Using Sociological evidence and concepts access the view that the mass media perpetuates stereotypes of gender

Another idea that was created in 1990 by another male called Wolfe was called the beauty myth. The beauty myth apparently encourages woman to worry excessively about their body images and spend far too much time feel apprehensive about their appearances and in some cases of woman they even feel inferior to other "perfect" people's images. A study of advertisements in male magazines and female magazines begun in 1983 and it studied 1200 adverts from both male and female magazines. Ferguson's results showed that 1179 articles in woman's magazines dealt with issues such as food. This shows the high level of pressure placed on females to work harder on their appearances then males. Due to the male gaze many woman have begun arguing that lots of eating disorders occur because of the pressure woman face to look good. It does appear that females have every right to be aggrieved about this issue as the number of adverts which deal with food are huge compared to men's magazines where there are only 15. The dominant themes picked up on over the course of Ferguson's study were overcoming misfortune, getting and keeping a partner, being a good wife and keeping a happy family. Again all these issues fit into the stereotype of a woman.

One more concept which attempts to conform woman to their stereotypes is symbolic annihilation, perhaps the most controversial issue I have talked about. Symbolic Annihilation refers to the notion that woman appear far less often in the media than men and when they do their roles are far less limited. The media also trivialises or condones the activities and what woman think is important to them, because of this their roles become limited and less visible. One example of where woman's roles are limited is Television. Cumberbatch conducted a content analysis in 1990. The research produced some unbelievable results. It said that men outnumbered woman 2:1 and 89% had a male voice-over. Also women were more likely than men to appear attractive, be blonde or corresponded to the "ideal" of a slim model. The results fit into what social feminists consider. They believe that the reason stereotypical representation of women is partly a product of the drive for profits. They believe that if woman look beautiful than the owners of the mass media will generate higher profits and will in turn benefit. One example that social feminists have come up with is the idea that the media depicting them in domestic roles. This may lead employers to believe that females should not be paid as much as males. Another concept which generates profit for members of the mass media is the beauty myth. This helps create a large profit for the diet and cosmetic industry.

Another argument suggesting that the mass media still reinforces the idea of how men and woman should appear is the new male stereotype, called the 'new lad'. The main types of habits that these lads had would be that they drink excessively, a liking for soft pornography and also a distinctively hedonistic obsession with hetero sexual promiscuity. The new lad was quick to diminish the rise of feminism and reintroduced some of the traditional sexist qualities of the old industrial men. It does appear however that these new lads, do care about their images and this may have been supported by the media. As I have said many of the studies, mainly Ferguson, he later followed up his study, this was after the originals had taken place. The results seemed to show that more male magazine adverts showed an image in which males they should try to correlate themselves with.

Although the male gaze exists in spite of woman feminists, today's music videos nonetheless still contain woman in the position that males crave, however the roles of woman in music videos have become more influential. Nowadays there are now not so many videos which utilize woman to show male anger and control, now on the contrary to these ideas more and more videos are portraying woman to be the social controllers. Vincent's study was started in 1987 - 20 years ago. This proves the point that a lot of these studies which Feminists are basing their arguments around have been out dated, and that the media has continued to change. There are certain groups such as Pluralists who have actually taken the side of the mass media and they believe that the media only reflects existing social attitudes and beliefs. They believe there are many other forms of media producing many other pictures and representations and that the consumer has the choice of what he wants to read into. Another type of person who are arguing against what feminists and many other people believe about the media perpetuating genders are post modernists. They consider that the media represents a exceptionally broad and assorted variety of representations of masculinities and feminities. Individuals are open to actively "pick and mix" from these to assemble their particularized gender identities They dispute with the feminist principles that media stereotypes have a authoritative determination influencing upon the behaviour of millions

Its not only woman who are represented negatively. Men have also had to withstand their fair share of criticism from the media. Over the years they have been labelled as lazy, shallow, sex obsessed and greedy. The feminists do not say anything about this in their arguments. Woman's magazines also usually contain a lot of shallow storylines for example "Is your man sexy enough". These are the sorts of quote which attract woman to "good looking" males. If this sort of quote was found in a men's magazine then it would be frowned upon and even looked on as sexist.

Research looking into stereotyping towards females may be seen as bias. This is because if it were a woman who studied into the portrayal of woman in the media, then the results may become inconclusive and may prejudice against men. If a male were to have looked into the same study then the results may have looked very different. One example of this may be a study looking into male gaze. If a women were to see a picture of a "thin" female in a bikini then she may feel offended that a lady has been put in this position. However in various different women magazines there are men which have lots of muscles and could be considered to be in a perfect imagery state and are also half naked. Again men don't ever express their annoyance at this.

Today sexism is vary rare and woman are continuing to let their recent rise continue. Women are now achieving higher test results than men and are getting the jobs which are predominately male orientated. It may be that nowadays the media offers preferential treatment towards girls and is possibly slightly harsher on males. However the ways in which males and females take account of the media is very different. Woman see pictures in magazines etc and think that they must take the time and effort to reach the way that these woman look. However it is ever so hard to look like celebrities do etc without the make up artists and hair cutters that these celebrities have. In comparison men see the images of other "perfect" males and don't feel under pressure to look like them.

In conclusion the evidence points towards the fact that the media still influences gender representation, but have a less significant role in putting these to both men and woman.