Gender Rolls and the Media

There are so many ways that gender roles are influenced. Culture and Society have a large impact on gender roles in America. Cultural messages concerning gender roles are seen by Americans thousands of times each week. Through advertisements, movies, TV, music, magazines, sports, and family influences. We may not want to admit that media has influenced our gender role in society, but it is an absolute impossibility that we would not be influenced by something we see and hear every day. We are influenced by the media in our earliest childhood memories, all the way through our adult lives.

As soon as we are able to watch and comprehend what is being said or shown on the radio or television, we are being influenced. Cartoons are the earliest media tool aimed at both girls and boys. Girls are influenced while watching “Hello Kitty, The Power Puff Girls, and Little Mermaid”, which are all geared toward a gender role for girls/women. Then there are the cartoons that influence boys “GI Joe, Transformers, Beast Wars, and Batman”, just to name a few. All these cartoons are meant to influence boys to be physically tough and the more masculine you are the better you will be. Cartoons aimed at girls and boys carry the same messages, plots, themes, and characters that “chick flicks” and “dick flicks” portray in movies for adults. Girls that become women are encouraged to focus on beauty and relationships with men; after all, you must be beautiful to get a guy, right? Boys that become men are encouraged to be tough, adventurous and independent. The way “Reality Television” has taken main stream media by storm; it does not surprise me that young women strive to be beautiful through more and more extreme Measures.

Reality TV is the big craze in America that is polluting main stream media today. Shows such as “The Kardashians, The Bachelor/Bachelorette, The Real House Wives (yeah right.), Survivor, and Honey Booboo”, are only a handful of the dozens of reality shows being...