Assess the claim that mass media are primarily responsible for the production of stereotyped images of gender differences.
I have been asked to assess the claim that mass media are primarily responsible for the production of stereotyped images of gender differences. I believe this research has strong sociological implications because the way in which society perceives groups ultimately affects how these groups are treated and this issue could reach further than gender; it could also affect topics such as poverty. I have become aware that the media is a part of everyday life and people can find themselves unaware of its effects and control upon them.
'Platinum blondes are labelled as dumb'; research chronicled in an article concluded that particularly men but also women still believed in the dumb blonde stereotype. Further more it was found that it was likely the people involved were not aware they were making this judgement; it was determined that this stereotypical judgement had emerged through the development of film, television and magazines a conclusion which directly supports my hypothesis. The concept stereotype literally means 'set image' applied to people the word means an 'instant or fixed' picture of a person or group of people. Stereotypes are usually based on a mistaken or over simplified attitude, opinion or judgement, which the mass media has the ability to exploit.
An American study of cartoons entitled 'Cartoons still stereotype gender roles' by Carol Spicher, B.A and psychologist Mary Hudak of Allegheny College; they propose that little progress has been made regarding the abolishment of stereotypes in the media and conclude that males are still portrayed as doctors and scientists while females are still in typical nurse and bathing beauty roles. This means that not only encourages stereotypes but also the concept of labelling becomes apparent within both contexts. Labels are an attempt at social control they can have the effect of stigmatising individuals by defining them in a dehumanised way; labels may be provisional, negotiable or rejected. I have included the concept of labels because it is closely related to stereotypes in that they can both be enormously influenced and affected by the mass media. Similarly the concept of norm setting can be linked. A norm is a shared expectation of behaviour therefore setting this expectation is to endorse it. This is a relevant because mass media has the opportunity to promote what it believes to be culturally desirable and appropriate through news stories and television programmes and nowhere is the debate about whether this happens more heated than within the topic of gender
The first thing that you see when you pick up a magazine is the cover. Consequently, it is the most important part of the magazine, and serves a number of purposes. It must attract, because if it is dull, then nobody will pick it up off the shelf. It does this with bright, vibrant colours, and a unique style, so it is not likened to any other magazine after that, it must say whether it is for male or female readers, or indeed, trans-gender. To do this, it does not necessarily have to use words, i.e. "for boys" etc., but colours, shapes, patterns, the kind of pictures on the front and, on closer inspection; the articles can tell the reader who the magazine is aimed at. The name and details of the articles and the pictures on the front of the magazine are both equally important. If an article is about, say, "a boy-bagging quiz" then it is very clear that the magazine is aimed at girls. The pictures on the front are important too, but they are sometimes not as helpful in identifying the magazine and the gender that it is aimed at. This is because both boys' magazines and girls' magazines can have girls or boys on their front covers. The reason for this lies in the interests of different genders, and these will be discussed in the actual case studies of the two magazines I have chosen.
The second area of study of the magazines is the contents page. This contains listings of all the articles and features in the magazine. It is very important because before people will buy a magazine, they will want to know what they can read about once they have actually bought it. Apart from the text in the contents telling you what there is and where to find it, there are other things that you can look out for which are in the contents pages for a reason. Pictures in the contents are just as important as the words because they can tell you about articles too, and they are often bigger so that you see them first and read the article that it is signifying before any that is just mentioned in writing. The areas of the magazine are usually divided up, and these areas are often given names. These can make the magazine articles sound really interesting, even if they are not, and using colour on these signifies what sort of thing the various sections are talking about. There are several areas, which will be taken account of in my studies of the magazines.
