention. The sexuality demonstrated an obsession of the bad boys demonstrate that women are weak and use their sexual appeal to gain favors or empowerment.
The contradiction of events from being hardworking loses its significance in the intimacy and the obsession of appearance by the women (Eisend, 2010). The sexuality and need to attract women is the objectification of women by modern films. Morris (2006) argues that the use of sexual appeals even in video games and in advertisements is a depiction of the using women as sex objects. He argues that fashion, and advertisement use women with big breasts to demonstrate the relevance of breasts to modern women in their appearance rather than in taking care of children as was accustomed to in traditional movies.
Rouner et al. (2003) concur with Morris claims by claiming that the modern depiction of women as an attractive and sexual appeal that emphasizes in displaying the beauty of the female body a way of the media to stereotype females. Women are depicted to dress provocatively compared to men who are less concerned with their appearance. The small talks portray their obsession with shopping and relationships is evidence of their insecurity in being single and independent. The school dramas show that teenage girls compete to gain attention from unfaithful footballer in the school and will do anything to gain their stare.
These stereotyping determine the roles played by women by using the focused teenage girls as out casts and unpopular because they focus on their studies (Morris, 2006). Although the film industry has tried to empower women, the significance of appearance in the women diminishes the professional career women the women may play in different films. The patronage social setting of most corporations is used by feminists to depict that men rather than women are guilty of sexualizing women (Grosz, 2010). However, famous musicians such as Beyonce and Lady Gaga among others use their beauty and sex appeal by dressing provocatively whereas their male dancers are decently dressed further demonstrating that women help enforce the stereotyping of female sex appeal.
Effects of Media Exposure
According to Aubrey (2007), the use of appearance to propel female artists and characters has negative emotional, and self-perceptions to the audiences. Entertainment plays a crucial role in popular culture, and with the youths more likely to be influenced by the media, girls with body size or parts that are not depicted as sexy tend to be depressed and lose self-esteem. The movies use the bookworm teenage girls as unpopular and the last person that boys will like or appreciate. Boys use the less attractive friend in the girl’s friend circle to get a chance to date the beautiful girls. The stress of being considered as easy and unattractive to be dated demonstrate that appeal and character of the serious girl have no advantage as looks are everything.
Appearance and character will result in girls doing everything to lose weight and making them desperate to win a popular guy thus making them venerable for sexual exploit by the boy (Aubrey, 2007). Career women in the industry married or single tend to fall short in their firms ending up sleeping with their colleagues and bearing all the criticism from the audience and the actors. This exposure makes women feel weak all the time and men exploit them for their sexual appeal. Hollywood is the dominant force in the film industry. The main characters earn millions, but male actors earn more than twice the earnings of the female actors. Actors such as Brad Pitt minor appearance will earn more than the female star players. The discrimination demonstrates that women are less valued by the producers compared to men who are empowered to exploit the women both in the roles they play and in the salaries (Grosz, 2010).
Arguments Against
The argument that women play minor roles is changing with films such as “The Have and The Have Nots” portraying women with higher income and roles than men. The film demonstrates that women can be professional and can compete with men in the glamorous careers. The transformation of women from acting as housewives and lacking economic freedom is dying with more women depicted as the leaders in many movies. The strong women demonstrate that females are earning their place in the entertainment industry.
Power and violence were used in relationship to men, but the current movies use women as drug lords and powerful. Queen of the South revolves around dominant women who change the patronage drug cartels. The woman is the boss of men willing to die for her and following all her commands. This is just one of the crime and violence movies that women are depicted as unemotional and powerful to dominate in the patronage societies.
It is evident that women are playing better roles equal regarding prestige with men actors, but the emphasis on sexual appeal and the lower salaries outweighs the progress made in enhancing gender equality. The improvements demonstrate that there is progress but as Betty Friedan argued there is a need for movies to portray women as equal to men. The films that use women as professional and having successful careers tend to come short by using appearance and sexuality to change the key issues which fall under objectifying women. The transgendered movies may be different but women are stereotyping and the need to gain male’s approval dominate the female depictions.
References
Aubrey, J. (2007). The impact of sexually objectifying media exposure on negative body emotions and sexual self-perceptions: Investigating the mediating role of body self-consciousness. Mass Communication & Society, 10, 1-23. doi:10.1080/15205430701229584
Eisend, M. (2010). A meta-analysis of gender roles in advertising. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 38, 418-440. doi: 10.1007/s11747-009-0181-x
Grosz, E. (2010). The practice of feminist theory, Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies, 21, 94-108. doi: 10.1215/10407391-2009-019
Morris, P. (2006, Summer). Gender in print advertisements: A snapshot of representations from around the world. Media Report to Women, 34, 13-20.
Polivy, J. & Herman, C. (2004). Sociocultural idealization of thin female body shapes: An introduction to the special issue on body image and eating disorders. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology , 23, 1-6.
Rouner, D., Slater, M., & Domenech-Rodriguez, M. (2003). Adolescent evaluation of gender role and sexual imagery in television advertisements. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media , 47, 435-454.
