This document discusses representations of gender in the media and how they reflect and reinforce patriarchal norms. It provides examples of how masculinity is often portrayed as independent, competitive, brave, ambitious, aggressive, dependable, and unemotional, while femininity is portrayed as domestic, caring, subordinate, emotional, and focused on appearance. It also summarizes studies that found women are underrepresented as experts in news media and that gender roles in magazines promote rigid ideals of masculinity and femininity.

1. The Sociology of Mass Media
Representations of Gender in the
Media

2. Introduction
- Throughout the 20th
century, and
to a great extent still today,
representations of
gender in the
media reflected (and
caused) the hegemonic reality…
patriarchy

3. .Whilst the family is generally
seen as primary gender-
socialization agent, media plays a
key role in teaching and
reinforcing these cultural
expectations

4. .ACTIVITY: can you think of some characteristics
of this patriarchy and how it might be
represented in the mass media?

5. .
Men as central to the world of employment;
responsible breadwinners
and household heads; these are all reflected in movies, soap
operas, advertising etc.

6. .
Masculinity as….
independent and
individualistic
Good men should be more strong- minded
and truly independent than most women

7. .
Competitive
Good men should never be happy with second best

8. .
Brave
Good men should have a far higher fear-
threshold than most women

9. .
Ambitious
Good men should want to go far in life; and
increasingly, good men should be a “high-achiever” in
numerous areas e.g. sport, employment, sex life than most women

10. .
Aggressive
A good man should never back down from a
physical or emotional challenge, and should be much more eager
to riskhis safety or reputation than most women

11. .
Dependable
Unlike most women,
good men can be
relied upon during
the most difficult of
circumstances.
Women need
men

12. .
Without openly-displayed emotion

13. .
Femininityas …
Domesticated
A woman’s place is in the home
Cooking and cleaning in the home is the
responsibility of the female members of the
household

14. .
Maternal, caring and
emotionally supportive
A good woman should be willing and able to care for
all loved ones, in every way

15. .
Normal women place a higher value
on personal relationships,
gossipand the latest
fashions than most men

16. .
Subordinate and inferior
As with all the characteristics mentioned,
there are always many exceptions; but women
are most often portrayed as being of slightly less
intrinsic worththan men in most
times, spaces and situations

17. Emotional
Most women are more emotional than men-
and lack the ability to control themselves

18. Representations of femininity
Symbolic annihilation (this is the term of Tuchman et al, 1978)
- Women’s achievements under-reported, condemned, trivialized
- Women more likely to be presented in a sexualised or infantile manner

19. .Tunstall (2000)
- More than 50% of British women are in paid employment; and
we’re seeing continuing progress in the proportion of
leadership positions filled by women
- yetthis is under-rep’d in the media; instead, women’s
role as mothers, housewivesand
consumers is over-rep’d
- Only around half of all sexual activity involves a woman, yet
women are far more likely to be portrayed in a
sexualisedway

20. .The ‘Just the Women’ report ,2012
- Study of rep’n of women, and violence against
women, in British newspapers
- Part of the Leveson Inquiry (2012), more widely known for its
investigation of unethical journalistic
activities e.g. phone-hacking
- For two weeks, 11 national newspapers were subject to a
content analysis: 1,300 reports contained “sexism”
ACTIVITY: What were some other the findings of Just the Women?

21. .
The ‘Seen but not Heard’ report, 2012
- Random sample of front pages of 18 national
newspapers
- 78% of people mentioned in headlines were male
- 84% of people mentioned in the stories were male
- Very few stories about female expertise or
professionalism; instead, most of the “experts” (e.g.
scientists, psychologists, economists) were male

22. .
Cochrane (2011): content analysis of BBC productions
- 72% of BBC’s Question Time panelists were male
- 92% of guests on BBC’s Mock the Week were male
- 84% of reporters and guests on BBC radio’s Today
programme were male

23. .- Males even dominate children’s TV; the
Bristol Fawcett Society (2008) found that only
30% of characters on BBC’s CBeebies were
male, ALL narrators were male, and most
presenters were male
ACTIVITY: The Bristol Fawcett Society specialises in studies
using content analysis; can you recall any specific CA studies?

24. .• Computer games routinely
under-represent women numerically,
and in the way they are portrayed
• Women’s sexualisationand
marginalisationis, according to
Ivory (2006), most extreme in this media
format

26. Magazines and femininity
Magazines are a particularly interesting format as
they are even more likely than TV shows and
movies to be aimed at one particular sex e.g.
“women’s magazines”, “Lads’
mags”
Sociologists have long argued that both men’s and
women’s magazines promote very rigid
ideals of masculinity and
femininity; playing a key role in
the reproduction of patriarchy

27. The Cult of Femininity?
This term is that of Ferguson (1983)
• Ferguson (1983) : content anal. of women’s
magazines (e.g. ‘Good Housekeeping’ and
‘Women’s weekly’) from between 1949 and
1980
• A “cultof femininity” prevailed;
high value on women attaining
excellence through care, family,
marriage and physical appearance

28. .Ferguson also looked at current magazines
and found some change; but often this was
superficial and not a sign of genuine
equality
focus still on “him, home and
looking good (for him)”

29. .
• The Bristol Fawcett Society (2008) analyzed
front covers of magazines (that featured
people), finding the same prevailing ideals and
images