Articles in magazines are ultimately the bulk of the material, and so they must be good. In articles, there are several things to look out for. The words used, i.e. vocabulary, and the way in which they are used and spelt (sometimes phonetically), are very important and can be used to say things not only about the person or product that the article is based on, but also the type of reader that the particular article is aimed at. Pictures and colours, like in the contents and on the cover can be used for many things. They can ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
Articles in magazines are ultimately the bulk of the material, and so they must be good. In articles, there are several things to look out for. The words used, i.e. vocabulary, and the way in which they are used and spelt (sometimes phonetically), are very important and can be used to say things not only about the person or product that the article is based on, but also the type of reader that the particular article is aimed at. Pictures and colours, like in the contents and on the cover can be used for many things. They can set the mood for a piece of writing, and can help conjure up images in the reader's eye about the subject of the article.
The final study area of the magazines is adverts. They are in magazines for a good reason; many people read them, and it is therefore possible to target a wide range of people very effectively. There are many codes, signifiers, and anchors in adverts, more so than in any other part of the magazine, and so these all have to be studied very carefully indeed.
The covers of the magazines are very different in style, but they are similar in the kind of things that they are trying to achieve. I have chosen to study Just Seventeen and Football Mad. The cover of J17 is glossy, and the first thing that strikes you is the picture of a pop star. It implies that reading this magazine will make you win a date with one of the pop star in the front cover. There is no mention of what Football Mad will do to you if you read it. I think that this is because girls like to show-off and that they will fit in with all their friends at school. Boys, however, do not need so much reassurance and so the magazine does not pretend to do this. The first thing that strikes you on Football Mad is the picture of David Beckham. This shows that boys are more interested in football and the world of sport than being showing-off.
The second difference between the covers is that J17 says "It's a girl thing!" and Football Mad has no indication that it is a magazine for boys, although according to gender stereotyping, boys love football and girls hate it. This may or may not actually be true. The reason for this is because girls appear to be far happier in groups and so if they know that they are reading a "girl thing" even on their own, they will feel more secure as they are not in a minority. Boys, although they do like to be in groups as well, football and reading about it is more of a solitary thing. This is a code that the media draws on, to find words and material that will attract a particular gender. There are many signifiers in these two differences, showing the differences between genders. They have no anchors, but do not need them in this case, because it is the stereotyping that makes people understand what they mean.
The only major similarity between the two covers is the pictures on the front of the magazines. J17 has a picture of slim attractive masculine boys on it, and Football Mad has pictures of some of the best soccer stars in Britain. Although at first sight, there may appear to be no connection, you have to look hard at what is being portrayed in the pictures. The boys on J17 are models of what most young girls would like go out with or "snog", and so they are a kind of idols. The footballers are very similar because at some stage in their lives, most boys want to be a professional footballer. These men on the magazine are the kind of people who boys look to as their role model. The pictures on the front of the magazines have a lot in common.
Finally, the words on the front covers are very different, and signify the kinds of things that the media 'expect' boys an girls to be interested in, and again, there are lots of examples of stereotyping. J17 has article titles such as "the squad unwrapped", "Win him over with our kissing secrets", "Win a date with the boys and sign pictures inside", "I told my boyfriend I was pregnant to keep him", and "My embarrassing mum dates boys my age"
Football Mad, on the other hand, has some very different offerings: "The Michael Owen story", "puzzles, comic strips!", "Learn footie Skills" and "Jokes". The J17 article descriptions are all about things associated with girls, i.e. the stereotypical views that girls are into love, boys and image more than anything, (all things to do with them). Evidence of this is "Win him over with our kissing secrets, "I told my boyfriend I was pregnant to keep him!" and "My embarrassing mum dates boys my age". All these articles have words normally associated with girls too. For example "Gossip" is usually referred to as what women do a lot, especially when they get together, and so, although it may not be true, it is seen as a feminine thing. This signifiers all point to the 'girlie' things mentioned before and the articles anchor all this. In Football Mad, it is very different, and the words are usually things associated with what boys do i.e. be interested in football, and be with friends. "Hanging out" implies that this is what boys like to do and the language is 'boyish' because that is what boys say when they are going to be with some friends. This is an example of stereotyping. Boys tend to like being individualistic.
The last important area of the covers is colour and shapes. J17 has pink and gold themes, which are contrasting colours against themselves. The pink is used to signify warmth, which is possibly what is gained from reading such a magazine and the gold is contrasting so that the cover stands out even more than usual. The shapes are regular, but curvy writing is a signifier of girls, because the stereotypical girl is worried about curves. Football Mad, on the other hand, is still eye-catching, because it has red, blue and yellow, the three primary colours. However, red and blue are signifiers of boys things; bold and bright. The shapes are more irregular, and writing is on a slant, possibly because boys are traditionally messier than girls.
The contents pages of the two are very different. J17's takes up a whole two pages and Football Mad takes only half a page. This is the first difference, and it is significant. This signifies that the girls are worried about what they can read about in their magazine, and the boys just get on with reading it. It's fact that girls are more image-conscious than boys. The Football contents page, however, has pictures of footballers only, signifying that boys tend to look up to footballers. These are all to do with the ways in which different genders feel secure. Girls prefer to be in groups of people, who are just like them, and boys tend to like being individual more, but have people, such as the footballers, who they look up to. J17 had split up its contents into nine sections, all different. They are sections such as "I have snogged a fan" and "Fashion and Beauty" The girls' magazine has a lot of stuff in it about how girls should look, and talks about other people's lives and problems a lot; especially to do with love. This signifies that girls take a lot of notice of how other celebrities dress, so that they can do the same, and fit in with everybody else. They also believe in sharing their problems a lot, such as in the problem pages, and enjoy hearing about other peoples lives, especially when it is to do with celebrities. This is further evidence to indicate that girls try to be like other people far more than boys do. It also shows that they are nosy. Football Mad, on the other hand, is not split into different sections, and there are far fewer articles mentioned in the contents, in fact, there are only seven, and a list of the posters that can be found in the magazine. This is not due just to the fact that Football Mad has about half the number of pages that J17 has got. It is mostly down to the fact that the media presume that boys are not as bothered or attentive to detail as girls are.
The language used in the contents page is the final major difference between the two magazines' contents pages. J17 uses phrases to describe its articles such as: "I have snogged a fan...", whereas Football Mad are less interesting and are along the lines of "Michael Owens's story". There is a big difference between the two descriptions of the articles. For a start, the J17 article is related to fashion and being 'cool' in as many ways as is possible. If the article were in a boy's magazine, it would probably not mention 'cool' and just mention that it is an article about backpacks. However, as it stands, it is done because girls like to feel reassured all the time that they are doing the 'right' thing and the manufacturers want to sell a great number of the backpacks. It is subtle advertising, because although it is not an actual advert, it does tell the girls, through signifiers, that if they buy the backpack then they will certainly be cool. The Football Mad article description does not consider it necessary to use fancy slang or words to try and get the boy to read the article, because it is considered sufficient for the boy to see the name of the footballer, in this case, Michael Owen, and want to read the article because they look up to the footballer as one of their heroes. This is another of the great differences between the two genders that is visible from these magazines.
Now, I have chosen two articles, one from each magazine to compare. The main things to look for are the words, any pictures, the colour scheme, and the overall approach to the writing and presenting of it. The article from J17 I have chosen is about "My embarrassing mum dates boys my age" and the one from Football Mad is "The Michael Owens' Story". The one in J17 is all about a 21 year old girl whose 45-year-old mum is dating boys even younger than her. It has pictures are the mother in a nightclub with some young boys and a picture of her on the dance floor. The Football Mad article is about Michael Owen story, a new professional footballer playing for Liverpool. It talks about techniques and Owen's ambitions in life.
The J17 article has images that make you think of girls. The typical pink associated with females is brought out a lot, especially in the title, and certain parts of the text are highlighted. This colour is a signifier, signifying girls, and also a code, which the media use to make certain parts of the article, i.e. the title and important headings stand out, so that you will want to read them. The Football Mad article has bright colours, which stand out; it is made up of the red of Liverpool, and contrasting yellow. The red is obviously a signifier of Liverpool, and the yellow is a code that the media use, contrasting colours make things stand out better. The pictures are also red, which signifies Liverpool again, but also helps them to blend in with the rest of the article. This is different from the one in J17, because that one does not blend in at all, and the Football Mad one does. I think that the one in J17 needs to stand out more so that it is read because it is not such an interesting article as the one on Owen. Obviously, for girls, it tends to be more interesting than football, but it is just a comparison between the nature, and not the subject of the article.
The pictures in the articles are very similar in their purposes. In J17, there are bright pictures of the various girls. They are again, an example of the magazine showing the girls what 'normal' is and how they should go to any lengths to fit it. In Football Mad, there are bright cartoon pictures of Owen. The pictures are all photographs Owen, and so these are the kinds of images that boys look up to as their heroes, but not necessary copy exactly. Here, again, is an example of the fundamental difference between boys and girls; girls go in groups, boys are more individual.
The actual words in these articles do not provide the most information, but there are some things to be drawn from the texts. In J17, the language is "snog and lads", This illustrated the point that girls like reading magazines, but it is easier to do if the words are spelt phonetically. Football Mad, too, has some slang words, "lads and Gonna", and "Hat- trick". Somehow, all these words, in both magazines feel friendlier, and so the readers will be more inclined to read the article, which is ultimately what the media want them to do. The way that the text is laid out is important too. In Football Mad, it is not organised into columns and pictures, but it is just a jumble of information. I found it hard to read, difficult to follow, and it is probably a signifier of the way in which boys act, i.e. messily. The girls' article is neat, ordered ad easy to follow. This is a reflection on the stereotypical girl; stays at home like mum and does the tidying. It is also something to do with the fact that girls prefer to know exactly what they will do in their lives, it is all organised.
The two adverts from each magazine are very different. In J17, there is an advert for Oxy Clearout, a spot prevention. In Football Mad, there is an advert for a football boot. In J17, the signifiers on the Oxy advert are a boy and girl kissing, a bottle of Oxy Clearout, and the words "Forget agony aunts, we'll get you a man." The bottle is obviously there to show the girls what they must go out and buy, and what it looks like so they can find it easily in a shop. The boy and girl kissing signify happiness, and the thing that most girls seem to want. This is anchored by the phrase, which tells girls that to get a man, they must use Oxy Clearout. The other advert in Football Mad is about football boots. There is a picture of Southgate, the boots and the anchor "There's a new partnership in the game, certain to please the crowd, guaranteed to upset the opposition." The boots and Southgate signify that they are worn by him, a good footballer, and the anchor assures boys that they cannot live without these boots, and they will upset their opposition. They are of course, only football boots.
In conclusion, my findings were very varied, and I didn't always expect them. I have found that girls like to be more organised, evident in the contents, and in the article studied. They know exactly what they are getting, and it is easy to read. They also need to have their articles standing out more than boys. They will not tend to read an article for the content, and pictures and codes have to be drawn on to attract their attention. Boys, on the other hand, will tend to read an article just for the subject, which is why the subject of football is promoted. Football Mad is not actually advertised as a boy's magazine, but from all my evidence, it is obvious that it is aimed at boys. The layout of the boys' magazine is more clumsy and cluttered, indicating boys' nature.
There is as much of a difference between boys and girls, in my opinion, as there has ever been, and political correctness does not really come into this. In fact, girls appear to be the more dominant gender, with many general interest magazines specifically for them. This means that the ultimate difference between boys and girls is the insecurity of girls, and their need to be reassured by, advised by, and the same as all the images in their magazines. Boys, on the other hand, like to be more independent, and although they enjoy the images and footballers in their magazines, they do not copy them so much. Because boys tend to have specific subjects that they like, there are not so many general interest magazines for them.
Wednesday, 02 May 2007
